Today the fall of Akkad begins. We start with how the Mesopotamians themselves remembered the fall of their first great empire, with the Curse of Agade and the Cuthean Legend, and see that they slanderously put all the blame on the great king Naram-Sin. Still, though it is untrue, it makes for good stories and reveals a lot about the bronze age mindset.
So about the monster people of the Cuthean legend. The part where the gods finally reveal their purpose it a bit unclear. It could be as I described it and the monsters are Enlil’s weapons, not to be destroyed because they are going to enact the god’s will at some future time, presumably pretty soon to bring about the fall of the Akkadian Empire. But there is another way to read it that says the gods are commanding Naram-Sin not to destroy the beasts because Enlil himself will come down to destroy them at some point in the future. I can see where this interpretation comes from in the text, it all comes down to a whole lot of ambiguous pronouns, but honestly it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me as a narrative, which is why I have chosen the interpretation that I give in the episode.
Also, that little introduction I did to the Cuthean legend, that is the Akkadian language. Honestly, I am not completely sure I got it right, but I have been looking at these for a while now and I think it is pretty close. Not like there are any native speakers to call me out on it.
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| Not a lot of good pictures for this episode, but this may be one section of the Curse of Agade. Can’t be completely sure because my source for this image is a Zecharia Sitchin website, but I like to have at least one picture in every post. |
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