사용자:배우는사람/문서:Nimrod

This page is about the biblical king.For other uses, see 배우는사람/문서:Nimrod (disambiguation).

"Nimrod" by Yitzhak Danziger

Pieter Bruegel's The Tower of Babel depicts a traditional Nimrod inspecting stonemasons.

Nimrod (/ˈnɪm.rɒd/, 히브리어: נִמְרוֹדֿ‎, 현대 히브리어: Nimrod, 티베리아 히브리어: Nimrōḏ ܢܡܪܘܕ نمرود), king of Shinar, was, according to the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the son of Cush and great-grandson of Noah. He is depicted in the Tanakh as a man of power in the earth, and a mighty hunter. Extra-biblical traditions associating him with the Tower of Babel led to his reputation as a king who was rebellious against God. Several Mesopotamian ruins were given Nimrod's name by 8th-century Arabs (see Nimrud).

Biblical account

The first mention of Nimrod is in the Table of Nations. He is described as the son of Cush, grandson of Ham, and great-grandson of Noah; and as "a mighty one on the earth" and "a mighty hunter before God". This is repeated in the First Book of Chronicles 1:10, and the "Land of Nimrod" used as a synonym for Assyria or Mesopotamia, is mentioned in the Book of Micah 5:6:

And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

Genesis says that the "beginning of his kingdom" (reshit memelketo) was the towns of "Babel, Uruk, Akkad and Calneh in the land of Shinar" (Mesopotamia) — understood variously to imply that he either founded these cities, ruled over them, or both. Owing to an ambiguity in the original Hebrew text, it is unclear whether it is he or Asshur who additionally built Nineveh, Resen, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah (both interpretations are reflected in various English versions). (Genesis 10:8–12) (Genesis 10:8-12; 1 Chronicles 1:10, Micah 5:6). Sir Walter Raleigh devoted several pages in his History of the World (c. 1616) to reciting past scholarship regarding the question of whether it had been Nimrod or Ashur who built the cities in Assyria.

Traditions and legends

In Hebrew and Christian tradition, Nimrod is traditionally considered the leader of those who built the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar, though the Bible never actually states this. Nimrod's kingdom included the cities of Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, all in Shinar. (Ge 10:10) Therefore it was likely under his direction that the building of Babel and its tower began; in addition to Flavius Josephus, this is also the view found in the Talmud (Chullin 89a, Pesahim 94b, Erubin 53a, Avodah Zarah 53b), and later midrash such as Genesis Rabba. Several of these early Judaic sources also assert that the king Amraphel, who wars with Abraham later in Genesis, is none other than Nimrod himself.

Judaic interpreters as early as Philo and Yochanan ben Zakai (1st century AD) interpreted "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Heb. : לפני יהוה, lit. "in the face of the Lord") as signifying "in opposition to the Lord"; a similar interpretation is found in Pseudo-Philo, as well as later in Symmachus. Some rabbinic commentators have also connected the name Nimrod with a Hebrew word meaning 'rebel'. In Pseudo-Philo (dated ca. AD 70), Nimrod is made leader of the Hamites; while Joktan as leader of the Semites, and Fenech as leader of the Japhethites, are also associated with the building of the Tower. Versions of this story are again picked up in later works such as Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius (7th century AD).

The Book of Jubilees mentions the name of "Nebrod" (the Greek form of Nimrod) only as being the father of Azurad, the wife of Eber and mother of Peleg (8:7). This account would thus make him an ancestor of Abraham, and hence of all Hebrews.

Josephus wrote:

"Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach. And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.

Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion…"

An early Arabic work known as Kitab al-Magall or the Book of Rolls (part of Clementine literature) states that Nimrod built the towns of Hadâniûn, Ellasar, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Rûhîn, Atrapatene, Telalôn, and others, that he began his reign as king over earth when Reu was 163, and that he reigned for 69 years, building Nisibis, Raha (Edessa) and Harran when Peleg was 50. It further adds that Nimrod "saw in the sky a piece of black cloth and a crown." He called upon Sasan the weaver and commanded him to make him a crown like it, which he set jewels on and wore. He was allegedly the first king to wear a crown. "For this reason people who knew nothing about it, said that a crown came down to him from heaven." Later, the book describes how Nimrod established fire worship and idolatry, then received instruction in divination for three years from Bouniter, the fourth son of Noah.

In the Recognitions (R 4.29), one version of the Clementines, Nimrod is equated with the legendary Assyrian king Ninus, who first appears in the Greek historian Ctesias as the founder of Nineveh. However, in another version, the Homilies (H 9.4-6), Nimrod is made to be the same as Zoroaster.

The Syriac Cave of Treasures (ca. 350) contains an account of Nimrod very similar to that in the Kitab al-Magall, except that Nisibis, Edessa and Harran are said to be built by Nimrod when Reu was 50, and that he began his reign as the first king when Reu was 130. In this version, the weaver is called Sisan, and the fourth son of Noah is called Yonton.

Jerome, writing ca. 390, explains in Hebrew Questions on Genesis that after Nimrod reigned in Babel, "he also reigned in Arach [Erech], that is, in Edissa; and in Achad [Accad], which is now called Nisibis; and in Chalanne [Calneh], which was later called Seleucia after King Seleucus when its name had been changed, and which is now in actual fact called Ctesiphon." However, this traditional identification of the cities built by Nimrod in Genesis is no longer accepted by modern scholars, who consider them to be located in Sumer, not Syria.

The Ge'ez Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan (ca. 5th century) also contains a version similar to that in the Cave of Treasures, but the crown maker is called Santal, and the name of Noah's fourth son who instructs Nimrod is Barvin.

However, Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) relates a contradictory view, that Nimrod was righteous and opposed the builders of the Tower. Similarly, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (date uncertain) mentions a Jewish tradition that Nimrod left Shinar and fled to Assyria, because he refused to take part in building the Tower — for which God rewarded him with the four cities in Assyria, to substitute for the ones in Babel.

Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer (c. 833) relates the Jewish traditions that Nimrod inherited the garments of Adam and Eve from his father Cush, and that these made him invincible. Nimrod's party then defeated the Japhethites to assume universal rulership. Later, Esau (grandson of Abraham), ambushed, beheaded, and robbed Nimrod. These stories later reappear in other sources including the 16th century Sefer haYashar, which adds that Nimrod had a son named Mardon who was even more wicked.

In the History of the Prophets and Kings by the 9th century Muslim historian al-Tabari, Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, Allah destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly Syriac, is then confused into 72 languages. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, Abu al-Fida, relates the same story, adding that the patriarch Eber (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, Hebrew in this case, because he would not partake in the building. The 10th-century Muslim historian Masudi recounts a legend making the Nimrod who built the tower to be the son of Mash, the son of Aram, son of Shem, adding that he reigned 500 years over the Nabateans. Later, Masudi lists Nimrod as the first king of Babylon, and states that he dug great canals and reigned 60 years. Still elsewhere, he mentions another king Nimrod, son of Canaan, as the one who introduced astrology and attempted to kill Abraham.

In Armenian legend, the ancestor of the Armenian people, Hayk, defeated Nimrod (sometimes equated with Bel) in a battle near Lake Van.

In the Hungarian legend of the Enchanted Stag (more commonly known as the White Stag [Fehér Szarvas] or Silver Stag), King Nimród (aka Ménrót and often described as "Nimród the Giant" or "the giant Nimród", descendant of one of Noah's "most wicked" sons, Kam - references abound in traditions, legends, several religions and historical sources to persons and nations bearing the name of Kam or Kám, and overwhelmingly, the connotations are negative), is the first person referred to as forefather of the Hungarians. He, along with his entire nation, is also the giant responsible for the building of the Tower of Babel - construction of which was supposedly started by him 201 years after the event of the Great Flood (see biblical story of Noah's Ark &c.). After the catastrophic failure (through God's will) of that most ambitious endeavour and in the midst of the ensuing linguistic cacophony, Nimród the giant moved to the land of Evilát, where his wife, Enéh gave birth to twin brothers Hunor and Magyar (aka Magor). Father and sons were, all three of them, prodigious hunters, but Nimród especially is the archetypal, consummate, legendary hunter and archer. Both the Huns' and Magyars' historically attested skill with the recurve bow and arrow are attributed to Nimród. (Simon Kézai, personal "court priest" of King László Kún, in his Gesta Hungarorum, 1282-85. This tradition can also be found in over twenty other medieval Hungarian chronicles, as well as a German one, according to Dr Antal Endrey in an article published in 1979).
The twin sons of King Nimród, Hunor and Magor, each with 100 warriors, followed the White Stag through the Meotis Marsh, where they lost sight of the magnificent animal. Hunor and Magor found the two daughters of King Dul of the Alans, together with their handmaidens, whom they kidnapped. Hungarian legends held Hunor and Magyar (aka Magor) to be ancestors of the Huns and the Magyars (Hungarians), respectively. According to the Miholjanec legend, Stephen V of Hungary had in front of his tent a golden plate with the inscription: "Attila, the son of Bendeuci, grandson of the great Nimrod, born at Engedi: By the Grace of God King of the Huns, Medes, Goths, Dacians, the horrors of the world and the scourge of God."

The evil Nimrod vs. the righteous Abraham

Abraham sacrificing his son, Ishmael. Abraham cast into fire by Nimrod

The Bible does not mention any meeting between Nimrod and Abraham, although a confrontation between the two is said to have taken place, according to several Jewish and Islamic traditions. Some stories bring them both together in a cataclysmic collision, seen as a symbol of the confrontation between Good and Evil, and/or as a symbol of monotheism against polytheism. On the other hand, some Jewish traditions say only that the two men met and had a discussion.

According to K. van der Toorn; P. W. van der Horst, this tradition is first attested in the writings of Pseudo-Philo. The story is also found in the Talmud, and in rabbinical writings in the Middle Ages.

In some versions (as in Flavius Josephus), Nimrod is a man who sets his will against that of God. In others, he proclaims himself a god and is worshipped as such by his subjects, sometimes with his consort Semiramis worshipped as a goddess at his side. (See also Ninus.)

A portent in the stars tells Nimrod and his astrologers of the impending birth of Abraham, who would put an end to idolatry. Nimrod therefore orders the killing of all newborn babies. However, Abraham's mother escapes into the fields and gives birth secretly. At a young age, Abraham recognizes God and starts worshiping Him. He confronts Nimrod and tells him face-to-face to cease his idolatry, whereupon Nimrod orders him burned at the stake. In some versions, Nimrod has his subjects gather wood for four whole years, so as to burn Abraham in the biggest bonfire the world had ever seen. Yet when the fire is lit, Abraham walks out unscathed.

In some versions, Nimrod then challenges Abraham to battle. When Nimrod appears at the head of enormous armies, Abraham produces an army of gnats which destroys Nimrod's army. Some accounts have a gnat or mosquito enter Nimrod's brain and drive him out of his mind (a divine retribution which Jewish tradition also assigned to the Roman Emperor Titus, destroyer of the Temple in Jerusalem).

In some versions, Nimrod repents and accepts God, offering numerous sacrifices that God rejects (as with Cain). Other versions have Nimrod give to Abraham, as a conciliatory gift, the slave Eliezer, whom some accounts describe as Nimrod's own son. (The Bible also mentions Eliezer as Abraham's majordomo, though not making any connection between him and Nimrod.)

Still other versions have Nimrod persisting in his rebellion against God, or resuming it. Indeed, Abraham's crucial act of leaving Mesopotamia and settling in Canaan is sometimes interpreted as an escape from Nimrod's revenge. Accounts considered canonical place the building of the Tower many generations before Abraham's birth (as in the Bible, also Jubilees); however in others, it is a later rebellion after Nimrod failed in his confrontation with Abraham. In still other versions, Nimrod does not give up after the Tower fails, but goes on to try storming Heaven in person, in a chariot driven by birds.

The story attributes to Abraham elements from the story of Moses' birth (the cruel king killing innocent babies, with the midwives ordered to kill them) and from the careers of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who emerged unscathed from the fire. Nimrod is thus given attributes of two archetypal cruel and persecuting kings - Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh. Some Jewish traditions also identified him with Cyrus whose birth according to Herodotus was accompanied by portents which made his grandfather try to kill him.

A confrontation is also found in the Islamic Qur'an, between a king, not mentioned by name, and the Prophet Ibrahim (Arabic version of "Abraham"). Muslim commentators assign Nimrod as the king based on Jewish sources. In Ibrahim's confrontation with the king, the former argues that Allah (God) is the one who gives life and gives death. The king responds by bringing out two people sentenced to death. He releases one and kills the other as a poor attempt at making a point that he also brings life and death. Ibrahim refutes him by stating that Allah brings the Sun up from the East, and so he asks the king to bring it from the West. The king is then perplexed and angered.

Whether or not conceived as having ultimately repented, Nimrod remained in Jewish and Islamic tradition an emblematic evil person, an archetype of an idolater and a tyrannical king. In rabbinical writings up to the present, he is almost invariably referred to as "Nimrod the Evil" (נמרוד הרשע)"

The story of Abraham's confrontation with Nimrod did not remain within the confines of learned writings and religious treatises, but also conspicuously influenced popular culture. A notable example is "Quando el Rey Nimrod" ("When King Nimrod"), one of the most well-known folksongs in Ladino (the Judeo-Spanish language), apparently written during the reign of King Alfonso X of Castile. Beginning with the words: "When King Nimrod went out to the fields/ Looked at the heavens and at the stars/He saw a holy light in the Jewish quarter/A sign that Abraham, our father, was about to be born", the song gives a poetic account of the persecutions perpetrated by the cruel Nimrod and the miraculous birth and deeds of the savior Abraham.

Text of the Midrash Rabba version

The following version of the Abraham vs. Nimrod confrontation appears in the Midrash Rabba, a major compilation of Jewish Scriptural exegesis. The part relating to Genesis, in which this appears (Chapter 38, 13), is considered to date from the sixth century.

