The Hymn to Nungal

a hymn to Nungal (Nungal A)

Anonymous / tradition · c. 18th century BC (Old Babylonian copies of an older Sumerian composition) · Nippur (Iraq) · poetry

Praising the goddess of the prison-house rather than a temple, the hymn argues that confinement itself can be redemptive, describing the prison as a place where the wicked are broken down and refined like silver, and released reformed rather than merely punished.