Sumerian Addenda · Signs

𒂄

hero

NameDUN
Reads[šul]
Meansyoung man in his prime, hero (šul) — Šulgi's own name-word
Taught in15 · Born a hero

Where it comes from

Its course-taught reading is šul: the young man in his prime, the hero-word of the hymns — and the first syllable of Šul-gi, “noble youth,” the king of Ur whose praise poems the tablet houses copied for centuries.

How to remember it

The hero is the youth at full strength — the word kings kept for themselves even when gray. Read šul and picture the prime of life, wearing a crown it claimed early.

In the wild

Early Dynastic name list. CDLI P010063 via Nabu, urn:nabu:cdli:p010063:obverse:6:15 · license: attribution. Name translations are approximate by nature.

Piece by piece:

  • ur- — servant (hound) of, the loyal-dog pattern
  • šul — the Youth: this sign, worn as a name’s master

A person named as the hero’s faithful hound. The pattern and the king are read in 102’s chapter 15.