נטלו ומסרו לנמרוד. אמר לו: עבוד לאש. אמר לו אברהם: ואעבוד למים, שמכבים את האש? אמר לו נמרוד: עבוד למים! אמר לו: אם כך, אעבוד לענן, שנושא את המים? אמר לו: עבוד לענן! אמר לו: אם כך, אעבוד לרוח, שמפזרת עננים? אמר לו: עבוד לרוח! אמר לו: ונעבוד לבן אדם, שסובל הרוחות? אמר לו: מילים אתה מכביר, אני איני משתחוה אלא לאוּר - הרי אני משליכך בתוכו, ויבא אלוה שאתה משתחוה לו ויצילך הימנו! היה שם הרן עומד. אמר: מה נפשך, אם ינצח אברהם - אומַר 'משל אברהם אני', ואם ינצח נמרוד - אומַר 'משל נמרוד אני'. כיון שירד אברהם לכבשן האש וניצול, אמרו לו: משל מי אתה? אמר להם: משל אברהם אני! נטלוהו והשליכוהו לאור, ונחמרו בני מעיו ויצא ומת על פני תרח אביו. וכך נאמר: וימת הרן על פני תרח אביו. (בראשית רבה ל"ח, יג)

(...) He [Abraham] was given over to Nimrod. [Nimrod] told him: Worship the Fire! Abraham said to him: Shall I then worship the water, which puts off the fire! Nimrod told him: Worship the water! [Abraham] said to him: If so, shall I worship the cloud, which carries the water? [Nimrod] told him: Worship the cloud! [Abraham] said to him: If so, shall I worship the wind, which scatters the clouds? [Nimrod] said to him: Worship the wind! [Abraham] said to him: And shall we worship the human, who withstands the wind? Said [Nimrod] to him: You pile words upon words, I bow to none but the fire - in it shall I throw you, and let the God to whom you bow come and save you from it! Haran [Abraham's brother] was standing there. He said [to himself]: what shall I do? If Abraham wins, I shall say: "I am of Abraham's [followers]", if Nimrod wins I shall say "I am of Nimrod's [followers]". When Abraham went into the furnace and survived, Haran was asked: "Whose [follower] are you?" and he answered: "I am Abraham's!". [Then] they took him and threw him into the furnace, and his belly opened and he died and predeceased Terach, his father. [The Bible, Genesis 11:28, mentions Haran predeceasing Terach, but gives no details.]

Historical interpretations

Historians and mythographers have long tried to find links between Nimrod and attested historical figures. No king named Nimrod is to be found anywhere in the ancient and extensive Mesopotamian records, including the Assyrian King List, nor the king lists of the Sumerians, Akkadian Empire, Babylonia or Chaldea.

Nimrod as Euechoios · Euechoros · Enmerkar

The Christian Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 260/265 – 339/340) as early as the early 4th century, noting that the Chaldean historian Berossus in the 3rd century BC had stated that the first king after the flood was Euechoios of Chaldea, identified him with Nimrod. George Syncellus (c. 800) also had access to Berossus, and he too identified Euechoios with the biblical Nimrod.

More recently, Sumerologists have suggested [the same identifiation] additionally connecting both this Euechoios, and the king of Babylon and grandfather of Gilgamos who appears in the oldest copies of Aelian (c. 200 AD) as Euechoros, with the name of the founder of Uruk known from cuneiform sources as Enmerkar.

Berosos /bəˈrɒsəs/ or Berossus (name possibly derived from /bəˈroʊsəs/; Akkadian: Bēl-rē'ušunu, "Bel is their shepherd"; Βήρωσσος) was a Hellenistic-era Babylonian writer, a priest of Bel Marduk and astronomer who wrote in the Koine Greek language, and who was active at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Versions of two excerpts of his writings survive, at several removes from the original.

Life and work

Using ancient Babylonian records and texts that are lost to us, Berossus published the Babyloniaca (hereafter, History of Babylonia) in three books some time around 290-278 BC, by the patronage of the Macedonian/Seleucid king, Antiochus I Soter (during the third year of Antiochus I, according to Diodorus Siculus). Certain astrological fragments recorded by Pliny the Elder, Censorinus, Flavius Josephus, and Marcus Vitruvius Pollio are also attributed to Berossus, but are of unknown provenance, or indeed are uncertain as to where they might fit into his History. Vitruvius credits him with the invention of the semi-circular sundial hollowed out of a cubical block. A statue of him was erected in Athens, perhaps attesting to his fame and scholarship as historian and astronomer-astrologer.

A separate work, Procreatio, is attributed to him by the Latin commentaries on Aratus, Commentariorium in Aratum Reliquiae, but there is not any proof of this connection. However, a direct citation (name and title) is rare in antiquity, and it may have referred to Book 1 of his History.

He was born during or before Alexander the Great's reign over Babylon (330-323 BC), with the earliest date suggested as 340 BC. According to Vitruvius's work de Architectura, he relocated eventually to the island of Kos off the coast of Asia Minor and established a school of astrology there, by the patronage of the king of Egypt. However, scholars have questioned whether it would have been possible to work under the Seleucids and then relocate to a region experiencing Ptolemaic control late in life. It is not known when he died.

History of Babylonia

Versions at several removes of the remains of Berossos' lost Babyloniaca are given by two later Greek epitomes that were used by the Christian Eusebius of Caesarea for his Chronological Canons, the Greek manuscripts of which have been lost, but which can be largely recovered by the Latin translation and continuation of Jerome and a surviving Armenian translation. The reasons why Berossus wrote the History have not survived, though contemporaneous Greek historians generally did give reasons for the publication of their own histories. It is suggested that it was commissioned by Antiochus I, perhaps desiring a history of one of his newly-acquired lands, or by the Great Temple priests, seeking justification for the worship of Marduk in Seleucid lands. Pure history writing per se was not a Babylonian concern, and Josephus testifies to Berossus' reputation as an astrologer. The excerpts quoted relate mythology and history that relates to Old Testament concerns. As historian and archaeologist W.G. Lambert observes: "Of course Berossus may have written other works which are not quoted by Josephus and Eusebius because they lacked any Biblical interest". Lambert finds some statements in the Latin writers so clearly erroneous that it renders doubtful whether the writers had first-hand knowledge of Berossus' text.

Transmission and reception

Berossus' work was not popular during the Hellenistic period. The usual account of Mesopotamian history was Ctesias of Cnidus's Persica, while most of the value of Berossus was considered to be his astrological writings. Most pagan writers probably never read the History directly, and seem to have been dependent on Posidonius of Apamea (135-50 BC), who cited Berossos in his works. While Poseidonius's accounts have not survived, the writings of these tertiary sources do: Vitruvius Pollio (a contemporary of Caesar Augustus), Pliny the Elder (d. 79 AD), and Seneca the Younger (d. 65 AD). Seven later pagan writers probably transmitted Berossus via Poseidonius through an additional intermediary. They were Aetius (1st or 2nd century AD), Cleomedes (second half of 2nd century AD.), Pausanias (c. 150 AD), Athenaeus (c. 200 AD), Censorinus (3rd century AD), and an anonymous Latin commentator on the Greek poem Phaenomena by Aratus of Soloi (ca. 315-240/39 BC).

Jewish and Christian references to Berossus probably had a different source, either Alexander Polyhistor (c. 65 BC.) or Juba II of Mauretania (c. 50 BC-20 AD) Polyhistor's numerous works included a history of Assyria and Babylonia, while Juba wrote On the Assyrians, both using Berossus as their primary sources. Josephus' records of Berossus include some of the only extant narrative material, but he is likely dependent on Alexander Polyhistor, even if he did give the impression that he had direct access to Berossus. The fragments of the Babylonaica found in three Christian writers' works are probably dependent on Alexander or Juba (or both). They are Tatianus of Syria (2nd century AD), Theophilus Bishop of Antioch (180 AD), and Titus Flavius Clemens (ca. 200 AD).

Like Poseidonius, neither Alexander's or Juba's works have survived. However, their material on Berossus was recorded by Abydenus (2nd or 3rd century AD) and Sextus Julius Africanus (early 3rd century AD). Their work is also lost, possibly considered too long, but Eusebius Bishop of Caesaria (ca. 260-340 AD), in his work the Chronicon preserved some of their accounts. The Greek text of the Chronicon is also now lost to us but there is an ancient Armenian translation (500-800 AD) of it, and portions are quoted in Georgius Syncellus's Ecloga Chronographica (ca. 800-810 AD). Nothing of Berossus survives in Jerome's Latin translation of Eusebius. Eusebius' other mentions of Berossus in Praeparatio Evangelica are derived from Josephus, Tatianus, and another inconsequential source (the last cite contains only, "Berossus the Babylonian recorded Naboukhodonosoros in his history.").

Christian writers after Eusebius are probably reliant on him, but include Pseudo-Justinus (3rd–5th century), Hesychius of Alexandria (5th century), Agathias (536–582), Moses of Chorene (8th century), an unknown geographer of unknown date, and the Suda (Byzantine dictionary from the 10th century). Thus, what little of Berossus remains is very fragmentary and indirect. The most direct source of material on Berossus is Josephus, received from Alexander Polyhistor. Most of the names in his king-lists and most of the potential narrative content have been lost or completely mangled as a result. Only Eusebius and Josephus preserve narrative material, and both had agendas. Eusebius was looking to construct a consistent chronology across different cultures,틀:Primary source-inline while Josephus was attempting to refute the charges that there was a civilization older than that of the Jews. However, the ten ante-diluvian kings were preserved by Christian apologists interested in the long lifespans of the kings were similar to the long lifespans of the ante-diluvian ancestors in the story of Genesis.

Sources and content

The Armenian translation of Eusebius and Syncellus' transmission (Chronicon and Ecloga Chronographica respectively) both record Berossus' use of "public records" and it is possible that Berossus catalogued his sources. This did not make him reliable, only that he was careful with the sources and his access to priestly and sacred records allowed him to do what other Babylonians could not. What we have of ancient Mesopotamian myth is somewhat comparable with Berossus, though the exact integrity with which he transmitted his sources is unknown because much of the literature of Mesopotamia has not survived. What is clear is that the form of writing he used was dissimilar to actual Babylonian literature, writing as he did in Greek.

Book 1 fragments are preserved in Eusebius and Syncellus above, and describe the Babylonian creation account and establishment of order, including the defeat of Thalatth (Tiamat) by Bel (Marduk). According to him, all knowledge was revealed to humans by the sea monster Oannes after the Creation, and so Verbrugghe and Wickersham (2000:17) have suggested that this is where the astrological fragments discussed above would fit, if at all.

Book 2 describes the history of the Babylonian kings from creation till Nabonassaros (747-734 BC). Eusebius reports that Apollodorus reports that Berossus recounts 432,000 years from the first king, Aloros, to Xisouthros and the Babylonian Flood. From Berossus' genealogy, it is clear he had access to king-lists in compiling this section of History, particularly in the kings before the Flood (legendary though they are), and from the 7th century BC with Senakheirimos (Sennacherib, who ruled both Assyria and Babylon). His account of the Flood (preserved in Syncellus) is extremely similar to versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh that we have presently. However, in Gilgamesh, the main protagonist (주인공) is Utnapishtim, while for Berossus, Xisouthros is likely a Greek transliteration of Ziusudra, the protagonist of the Sumerian version of the Flood.

Perhaps what Berossus omits to mention is also noteworthy. Much information on Sargon (ca. 2300 BC) would have been available during his time (e.g., a birth legend preserved at El-Amarna and in an Assyrian fragment from 8th century BC, and two Neo-Babylonian fragments), but these were not mentioned. Similarly, the great Babylonian king Hammurabi (ca. 1750 BC) merits only passing mention. He did, however, mention that the queen Semiramis (probably Sammuramat, wife of Samshi-Adad V, 824-811 BC) was Assyrian. Perhaps it was in response to Greek writers mythologising (신화화하다) her to the point where she was described as the founder of Babylon, daughter of the Syrian goddess Derketo, and married to Ninus (the legendary founder of Nineveh, according to Greek authors).

Book 3 relates the history of Babylon from Nabonassaros to Antiochus I (presumably). Again, it is likely that he used king-lists, though it is not known which ones he used. The Mesopotamian documents known as King-List A (one copy from the 6th or 5th centuries BCE) and Chronicle 1 (3 copies with one confidently dated to 500 BCE) are usually suggested as the ones he used, due to the synchronicity between those and his History (though there are some differences). A large part of his history around the time of Naboukhodonosoros (Nebuchadrezzar II, 604-562 BC) and Nabonnedos (Nabonidus, 556-539 BC) survives. Here we see his interpretation of history for the first time, moralising about the success and failure of kings based on their moral conduct. This is similar to another Babylonian history, Chronicle of Nabonidus (as well as to the Hebrew Bible), and differs from the rationalistic accounts of other Greek historians like Thucydides.

The achievements of History of Babylonia

Berossus' achievement may be seen in terms of how he combined the Hellenistic methods of historiography and Mesopotamian accounts to form a unique composite. Like Herodotus and Thucydides, he probably autographed (자서하다, 사인을 해주다) his work for the benefit of later writers. Certainly he furnished details of his own life within his histories, which contrasted with the Mesopotamian tradition of anonymous scribes. Elsewhere, he included a geographical description of Babylonia, similar to that found in Herodotus (on Egypt), and used Greek classifications. There is some evidence that he resisted adding information to his research, especially for the earlier periods with which he was not familiar. Only in Book 3 do we see his opinions begin to enter the picture.

Secondly, he constructed a narrative from Creation to his present, again similar to Herodotus or the Hebrew Bible. Within this construction, the sacred myths blended with history. Whether he shared Hellenistic skepticism about the existence of the gods and their tales is unknown, though it is likely he believed them more than the satirist Ovid, for example. The naturalistic attitude found in Syncellus' transmission is probably more representative of the later Greek authors who transmitted the work than of Berossus himself.

During his own time and later, however, the History of Babylonia was not distributed widely. Verbrugghe and Wickersham argue that the lack of relation between the material in History and the Hellenistic world was not relevant, since Diodorus' equally bizarre book on Egyptian mythology was preserved. Instead, the reduced association between Mesopotamia and the Greco-Roman lands during Parthian rule was partially responsible. Secondly, his material did not include as much narrative, especially of periods with which he was not familiar, even when potential sources for stories were available. They suggest:

"Perhaps Berossos was a prisoner of his own methodology and purpose. He used ancient records that he refused to flesh out (~에 살을 붙이다), and his account of more recent history, to judge by what remains, contained nothing more than a bare narrative. If Berossos believed in the continuity of history with patterns that repeated themselves (i.e., cycles of events as there were cycles of the stars and planets), a bare narrative would suffice. Indeed, this was more than one would suspect a Babylonian would or could do. Those already steeped in (…에 푹 빠진) Babylonian historical lore would recognize the pattern and understand the interpretation of history Berossos was making. If this, indeed, is what Berossos presumed (당연한 것으로 여기다, 추정하다), he made a mistake that would cost him interested Greek readers who were accustomed to a much more varied and lively historical narrative where there could be no doubt who was an evil ruler and who was not." (2000:32)

What is left of Berossus' writings is useless for the reconstruction of Mesopotamian history. Of greater interest to scholars is his historiography (역사 기록학), using as it did both Greek and Mesopotamian methods. The affinities between it and Hesiod, Herodotus, Manethon, and the Hebrew Bible (specifically, the Torah and Deuteronomistic History) as histories of the ancient world give us an idea about how ancient people viewed their world. Each begins with a fantastic creation story, followed by a mythical ancestral period, and then finally accounts of recent kings who seem to be historical, with no demarcations in between. Blenkinsopp notes:

"In composing his history, Berossus drew on the mythic-historiographical tradition of Mesopotamia, and specifically on such well known texts as the creation myth Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, and the king lists, which provided the point of departure and conceptual framework for a universal history. But the mythic and archaic element was combined with the chronicles of rulers which can lay claim to being in some degree genuinely historical." (1992:41)

This early approach to historiography, though preceded by Hesiod, Herodotus, and the Hebrew Bible, demonstrates its own unique approach. Though one must be careful about how much can be described of the original work, his apparent resistance to adding to his sources is noteworthy, as is the lack of moralising he introduces to those materials he is not familiar with.

