Mesopotamian City Laments: Suffering And The Will Of The Gods
The question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" has been asked for millennia, probably since before writing was invented, but at least since circa 1700 BCE when the Sumerian (and later Babylonian) poem, Ludlul-Bel-Nemeqi (also known as The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer) was written and, later, the book of Job, dated to the 7th, 6th, or 4th centuries BCE.
These works deal with individual suffering, but a genre of literature emerged in Mesopotamia c. 2000 BCE dealing with the suffering of multitudes when their city fell, and, as far as they could tell, the only reason for its destruction was the will of the gods. These pieces are known as city laments, and the genre may have been quite popular, even though only a small number of the works have survived. Among the most complete are:
Lament for Eridu
Lament for Uruk
Lament for Ur
Lament for Sumer and Ur
Lament for Nippur
There is also the famous work, The Curse of Agade, which, though thematically linked to the genre of city laments, has more in common with Mesopotamian naru literature (basically, historical fiction). A work of Mesopotamian naru literature features a known historical figure in a fictional narrative; a city lament relates an actual historical event – the fall of a city and the attendant suffering – and provides a reason for it.
City Laments
The works now known as city laments all share a common theme and focus but may differ in detail, as noted by scholar Jeremy Black:
Although formally heterogeneous, share some fundamental themes: destruction as a result of divine decision, abandonment of the city by the tutelary god, restoration, and return of the tutelary god. City laments may vary widely in the emphasis given to these themes.
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The "tutelary god" is the patron deity of a city. Every city in ancient Mesopotamia had its own patron deity and, when a given city fell upon hard times (when the crops failed, for example), it could be interpreted as a sign that the patron deity was displeased with the people – or it could mean that god or goddess had abandoned the city and it was now left defenseless.
The city in ancient Mesopotamia was considered a refuge, a sanctuary, protected by a powerful supernatural entity, and it gave its citizens a sense of identity and purpose, as scholar Gwendolyn Leick explains:
Mesopotamian scribes considered urban life as the only form of civilized communality. A person's civic identity was that of a citizen of a particular city with its suburbs and surrounding countryside. Nonurban members of the population defined themselves by their tribal allegiance.
(42)
To lose one's city was to lose that sense of "civic identity" and, having no tribal allegiance outside of one's city, to be left at the mercy of the elements and any number of threats and dangers. The fall of the city, therefore, was not just the loss of one's home and livelihood, but in a real sense the loss of self – of all semblances of identity, sense of safety, purpose, and confidence in any kind of future. The city lament expressed this sense of complete loss through details of the city's fall.
A common trope in the city lament is the return of the tutelary god after the devastation, giving the tale a happy ending, but that never seems to make up for the suffering of the people during the time the deity had left the city.
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⇒ Mesopotamian City Laments: Suffering And The Will Of The Gods