Epic of Gilgamesh (Standard Babylonian) — Tablet I, opening
c. BC 1200 (편집판) · 아슈르바니팔 도서관본 BC 7cša naqba īmuru išdī māti
He who saw the Deep, the foundation of the land,
ša kullati īdû kalāma ḫassu
who knew everything, was wise in all matters —
Gilgāmeš ša naqba īmuru išdī māti
Gilgamesh, who saw the Deep, the foundation of the land,
ša kullati īdû kalāma ḫassu
who knew everything, was wise in all matters,
mitḫāriš īde ūṣurāti
he understood the secrets of the world alike.
The most complete copy survives on twelve tablets from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh (7th c. BC). Humanity's first heroic epic, the first literary meditation on friendship, death, and immortality. The flood narrative on Tablet XI is the direct prototype of the Genesis flood story. Akkadian scribes wove disparate Sumerian Gilgamesh poems into a single unified epic.
— Transliteration after A. R. George (2003)
Code of Hammurabi — Prologue
c. BC 1754inūma Anum ṣīrum šar Anunnakī
When lofty Anum, king of the Anunnaki,
Enlil bēl šamê u erṣetim
and Enlil, lord of heaven and earth,
šā'im šīmāt māti
who determines the destiny of the land,
ana Marduk mārim rēštîm ša Ea
allotted to Marduk, the firstborn of Ea,
Enlilūt kiššat nišī išīmūšumma
the Enlilship over all the people —
A 2.25 m basalt stele in the Louvre bears 282 laws in dense cuneiform. The "eye for an eye" formula originates here, but in practice the code applies sharply graduated penalties by social class — a sophisticated stratified law. The relief at the top depicts Hammurabi receiving the laws from the sun god Šamaš.
— Louvre basalt stele · transliteration after M. Roth (1995)
Enheduanna — Nin-me-šara (legacy of the Akkadian dynasty)
c. BC 2285nin me šár-ra ud dalla è-a
Lady of all the divine powers, resplendent light,
munus zi me-lám gùr-ru ki ág an uraš-a
righteous woman clothed in radiance, beloved of An and Uraš,
nu-gig an-na suh-keš-da gal-gal
hierodule of An, you of all the great ornaments,
aga zi-da ki ág nam-en-na tum-ma
who loves the right tiara, fit for high priesthood,
me-bi imin-bi šu sá du₁₁-ga
who has grasped all seven of its divine powers in your hand.
Enheduanna was the daughter of Sargon of Akkad and high priestess of Nanna at Ur. Her hymn is linguistically Sumerian, but its author was a member of the Akkadian royal house — born precisely at the moment when Akkadians began adopting Sumerian cuneiform to write their own Semitic language. Though composed in Sumerian, the poem is the decisive evidence that the Akkadian dynasty made Mesopotamian literary tradition its own; it was copied in schools for the next four millennia.
— ETCSL 4.07.2 · Hallo & van Dijk (1968)