"Pseudo-Berossus"

During 1498, an official of Pope Alexander VI named Annius of Viterbo claimed to have discovered lost books of Berosos. These were in fact an elaborate forgery. However, they greatly influenced Renaissance ways of thinking about population and migration, because Annius provided a list of kings from Japhet onwards, filling a historical gap following the Biblical account of the Flood. Annius also introduced characters from classical sources into the biblical framework, publishing his account as Commentaria super opera diversorum auctorum de antiquitatibus (A History of the antiquities over the works of different authors). One consequence was to result in sophisticated theories about Celtic races with Druid priests in Western Europe.

References

• Blenkinsopp, J. 1992. The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible. New York: Anchor Doubleday.
• Verbrugghe, G.P. & Wickersham, J.M. 2000. Berossos and Manetho Introduced and Translated: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
• K. Müller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum (FHG) 2. Paris: Didot, 1841‑1870, frr. 1‑25.
• Berossus, and Stanley Mayer Burstein. 1978. The Babyloniaca of Berossus. Malibu: Undena Publications.
• Krebs, C. B. 2011. A Most Dangerous Book. Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich. New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 98–104.

External links

• Fragments of Chaldæan History, by Berossus
• An Historical Treatise of the Travels of Noah Into Europe, Translated by Richard Lynche in 1601

George Syncellus (Γεώργιος Σύγκελλος; died after 810) was a Byzantine chronicler and ecclesiastic. He had lived many years in Palestine (probably in the Old Lavra of Saint Chariton or Souka, near Tekoa) as a monk, before coming to Constantinople, where he was appointed syncellus (literally, "Cell-mate") to Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople. He later retired to a monastery to write what was intended to be his great work, a chronicle of world history, Ekloge chronographias (Εκλογή Χρονογραφίας), or Extract of Chronography. According to Anastasius Bibliothecarius, George "struggled valiantly against heresy [i.e. Iconoclasm (성상(聖像)[우상] 파괴(주의))] and received many punishments from the rulers who raged against the rites of the Church", although the accuracy of the claim is suspect.

As one of several syncelloi (by the end of the 8th century, there were at least two, and probably more) George stood high in the ecclesiastical establishment of Constantinople. The position carried no defined duties, but the incumbent would generally serve as the patriarch's private secretary, and might also be used by the Emperor to limit the movements and actions of a troublesome patriarch (as was the case during the reign of Constantine VI, when several of George's colleagues were set as guards over Patriarch Tarasius). The office would be an imperial gift by the time of Basil I, and was probably so earlier; as such, George may well have owed his position to the Empress Irene. Many syncelloi would go on to become Patriarchs of Constantinople, or Bishops of other sees (for example George's colleague, John, another syncellus under Patriarch Tarasius, who became Metropolitan Bishop of Sardis in 803). George, however, did not follow this path, instead retreating from the world to compose his great chronicle. It would appear that the Emperor Nicephorus I incurred George's disfavour at around the same time: in 808, Nicephorus discovered a plot against him, and punished the suspected conspirators, amongst whom were not only secular figures "but also holy bishops and monks and clergy of the Great Church, including the synkellos...men of high repute and worthy of respect"; it is unknown whether the syncellus in question was George himself or a colleague/successor, but the attack on the clergy, including George's friends and colleagues, would not have endeared the Emperor to George, and is suggested as the motivating factor in the "pathological hatred" towards Nicephorus I in the Chronicle of Theophanes The date of his death is uncertain; a reference in his chronicle makes clear that he was still alive in 810, and he is sometimes described as dying in 811, but there is no evidence for this, and textual evidence in the Chronicle of Theophanes suggests that he was still alive in 813.

His chronicle, as its title implies, is more of a chronological table with notes than a history. Following on from the Syriac chroniclers of his homeland, who were writing in his lifetime under Arab rule in much the same fashion, as well as the Alexandrians Annianus and Panodorus (monks who wrote near the beginning of the 5th century), George used the chronological synchronic structures of Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius of Caesarea, arranging his events strictly in order of time, and naming them in the year which they happened. Consequently, the narrative is regarded as secondary to the need to reference the relation of each event to other events, and as such is continually interrupted by long tables of dates, so markedly that Krumbacher described it as being "rather a great historical list [Geschichtstabelle] with added explanations, than a universal history." George reveals himself as a staunch upholder of orthodoxy, and quotes Greek Fathers such as Gregory Nazianzen and John Chrysostom. But in spite of its religious bias and dry and uninteresting character, the fragments of ancient writers and apocryphal books preserved in it make it especially valuable. For instance, considerable portions of the original text of the Chronicle of Eusebius have been restored by the aid of George's work. His chief authorities were Annianus of Alexandria and Panodorus of Alexandria, through whom George acquired much of his knowledge of the history of Manetho; George also relied heavily on Eusebius, Dexippus and Julius Africanus.

George's chronicle was continued after his death by his friend Theophanes; Theophanes' work was heavily shaped by George's influence, and the latter may have had a greater influence on Theophanes' Chronicle than Theophanes himself. Anastasius, the Papal Librarian, composed a Historia tripartita in Latin, from the chronicles of George Syncellus, Theophanes Confessor, and Patriarch Nicephorus. This work, written between 873 and 875, spread George's preferenced dates for historical events through the West. Meanwhile, in the East George's fame was gradually overshadowed by that of Theophanes.

References

• Editio princeps by Jacques Goar (1652) in Bonn Corpus scriptorum hist. Byz., by Karl Wilhelm Dindorf (1829).
• Heinrich Gelzer, Sextus Julius Africanus, ii. I (1885).
• H Gelzer. Sextus Julius Africanus und die byzantinische Chronographie. New York: B. Franklin, 1967, reprint of Leipzig: 1898.
• K Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinische Litteratur (2nd ed., Munich, 1897).
• Mango and Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor
• William Adler. Time immemorial: archaic history and its sources in Christian chronography from Julius Africanus to George Syncellus. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, c1989.
• Alden A. Mosshammer, ed., Georgii Syncelli Ecloga chronographica. Leipzig: Teubner, 1984.
• William Adler, Paul Tuffin, translators. The chronography of George Synkellos: a Byzantine chronicle of universal history from the creation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, 편집. (1911). 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Selected Translations from George Syncellus
• Review of Adler and Tuffin's edition
• Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Greek Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca with analytical indexes

Enmerkar, according to the Sumerian king list, was the builder of Uruk in Sumer, and was said to have reigned for "420 years" (some copies read "900 years").

The king list adds that Enmerkar brought the official kingship with him from the city of E-ana after his father Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, son of Utu, had "entered the sea and disappeared."

Enmerkar is also known from a few other Sumerian legends, most notably Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, where a previous confusion of the languages of mankind is mentioned. In this account, it is Enmerkar himself who is called 'the son of Utu' (the Sumerian sun god). Aside from founding Uruk, Enmerkar is said here to have had a temple built at Eridu, and is even credited with the invention of writing on clay tablets, for the purpose of threatening Aratta into submission. Enmerkar furthermore seeks to restore the disrupted linguistic unity of the inhabited regions around Uruk, listed as Shubur, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (the region around Akkad), and the Martu land.

Three other texts in the same series describe Enmerkar's reign. In Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, while describing Enmerkar's continued diplomatic rivalries with Aratta, there is an allusion to Hamazi having been vanquished. In Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave, Enmerkar is seen leading a campaign against Aratta. The fourth and last tablet, Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird, describes Enmerkar's year-long siege of Aratta. It also mentions that fifty years into Enmerkar's reign, the Martu people had arisen in all of Sumer and Akkad, necessitating the building of a wall in the desert to protect Uruk.

In these last two tablets, the character of Lugalbanda is introduced as one of Enmerkar's war chiefs. According to the Sumerian king list, it was this Lugalbanda "the shepherd" who eventually succeeded Enmerkar to the throne of Uruk. Lugalbanda is also named as the father of Gilgamesh, a later king of Uruk, in both Sumerian and Akkadian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

모술 바그다드 테헤란 유프라테스강 티그리스강 니푸르 기르수 라가시 마라드 우루크 우바이드 우르 에리두 키시 수사 안샨 마리 아카드 이신 라르사 바빌론 아수르 니네베 님루드 두르샤루킨 class=notpageimage| 메소포타미아의 고대 도시들   : 수메르의 도시   : 엘람의 도시   : 아카드 제국의 도시   : 아모리인의 도시   : 바빌로니아의 도시   : 아시리아의 도시   : 현대의 이라크 · 이란의 도시

David Rohl has claimed parallels between Enmerkar, builder of Uruk, and Nimrod, ruler of biblical Erech (Uruk) and architect of the Tower of Babel in extra-biblical legends. One parallel Rohl noted is the description "Nimrod the Hunter", and the -kar in Enmerkar also meaning "hunter". Rohl has also suggested that Eridu near Ur is the original site of Babel (Babylon), and that the incomplete ziggurat found there - by far the oldest and largest of its kind - is none other than the remnants of the Biblical tower.

In a legend related by Aelian (ca. AD 200), the king of Babylon, Euechoros or Seuechoros (also appearing in many variants as Sevekhoros, earlier Sacchoras, etc.), is said to be the grandfather of Gilgamos, who later becomes king of Babylon (i.e., Gilgamesh of Uruk). Several recent scholars have suggested that this "Seuechoros" or "Euechoros" is moreover to be identified with Enmerkar of Uruk, as well as the Euechous named by Berossus as being the first king of Chaldea and Assyria. This last name Euechous (also appearing as Evechius, and in many other variants) has long been identified with Nimrod.

External links

• ETCSL - Texts and translations of Enmerkar legends (alternate site)

이전 Mesh-ki-ang-gasher

Lugal of Uruk ca. 2600 BC, or legendary

이후 Lugalbanda

Aelianus Tacticus, Greek military writer of the 2nd century, resident at Rome, is sometimes confused with Claudius Aelianus.

Claudius Aelianus (ca. 175 – ca. 235) (Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός), often seen as just Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so perfectly that he was called "honey-tongued" (meliglossos); Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors, and wrote in a slightly archaizing Greek himself.

His two chief works are valuable for the numerous quotations from the works of earlier authors, which are otherwise lost, and for the surprising lore, which offers unexpected glimpses into the Greco-Roman world-view.

De Natura Animalium (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος)

On the Nature of Animals, ("On the Characteristics of Animals" is an alternative title; usually cited, though, by its Latin title), is a curious collection, in 17 books, of brief stories of natural history, sometimes selected with an eye to conveying allegorical moral lessons, sometimes because they are just so astonishing:

"The Beaver is an amphibious creature: by day it lives hidden in rivers, but at night it roams the land, feeding itself with anything that it can find. Now it understands the reason why hunters come after it with such eagerness and impetuosity, and it puts down its head and with its teeth cuts off its testicles and throws them in their path, as a prudent man who, falling into the hands of robbers, sacrifices all that he is carrying, to save his life, and forfeits his possessions by way of ransom. If however it has already saved its life by self-castration and is again pursued, then it stands up and reveals that it offers no ground for their eager pursuit, and releases the hunters from all further exertions, for they esteem its flesh less. Often however Beavers with testicles intact, after escaping as far away as possible, have drawn in the coveted part, and with great skill and ingenuity tricked their pursuers, pretending that they no longer possessed what they were keeping in concealment."

The Loeb Classical Library introduction characterizes the book as

"an appealing collection of facts and fables about the animal kingdom that invites the reader to ponder contrasts between human and animal behavior."

Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, often Pliny the Elder, but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness. He is more attentive to marine life than might be expected, though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen". At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he specifically states that he is merely reporting what is told by others, and even that he does not believe them. Aelian's work is one of the sources of medieval natural history and of the bestiaries of the Middle Ages; in some ways an allegory of the moral world, an Emblem Book.

The text as it has come down to us is badly mangled and garbled and replete with later interpolations. Conrad Gessner (or Gesner), the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelian's work, to give it a wider European audience. An English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols. (19[ ]-59).

Varia Historia (Ποικίλη Ἱστορία)

Title page of Varia Historia, from the 1668 edition by Tanaquil Faber

Various History — for the most part preserved only in an abridged form — is Aelian's other well-known work, a miscellany of anecdotes and biographical sketches, lists, pithy maxims, and descriptions of natural wonders and strange local customs, in 14 books, with many surprises for the cultural historian and the mythographer, anecdotes about the famous Greek philosophers, poets, historians, and playwrights and myths instructively retold. The emphasis is on various moralizing tales about heroes and rulers, athletes and wise men; reports about food and drink, different styles in dress or lovers, local habits in giving gifts or entertainments, or in religious beliefs and death customs; and comments on Greek painting. Aelian gives an account of fly fishing, using lures of red wool and feathers, of lacquerwork, serpent worship — Essentially the Various History is a Classical "magazine" in the original senses of that word. He is not perfectly trustworthy in details, and his agenda is always to inculcate culturally "correct" Stoic opinions, perhaps so that his readers will not feel guilty, but Jane Ellen Harrison found survivals of archaic rites mentioned by Aelian very illuminating in her Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903, 1922).

The first printing was in 1545. The standard modern text is Mervin R. Dilts's, of 1974.

Two English translations of the Various History, by Fleming (1576) and Stanley (1665) made Aelian's miscellany available to English readers, but after 1665 no English translation appeared, until three English translations appeared almost simultaneously: James G. DeVoto, Claudius Aelianus: Ποιϰίλης Ἱοτορίας ("Varia Historia") Chicago, 1995; Diane Ostrom Johnson, An English Translation of Claudius Aelianus' "Varia Historia", 1997; and N. G. Wilson, Aelian: Historical Miscellany in the Loeb Classical Library.

Other works

Considerable fragments of two other works, On Providence and Divine Manifestations, are preserved in the early medieval encyclopedia, the Suda. Twenty "letters from a farmer" after the manner of Alciphron are also attributed to him. The letters are invented compositions to a fictitious correspondent, which are a device for vignettes of agricultural and rural life, set in Attica, though mellifluous Aelian once boasted that he had never been outside Italy, never been aboard a ship (which is at variance, though, with his own statement, de Natura Animalium XI.40, that he had seen the bull Serapis with his own eyes). Thus conclusions about actual agriculture in the Letters are as likely to evoke Latium as Attica. The fragments have been edited in 1998 by D. Domingo-Foraste, but are not available in English. The Letters are available in the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Allen Rogers Benner and Francis H. Fobes (1949).

See also

• Historiae animalium by Gessner

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, 편집. (1911). 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. Cambridge University Press. 

Further reading

• Aelian, On Animals. 3 volumes. Translated by A. F. Scholfield. 1958-9. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0-674-99491-1, ISBN 978-0-674-99493-5, and ISBN 978-0-674-99494-2
• Aelian, Historical Miscellany. Translated by Nigel G. Wilson. 1997. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0-674-99535-2
• Alciphron, Aelian, and Philostratus, The Letters. Translated by A. R. Benner, F. H. Fobes. 1949. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0-674-99421-8

External links

• De natura animalium at LacusCurtius (complete Latin translation)
• Various History at James Eason's site (excerpts in English translation)
• "De natura animalium at Google Books 1866 edition (original Greek)
• Some quotes from Aelian's natural history (English)
• Aelian from the fly-fisherman's point-of-view
• The Evidence for Aelian's Katêgoria tou gunnidos regarding Aelian's presumed invective against Elagabalus

Nimrod as Lugal-Banda, a Lord (Ni) of Marad

J.D.Prince, in 1920 also suggested a possible link between the Lord (Ni) of Marad and Nimrod.

He (J.D.Prince) mentioned how Dr. Kraeling was now inclined to connect Nimrod historically with Lugal-Banda, a mythological king mentioned in Poebel, Historical Texts, 1914, whose seat was at the city Marad. This is supported by Theodore Jacobson in 1989, writing on "Lugalbanda and Ninsuna".

모술 바그다드 테헤란 유프라테스강 티그리스강 니푸르 기르수 라가시 마라드 우루크 우바이드 우르 에리두 키시 수사 안샨 마리 아카드 이신 라르사 바빌론 아수르 니네베 님루드 두르샤루킨 class=notpageimage| 메소포타미아의 고대 도시들   : 수메르의 도시   : 엘람의 도시   : 아카드 제국의 도시   : 아모리인의 도시   : 바빌로니아의 도시   : 아시리아의 도시   : 현대의 이라크 · 이란의 도시

Marad (Sumerian: Marda, modern Tell Wannat es-Sadum or Tell as-Sadoum, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city. Marad was situated on the west bank of the then western branch of the Upper Euphrates River west of Nippur in modern day Iraq and roughly 50 km southeast of Kish, on the Arahtu River.

Marad
Marad Location in Iraq
Coordinates: 북위 32° 04′ 00″ 동경 44° 47′ 00″

The city's ziggurat E-igi-kalama was dedicated to Ninurta the god of earth and the plow, built by one of Naram-Sin's sons, as well as the tutelary deity Lugalmarada (also Lugal-Amarda). The city fell into the bounds of the Akkad after the conquest of Sargon of Akkad.

History

Marad was established ca. 2700 BC, during the Sumerian Early Dynastic II period.

Archaeology

The site of Marad covers an area of less than 124 hectares (500 acres).

Marad was excavated by a team from Qādisiyyah University in 1990 led by Naal Hannoon, and in 2005 and 2007 led by Abbas Al-Hussainy. Publication of the last two seasons is in progress.

References

• FS Safar, Old Babylonian contracts from Marad, University of Chicago,1938

See also

• Cities of the Ancient Near East

비슷한 이름의 Lugalanda에 관해서는 해당 문서를 참조하십시오.

Lugalbanda is a character found in Sumerian mythology and literature. His name is composed of two Sumerian words meaning "young king" (lugal: king; banda: young, junior; small). Lugalbanda is listed in the postdiluvian period of the Sumerian king list as the second king of Uruk, saying he ruled for 1,200 years, and providing him with the epithet of the Shepherd. Whether a king Lugalbanda ever historically ruled over Uruk, and if so, at what time, is quite uncertain. Attempts to date him in the ED II period are based on an amalgamation of data from the epic traditions of the 2nd Millennium with unclear archaeological observations.

Lugalbanda prominently features as the hero of two Sumerian stories dated to the Ur III period (21st century BCE), called by scholars Lugalbanda I (or Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave) and Lugalbanda II (or Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird). Both are known only in later versions, although there is an Ur III fragment that is quite different than either 18th century version These tales are part of a series of stories that describe the conflicts between Enmerkar, king of Unug (Uruk), and Ensuhkeshdanna, lord of Aratta, presumably in the Iranian highlands. In these two stories, Lugalbanda is a soldier in the army of Enmerkar, whose name also appears in the Sumerian King List as the first king of Uruk and predecessor of Lugalbanda. The extant fragments make no reference to Lugalbanda's succession as king following Enmerkar.

Lugalbanda appears in Sumerian literary sources as early as the mid-3rd millennium, as attested by a mythological text from Abu Salabikh that describes a romantic relationship between Lugalbanda and Ninsun.

A deified Lugalbanda often appears as the husband of the goddess Ninsun. In the earliest god-lists from Fara, his name appears separate and in a much lower ranking than Ninsun, but in later traditions, until the Seleucid period, his name is often listed in god-lists along with his consort Ninsun. Ample evidence for the worship of Lugalbanda as a deity comes from the Ur III period, as attested in tablets from Nippur, Ur, Umma and Puzrish-Dagan. In Old Babylonian period, Sin-kashid of Uruk is known to have built a temple called É-KI.KAL dedicated to Lugalbanda and Ninsun, and to have assigned his daughter Niši-īnī-šu as the eresh-dingir priestess of Lugalbanda.

In royal hymns of the Ur III period, Ur-Nammu of Ur and his son Shulgi describe Lugalbanda and Ninsun as their holy parents, and in the same context call themselves the brother of Gilgamesh. Sin-Kashid of Uruk also refers to Lugalbanda and Ninsun as his divine parents, and names Lugalbanda as his god.

In the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh and in earlier Sumerian stories about the hero, the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, calls himself the son of Lugalbanda and Ninsun. In the Gilgamesh and Huwawa tale, the hero consistently uses the assertive phrase: “By the life of my own mother Ninsun and of my father, holy Lugalbanda!”. In Akkadian versions of the epic, Gilgamesh also refers to Lugalbanda as his personal god, and in one episode presents the oil filled horns of the defeated Bull of Heaven "for the anointing of his god Lugalbanda".

See also

• History of Sumer
• Mesopotamian mythology

External links

• ETCSL - Texts and translations of Lugalbanda legends (alternate site)

이전 Enmerkar

Lugal of Uruk ca. 2600 BC or legendary

이후 Dumuzid, the Fisherman

Nimrod as Ninurta

According to Ronald Hendel the name Nimrod is probably a polemical distortion of Ninurta, who had cult centers in Babel and Calah, and was a patron god of the Neo-Assyrian kings.

Ninurta (Nin Ur: God of War) in Sumerian and the Akkadian mythology of Assyria and Babylonia, was the god of Lagash, identified with Ningirsu with whom he may always have been identified. In older transliteration the name is rendered Ninib and Ninip, and in early commentary he was sometimes portrayed as a solar deity.

In Nippur, Ninurta was worshiped as part of a triad of deities including his father, Enlil and his mother, Ninlil. In variant mythology, his mother is said to be the harvest goddess Ninhursag. The consort of Ninurta was Ugallu in Nippur and Bau when he was called Ningirsu.

Ninurta often appears holding a bow and arrow, a sickle sword, or a mace named Sharur: Sharur is capable of speech in the Sumerian legend "Deeds and Exploits of Ninurta" and can take the form of a winged lion and may represent an archetype for the later Shedu.

In another legend, Ninurta battles a birdlike monster called Imdugud (Akkadian: Anzû); a Babylonian version relates how the monster Anzû steals the Tablets of Destiny from Enlil. The Tablets of Destiny were believed to contain the details of fate and the future.

Ninurta slays each of the monsters later known as the "Slain Heroes" (the Warrior Dragon, the Palm Tree King, Lord Saman-ana, the Bison-beast, the Mermaid, the Seven-headed Snake, the Six-headed Wild Ram), and despoils them of valuable items such as Gypsum, Strong Copper, and the Magilum boat [13]). Eventually, Anzû is killed by Ninurta who delivers the Tablet of Destiny to his father, Enlil.

Cults

The cult of Ninurta can be traced back to the oldest period of Sumerian history. In the inscriptions found at Lagash he appears under his name Ningirsu, "the lord of Girsu", Girsu being the name of a city where he was considered the patron deity.

모술 바그다드 테헤란 유프라테스강 티그리스강 니푸르 기르수 라가시 마라드 우루크 우바이드 우르 에리두 키시 수사 안샨 마리 아카드 이신 라르사 바빌론 아수르 니네베 님루드 두르샤루킨 class=notpageimage| 메소포타미아의 고대 도시들   : 수메르의 도시   : 엘람의 도시   : 아카드 제국의 도시   : 아모리인의 도시   : 바빌로니아의 도시   : 아시리아의 도시   : 현대의 이라크 · 이란의 도시

Ninurta appears in a double capacity in the epithets bestowed on him, and in the hymns and incantations addressed to him. On the one hand he is a farmer and a healing god who releases humans from sickness and the power of demons; on the other he is the god of the South Wind as the son of Enlil, displacing his mother Ninlil who was earlier held to be the goddess of the South Wind. Enlil's brother, Enki, was portrayed as Ninurta's mentor from whom Ninurta was entrusted several powerful Mes, including the Deluge.

He remained popular under the Assyrians: two kings of Assyria bore the name Tukulti-Ninurta. Ashurnasirpal II (883—859 BCE) built him a temple in the capital city of Calah (now Nimrud). In Assyria, Ninurta was worshipped alongside the gods Aššur and Mulissu.

In the late neo-Babylonian and early Persian period, syncretism seems to have fused Ninurta's character with that of Nergal. The two gods were often invoked together, and spoken of as if they were one divinity.

In the astral-theological system Ninurta was associated with the planet Saturn, or perhaps as offspring or an aspect of Saturn. In his capacity as a farmer-god, there are similarities between Ninurta and the Greek Titan Kronos, whom the Romans in turn identified with their Titan Saturn.

Parts of this article were originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article on Ninib.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, 편집. (1911). 〈Ninib〉. 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. Cambridge University Press. 

See also

• Tukulti-Ninurta
• Nimrod

External links

• Texts
  • Narratives about Ninurta
    • ETCSL website: Unicode version and ETCSL website: ASCII version
    • Gateways to Babylon: ASCII English translation from the ETCSL website
  • Gateways to Babylon: The Myth of Anzû
  • Hymns to Ninurta ETCSL website: Unicode version and ETCSL website: ASCII version
• Commentary
  • Gateways to Babylon: "Ninurta as the god of wisdom" by Amar Annus

"Ninib", 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Ninib

The ideographic (표의 문자의[로 이루어진], 표의적인) designation of a solar deity of Babylonia. The phonetic designation is uncertain - perhaps Annshit. The cult of Ninib can be traced back to the oldest period of Babylonian history. In the inscriptions found at Shirgulla (or Shirpurla, also known as Lagash), he appears as Nin-girsu, that is, "the lord of Girsu," which appears to have been a quarter of Shirgulla. He is closely associated with Bel, or En-lil of Nippur, as whose son he is commonly designated. The combination points to the amalgamation of the district in which Ninib was worshipped with the one in which Bel was the chief deity. This district may have been Shirgulla and surrounding places, which, as we know, fell at one time under the control of the rulers of Nippur.

Ninib appears in a double capacity in the epithets bestowed on him, and in the hymns and incantations addressed to him. On the one hand he is the healing god who releases from sickness and the ban of the demons in general, and on the other he is the god of war and of the chase, armed with terrible weapons. It is not easy to reconcile these two phases, except on the assumption xix. 23 that he has absorbed in his person various minor solar deities, representing different phases of the sun, just as subsequently Shamash absorbed the attributes of practically all the minor sun-deities.

In the systematized pantheon, Ninib survives the tendency towards centralizing all sun cults in Shamash by being made the symbol of a certain phase of the sun. Whether this phase is that of the morning sun or of the springtime with which beneficent qualities are associated, or that of the noonday sun or of the summer solstice, bringing suffering and destruction in its wake, is still a matter of dispute, with the evidence on the whole in favour of the former proposition. At the same time, the possibility of a confusion between Ninib and Nergal must be admitted, and perhaps we are to see the solution of the problem in the recognition of two diverse schools of theological speculation, the one assigning to Ninib the role of the spring-tide (한사리(음력 보름과 그믐 무렵의 밀물이 가장 높은 때)) solar deity, the other identifying him with the sun of the summer solstice. In the astral-theological system Ninib becomes the planet Saturn. The swine seems to have been the animal sacred to him, or to have been one of the symbols under which he is represented. The consort of Ninib was Gula. (M. JA.)

Nimrod as Marduk

Marduk (Merodach), has been suggested as a possible archetype for Nimrod, especially at the beginning of the 20th century.

This page is about the Babylonian god.For other uses, see Marduk (disambiguation).

Marduk, sun god of Babylon, with his thunderbolts pursues Anzu after Anzu stole the Tablets of Destiny.

Marduk (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian: AMAR.UTU 𒀫𒌓 "solar calf"; perhaps from MERI.DUG; Biblical Hebrew מְרֹדַךְ Merodach; Greek Μαρδοχαῖος, Mardochaios) was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BCE), started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BCE.

According to The Encyclopedia of Religion, the name Marduk was probably pronounced Marutuk. The etymology of the name Marduk is conjectured as derived from amar-Utu ("bull calf of the sun god Utu"). The origin of Marduk's name may reflect an earlier genealogy, or have had cultural ties to the ancient city of Sippar (whose god was Utu, the sun god), dating back to the third millennium BCE.

In the perfected system of astrology, the planet Jupiter was associated with Marduk by the Hammurabi period.

Mythology

Marduk and his dragon Mušḫuššu, from a Babylonian cylinder seal

Babylonian

Marduk's original character is obscure but he was later associated with water, vegetation, judgment, and magic. He was also regarded as the son of Ea (Sumerian Enki) and Damkina and the heir of Anu, but whatever special traits Marduk may have had were overshadowed by the political development through which the Euphrates valley passed and which led to people of the time imbuing him with traits belonging to gods who in an earlier period were recognized as the heads of the pantheon. There are particularly two gods—Ea and Enlil—whose powers and attributes pass over to Marduk.

In the case of Ea, the transfer proceeded pacifically and without effacing the older god. Marduk took over the identity of Asarluhi, the son of Ea and god of magic, so that Marduk was integrated in the pantheon of Eridu where both Ea and Asarluhi originally came from. Father Ea voluntarily recognized the superiority of the son and hands over to him the control of humanity. This association of Marduk and Ea, while indicating primarily the passing of the supremacy once enjoyed by Eridu to Babylon as a religious and political centre, may also reflect an early dependence of Babylon upon Eridu, not necessarily of a political character but, in view of the spread of culture in the Euphrates valley from the south to the north, the recognition of Eridu as the older centre on the part of the younger one.

Late Bronze Age

While the relationship between Ea and Marduk is marked by harmony and an amicable abdication on the part of the father in favour of his son, Marduk's absorption of the power and prerogatives of Enlil of Nippur was at the expense of the latter's prestige. Babylon became independent in the early 19th century BC, and was initially a small city state, overshadowed by older and more powerful Mesopotamian states such as Isin, Larsa and Assyria. However, after Hammurabi forged an empire in the 18th century BC, turning Babylon into the dominant state in the south, the cult of Marduk eclipsed that of Enlil; although Nippur and the cult of Enlil enjoyed a period of renaissance during the over four centuries of Kassite control in Babylonia (c. 1595 BCE–1157 BCE), the definite and permanent triumph of Marduk over Enlil became felt within Babylonia.

The only serious rival to Marduk after ca. 1750 BCE was the god Aššur (Ashur) (who had been the supreme deity in the northern Mesopotamian state of Assyria since the 25th century BC) which was the dominant power in the region between the 14th to the late 7th century BC. In the south, Marduk reigned supreme. He is normally referred to as Bel "Lord", also bel rabim "great lord", bêl bêlim "lord of lords", ab-kal ilâni bêl terêti "leader of the gods", aklu bêl terieti "the wise, lord of oracles", muballit mîte "reviver of the dead", etc.

When Babylon became the principal city of southern Mesopotamia during the reign of Hammurabi in the 18th century BC, the patron deity of Babylon was elevated to the level of supreme god. In order to explain how Marduk seized power, Enûma Elish was written, which tells the story of Marduk's birth, heroic deeds and becoming the ruler of the gods. This can be viewed as a form of Mesopotamian apologetics. Also included in this document are the fifty names of Marduk.

In Enûma Elish, a civil war between the gods was growing to a climactic battle. The Anunnaki gods gathered together to find one god who could defeat the gods rising against them. Marduk, a very young god, answered the call and was promised the position of head god.

To prepare for battle, he makes a bow, fletches arrows, grabs a mace, throws lightning before him, fills his body with flame, makes a net to encircle Tiamat within it, gathers the four winds so that no part of her could escape, creates seven nasty new winds such as the whirlwind and tornado, and raises up his mightiest weapon, the rain-flood. Then he sets out for battle, mounting his storm-chariot drawn by four horses with poison in their mouths. In his lips he holds a spell and in one hand he grasps a herb to counter poison.

First, he challenges the leader of the Anunnaki gods, the dragon of the primordial sea Tiamat, to single combat and defeats her by trapping her with his net, blowing her up with his winds, and piercing her belly with an arrow.

Then, he proceeds to defeat Kingu, who Tiamat put in charge of the army and wore the Tablets of Destiny on his breast, and "wrested from him the Tablets of Destiny, wrongfully his" and assumed his new position. Under his reign humans were created to bear the burdens of life so the gods could be at leisure.

Marduk was depicted as a human, often with his symbol the snake-dragon which he had taken over from the god Tishpak. Another symbol that stood for Marduk was the spade.

Babylonian texts talk of the creation of Eridu by the god Marduk as the first city, "the holy city, the dwelling of their [the other gods] delight".

Nabu, god of wisdom, is a son of Marduk.

The fifty names of Marduk

Leonard W. King in The Seven Tablets of Creation (1902) included fragments of god lists which he considered essential for the reconstruction of the meaning of Marduk's name. Franz Bohl in his 1936 study of the fifty names also referred to King's list. Richard Litke (1958) noticed a similarity between Marduk's names in the An:Anum list and those of the Enuma elish, albeit in a different arrangement. The connection between the An:Anum list and the list in Enuma Elish were established by Walther Sommerfeld (1982), who used the correspondence to argue for a Kassite period composition date of the Enuma elish, although the direct derivation of the Enuma elish list from the An:Anum one was disputed in a review by Wilfred Lambert (1984).

The Marduk Prophecy

The Marduk Prophecy is a text describing the travels of the Marduk idol from Babylon, in which he pays a visit to the land of Ḫatti, corresponding to the statue’s seizure during the sack of the city by Mursilis I in 1531 BC, Assyria, when Tukulti-Ninurta I overthrew Kashtiliash IV in 1225 BC and took the idol to Assur, and Elam, when Kudur-nahhunte ransacked the city and pilfered the statue around 1160 BC. He addresses an assembly of the gods.

The first two sojourns are described in glowing terms as good for both Babylon and the other places Marduk has graciously agreed to visit. The episode in Elam however is a disaster, where the gods have followed Marduk and abandoned Babylon to famine and pestilence. Marduk prophecies that he will return once more to Babylon to a messianic new king, who will bring salvation to the city and who will wreak a terrible revenge on the Elamites. This king is understood to be Nabu-kudurri-uṣur I, 1125-1103 BC. Thereafter the text lists various sacrifices.

A copy was found in the House of the Exorcist at Assur, whose contents date from 713-612 BC and is closely related thematically to another vaticinium ex eventu text called the Shulgi prophecy, which probably followed it in a sequence of tablets.

See also

• Ashur (god)
• Babylonian religion
• Berossus
• Sacred Bull
• Chaldean mythology
• Etemenanki
• Nebuchadnezzar II
• Utu
• Zakmuk

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, 편집. (1911). 〈Marduk〉. 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. Cambridge University Press. 

External Links

• Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Marduk (god)
• Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Creation Story

"Marduk", 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

MARDUK (Bibl. Merodach 2), the name of the patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political centre of the united states of the Euphrates valley under Khammurabi ( c. 2250 B.C.), rose to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon. His original character was that of a solar deity, and he personifies more specifically the sun of the spring-time who conquers the storms of the winter season. He was thus fitted to become the god who triumphs over chaos that reigned in the beginning of time. This earlier Marduk, however, was effaced by the reflex of the political development through which the Euphrates valley passed and which led to imbuing him with traits belonging to gods who at an earlier period were recognized as the heads of the pantheon. There are more particularly two gods - Ea and Bel - whose powers and attributes pass over to Marduk. In the case of Ea the transfer proceeds pacifically and without involving the effacement of the older god. Marduk is viewed as the son of Ea. The father voluntarily recognizes the superiority of the son and hands over to him the control of humanity. This association of Marduk and Ea, while indicating primarily the passing of the supremacy once enjoyed by Eridu to Babylon as a religious and political centre, may also reflect an early dependence of Babylon upon Eridu, not necessarily of a political character but, in view of the spread of culture in the Euphrates valley from the south to the north, the recognition of Eridu as the older centre on the part of the younger one. At all events, traces of a cult of Marduk at Eridu are to be noted in the religious literature, and the most reasonable explanation for the existence of a god Marduk in Eridu is to assume that Babylon in this way paid its homage to the old settlement at the head of the Persian Gulf.

While the relationship between Ea (q.v.) and Marduk is thus marked by harmony and an amicable abdication on the part of the father in favour of his son, Marduk's absorption of the power and prerogatives of Bel of Nippur was at the expense of the latter's prestige. After the days of Khammurabi, the cult of Marduk eclipses that of Bel (q.v.), and although during the five centuries of Cassite control in Babylonia (c. 1750-1200B.C.), Nippur and the cult of the older Bel enjoy a period of renaissance, when the reaction ensued it marked the definite and permanent triumph of Marduk over Bel until the end of the Babylonian empire. The only serious 'rival to Marduk after 1200 B.C. is Assur in Assyria. In the south Marduk reigns supreme, and his supremacy is indicated most significantly by making him the Bel, " the lord," par excellence. The old myths in which Bel of Nippur was celebrated as the hero were transformed by the priests of Babylon in the interest 'The name Mordecai denotes "belonging to Maduk." of the Marduk cult with the chief role assigned to their favourite. The hymns once sung in the temple of Bel were re-edited and adapted to the cult of Babylon. In this process the older Bel was deliberately set aside, and the climax was reached when the conquest of the monster Tiamat, symbolizing the chaos prevailing in primeval days, was ascribed to Marduk instead of, as in the older form of the epic, to Bel. With this stroke Marduk became the creator of the world, including mankind - again setting aside the far older claims of Bel to this distinction.

Besides absorbing the prerogatives of Ea and Bel, Marduk was also imbued with the attributes of other of the great gods, such as Adad, Shamash, Nergal and Ninib, so that, more particularly as we approach the days of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the impression is created that Marduk was the only real deity recognized, and that the other gods were merely the various forms under which he manifested himself. So far as one can speak of a monotheistic tendency in Babylonia it connects itself with this conception that was gradually crystallized in regard to the old solar deity of Babylon.

The history of the city of Babylon can now be traced back to the days of Sargon of Agade (before 3000 B.C.) who appears to have given the city its name. There is every reason to assume, therefore, that the cult of Marduk existed already at this early period, though it must always be borne in mind that, until the days of Khammurabi, his jurisdiction was limited to the city of which he was the patron and that he was viewed solely as a solar deity.

On monuments and cylinders he is represented as armed with the weapon with which he despatched the monster Tiamat. At times this monster is also depicted lying vanquished at his feet, and occasionally the monster with the lance or the lance alone is reproduced instead of the god himself.

In the astral-theological system, Marduk is identified with the planet Jupiter. As the creator of the world, the New Year's festival, known as Zagmuk and celebrated at the time of the vernal equinox, was sacred to him. The festival, which lasted for eleven days, symbolized the new birth of nature - a reproduction therefore of the creation of the world. The arbiter of all fates, Marduk, was pictured as holding an assembly of the gods during the New Year's festival for the purpose of deciding the lot of each individual for the year to come. The epic reciting his wonderful deed in despatching the monster Tiamat and in establishing law and Order in the world in the place of chaos was recited in his temple at Babylon known as E-Saggila, "the lofty house," and there are some reasons for believing that the recital was accompanied by a dramatical representation of the epic.

The meaning of the name Marduk is unknown. By a species of word-play the name was interpreted as "the son of the chamber," with reference perhaps to the sacred chamber of fate in which he sat in judgment on the New Year's festival. Ideographically he is represented by two signs signifying "child of the day" (or "of the sun") which is a distinct allusion to his original solar character. Other ideographic signs describe him as the "strong and universal ruler." The name of his consort was Sarpanit, i.e. the shining or brilliant one - again an allusion to Marduk's solar traits - and this name was playfully twisted by the Babylonian priests to mean "the seed-producing" (as though compounded of zer, seed, and banit, producing, which was regarded as an appropriate appellation for the female counterpart of the creator of mankind and of life in general. The punning etymology betrays the evident desire of the priests ° to see in Marduk's consort a form or manifestation of the great mother-goddess Ishtar, just as in Assyria Ishtar frequently appears as the consort of the chief god of Assyria, known as Assur (q.v.). ( M. JA.)

Nimrod as Tukulti-Ninurta I

Nimrod's imperial ventures described in Genesis may be based on the conquests of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (Dalley et al., 1998, p. 67). Julian Jaynes (1920 - 1997) also indicates Tukulti-Ninurta I as the origin for Nimrod.

Mace with the name of Tukulti-Ninurta I, Louvre Museum

Tukulti-Ninurta I (meaning: "my trust is in [the warrior god] Ninurta"; reigned 1243–1207 BC) was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1366 - 1050 BC).

He succeeded Shalmaneser I, his father, as king and won a major victory against the Hittite Empire at the Battle of Nihriya in the first half of his reign, appropriating Hittite territory in Asia Minor and The Levant. Tukulti-Ninurta I retained Assyrian control of Urartu, and later defeated Kashtiliash IV, the Kassite king of Babylonia and captured the rival city of Babylon to ensure full Assyrian supremacy over Mesopotamia. He set himself up as king of Babylon, thus becoming the first native Mesopotamian to rule there, its previous kings having all been non native Amorites or Kassites. He took on the ancient title "King of Sumer and Akkad" first used by Sargon of Akkad.

Tukulti-Ninurta had petitioned the god Shamash before beginning his counter offensive. Kashtiliash IV was captured, single-handed by Tukulti-Ninurta according to his account, who "trod with my feet upon his lordly neck as though it were a footstool" and deported him ignominiously in chains to Assyria. The victorious Assyrian demolished the walls of Babylon, massacred many of the inhabitants, pillaged and plundered his way across the city to the Esagila temple, where he made off with the statue of Marduk. After capturing Babylonia he invaded the Arabian Peninsula, conquering the Pre-Arab states of Dilmun and Meluhha.

Middle Assyrian texts recovered at ancient Dūr-Katlimmu, include a letter from Tukulti-Ninurta to his sukkal rabi'u, or grand vizier, Ashur-iddin advising him of the approach of his general Shulman-mushabshu escorting the captive Kashtiliash, his wife, and his retinue which incorporated a large number of women, on his way to exile after his defeat. In the process he defeated the Elamites, who had themselves coveted Babylon. He also wrote an epic poem documenting his wars against Babylon and Elam. After a Babylonian revolt, he raided and plundered the temples in Babylon, regarded as an act of sacrilege to all Mesopotamians, including Assyrians. As relations with the priesthood in Ashur began deteriorating, Tukulti-Ninurta built a new capital city; Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta. However, his sons rebelled against him and besieged him in his new city. During the siege, he was murdered. One of them, Ashur-nadin-apli, would succeed him on the throne.

After his death, the Assyrian Empire fell into a brief period of stagnation. The Tukulti-Ninurta Epic describes the war between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Kashtiliash IV. Julian Jaynes identifies this king as the historical origin for Nimrod in the Old Testament.

이전 Shalmaneser I

King of Assyria 1233 BC–1196 BC

이후 Ashur-nadin-apli

Nimrod as Ninus

Alexander Hislop, in his tract The Two Babylons (Chapter 2, Section II, Sub-Section I) decided that Nimrod was to be identified with Ninus, who according to Greek legend was a Mesopotamian king and husband of Semiramis (see below);

Ninus from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Ninus (Νίνος), according to Greek historians writing in the Hellenistic period and later, was accepted as the eponymous founder of Nineveh (also called Νίνου πόλις "city of Ninus" in Greek), Ancient capital of Assyria, although he does not seem to represent any one personage known to modern history, and is more likely a conflation of several real and/or fictional figures of antiquity, as seen to the Greeks through the mists of time.

Many early accomplishments are attributed to him, such as training the first hunting dogs, and taming horses for riding. For this accomplishment, he is sometimes represented in Greek mythology as a centaur.

