The nearest word in Sumerian for our concept of Music is nam-nar, which is composed in two parts: nam and nar. Acccording to the second part of this concept, nar, the Music would have a very important relationship with the Human world in Mesopotamia since the nar was a prestigious type of singer and musician. However, whe we analyze the first part of this concept, nam, we have more problems. Certainly, nam is not only a Sumerian prefix for abstract terms, but also a nam is the fate, essence and destiny of anything in the Mesopotamian Universe, a fate, essence and destiny decreed by the gods in the origin of times. Based on this idea, we could say that the Music in Mesopotamia would have not only a human nature, but also a divine nature. In fact, the gods would be decreeing its fate, essence and destiny, and therefore encouraging its origin, in the Mesopotamian Universe. However, which was the degree of the relation of the deities with the Music in Ancient Mesopotamia? Were they only the responsible of the first impulse of the Music in the Universe or did they have a more complex role? The aim of this communication will be to explore the degree of the relationship between the gods and Music in Ancient Mesopotamia. For that objetive, we will analyse the royal praise hymns Šulgi B and E, where the Music, the concept nam-nar, takes part in the exposition of the habilities and conducts mastered, in this case, by one (minor) deity: the deified Neo-Sumerian king Šulgi.
Daniel Sánchez Muñoz (Wed,) studied this question.