Sargon's Birth Legend
Artifact: Clay tablet
Provenience: Nineveh
Period: Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)
Current location: British Museum, London (K 03401 + Sm 2118)
Text genre, language: Literary; Akkadian
CDLI page
Description: This composition, so far, is known from four manuscripts, of which three belong to the Kuyuncik collection of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. The text contains an autobiography written as monologue by Sargon, king of Agade. He mentions how his mother, an en-priestess secretly gave birth to him. Then she placed the child into a basket and put it into the river. A water-drawer named Aqqi raised the boy. Subsequently the goddess Ishtar grew fond of him and so he became king. (Klaus Wagensonner, University of Oxford)
Lineart:
Editions: Westenholz, J. G. 1997. Legends of the Kings of Akkade. The Texts. Mesopotamian Civilizations 7. Winona Lake, p. 38 - 49.