The figures of King Ninus and Queen Semiramis first appear in the history of Persia written by Ctesias of Cnidus (c. 400 BC), who claimed, as court physician to Artaxerxes II, to have access to the royal historical records. Ctesias' account was later expanded on by Diodorus Siculus. Ninus continued to be mentioned by European historians (e.g. Alfred the Great), even up until knowledge of cuneiform enabled a more precise reconstruction of Assyrian history in the 19th century.

He was said to have been the son of Belus or Bel, a name that may represent a Semitic title such as Ba'al, "lord". According to Castor of Rhodes (apud Syncellus p. 167), his reign lasted 52 years, its commencement falling in 2189 BC according to Ctesias. He was reputed to have conquered the whole of western Asia in 17 years with the help of Ariaeus, king of Arabia, and to have founded the first empire, defeating the legendary kings Barzanes of Armenia (whom he spared) and Pharnus of Medea (whom he had crucified).

Ninus' Empire according to Diodoros

As the story goes, Ninus, having conquered all neighboring Asian countries apart from India and Bactriana, then made war on Oxyartes, king of Bactriana, with an army of nearly two million, taking all but the capital, Bactra. During the siege of Bactra, he met Semiramis, the wife of one of his officers, Onnes, whom he took from her husband and married. The fruit of the marriage was Ninyas, said to have succeeded Ninus.

A number of historians, beginning with the Roman Cephalion (c. AD 120) asserted that Ninus' opponent, the king of Bactria, was actually Zoroaster (or first of several to bear this name), rather than Oxyartes.

Ninus was first identified in the Recognitions (part of Clementine literature) with the biblical Nimrod, who, the author says, taught the Persians to worship fire. In many modern interpretations of the Hebrew text of Genesis 10, it is Nimrod, the son of Cush, who founded Nineveh; other translations (e.g., the KJV) render the same Torah verse as naming Ashur (Assyria), son of Shem, as the founder of Nineveh.

More recently, the identification in Recognitions of Nimrod with Ninus (and also with Zoroaster, as in Homilies) formed a major part of Alexander Hislop's thesis in the 19th century tract The Two Babylons.

Ctesias (as known from Diodorus) also related that after the death of Ninus, his widow Semiramis, who was rumored to have murdered Ninus, erected to him a temple-tomb, 9 stadia high and 10 stadia broad, near Babylon, where the story of Pyramus and Thisbe (Πύραμος; Θίσβη) was later based. She was further said to have made war on the last remaining independent monarch in Asia, king Stabrobates of India, but was defeated and wounded, abdicating in favour of her son Ninyas.

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has the story of Pyramus and Thisbe as a play-within-a-play. The actors constantly mispronounce the location "Ninus' Tomb" as "Ninny's Tomb," though they are corrected initially, and in vain, by "director" Peter Quince.

The story of Ninus and Semiramis is taken up in a different form in a 1st-century AD Hellenistic romance called the Ninus Romance, the Novel of Ninus and Semiramis, or the Ninus Fragments. A scene from it is perhaps depicted in mosaics from Antioch on the Orontes

Another Ninus is described by some authorities as the last king of Nineveh, successor of Sardanapalus.

Trivia

An NPC is named Ninus in the MMORPG from Funcom, Age of Conan.

Sources

•  Chisholm, Hugh, 편집. (1911). 〈Ninus〉. 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. Cambridge University Press. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, 편집. (1911). 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. Cambridge University Press. 
• Full account in Diodorus

←Ninib

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 19 Ninus

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See also Ninus on Wikipedia, and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.

NINUS, in Greek mythology, the eponymous founder of Nineveh (q.v.), and thus the city itself personified. He was said to have been the son of Belos or Bel, to have conquered in seventeen years the whole of western Asia with the help of Ariaeus, king of Arabia, and to have founded the first empire. During the siege of Bactra he met Semiramis, the wife of one of his officers, Onnes, whom he took from her husband and married. The fruit of this marriage was Ninyas, i.e. "The Ninevite." After the death of Ninus, Semiramis, who was accused of causing it, erected to him a temple-tomb, nine stades high and ten stades broad, near Babylon. According to Castor (ap. Syncell. p. 167) his reign lasted fifty-two years, its commencement falling 2189 B.C. according to Ctesias. Another Ninus is described by some authorities as the last king of Nineveh. successor of Sardanapalus.

See J. Gilmore, Fragments of the Persika of Ktesias (1888).

Nimrod as a whole host of deities throughout the Mediterranean world

[Nimrod was identified] with a whole host of deities throughout the Mediterranean world,

Nimrod as Zoroaster

and [Nimrod was identified] with the Persian Zoroaster.

The identification with Ninus follows that of the Clementine Recognitions; the one with Zoroaster, that of the Clementine Homilies, both works part of Clementine literature.

Nimrod as Asar · Baal · Dumuzi · Osiris · Enmerkar

David Rohl, like Hislop, identified Nimrod with a complex of Mediterranean deities; among those he picked were Asar, Baal, Dumuzi and Osiris. In Rohl's theory, Enmerkar the founder of Uruk was the original inspiration for Nimrod, because the story of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta (see:) bears a few similarities to the legend of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, and because the -KAR in Enmerkar means "hunter". Additionally, Enmerkar is said to have had ziggurats built in both Uruk and Eridu, which Rohl postulates was the site of the original Babel.

Asar may refer to:

• A 19th century transcription of the name Osiris, an Ancient Egyptian deity of the underworld and resurrection
• Asar, a horse-god revered in ancient Palmyra, possibly of Arabian origin

For other uses, see Baal (disambiguation).

Ba'al with raised arm, 14th-12th century BC, found at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), Louvre

Baal, also rendered Baʿal (Biblical Hebrew בַּעַל, 발음 [ˈbaʕal]), is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu. A Baalist or Baalite means a worshipper of Baal.

"Baʿal" can refer to any god and even to human officials. In some texts it is used for Hadad, a god of the rain, thunder, fertility and agriculture, and the lord of Heaven. Since only priests were allowed to utter his divine name, Hadad, Ba‛al was commonly used. Nevertheless, few if any Biblical uses of "Baʿal" refer to Hadad, the lord over the assembly of gods on the holy mount of Heaven, but rather refer to any number of local spirit-deities worshipped as cult images, each called baʿal and regarded in the Hebrew Bible in that context as a "false god".

Etymology

Baʿal (bet-ayin-lamedh) is a Semitic word signifying "The Lord, master, owner (male), keeper, husband". Cognates include Standard Hebrew (Bet-Ayin-Lamed); בַּעַל / בָּעַל, Báʿal, Akkadian Bēl and Arabic بعل. In Hebrew, the word ba'al means "husband" or "owner", and is related to a verb meaning to take possession of, for a man, to consummate a marriage. The word "ba'al" is also used in many Hebrew phrases, denoting both concrete ownership as well as possession of different qualities in one's personality. The feminine form is Baʿalah (Hebrew בַּעֲלָה Baʕ^alah, Arabic بعلـة baʿalah) signifying "lady, mistress, owner (female), wife".

The words themselves had no exclusively religious connotation, they are honorific titles for heads of households or master craftsmen, but not for royalty. The meaning of "lord" as a member of royalty or nobility is more accurately translated as Adon in Semitic.

In Hebrew the basic term for a homeowner is "ba'al ha-bayith", with the connotation of a middle-class, bourgeois townsperson in traditional Jewish texts and in the Yiddish language (pronounced "baalabus" in Yiddish, pl. "baalei-batim"). A feminine version of the term in Hebrew, "ba'alat ha-bayith", means "the woman of the house", and traditionally had the connotation of a strong, even dominant, woman, who maintains the household in an effective and result-oriented manner, the Yiddish version of the term being "baalabusta".

In modern Levantine Arabic, the word báʿal serves as an adjective describing farming that relies only on rainwater as a source of irrigation. Probably it is the last remnant of the sense of Baal the god in the minds of the people of the region. In the Amharic language, the Semitic word for "owner" or "husband, spouse" survives with the spelling bal.

Deities called Baʿal and Baʿalath

Because more than one god bore the title "Baʿal" and more than one goddess bore the title "Baʿalat" or "Ba`alah," only the context of a text can indicate which Baʿal (Lord)' or Baʿalath (Lady) a particular inscription or text is speaking of.

Hadad in Ugarit

The stele of Baal with Thunderbolt found in Ugarit

Main article: Hadad

Further information: Baal cycle

In the Bronze Age, Hadad (or Haddad or Adad) was especially likely to be called Baʿal; however, Hadad was far from the only god to have that title.틀:Dubious

In the Canaanite pantheon as attested in Ugaritic sources, Hadad was the son of El, who had once been the primary god of the Canaanite pantheon. El and Baʿal are often associated with the bull in Ugaritic texts, as a symbol both of strength and fertility.

Prior to the discovery of the Ugaritic texts it was supposed that 'the Baals' referred to distinct and local Canaanite deities. However, according to John Day, in Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, these texts have revealed that these are simply local manifestations of one great, cosmic deity named Hadad.

In the Ugaritic poem Legend of Keret (also known as 'krt poem') several references are made to Ba'al:

To the earth Baal rained,
To the field rained ʿAliy.
Sweet to the earth was Baal's rain
To the field the rain of ʿAliy.

The worship of Ba'al in Syria-Palestine was bound to the economy of the land which depends on the regularity and adequacy of the rains, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which depend on irrigation. Anxiety about the rainfall was a continuing concern of the inhabitants which gave rise to rites to ensure the coming of the rains. Thus the basis of the Ba'al cult was the utter dependence of life on the rains which were regarded as Baal's bounty. In that respect, Ba'al can be considered as a rain god.

Baʿal of Tyre

Melqart is the son of El in the Phoenician triad of worship. He was the god of Tyre and was often called the Baʿal of Tyre. 1 Kings 16:31 relates that Ahab, king of Israel, married Jezebel, daughter of Ethba’al, king of the Sidonians, and then served habba’al ('the Baʿal'.) The cult of this god was prominent in Israel until the reign of Jehu, who put an end to it. "And they brought out the pillars (massebahs) of the house of the Baʿal and burned them. And they pulled down the pillar (massebah) of the Baʿal and pulled down the house of the Baʿal and turned it into a latrine until this day." (2 Kings 10:26-27)

Some scholars claim it is uncertain whether "Baʿal" the Lord in Kings 10:26 refers to Melqart. They point out that Hadad was also worshiped in Tyre. This point of view ignores the possibility that Hadad and Melqart are the same god with different names because of different languages and cultures, Hadad being Canaanite and Melqart being Phoenician. In favor of the latter interpretation, both Hadad and Melqart are described as the son of El, both carrying the same secondary position in the pantheons of each culture.

Josephus (Antiquities 8.13.1) states clearly that Jezebel "built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, which they call Belus" which certainly refers to the Baal of Tyre, or Melqart.

Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah (pole) and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.

In any case, King Ahab, despite supporting the cult of this Baʿal, had a semblance of worship to Yahweh (1 Kings 16-22). Ahab still consulted Yahweh's prophets and cherished Yahweh's protection when he named his sons Ahaziah ("Yahweh holds") and Jehoram ("Yahweh is high.")

Baʿal of Carthage

The worship of Baʿal Hammon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage. Baʿal Hammon was the supreme god of the Carthaginians, and is believed that this supremacy dates back to the 5th century BC, apparently after a breaking off of relationships between Carthage and Tyre at the time of the Punic defeat in Himera. He is generally identified by modern scholars either with the Northwest Semitic god El or with Dagon, and generally identified by the Greeks, by interpretatio Graeca with Greek Cronus and similarly by the Romans with Saturn.

The meaning of Hammon or Hamon is unclear. In the 19th century when Ernest Renan excavated the ruins of Hammon (Ḥammon), the modern Umm al-‘Awamid between Tyre and Acre, he found two Phoenician inscriptions dedicated to El-Hammon. Since El was normally identified with Cronus and Ba‘al Hammon was also identified with Cronus, it seemed possible they could be equated. More often a connection with Hebrew/Phoenician ḥammān 'brazier' has been proposed, in the sense of "Baal (lord) of the brazier". He has been therefore identified with a solar deity. Frank Moore Cross argued for a connection to Khamōn, the Ugaritic and Akkadian name for Mount Amanus, the great mountain separating Syria from Cilicia based on the occurrence of an Ugaritic description of El as the one of the Mountain Haman.

Classical sources relate how the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Baʿal Hammon. From the attributes of his Roman form, African Saturn, it is possible to conclude that Hammon was a fertility god. (See Moloch for a discussion of these traditions and conflicting thoughts on the matter.)

Scholars tend to see Baʿal Hammon as more or less identical with the god El, who was also generally identified with Cronus and Saturn. However, Yigael Yadin thought him to be a moon god. Edward Lipinski identifies him with the god Dagon in his Dictionnaire de la civilisation phenicienne et punique (1992: ISBN 2-503-50033-1). Inscriptions about Punic deities tend to be rather uninformative.

In Carthage and North Africa Baʿal Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baʿal Qarnaim ("Lord of Two Horns") in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein ("the two-horned hill") across the bay from Carthage.

Baʿal Hammon's female cult partner was Tanit. He was probably not ever identified with Baʿal Melqart, although one finds this equation in older scholarship.

Ba`alat Gebal ("Lady of Byblos") appears to have been generally identified with ‘Ashtart, although Sanchuniathon distinguishes the two.

Priests of Baʿal

The Priests of Baʿal are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible numerous times, including a confrontation with the Prophet Elijah (1 Kings 18:21-40), the burning of incense symbolic of prayer (2 Kings 23:5), and rituals followed by priests adorned in special vestments (2 Kings 10:22) offering sacrifices similar to those given to honor the Hebrew God. The confrontation with the Prophet Elijah is also mentioned in the Qur'an (37:123-125)

Baʿal as a divine title in Israel and Judah

"At first the name Baʿal was used by the Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the two religions developed, the name Baʿal was given up in Judaism as a thing of shame, and even names like Jerubbaʿal were changed to Jerubbosheth: Hebrew bosheth means "shame".

The sense of competition between the priestly forces of Yahweh and of Baʿal in the ninth century is nowhere more directly attested than in 1 Kings 18. Elijah the prophet challenged Baal's prophets to settle the question whether it was Ba'al or Yahweh who really supplied the rain. Elijah offering a sacrifice to Yahweh, Baʿal's followers did the same. According to the Hebrew text, Baʿal did not light his followers' sacrifice, but Yahweh sent heavenly fire to burn Elijah's sacrifice to ashes, even after it had been soaked with water. Directly after that event, rain started to fall. The contest demonstrated the rain came only from Yahweh and not from Ba'al.

