CLA/WLIT 196
Ancient Lyric Poetry

POETIC DEVICES: ECPHRASIS

1. There are a number of detailed descriptions of Gudea's new temple to Ningirsu (see esp. Harps p. 243–4). An unusual detail is this description of the view from the temple:

Its stone stairs, laid against the house,
were (just) as if the foothills were laid (up) toward the Ulnun;
its upper stairway, laid (up) toward the roof,
was like a white cloud looking far awa (over) toward the mountains (Gud. A. xxviii.19–22)

2. Tale of Aqhat. When Aqhat rejects Anat's demand for his bow, he does so by incorporating an ecphrasis of it:

But the hero Aqhat replied:
The mightiest ash-trees from Lebanon,
the strongest sinews from wild bulls,
the hardest horns from mountain goats,
<the toughest> tendons from the hocks of a bull,
the sharpest reeds from the great marsh,
give to Kothar-wa-Hasis:
let him construct a bow for Anat