Legends of the Kings of Kish

Given the central role of Kish in early Mesopotamian history, it is not surprising that its kings feature in several later legends about those glory years of the third millennium BC. Written in both Sumerian and Akkadian, they feature characters whom we know to have really lived, but these are not historically accurate accounts as we moderns would understand them. Rather, they tell us a lot about how later generations conceptualised the perennial battle for power and territory in the floodplains of southern Iraq.

The Sumerian King List: The Sumerian King List is a legendary chronology of early Mesopotamian history, probably first composed in the late third millennium BC. It divides the past into two parts, before and after the great Flood. According to the Sumerian King List, Kish was the first city to receive kingship from the gods after the Flood. But while the later sections of the List can be verified by other historical sources, it is clear that the first sections draw heavily on other myths and legends. The references to Kish, in the middle of the work, are probably a mix of both "history" and "legend" by modern definitions.
The legend of Etana, king of Kish: Etana, the first king of Kish according to the Sumerian King List, was supposedly the king "who stabilised the lands" after the gods created the world, and established kingship and government at Kish. Etana is also known from an Akkadian-language legend in which he ascends to the heavens on the back of an eagle in search of a mythical plant known as the "plant of birth", so that he and his wife might have a son.
Sargon and Ur-Zababa: This Sumerian legend uses fairy-tale elements to tell how Ur-Zababa, the last king of Kish, was overthrown by his humble cup-bearer Sargon, who then went on to found a mighty empire of his own. While both Ur-Zababa and Sargon were undoubtedly historical figures, we cannot tell how much of this story might have been based on fact.
Gilgamesh and Aga: "Gilgamesh and Aga" (or Agga or Akka) is one of several short stories in Sumerian about Gilgamesh, the legendary king of Uruk. It narrates how Uruk, under the leadership of Gilgamesh, broke free from Kish's dominance during the reign of Aga, king of Kish, though diplomacy rather than battle.

30 Sep 2025

Nadia Aït Saïd-Ghanem & Eleanor Robson

Nadia Aït Saïd-Ghanem & Eleanor Robson, 'Legends of the Kings of Kish', The Forgotten City of Kish • مدينة كيش المنسية, The Kish Project, 2025 [http://oracc.org/KingsandLegends/]