II. TWO MORPHOLOGICAL PARALLELS TO THE JONAH STORY
2.2.3 Morphological Analysis
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propitiating the goddess Inana and hastening the victory of the troops from Unug.
Lugalbanda volunteers to do this but with the condition that he travel alone, apparently to conceal his superhuman advantage in speed. In a matter of hours he traverses vast
stretches of land and arrives in Unug‘s Kulaba district. Lugalbanda approaches Inana in her temple there and delivers Enmerkar‘s plea. Inana tells Lugalbanda that to conquer the foreign city Enmerkar must first capture a certain magical fish, cook, and present it as his offering. The epic ends with a short, retrospective exaltation of Aratta and
Lugalbanda. This abrupt ending has caused some to speculate that this narrative is in fact just the beginning of a much larger narrative in which the fish is caught and Aratta
eventually subjugated, but there is no evidence of this internally.
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Sumerian epics' forms, like Propp's tales, are influenced by oral recitation: "Le style est influencé, lui aussi, par les nécessités de la récitation publique."128 Heda Jason has identified the other Aratta poems, ―Enmerkar and Enšuḫgirana‖ and ―Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,‖ as representative of a tale type depicting a struggle between a part- human, part-divine hero against a monster, and even assigned Proppian functions to them, though she does not mention the Lugalbanda poems.129 The problem with Jason's approach is that Propp's functions are derived from a particular data set and not
necessarily applicable outside of that set of Russian wondertales. Some elements of wondertales are universal, and Propp himself alluded vaguely to the possibility that certain functions appear across innumerable contexts. But his assignments of dramatis personae and "functions" were limited, so although we may adapt Propp's terms and methods we cannot apply them without some modification. This is true also because the morphology of the Lugalbanda story is inherently different than those of ―Enmerkar and Enšuḫgirana‖ and ―Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta‖; rather than centering upon the exploits of a journeying hero, these other tales are concerned principally with the conflicts with Aratta.
This story's morphology utilizes four dramatis personae modeled after those of Propp's work. I identify these dramatis personae as follows:
The dispatcher is Enmerkar
The hero is Lugalbanda.
128 Ibid., 16.
129 Adele Berlin, ―Ethnopoetry and the Enmerkar Epics‖ JAOS 103 no. 1 (1983), 17-24. Berlin adeptly notes the importance of space to these epic literatures, especially the demarcation of ―our country‖ (Uruk) from the ―afterworld‖ and notes that where ―the principal battle takes place in a semi-mythic location which seems to be in ‗the in-between space.‘‖ Ibid., 22.
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The donor(s) are the celestial deities.
The helper is Anzud.
There are several points worth mentioning about how these labels are applied.
Propp proposes that all wondertales may be grouped based upon the motivations that precipitate the hero's quest. Either, 1) the realization of a lack and the desire to resolve that, or, 2) an act of villainy triggers the unfolding of the wondertale, though these are not mutually exclusive. As we have already seen, there is no ―villain‖ in this type of
wondertale as an actual dramatis persona, thus the hero's quest must be precipitated by a lack or the absence of something. On a perfunctory level the rebellion of Aratta and the resulting lack of political control over that area is the impetus for the quest, and thus Enmerkar's control over Aratta is the object of the story. Yet the influence of
Lugalbanda‘s rite de passage upon this morphology adds another layer of meaning. The narrative's central focus on Lugalbanda's transformation, underscored by the emphasis on his initial position as the weakest and least experienced among his brothers, suggests that the story's most important sequence is that transformation itself. Enmerkar's lack of control over Aratta is actually overshadowed by his lack of a worthy successor,
somebody who fulfills the Sumerian ideal of kingship. Lugalbanda's process of growth sets him apart from his brothers; he has in fact thrived in a place of non-being, "where no one can walk alone" (β.231). We see that the characterization of Lugalbanda's brothers fits with this qualification. They are not dramatis personae proper but are merely stock characters with no individual voice or dynamism.
Moreover, due to our experience with European wondertales like those collected by Propp or the Grimm brothers, we readily associate the wondertale with simpler (or at
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least non-divine) representations of dramatis personae: an old woman or a talking fox, for example. My identification of the celestial gods collectively as the ―donor‖ may be disarming in this context, just as it raises the theological outlook therein and whether (or if at all) this story may be rightly compared to the Jonah story. All three of the
wondertales examined here involve divine interactions with humankind, the matter of which frequently recurs among the ancients in literature of all types. Prior to the advent of Neoplatonism as the dominant mode of Western theological discourse, direct
interactions of the divine with humans in physical terms was widely accepted. It is frustrating that texts of the end of LI (the divine banquet sequence) are so broken and fragmented because this apparently lengthy scene might yield fruitful comparison with the tortured relationship between Jonah and God.
Based upon the fourteen functions I identified in the previous chapter I propose the following formula to represent the morphology of narrative, followed by explanation of each with its direct application:
α1β1↑1A1B1C1D3EF2GH2↓1γ1δ
α - The hero is called upon to leave home on a quest: 1. When Enmerkar declares war on Aratta and organizes his army to campaign against the city, Lugalbanda is set to join it.
β - The hero joins an able group as a lesser member: 1. Lugalbanda is the eighth brother, an afterthought.
↑ - The hero goes forth and crosses a threshold into the wilderness while traveling to a foreign land: The group leaves Unug for Aratta, crossing over mountains and some body of water.
A - The hero's company faces unexpected adversity from nature: 1.
Illness suddenly strikes Lugalbanda.
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B - The hero is stranded alone in "no-man's land" for three days: 1.
Lugalbanda‘s brothers abandon him because he is a liability to the overland campaign. Lugalbanda prays on the third day to Utu.
C – The donor revitalizes the hero: 1. Healing from the astral deities propels Lugalbanda to go forth from the mountain cave and find the ―plant of life‖ and the ―water of life.‖
D – The hero gives thanks with an offering or a prayer: 3.
Lugalbanda prepares food and offers a banquet for the gods who saved him.
E - The helper and the hero meet; hero fears helper: Terrified of Anzud and hiding, Lugalbanda devises a plan to win his favor and secure his help.
F - The helper queries the hero: 1. Anzud calls out for the one who has provided care to his offspring.
G - The hero praises the helper: When Lugalbanda reveals himself he praises Anzud at length.
H - The helper foretells the destiny of the hero and gives him a gift: Anzud ―fixes‖ Lugalbanda's fate and offers him a gift;
Lugalbanda chooses speed.
↓ - The hero returns to the human sphere of action: 1. Lugalbanda returns to his campaign against Aratta with this new superhuman ability.
γ - The hero uses his newly acquired gift to bring about a status change for himself: 1. Lugalbanda uses his speed to return to Unug and learn from Inana what Enmerkar must do to secure victory; he learns the role of religious kingship.
δ – The hero and dispatcher thrive: Enmerkar successfully subdues Aratta and Lugalbanda receives praise and goes on to become king.
My adaptation and application of Propp‘s method is not perfect (it seldom is), and it requires some debatable interpretations be made, but we see that Propp‘s basic thesis about the wondertale holds–that these events occur within a particular and prescribed order. Just as the steps constituting a rite de passage must occur in the correct sequence,
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so this type of wondertale follows a sequence of corresponding stages. Recognition of this sequence is an indispensible part of understanding how this narrative (and the other wondertales of this type) take form.