Despite the varied subject matter of these compositions, a note of elegy gives them some degree of unity. Stylistically, with the exception of no. 13 which is actually poetical prose but has been placed here because of its association with no. 12, these compositions share the feature of recurrent grammatically unnecessary long vowels at the end of words; it could be supposed that this feature reflects the manner of recitation.
No. 12 is the only Assyrian example of a genre well represented in Babylonian literature in two varieties, the repentant sinner and the righteous sufferer. It is not impossible that the text could be taken to describe the agony of any righteous sufferer (who conceives his suffering as a divine punishment but considers himself innocent), but from internal evidence and parallels it could be argued that it applies to a particular Assyrian king. Diakonoff (AS 16 344 n. 9) has suggested that the king may be Esarhaddon, but this seems unlikely, since the reading on which the suggestion is partly based is impossible. Four pieces of evidence speak for Assurbanipal: ll. 4-5 could refer to Assurbanipal's political family problems, especially involving Šamaš-šumu-ukin, as well as the sins of his forefathers, especially Sennacherib; ll. 6-8 would fit well with Assurbanipal's enthusiasm for the scribal art and personal claims to literacy. Finally, some of the phraseology is similar to that in the dialogue between Assurbanipal and Nabû, no. 13, ( esp. la tumaššaranni, "do not desert me" and the references to an "ill-wisher", haddânu). There is also similarity to a section appended to a building inscription of AssurbanipaI.[[15]]
No. 14, love lyrics of Nabû and Tašmetu, has the same general background as no. 6. There are Neo-Assyrian letters and documents concerning the arrangements for this or a similar event and numerous parallels in Babylonian. The subject matter and background of no. 15, a touching elegy concerning the death of a woman, has recently been discussed in detail by E. Reiner (see references in critical apparatus). The "boat" metaphor, which in birth incantations refers to the foetus or unborn baby is used here in a transposed sense, describing the woman herself.
The final example of elegaic poetry found here (no. 16) is a longer text subdivided into sections by the ancient scribe. Although somewhat disparate in subject matter, these sections have the common theme of death and destruction, and this theme has been used to provide a key to elucidation of difficult passages. Although the name of the god Tammuz occurs nowhere in the text, this has been used to provide a designation since it has been applied generally to certain mainly Sumerian compositions which have broadly similar themes.
15 Streck Asb p. 248ff.
Alasdair Livingstone
Alasdair Livingstone, 'Elegaic and Other Poetry', Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea, SAA 3. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1989; online contents: SAAo/SAA03 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa03/natureandcontent/elegaicpoetry/]