Since Baʿal simply means 'master', there is no obvious reason for which it could not be applied to Yahweh as well as other gods. In fact, Hebrews generally referred to Yahweh as Adonai ('my lord') in prayer. The judge Gideon was also called Jerubaʿal, a name which seems to mean 'Baʿal strives', though the Yahwists' explanation in Judges 6:32 is that the theophoric name was given to mock the god Baʿal, whose shrine Gideon had destroyed, the intention being to imply: "Let Baʿal strive as much as he can ... it will come to nothing."

After Gideon's death, according to Judges 8:33, the Israelites started to worship the Baʿalîm (the Baʿals) especially Baʿal Berith ("Lord of the Covenant.") A few verses later (Judges 9:4) the story turns to the citizens of Shechem, who support Abimelech's attempt to become king by giving him 70 shekels from the House of Ba‘al Berith. It is hard to dissociate this Lord of the Covenant who is worshipped in Shechem from the covenant at Shechem described earlier in Joshua 24:25, in which the people agree to worship Yahweh. It is especially hard to do so when Judges 9:46 relates that all "the holders of the tower of Shechem" (kol-ba‘^alê midgal-š^əkem) enter bêt ’ēl b^ərît 'the House of El Berith', that is, 'the House of God of the Covenant'. Either "Baʿal" was here a title for El, or the covenant of Shechem perhaps originally did not involve El at all, but some other god who bore the title Baʿal. Whether there were different viewpoints about Yahweh, some seeing him as an aspect of Hadad, some as an aspect of El, some with other perceptions cannot be unambiguously answered.

Baʿal appears in theophoric names. One also finds Eshbaʿal (one of Saul's sons) and Beʿeliada (a son of David). The last name also appears as Eliada. This might show that at some period Baʿal and El were used interchangeably; even in the same name applied to the same person. More likely a later hand has cleaned up the text. Editors did play around with some names, sometimes substituting the form bosheth 'abomination' for ba‘al in names, whence the forms Ishbosheth instead of Eshbaʿal and Mephibosheth which is rendered Meribaʿal in 1 Chronicles 9:40. 1 Chronicles 12:5 mentions the name Beʿaliah (more accurately b^e‘alyâ) meaning "Yahweh is Baʿal."

It is difficult to determine to what extent the 'false worship' which the prophets stigmatize is the worship of Yahweh under a conception and with rites, which treated him as a local nature god, or whether particular features of gods more often given the title Ba‘al were consciously recognized to be distinct from Yahwism from the first. Certainly some of the Ugaritic texts and Sanchuniathon report hostility between El and Hadad, perhaps representing a cultic and religious differences reflected in Hebrew tradition also, in which Yahweh in the Tanach is firmly identified with El and might be expected to be somewhat hostile to Baʿal/Hadad and the deities of his circle. But for Jeremiah and the Deuteronomist it also appears to be monotheism against polytheism (Jeremiah 11:12):

Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to the abominination, altars to burn incense to the Ba‘al.

Multiple Baʿals and ʿAshtarts

One finds in the Tanakh the plural forms b^ə'ālîm 'Baʿals' or 'Lords' and aštārôt Ashtarts, though such plurals don't appear in Phoenician or Canaanite or independent Aramaic sources.

One theory is that the people of each territory or in each wandering clan worshipped their own Baʿal, as the chief deity of each, the source of all the gifts of nature, the mysterious god of their fathers. As the god of fertility all the produce of the soil would be his, and his adherents would bring to him their tribute of first-fruits. He would be the patron of all growth and fertility, and, by the use of analogy characteristic of early thought, this Baʿal would be the god of the productive element in its widest sense. Originating perhaps in the observation of the fertilizing effect of rains and streams upon the receptive and reproductive soil, Baʿal worship became identical with nature-worship. Joined with the Baʿals there would naturally be corresponding female figures which might be called ʿAshtarts, embodiments of 'Ashtart. Baʿal Hadad is associated with the goddess "Virgin" Anat, his sister and lover.

Through analogy and through the belief that one can control or aid the powers of nature by the practice of magic, particularly sympathetic magic, sexuality might characterize part of the cult of the Baʿals and ʿAshtarts. Post-Exilic allusions to the cult of Baʿal Pe'or suggest that orgies prevailed. On the summits of hills and mountains flourished the cult of the givers of increase, and "under every green tree" was practised the licentiousness which was held to secure abundance of crops. Human sacrifice, the burning of incense, violent and ecstatic exercises, ceremonial acts of bowing and kissing, the preparing of sacred cakes (see also Asherah), appear among the offences denounced by the post-Exilic prophets; and show that the cult of Baʿal (and ʿAshtart) included characteristic features of worship which recur in various parts of the Semitic (and non-Semitic) world, although attached to other names. But it is also possible that such rites were performed to a local Baʿal Lord and a local ʿAshtart without much concern as to whether they were the same as that of a nearby community or how they fitted into the national theology of Yahweh who had become a ruling high god of the heavens, increasingly disassociated from such things, at least in the minds of some worshippers.

Another theory is that the references to Baʿals and ʿAshtarts (and Asherahs) are to images or other standard symbols of these deities, statues, and icons of Baʿal Hadad, ʿAshtart, and Asherah set-up in various high places as well as those of other gods, the author listing the most prominent as types for all.

A reminiscence of Baʿal as a title of a local fertility god (or referring to a particular god of subterraneous water) may occur in the Talmudic Hebrew phrases field of the Baʿal and place of the Baʿal and Arabic ba'l used of land fertilised by subterraneous waters rather than by rain.

The identification of Baʿal as a sun-god in historical scholarship came to be abandoned by the end of the 19th century as it became clear that Baʿal was the title of numerous local gods and not necessarily a single deity in origin. It also became clear that the "astralizing" (association or identification with heavenly bodies) of Ancient Near Eastern deities was a late (Iron Age) development in no way connected with the origin of religion as theorized by some 19th-century schools of thought.

Baʿal Zebûb

Main article: Beelzebub

Beelzebub as depicted in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (Paris, 1825).

Baal Zebub (Hebrew בעל זבוב) occurs in 2 Kings 1:2–6 as the name of the Philistine god of Ekron.

But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? KJV, 1611

Ba‘al Zəbûb is variously understood to mean "lord of flies", or "lord of the (heavenly) dwelling". Originally the name of a Philistine god, Ba'al, meaning "Lord" in Ugaritic, was used in conjunction with a descriptive name of a specific God. Jewish scholars have interpreted the title of "Lord of Flies" as the Hebrew way of calling Ba'al a pile of dung, and comparing Ba'al followers to flies. The Septuagint renders the name as Baalzebub (βααλζεβούβ) and as Baal muian (βααλ μυιαν, "Baal of flies"), but Symmachus the Ebionite may have reflected a tradition of its offensive ancient name when he rendered it as Beelzeboul.

New Testament

Beelzebub, also Beelzebul, is also identified in the New Testament as Satan, the "prince of the demons". In Arabic the name is retained as Ba‘al dhubaab / zubaab (بعل الذباب), literally "Lord of the Flies". Biblical scholar Thomas Kelly Cheyne suggested that it might be a derogatory corruption of Ba‘al Zəbûl, "Lord of the High Place" (i.e., Heaven) or "High Lord". The word Beelzebub in rabbinical texts is a mockery of the Ba'al religion, which ancient Hebrews considered to be idol (or, false God) worship.

In Islam

The word Baal appears in the Quran. The Quran (37:125) mentions that Elias (Elijah) a prophet of God was sent to his people to tell them not to worship Baal and worship one true God.

"And Elias was most surely of the messengers, he asked his people: 'do you not fear (Allah)?, will ye call upon Baal and forsake the best of creators, Allah is your Lord and the Lord of your fathers, the ancients.but they rejected him, and they will certainly be called up (for punishment),except the sincere and devoted servants of Allah (among them),and we left (this blessing) for him among generations (to come) in later times, peace be upon Elias."

— Qur'an, Sura 37, Ayat 123-130

Milton and Christian demonology

John Milton in his epic poem Paradise Lost of 1667 describes Satan's "Legions, Angel Forms" immediately after the fall from heaven collecting themselves and gathering around their "Great Sultan" (Satan). Milton names and describes the most prominent of these whose names in heaven had been "blotted out and ras'd", but who would acquire new names "wandring ore the Earth", being worshipped by man ("Devils to adore for Deities"). In the following section, Milton refers to the plural forms of Baʿal and Astarte [Book 1, lines 419-423]:

With these came they, who from the bordring flood
Of old Euphrates to the Brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general Names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,
These Feminine.

The 17th Century grimoire the Goetia also contains a demon called Baal.

See also

• Adon
• Adonis
• Baal (disambiguation)
• Ba'al (Stargate)
• Ba‘al Shamîm
• Baal in popular culture
• Baal Peor
• Baal Shem - 18th century folk healer and exorcist.
• Baal-zephon
• Baaltars
• Beelzebub
• Bel
• Belial
• Canaanite religion
• El-Gabal
• Hadad
• Melqart
• Moloch
• Set

External links

• The Catholic Encyclopedia, entry "Baal, Baalim"
• Jewish Encyclopedia, entries "Ba'al", "Ba'al-worship", "Ba'al-Ha-bayit" etc
• Article Baal (PDF format) by W. Robertson Smith and George F. Moore in Encyclopædia Biblica, edited T. K. Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, MacMillan: London, 1899. (Still quite accurate.)
• Bartleby: American Heritage Dictionary: Semitic roots: b^cl.
• Punic images of Baal Hammon described.
• Iconography of Baal (PDF format)
• Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis
•  Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Colby, F. M., 편집. (1905). 〈〉. 《신 국제 사전》 1판. New York: Dodd, Mead. 

Tammuz (ܬܡܘܙ; תַּמּוּז, Transliterated Hebrew: Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew: Tammûz; تمّوز Tammūz; Duʾzu, Dūzu; Sumerian: Dumuzid (DUMU.ZI(D), "faithful or true son") was the name of a Sumerian god of food and vegetation, also worshiped in the later Mesopotamian states of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia.

Ritual mourning

In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna and, in his Akkadian form, the parallel consort of Ishtar. The Levantine Adonis ("lord"), who was drawn into the Greek pantheon, was considered by Joseph Campbell among others to be another counterpart of Tammuz, son and consort. The Aramaic name "Tammuz" seems to have been derived from the Akkadian form Tammuzi, based on early Sumerian Damu-zid. The later standard Sumerian form, Dumu-zid, in turn became Dumuzi in Akkadian. Tamuzi also is Dumuzid or Dumuzi.

Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning in the Ancient Near East, as in the Aegean: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day "funeral" for the god. Recent discoveries reconfirm him as an annual life-death-rebirth deity: tablets discovered in 1963 show that Dumuzi was in fact consigned to the Underworld himself, in order to secure Inanna's release, though the recovered final line reveals that he is to revive for six months of each year (see below).

In cult practice, the dead Tammuz was widely mourned in the Ancient Near East. Locations associated in antiquity with the site of his death include both Harran and Byblos, among others. A Sumerian tablet from Nippur (Ni 4486) reads:

She can make the lament for you, my Dumuzid, the lament for you, the lament, the lamentation, reach the desert — she can make it reach the house Arali; she can make it reach Bad-tibira; she can make it reach Dul-šuba; she can make it reach the shepherding country, the sheepfold of Dumuzid

"O Dumuzid of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully, "O you of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully. "Lad, husband, lord, sweet as the date, [...] O Dumuzid!" she sobs, she sobs tearfully.

These mourning ceremonies were observed even at the very door of the Temple in Jerusalem in a vision the Israelite prophet Ezekiel was given, which serves as a Biblical prophecy which expresses Yahweh's message at His people's apostate worship of idols:

"Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto to me, 'Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these." —Ezekiel 8:14-15

Ezekiel's testimony is the only direct mention of Tammuz in the Hebrew Bible.

Dumuzid in the Sumerian king list

In the Sumerian king list two kings named Dumuzi appear:

• Dumuzid of Bad-tibira, the shepherd (reigning 36 000 years), the fifth King before the Flood
• Dumuzid of Kuara, the fisherman (reigning 100 years), the third King of the first dynasty of Uruk, reigning between Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, circa 2,700 BCE.

Other Sumerian texts showed that kings were to be married to Inanna in a sacred marriage, for example a hymn that describes the sacred marriage of King Iddid-Dagan (ca 1900 BCE).

Dumuzid and Inanna

Today several versions of the Sumerian death of Dumuzi have been recovered, "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld", "Dumuzi's dream" and "Dumuzi and the galla", as well as a tablet separately recounting Dumuzi's death, mourned by holy Inanna, and his noble sister Geštinanna, and even his dog and the lambs and kids in his fold; Dumuzi himself is weeping at the hard fate in store for him, after he had walked among men, and the cruel galla of the Underworld seize him.

A number of pastoral poems and songs relate the love affair of Inanna and Dumuzid the shepherd. A text recovered in 1963 recounts "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" in terms that are tender and frankly erotic.

According to the myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, represented in parallel Sumerian and Akkadian tablets, Inanna (Ishtar in the Akkadian texts) set off for the netherworld, or Kur, which was ruled by her sister Ereshkigal, perhaps to take it as her own. Ereshkigal is in mourning at the death of her consort, Gugalanna (The Wild Bull of Heaven Sumerian Gu = Bull, Gal = Great, An = Heaven). She passed through seven gates and at each one was required to leave a garment or an ornament so that when she had passed through the seventh gate she was a simple woman, entirely naked. Despite warnings about her presumption, she did not turn back but dared to sit herself down on Ereshkigal's throne. Immediately the Anunnaki of the underworld judged her, gazed at her with the eyes of death, and she became a corpse, hung up on a meathook.

Based on the incomplete texts as first found, it was assumed that Ishtar/Inanna's descent into Kur occurred after the death of Tammuz/Dumuzid rather than before and that her purpose was to rescue Tammuz/Dumuzid. This is the familiar form of the myth as it appeared in M. Jastrow's Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World, 1915, widely available on the Internet. New texts uncovered in 1963 filled in the story in quite another fashion, showing that Dumuzi was in fact consigned to the Underworld himself, in order to secure Inanna's release.

Inanna's faithful servant attempted to get help from the other gods but only wise Enki/Ea responded. The details of Enki/Ea's plan differ slightly in the two surviving accounts, but in the end, Inanna/Ishtar was resurrected. However, a "conservation of souls" law required her to find a replacement for herself in Kur. She went from one god to another, but each one pleaded with her and she had not the heart to go through with it until she found Dumuzid/Tammuz richly dressed and on her throne. Inanna/Ishtar immediately set her accompanying demons on Dumuzid/Tammuz. At this point the Akkadian text fails as Tammuz' sister Belili, introduced for the first time, strips herself of her jewelry in mourning but claims that Tammuz and the dead will come back.

