“Changing the words of Naram-Sin, the living god, is treason, because he is the king. But changing the words of Gudea, simple governor of Lagaš, is unjust, because he made things work right.” — Wikipedia, in fine lapidary form.
4 thoughts on “Gudea, Simple Governor of Lagaš”
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OK, that does it. I’ve been trying to figure this out all day, and I give. Can you please explain to me what on earth this means?Report
I don’t fully understand it myself.
I half-wrote a stemwinder about how we justify claims of political authority, but it never really went anywhere. And the most marvelous thing about these two sentences is that they aren’t Sumerian at all. They’re Wikipedian, and unsourced, and I can’t even readily tell where they came from. So what kind of authority is that?Report
It reads to me like a paraphrase of Gudea’s statement:
“since the earliest days, since the seed sprouted forth, no one was (ever) supposed to alter the utterance of a ruler of Lagaš who, after building the Eninnu for my lord Ningirsu, made things function as they should”
and an explanation of how if differs from the strictures issued by earlier kings.Report
Who recognizes the name ” Lagaš”? (I’d expect Jason might.)Report