Page Content (OCR)
249 is mine," Inanna listed her shrines in Nippur, Ur, Girsu, Adab, Kish, Der, Akshak, and Umma, and lastly the Ulmash in Agade. "Is there a god who can vie with me?" she asked. Yet, though promoted by Inanna, the elevation of Sargon to kingship over what was henceforth known as Sumer and Akkad could not have taken place without the consent and blessing of Anu and Enlil. A bilingual (Sumerian-Akkadian) text, originally in- scribed on a statue of Sargon that was placed before Enlil in his temple in Nippur, stated that Sargon was not only "Commanding Overseer" of Ishtar, but also "anointed priest of Anu" and "great regent of Enlil." It was Enlil, Sargon wrote, who "had given him lordship and kingship." Sargon's records of his conquests describe Inanna as actively present on the battlefields but attribute to Enlil the overall decision ee ee regarding the scope of the victories and the extent of the territories: "Enlil did not let anybody oppose Sargon, the king of the land; from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea Enlil gave unto him." Invari- ably, postscripts to Sargon's inscriptions invoked Anu, Enlil. Inanna, and Utu/Shamash as his "witnesses." Enlil. As one scrutinizes this vast empire, stretching from the Upper Sea (Mediterranean) to the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf), it becomes clear that Sargon's conquests were, at first, limited to the domains of Sin and his children (Inanna and Utu) and, even at their peak, kept well within the Enlilite territories. Sargon reached Lagash. the city of Ninurta. and conquered the territory from Lagash south- ward, but not Lagash itself; nor did he expand to the northeast of Sumer where Ninurta held sway. Going beyond the boundaries of olden Sumer, he entered to the southeast the land of Elam—an area under Inanna's influence from earlier times. But when Sargon was entering the lands to the west on the mid-Euphrates and the Medi- terranean coast, the domains of Adad, "Sargon prostrated himself in prayer before the god . . . jand| he gave him in the upper region Mari, Yarmuli and Ebla, as far as the cedar forest and the silver mountain." It is clear from Sargon's inscriptions that he was neither given Tilmun (the gods' own Fourth Region), nor Magan (Egypt), nor Meluhha (Ethiopia) in the Second Region, the domains of Enki's descendants; with those lands he only conducted peaceful trading relations. In Sumer itself he kept out of the area controlled by Ninurta and from the city claimed by Marduk. But then, “in his old age," Sargon made a mistake: "A Queen Am I!"