Texts, hymns, and prayers

Like many Pagan religions, the Sumerian faith has no definitive, comprehensive canon. The traditions and practices of our faith are drawn from cuneiform texts spanning a period beginning at the dawn of civilisation and lasting over 3000 years. Our understanding of the Sumerian faith is based not only on the religious literature of the Sumerians, but also their entire sociocultural corpus, and listings of such works may never be considered "complete".

This page is intended to serve as a repository for retellings and translations of ancient Sumerian texts, as well as devotional texts written in the modern day by those affiliated with The Ishtar Gate. The renderings of ancient texts found below are loose and prosaic translations rather than being academic, although every effort has been made to capture the language, spirit, and intent of the original Sumerian. The number of texts on this page is presently small; this is a section that will remain under constant construction and will be added to over time.

Ancient adaptions
​Lady of the Warm Heart (Inana C)
​Inana and Mount Ebih
Great Fierce Storm (Inana A)
Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta
A hymn to Nisaba (Nisaba A)
The Sacred Names of Babylon | Commentary
The shortest Sumerian prayer
​
Modern compositions
A lament for Sumer
A praise hymn of Inana
A lamentation song of Babylon
A simple bread offering ritual
​A prayer of Nisaba