"Kur" redirects here. For other uses, see Kur (disambiguation).
Concept of the underworld in ancient Mesopotamian culture
Ancient Sumerian cylinder seal impression showing the god Dumuzid being tortured in the underworld by galla demons
The ancient Mesopotamian underworld, most often known in Sumerian as Kur, Irkalla, Kukku, Arali, or Kigal and in Akkadian as Erṣetu, although it had many names in both languages, was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground,[1][2] where inhabitants were believed to continue "a transpositional version of life on earth".[1] The only food or drink was dry dust, but family members of the deceased would pour sacred mineral libations from the earth for them to drink. In the Sumerian underworld, it was initially believed that there was no final judgement of the deceased and the dead were neither punished nor rewarded for their deeds in life.
The ruler of the underworld was the goddess Ereshkigal, who lived in the palace Ganzir, sometimes used as a name for the underworld itself. Her husband was either Gugalanna, the "canal-inspector of Anu", or, especially in later stories, Nergal, the god of war. After the Akkadian Period (c. 2334–2154 BC), Nergal sometimes took over the role as ruler of the underworld. The seven gates of the underworld are guarded by a gatekeeper, who is named Neti in Sumerian. The god Namtar acts as Ereshkigal's sukkal, or divine attendant. The dying god Dumuzid spends half the year in the underworld, while, during the other half, his place is taken by his sister, the scribal goddess Geshtinanna, who records the names of the deceased. The underworld was also the abode of various demons, including the hideous child-devourer Lamashtu, the fearsome wind demon and protector god Pazuzu, and galla, who dragged mortals to the underworld.
^ abChoksi 2014.
^Barret 2007, pp. 7–65.
and 26 Related for: Ancient Mesopotamian underworld information
The ancientMesopotamianunderworld, most often known in Sumerian as Kur, Irkalla, Kukku, Arali, or Kigal and in Akkadian as Erṣetu, although it had many...
ancientMesopotamian religion, gallûs (also called gallas; Akkadian gallû < Sumerian gal.lu) were great demons or devils of the ancientMesopotamian Underworld...
Inanna is the ancientMesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with sensuality, procreation, divine law, and political...
"Ereshkigal" as a theophoric element are known. In the ancient Sumerian poem Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, Ereshkigal is described as Inanna's older sister...
Namtar (Sumerian: 𒉆𒋻, lit. 'fate') was a figure in ancientMesopotamian religion who, depending on the context, could be regarded both as a minor god...
corresponding to the Abzu (primeval underworldly ocean), was the residence of the god Enki. Lower Earth, the Mesopotamianunderworld, was where the 600 Anunnaki...
battery, was created in Mesopotamia. The AncientMesopotamian religion was the first recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc,...
elaborate decorative gold and silver ornaments sewn into them. The ancientMesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven, after an earlier history...
plagues, who later became closely associated with the underworld god Nergal", AncientMesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus...
Mesopotamian religion was the original religious beliefs and practices of the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, particularly Sumer, Akkad, Assyria...
Mesopotamian mythology refers to the myths, religious texts, and other literature that comes from the region of ancient Mesopotamia which is a historical...
There are many references to ghosts in ancientMesopotamian religion – the religions of Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and other early states in Mesopotamia....
underworld. The underworld itself is usually located even deeper below ground than the Abzu, the body of freshwater which the ancientMesopotamians believed...
levels or divisions of the Heavens. The concept, also found in the ancientMesopotamian religions, can be found in Judaism and Islam; the Christian Bible...
Ancestors of Enlil or Enki-Ninki deities were a group of Mesopotamian deities. Individual lists do not agree on their number, though the enumerations always...
Imagery of such journeys can be found in both ancient and modern art. The descent to the underworld has been described as "the single most important...
as "lord of the underworld" Kanisurra, a goddess whose name is derived from the term "ganzer," referring to the underworld (Mesopotamian) Shuwala, a goddess...
possible meaning "Lord [of the] Good Tree") was a Mesopotamian deity of vegetation, the underworld and sometimes war. He was commonly associated with...
neighbors, and shows clear influence of Mesopotamian and Egyptian religious practices. Like other people of the Ancient Near East Canaanite religious beliefs...
[háːi̯dεːs], later [háːdεːs]), in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous...
story of her descent into the Underworld. Sumerian religion heavily influenced the religious beliefs of later Mesopotamian peoples; elements of it are retained...
tablet (VAT 10057) excavated from Assur. It is rooted in older Mesopotamianunderworld myths such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, although it is also similar...
religion, ancientMesopotamian religion Ancient Egypt: Ancient Egyptian religion, Atenism The Levant (Canaan, Ugarit, Ebla, Mitanni): ancient Canaanite...
Styx (/ˈstɪks/; Ancient Greek: Στύξ [stýks]; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and river of the Underworld. Her parents were...
Canaanites as Adon (Phoenician: 𐤀𐤃𐤍; Proto-Hebrew: 𐤀𐤃𐤍), is an ancientMesopotamian and Levantine deity associated with agriculture and shepherds, who...
Global Information