Angim
The work known by its incipit, Angim, "The Return of Ninurta to Nippur", is a 210-line mythological praise poem for the ancient Mesopotamian warrior-god Ninurta, describing his return to Nippur from an expedition to the mountains, where he boasts of his triumphs against "rebel lands", boasting to Enlil in the Ekur, before returning to the Ešumeša temple—to “manifest his authority and kingship.”
The ancient Sumerian epic had been provided with an intralinear Akkadian translation during the course of the second millennium.
The myth
Three copies from Nippur provide a subscript labeling it a šìr-gíd-da, or "long song", of Ninurta, where the term long perhaps refers to the tuning of the musical instrument intended to accompany the song. It is extant in unilingual Sumerian from Nippur during the Old Babylonian period, and thereafter in bilingual editions from the Kassite, middle Assyrian and neo-Assyrian and neo-Babylonian versions, where the later ones are closer textually to the old version than the Middle Babylonian. Along with its companion composition, Lugal-e, it is the only Sumerian composition other than incantations and proverbs to have survived in the canon from the Old Babylonian period into the first Millennium. The title comes from the opening line: "an- dím-ma, den-líl-gim dím-ma", "created like An, created like Enlil".The narrative relates that he mounts the monsters, “slain heroes,” he has defeated as trophies on his a-gìn-na, “shining chariot.” Echoing the number of Tiāmat’s eleven monstrous offspring,, Ninurta’s conquests included:
- Wild bulls he hung on the axle
- Captured cows on the cross-piece of the yoke
- a six-headed Wild Ram on the dust guard
- Bašmu on the seat
- Magilum, or "ship-locust," on the frame
- The bison Kusarikku on the beam
- The mermaid Kulianna on the footboard
- “White substance”, on the forward part of the yoke
- Strong copper on the inside pole pin
- The Anzu-bird on the front guard
- The seven-headed serpent possibly Mušmaḫḫū on another illegible part
The ancient use of the text is uncertain. It may have been recited during some kind of cultic activity, such as the annual transport of the Ninurta idol between the temples, Ešumeša and Ekur.