Iddin-Dagan (, <sup>D</sup>i-din-<sup>D</sup>da-gan; died 1954 BC) was the 3rd king of the dynasty of Isin. He is best known for his participation in the sacred marriage rite and the sexually-explicit hymn that described it.
Iddin-Dagan was preceded by his father Shu-Ilishu and succeeded by his son Ià ¡me-DagÃÂn. The Sumerian King List indicates his reign lasted 21 regnal years. His titles included: âÂÂMighty Kingâ â âÂÂKing of Isinâ â âÂÂKing of Urâ â âÂÂKing of the Land of Sumer and Akkad.â Several year-names are known.
The first year name recorded on a receipt for flour and dates reads: âÂÂYear Iddin-DagÃÂn (was) king and (his) daughter Matum-Niatum (âÂÂthe land which belongs to usâÂÂ) was taken in marriage by the king of Anshan.â Vallat suggests it was to Imazu (son of Kindattu, who was the groom and possibly the king of the region of Shimashki) as he was described as the King of Anshan in a seal inscription, although elsewhere unattested. Kindattu had been driven away from the city-state of Ur by Ià ¡bi-Erra (the founder of the First Dynasty of Isin), however; relations had apparently thawed sufficiently for Tan-Ruhurarter (the 8th king to wed the daughter of Bilalama, the énsàof Eshnunna.) His daughter must have been at marriage age (coming-of-age) when he became king, indicating that the king himself maybe was in his 30s.
The continued fecundity of the land was ensured by the annual performance of the sacred marriage ritual in which the king impersonated the god Dumuzi-Ama-uà ¡umgal-ana and a priestess played the role of Inanna. A hymn describing Iddin-Dagan's performance of this ritual in ten sections (Kiruḡu) indicates that this ceremony involved a procession of: male prostitutes, wise women, drummers, priestesses, and priests bloodletting with swords to the accompaniment of music, followed by offerings and sacrifices for the goddess Inanna, or Ninegala.
The ceremony reached its climax with the copulation of the king and priestess and is described thus:
There are four extant hymns addressed to Iddin-Dagan: this Sacred Marriage Hymn, a praise poem dedicated to the king, a war song, and a dedicatory prayer.
There is only one contemporary monumental text of Iddin-Dagan that is extant. This is a fragment of a stone statue with a votive inscription which invokes Ninisina and Damu to curse those who foster evil intent against it. Two later clay tablets preserve an inscription recording an unspecified object fashioned for the god Nanna. These were found by the British archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley in a scribal school house in Ur. A tablet from the Enunmaḫ in Ur dated to the 14th year of Gungunum (fl. c. 1868 BC â c. 1841 BC) of Larsa, after his conquest of the city, bears the seal impression of a servant of his. A tablet described Iddin-DagÃÂn's fashioning of two copper festival statues for Ninlil, which were not delivered to Nippur until 170 years later by Enlil-bÃÂni. Belles-lettres preserve the correspondence from Iddin-DagÃÂn to his general Sîn-illat about KakkulÃÂtum and the state of his troops, and from his general describing an ambush by the Martu (Amorites).