Kurnugia
Kurnugia ( Babylonian qaqqar, also erset la tari "land of no return") is the Sumerian name of the realm of the dead .
Kurnugia is bordered by the Ḫubur underworld river . The underworld has seven gates, the first or the entrance is Ganṣir (Sumerian IGI.KUR.ZA, IGI.ZA.KUR). It was also called igi.kur.ra , eye of the underworld. According to the myth "Nergal's journey into the underworld", the other gates are Nedu, Enkišar, Endašurimma, Enuralla, Endukuga, Endušuba and Ennugigi.
Kurnugia is described in more detail in the myth of Ištar's journey into hell :
“To Kurnugia, the land of no return, Ištar turned her mind ... to the dark house of Irkalla , to the house who enters it, does not leave it again, to the path whose tread is without return, to the house who it is enter, lack light, where dust is their hunger, their food is clay, they cannot see the light, they sit in the darkness. "
In the Gilgamesh epic , Enkidu tells his friend Gilgameš a dream in which the land of no return is described similarly to Ištar's journey into hell . In addition, the residents of Kurnugia are named there:
“The crowns are lying in a heap. The kings sit there, the formerly crowned heads who have ruled the land since ancient times ... There sit the high, conjuring and purification priests, there sit the anointed of the gods. There sits Etana , there sits Šakkan , there sits the queen of the underworld, Ereškigal , (and) Bēlet-sēri , accountant of the underworld, lies on her knees in front of her. "
See also
literature
- Markus Witte: God and man in dialogue: Festschrift for Otto Kaiser on his 80th birthday . de Gruyter, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-11-018354-4
Individual evidence
- ^ AR George 1986, Sennacherib and the Tablet of Destinies. Iraq 48, 136