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Ancient Sumerian cylinder seal impression showing the god Dumuzid being tortured in the underworld by galla demons. The ancient Mesopotamian underworld (known in Sumerian as Kur, Irkalla, Kukku, Arali, or Kigal, and in Akkadian as Erṣetu), was the lowermost part of the ancient near eastern cosmos, roughly parallel to the region known as Tartarus from early Greek cosmology.
Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia. The Civilization of Mesopotamia ranges from the earliest human occupation in the Paleolithic period up to Late antiquity.This history is pieced together from evidence retrieved from archaeological excavations and, after the introduction of writing in the late 4th millennium BC, an increasing amount of historical sources.
In his analysis of Descent of Inanna into the Underworld, historian Thorkild Jacobsen identifies parallels between the ancient myth and the cyclical patterns observed in the natural world. He suggests that the narrative functions as an allegory of the seasonal cycle, where the return of life is contingent upon the death of another.
Nergal (Sumerian: 𒀭𒄊𒀕𒃲 [1] d KIŠ.UNU or d GÌR.UNU.GAL; [2] Hebrew: נֵרְגַל, Modern: Nergal, Tiberian: Nērgal; Aramaic: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ; [3] Latin: Nirgal) was a Mesopotamian god worshiped through all periods of Mesopotamian history, from Early Dynastic to Neo-Babylonian times, with a few attestations indicating that his cult survived into the period of Achaemenid domination.
The Mesopotamian pantheon evolved greatly over the course of its history. [16] In general, the history of Mesopotamian religion can be divided into four phases. [16] During the first phase, starting in the fourth millennium BC, deities' domains mainly focused on basic needs for human survival. [17]
The regional toponym Mesopotamia (/ ˌ m ɛ s ə p ə ˈ t eɪ m i ə /, Ancient Greek: Μεσοποταμία '[land] between rivers'; Arabic: بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن Bilād ar-Rāfidayn or بَيْن ٱلنَّهْرَيْن Bayn an-Nahrayn; Persian: میانرودان miyân rudân; Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ Beth Nahrain "(land) between the (two) rivers") comes from the ...
Cuneiform tablet with the Atra-Hasis epic in the British Museum. Uta-napishtim or Utnapishtim (Akkadian: 𒌓𒍣, "he has found life") was a legendary king of the ancient city of Shuruppak in southern Iraq, who, according to the Gilgamesh flood myth, one of several similar narratives, survived the Flood by making and occupying a boat.
Oannès – Adapa from Odilon Redon in the Kröller-Müller Museum. Adapa was a Mesopotamian mythical figure who unknowingly refused the gift of immortality.The story, commonly known as "Adapa and the South Wind", is known from fragmentary tablets from Tell el-Amarna in Egypt (around 14th century BC) and from finds from the Library of Ashurbanipal, Assyria (around 7th century BC).