The occasion on which the cylinders were made was the rebuilding by
Gudea of E-ninnu, the great temple of the god Ningirsu, in the city of
Shirpurla. The two cylinders supplement one another, one of them having
been inscribed while the work of construction was still in progress, the
other after the completion of the temple, when the god Ningirsu had been
installed within his shrine with due pomp and ceremony. It would appear
that Southern Babylonia had been suffering from a prolonged drought, and
that the water in the rivers and canals had fallen, so that the crops
had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. Gudea was at a
loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country,
when one night he had a dream, and it was in consequence of this dream
that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of
Sumerian temples. By this means he secured the return of Ningirsu's
favour and that of the other gods, and his country once more enjoyed the
blessings of peace and prosperity.
In the opening words of the first of his cylinders Gudea describes how
the great gods themselves took counsel and decreed that he should build
the temple of E-ninnu and thereby restore to his city the supply of
water it had formerly enjoyed. He records that on the day on which the
destinies were fixed in heaven and upon earth, Enlil, the chief of the
gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla, held converse.
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