By the immutable word of Enlil, king of the lands, father of the
gods, Ningirsu and Shara set a boundary to their lands. Mesilim,
King of Kish, at the command of his deity Kadi, set up a stele [a
boundary marker] in the plantation of that field. Ush, ruler of
Umma, formed a plan to seize it. That stele he broke in pieces,
into the plain of Lagash he advanced. Ningirsu, the hero of Enlil,
by his just command, made war upon Umma. At the command of Enlil,
his great net ensnared them. He erected their burial mound on the
plain in that place. These documents were found on clay cylinders
and date from about 2500 BC. Palette of Narmer (c. 31 st cen.
B.C.E) Hark the piping! My heart is piping in the wilderness Where
the young man once went free. He is a prisoner now in deaths
kingdom, lies bound where once he lived. It is you, she cried to
him, but you are changed. The agony, the agony she bears. Woe to
the house and the inner room She is the mother desolate in a
desolate place Where once he was alive, now he lies like a young
bull felled to the ground. Into his face she stares, seeing what
she has lost - his mother who has lost him to deaths kingdom. O,
the agony she bears, shuddering in the wilderness, she is the
mother suffering so much. The Mother Sings Thy two wings are spread
out like a falcon with thick plumage, like the hawk seen in the
evening traversing the sky He flies who flies; this king Pepi flies
away from you, ye mortals. He is not of the earth, he is of the
sky.... This king Pepi flies as a cloud to the sky, like a masthead
bird; this king Pepi kisses the sky like a falcon, this king Pepi
reaches the sky like Horizon-god King Unis ascends upon the ladder
which his father Re) made for him The king ascends to the sky among
the gods dwelling in the sky. He stands on the great [dais], he
hears (in judicial session) the (legal) affairs of men. Re finds
thee upon the shores of the sky in this lake that is in Nut The
arriver comes ! say the gods. He (Re) gives thee his arm on the
stairway to the sky. He who knows his place comes, say the gods. 0
Pure One, assume thy throne in the barque of Re and sail thou the
sky.... Sail thou with the Imperishable Stars, sad thou with the
Unwearied Stars. Receive thou the tribute of the Evening Barque,
become thou a spirit dwelling in Dewat. Live thou this pleasant
life which the lord of the horizon lives
