Observations on the text’s micro-structure

Abstract: The text of Gudea Cylinder A provides evidence for many different repetition phenomena. The composition, written in Sumerian and dating to the end of the second millennium BCE, celebrates the building of the Eninnu temple by the ruler Gudea and is a sophisticated literary work. My aim is to investigate the role played by some forms of repetition as structuring devices in this complex hymn. To achieve this, I select and discuss some examples of ring compositions, structural formulas, textual parallelism, and narrative repetition within the text. Such phenomena and their significance in the creation of meaning in cuneiform texts are currently the focus of REPAC’s research. This study is only meant to offer an example of REPAC’s approach to the analysis of an ancient Mesopotamian literary composition such as Gudea Cylinder A.

This article results from research conducted under the auspices of the project REPAC “Repetition, Parallelism and Creativity: an Inquiry into the Construction of Meaning in Ancient Mesopotamian Literature and Erudition” (2019-2024, University of Vienna) that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement no. 803060).

This paper was originally published as a showcase of the project REPAC, Repetition, Parallelism and Creativity: an Inquiry into the Construction of Meaning in Ancient Mesopotamian Literature and Erudition, funded by the European Research Council, work package 2 (literary texts) on the homepage of the project: https://repac.at/repacshowcase-lucreziamenicatti-gudeacylindera/

Gudea, Cylinder A, Micro-structure, Ring-composition, Repetition, Parallelism, Narrative Patterns

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