god-man Dungi in which he is described as the
divinely born king who was sent by the gods to restore the lost
paradise.(8) The poem mentions the flood which, according to the Epic of
Paradise, terminated by divine punishment the Utopian age. The same
mythological belief underlies the hymn to Dungi. Paradise had been lost
and this god-man was sent to restore the golden age. There is a direct
connection between this messianic hymn to Dungi and the remarkable Epic of
Paradise. All other known hymns to deified kings are liturgical
compositions and have the rubrics which characterize them as songs sung in
public services. But the didactic hymn to Dungi has the rubric
[_d__Dungi_] _zag-sal_, "O praise Dungi." It would be difficult to claim
more conclusive evidence than this for the correctness of our
interpretation of the group of _zagsal_ literature and of the entire
mythological and theological exegesis propounded in the edition of the
Epic of Paradise, edited in part one of this volume.(9)

When our studies shall have reached the stage which renders appropriate
the collection of these texts into a special corpus they will receive
their due valuation in the history of religion. That they are of prime
importance is universally accepted.

From the point of view of the history of religion I would assign the
liturgical texts to the second group in order of importance. Surprisingly
few fragments from the long canonical daily prayer services have been
found. In fact, about all of the perfected liturgies such as we know the
Sumerian temples to have possessed belong to the cults of deified kings.
In the entire religious literature of Nippur, not one approximately
complete canonical prayer service has survived. Only fragments bear
witness to their existence in the public song services of the great
temples in Nippur. A small tablet(10) published in part two of this volume
carries a few lines of the titular or theological litany of a canonical or
musically completed prayer book as they finally emerged from the
liturgical schools throughout Sumer. Long liturgical services were evolved
in the temples at Nippur as we know from a few fragments of large five
column tablets.(11) The completed composite liturgies or canonical
breviaries as they finally received form throughout Sumer in the Isin
period were made by selecting old songs of lament and praise and
re-editing them so as to develop theological ideas. Characteristic of
these final