Ashurbanipal’s Lament: A Half-Told Tale of Healing an Assyrian King

Presented by Alan Lenzi, PhD

Dr. Lenzi is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East, and Chair of Religious Studies at the University of the Pacific.

In this year’s Assyrian Heritage Lecture, Prof. Alan Lenzi considers the little discussed Lament of Ashurbanipal, in which the Assyrian king enumerates his pious acts and laments his unmerited disfavor. Lenzi argues The Lament casts Ashurbanipal’s suffering in the mold of the protagonist of the classic Babylonian poem Ludlul Bel Nemeqi. Unlike Ludlul, however, The Lament ends without resolution or redemption. Drawing on narratology and medical anthropology, Lenzi suggests The Lament is a half-told story whose very expression was intended to elicit or hasten its completion, that is, to bring relief and healing to Ashurbanipal.