Specific patterns in the number of lines of The Sumerian Temple Hymns

Abstract

Strict formal restrictions have appeared in literature for centuries. A close consideration of The Sumerian Temple Hymns, a united set of poems devoted to Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon and attributed to Enheduanna, High Priestess and Princess of Akkad (twenty-fourth–twenty-third centuries B.C.E.), demonstrates that the total number of the lines in these hymns is an exact multiple of one hundred, and each half of the hymns contains exactly half of the total number of lines of all hymns. Sequential subsets of the hymns demonstrate several other quantitative patterns associated with numerical representation of the Mesopotamian deities. These features could only be constructed on purpose, through intentional poetic work, which makes these hymns the earliest known example of the literature of formal restriction. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT