Water of death
The "Waters of Death" ( old Babylonian marratu , the bitter river ) are a special area within the salty water that flows around the earth in a ring, which was called Tiamat by some of the Mesopotamian cultures . For example, in the Babylonian creation epic Enūma eliš, the Persian Gulf , parts of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea are referred to as “salty water” and these in turn are distinguished from a “cosmic freshwater ocean ” surrounding the earth - the Apsu . The earth itself was thought of as a structure ( world mountain ) floating in this water cosmos and equipped with an air bubble (atmosphere) on the top . The "Mesopotamian world map" developed on the basis of such ideas shows that the hypothetical edge of this earth ran east of Babylonia over Iran and the northern mountains of Turkey . The details of the Lebanon and Zagros Mountains contained in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the entrances and exits of an underground tunnel through which ' the sun ' passed during the night were speculated, indicate that there is certainly knowledge of this mythical world of belief real geographic features were included. So were Dilmun , Meluhha and Magan as belonging to the extreme edge of the earth. Dilmun in particular, however, lay both in the terrestrial salt water sea - additionally surrounded by the water of death - and in direct proximity to the cosmic fresh water ocean. After successfully overcoming the former waters on Dilmun, Gilgameš dives down into this apsu in order to fetch up from its depths the herb of eternal life , which was later lost to him again: a snake, which in turn came from the apsu, ate it ...
Epic of Gilgamesh
In the tenth panel of the Gilgameš epic , the “waters of death” are represented as an area in the middle of the salt water sea, which seems to surround the island of the gods Dilmun (the land of the blessed ) like a protection zone: direct physical contact with this bitter river would be Let the person die.
The so-called “stone men” were originally responsible for guaranteeing the gods a safe passage to Dilmun: the crew of a boat that was steered by a ferryman named Ur-šanabi . After the destruction of the stone (rowers?) By Gilgameš, Gilgameš was forced to compensate for their loss with “ picks ”. They were made from 300 felled trees and were used to push the boat to Dilmun without coming into direct contact with the bitter water. The "Waters of Death" and Dilmun - as the residence of the Babylonian Noah, who was blessed with immortality by the gods - were never driven over or entered by a "nondivine being" before and after Gilgameš .
“ 79 Nobody has crossed the sea in time immemorial. 83 The transition is dangerous, the path is full of danger, and in the middle of it (in the salty sea) lie the waters of death, 89 which block the way forward. 83 'Gilgameš, even if you should have crossed the sea, 84 when you reach the waters of death, what will you do then?' 171 They ( Ur-šanabi and Gilgameš) had traveled a month and a half (already) on the third day. 174 Ur-šanabi (the ferryman) said to him, to Gilgameš: 175 ' Let the waters of death not touch your hand, for it would make you slack.' 180 After 120 double stages (approx. 48 km) Gilgameš ran out of picks. "
See also
literature
- Wayne Horowitz: Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (= Mesopotamian civilizations 8). Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake IN 1998, ISBN 0-931464-99-4 .
- Stefan M. Maul : The Gilgamesh Epic. Newly translated and commented. 3rd revised edition. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52870-8 .