t,

17. _[e]-gi-dim-dim-ma i-de [nu-bar-ri-ta]_
17. In the house of the "reed of _sorrow_," which eye beholds not,

18. _[ ]mag dug-li dug-[dug-ta]_
18. In the great ... causing prosperity to abound,

19. _[e(?)]-ku-a __gis__ik-[ku-igi-lal-a-ta]_
19. In _Ekua_ gate of the lifting of the eyes,

20. [ _]-silim-ma mu-mar [mar-ra-ta_]
20.

...

REVERSE II

...

21. _sub-bi se-ib e-[kur-ra-ta?] ki-na-an-gi-gi-ra_(_412_)
21. Prayer for the brick walls of _Ekur_ that it be restored to its place.

-------------------------------------

22. _ki-su-bi-im_
22. It is a service of prostrations.

LITURGY OF THE CULT OF KES (NIPPUR FRAGMENTS AND ASHMOLEAN PRISM.)

Kes and Opis, two closely associated but unlocated southern cities of
Sumer, lay apparently somewhere in the region between Erech and Suruppak.
So closely were they united that the same cult of the great mother goddess
obtained in both.(413) According to II Raw. 60_a_ 26, Innini of Hallab was
the queen of Kes. The Sumerian liturgy, BL. p. 54, names Nintud as the
goddess of this city, but the list of mother goddesses in PSBA. 1911 Pl.
XII calls her by the name Ninharsag,(414) where she is associated with
Ninmenna, epithet of the earth mother in Adab a city near Suruppak. A
fragment, No. 102 in BL., reads her title at Kes as Aruru. These various
epithets all refer to the earth mother whose principal married type is
Ninlil. In fact one liturgy actually names Ninlil as the goddess of Kes,
SBP. 24, 74. On the other hand, a cult document of the Neo-Babylonian
period names Kallat Ekur, the bride of Ekur, as the goddess of _U-pi-ia_
or Opis, VS. VI. 213, 21.(415) The bride of Ekur is Ninlil. Thus the twin
cities Kes and Opis of Sumer with their cult of the earth mother Ninharsag
or Nintud were imitated in later times in Akkad and located on the Tigris
where Opis survived into Greek times ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}) and Kes seems to have become
confused in writing with Kis a famous city near Babylon. At Opis in Akkad
a male satellite _Igi-du_ was associated with the mother goddess and we
may be safe in assuming that he was borrowed from the original southern
cult.(416) Of the names Ninharsag, Aruru, Nintud, Ninmah, Innini of
Hallab, we are not certain which one applied especially to Kes and Opis.
In any case the liturgy which we are about to discuss