There is some confusion here. The name Belili occurs in one of the Sumerian texts also, but it is not the name of Dumuzid's sister who is there named Geshtinana, but is the name of an old woman whom another text calls Bilulu.

In any case, the Sumerian texts relate how Dumuzid fled to his sister Geshtinana who attempted to hide him but who could not in the end stand up to the demons. Dumuzid has two close calls until the demons finally catch up with him under the supposed protection of this old woman called Bilulu or Belili and then they take him. However Inanna repents.

Inanna seeks vengeance on Bilulu, on Bilulu's murderous son G̃irg̃ire and on G̃irg̃ire's consort Shirru "of the haunted desert, no-one's child and no-one's friend". Inanna changes Bilulu into a waterskin and G̃irg̃ire into a protective god of the desert while Shirru is assigned to watch always that the proper rites are performed for protection against the hazards of the desert.

Finally, Inanna relents and changes her decree thereby restoring her husband Dumuzi to life; an arrangement is made by which Geshtinana will take Dumuzid's place in Kur for six months of the year: "You (Dumuzi), half the year. Your sister (Geštinanna), half the year!" This newly-recovered final line upset Samuel Noah Kramer's former interpretation, as he allowed: "my conclusion that Dumuzi dies and "stays dead" forever (cf e.g. Mythologies of the Ancient World p. 10) was quite erroneous: Dumuzi according to the Sumerian mythographers rises from the dead annually and, after staying on earth for half the year, descends to the Nether World for the other half".

The "Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi"

Aside from this extended epic "The Descent of Inanna," a previously unknown "Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" was first translated into English and annotated by Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer and folklorist Diane Wolkstein working in tandem, and published in 1983. In this tale Inanna's lover, the shepherd-king Dumuzi, brought a wedding gift of milk in pails, yoked across his shoulders.

The myth of Inanna and Dumuzi formed the subject of a Lindisfarne Symposium, published as The Story of Inanna and Dumuzi: From Folk-Tale to Civilized Literature: A Lindisfarne Symposium, (William Irwin Thompson, editor, 1995).

In Arabic sources

Tammuz is the month of July in Iraqi Arabic and Levantine Arabic (see Arabic names of calendar months), and references to Tammuz appear in Arabic literature from the 9th to 11th centuries AD. In a translation of an ancient Nabataean text by Kuthami the Babylonian, Ibn Wahshiyya (c. 9th-10th century AD), adds information on his own efforts to ascertain the identity of Tammuz, and his discovery of the full details of the legend of Tammuz in another Nabataean book:

"How he summoned the king to worship the seven (planets) and the twelve (signs) and how the king put him to death several times in a cruel manner Tammuz coming to life again after each time, until at last he died; and behold! it was identical to the legend of St. George which is current among the Christians."

Ibn Wahshiyya also adds that Tammuz lived in Babylonia before the coming of the Chaldeans and belonged to an ancient Mesopotamian tribe called Ganbân. On rituals related to Tammuz in his time, he adds that the Sabaeans in Harran and Babylonia still lamented the loss of Tammuz every July, but that the origin of the worship had been lost.

Al-Nadim in his 10th century work Kitab al-Fehrest drawing from a work on Syriac calendar feast days, describes a Tâ'ûz festival that took place in the middle of the month of Tammuz. Women bewailed the death of Tammuz at the hands of his master who was said to have "ground his bones in a mill and scattered them to the wind." Consequently, women would forgo the eating of ground foods during the festival time. The same festival is mentioned in the 11th century by Ibn Athir as still taking place at the appointed time on the banks of the Tigris river.

Literary references

• John Milton, "Paradise Lost", Book I

THAMMUZ came next behind,
Whose annual wound in LEBANON allur'd
The SYRIAN Damsels to lament his fate
In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
While smooth ADONIS from his native Rock
Ran purple to the Sea, suppos'd with blood
Of THAMMUZ yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected SION'S daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
EZEKIEL saw, when by the Vision led
His eye survey'd the dark Idolatries
Of alienated JUDAH.

• Oscar Wilde, "Charmides"

And then each pigeon spread its milky van,
The bright car soared into the dawning sky
And like a cloud the aerial caravan
Passed over the Ægean silently,
Till the faint air was troubled with the song
From the wan mouths that call on bleeding Thammuz all night long

Church of the Nativity and Shrine of Adonis-Tammuz

According to some scholars, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is built over a cave that was originally a shrine to Adonis-Tammuz.

The Church Father Jerome, who died in Bethlehem in 420, reports in addition that the holy cave was at one point consecrated by the heathen to the worship of Adonis, and a pleasant sacred grove planted before it, to wipe out the memory of Jesus. Modern mythologists, however, reverse the supposition, insisting that the cult of Adonis-Tammuz originated the shrine and that it was the Christians who took it over, substituting the worship of their own God.

Performances

A performance of Inanna's descent to the Underworld was organised in 2001 at the Cove in Denmark, Western Australia, and it has also been used by Jean Houston as a part of her Mystery School work.

Bibliography

• de Azevedo, Mateus Soares; Stoddart, William (FWD) (2005), 《Ye shall know the truth: Christianity and the perennial philosophy》, World Wisdom, Inc, ISBN 0-941532-69-0, 9780941532693 
• Cragg, Kenneth (1991), 《The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East》, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 0-664-22182-3, 9780664221829 
• Fuller, John Mee (1864), 《Essay on the Authenticity of the Book of Daniel》, Deighton, Bell and co. 

Further reading

• Campbell, Joseph, 1962, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God (New York:Viking Penguin)
• Campbell, Joseph, 1964. Occidental Mythology: The Masks of God (New York:Viking Penguin)
• Kramer, Samuel Noah and Diane Wolkstein, 1983. Inanna : Queen of Heaven and Earth (New York : Harper & Row) ISBN 0-06-090854-8
• Jacobsen, Thorkild, 1976, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press)

External links

• Sumerian Poems about Dumuzid and Inanna
  • ETSCL: Narratives: Inanna and Dumuzid in Unicode and ASCII
  • ETSCL: Hymns: Inanna and Dumuzid in Unicode and ASCII
• The Akkadian "Descent of Ishtar"
  • "Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World", trans. M. Jastrow, 1915; at Sacred Texts and Ancient Texts and Mike's History
  • "The Descent of Ishtar", trans. E. A. Speiser, 1950: Eliade and Gateway to Babylon
  • "The Descent of Ishtar", trans. Stephanie J. Dalley

For Osiris Boat Club, see Oxford University Boat Club and en:Oxford University Women's Boat Club.

Osiris
Osiris, lord of the dead. His green skin symbolizes re-birth.
God of the afterlife
Name in hieroglyphs
Major cult center	Abydos
Symbol	Crook and flail
Consort	Isis
Parents	Geb and Nut
Siblings	Isis, Set, Nephthys, (and Arueris as per Plutarch)

Osiris (/oʊˈsaɪər[미지원 입력]s/; Ὄσιρις, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Asari, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare) is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and holding a symbolic crook and flail.

Osiris was at times considered the oldest son of the Earth god Geb, and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, which means "Foremost of the Westerners" — a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead. As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called "king of the living", since the Ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead "the living ones".

Osiris is first attested in the middle of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, although it is likely that he was worshipped much earlier; the term Khenti-Amentiu dates to at least the first dynasty, also as a pharaonic title. Most information we have on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus.

Osiris was considered not only a merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. He was described as the "Lord of love", "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful" and the "Lord of Silence". The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death — as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals.

Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the Christian era.

Appearance

Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt, but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side (see also Atef crown (hieroglyph)). He also carries the crook and flail. The crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed.

He was commonly depicted as a green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) complexioned pharaoh, in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from chest downward). He was also depicted rarely as a lunar god with a crown encompassing the moon.

Early mythology

The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found: "An offering the king gives and Anubis". By the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes "An offering the king gives and Osiris".

Father of Horus

The gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus, from a tomb painting.

Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth, a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father. This spell gave her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus. As such, since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set.

Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of Ptah with Seker), god of re-incarnation, thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently re-incarnated every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as both king of the underworld, and god of reincarnation.

Ram god

Banebdjed (b3-nb-ḏd)
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Osiris' soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes. This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet, which is grammatically feminine (also spelt "Banebded" or "Banebdjed"), literally "the ba of the lord of the djed, which roughly means The soul of the lord of the pillar of stability. The djed, a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris, and, at the same time, as the Nile, the backbone of Egypt.

The Nile, supplying water, and Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetation) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability. As Banebdjed, Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the (sun god) Ra, since Ra, when he had become identified with Atum, was considered Osiris' ancestor, from whom his regal authority is inherited. Ba does not mean "soul" in the western sense, and has to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god.

Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian, Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram, was kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in a ram-specific necropolis. Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris.

Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile. The crook and flail were originally symbols of the minor agricultural deity Andjety, and passed to Osiris later. From Osiris, they eventually passed to Egyptian kings in general as symbols of divine authority.

Mythology

The family of Osiris. Osiris on a lapis lazuli pillar in the middle, flanked by Horus on the left and Isis on the right (22nd dynasty, Louvre, Paris)

The cult of Osiris (who was a god chiefly of regeneration and rebirth) had a particularly strong interest in the concept of immortality. Plutarch recounts one version of the myth in which Set (Osiris' brother), along with the Queen of Ethiopia, conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile (sarcophagi were based on the box in this myth). Osiris' wife, Isis, searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tamarind tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast. She managed to remove the coffin and open it, but Osiris was already dead.

In one version of the myth, she used a spell learned from her father and brought him back to life so he could impregnate her. Afterwards he died again and she hid his body in the desert. Months later, she gave birth to Horus. While she raised Horus, Set was hunting one night and came across the body of Osiris.

Enraged, he tore the body into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout the land. Isis gathered up all the parts of the body, less the phallus (which was eaten by a catfish) and bandaged them together for a proper burial. The gods were impressed by the devotion of Isis and resurrected Osiris as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris was associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with the crops along the Nile valley.

Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs, and the nine muses, before finally returning to Egypt. Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon, who was identified with Set. Typhon divided the body into twenty-six pieces, which he distributed amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Hercules (Horus) avenged the death of Osiris and slew Typhon. Isis recovered all the parts of Osiris' body, except the phallus, and secretly buried them. She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship.

Death and institution as god of the dead

Osiris-Nepra, with wheat growing from his body. From a bas-relief at Philae. The sprouting wheat implied resurrection.

Osiris "The God Of The Resurrection", rising from his bier.

Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were "gloomy, solemn, and mournful..." (Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos on the 17th of Athyr (November 13) commemorating the death of the god, which was also the same day that grain was planted in the ground. "The death of the grain and the death of the god were one and the same: the cereal was identified with the god who came from heaven; he was the bread by which man lives. The resurrection of the god symbolized the rebirth of the grain." (Larson 17) The annual festival involved the construction of "Osiris Beds" formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed.

The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter.

The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris, the search of his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set. This was all presented by skilled actors as a literary history, and was the main method of recruiting cult membership.

According to Julius Firmicus Maternus of the fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who "beat their breasts and gashed their shoulders.... When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined...they turn from mourning to rejoicing." (De Errore Profanorum).

The passion of Osiris was reflected in his name 'Wenennefer" ("the one who continues to be perfect"), which also alludes to his post mortem power.

Ikhernofret Stela

Much of the extant information about the Passion of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the 12th Dynasty by Ikhernofret (also I-Kher-Nefert), possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofret are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The Passion Plays were held in the last month of the inundation (the annual Nile flood, coinciding with Spring, and held at Abydos/Abedjou which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris/Wesir drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile.

The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recounted in this particular stela. Although it is attested to be a part of the rituals by a version of the Papyrus Jumilhac, in which it took Isis 12 days to reassemble the pieces, coinciding with the festival of ploughing. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple, while others involved public participation in a form of theatre. The Stela of I-Kher-Nefert recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of the Festival:

• The First Day, The Procession of Wepwawet: A mock battle was enacted during which the enemies of Osiris are defeated. A procession was led by the god Wepwawet ("opener of the way").
• The Second Day, The Great Procession of Osiris: The body of Osiris was taken from his temple to his tomb. The boat he was transported in, the "Neshmet" bark, had to be defended against his enemies.
• The Third Day, Osiris is Mourned and the Enemies of the Land are Destroyed.
• The Fourth Day, Night Vigil: Prayers and recitations are made and funeral rites performed.
• The Fifth Day, Osiris is Reborn: Osiris is reborn at dawn and crowned with the crown of Ma'at. A statue of Osiris is brought to the temple.

Wheat and clay rituals

Rare sample of Egyptian terra cotta sculpture, could be Isis mourning Osiris, (raising her right arm over her head, a typical mourning sign). Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Contrasting with the public "theatrical" ceremonies sourced from the I-Kher-Nefert stele (from the Middle Kingdom), more esoteric ceremonies were performed inside the temples by priests witnessed only by chosen initiates. Plutarch mentions that (for much later period) two days after the beginning of the festival "the priests bring forth a sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water...and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then they knead some fertile soil with the water...and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn, this indicating that they regard these gods as the substance of Earth and Water." (Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet his accounts were still obscure, for he also wrote, "I pass over the cutting of the wood" - opting not to describe it, since he considered it as a most sacred ritual (Ibid. 21).

In the Osirian temple at Denderah, an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to the town where each piece is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of a red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of 'divine' bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII).

On the first day of the Festival of Ploughing, where the goddess Isis appeared in her shrine where she was stripped naked, paste made from the grain were placed in her bed and moistened with water, representing the fecund earth. All of these sacred rituals were "climaxed by the eating of sacramental god, the eucharist by which the celebrants were transformed, in their persuasion, into replicas of their god-man" (Larson 20).

Judgment

The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom, in a 6th dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as the Negative Confessions.

Judgment scene from the Book of the Dead. In the three scenes from the Book of the Dead (version from ~1375 BC) the dead man (Hunefer) is taken into the judgement hall by the jackal-headed Anubis. The next scene is the weighing of his heart against the feather of Ma'at, with Ammut waiting the result, and Thoth recording. Next, the triumphant Henefer, having passed the test, is presented by the falcon-headed Horus to Osiris, seated in his shrine with Isis and Nephthys. (British Museum)

With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom the “democratization of religion” offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability.

At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to a "devourer" and didn't share in eternal life.

The person who is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts.

Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits, but there is no suggestion of eternal torture.

Divine pardon at judgement was always a central concern for the Ancient Egyptians.

During the reign of Seti I, Osiris was also invoked in royal decrees to pursue the living when wrongdoing was observed, but kept secret and not reported.

Greco-Roman era

Hellenisation

Bust of Serapis.

Eventually, in Egypt, the Hellenic pharaohs decided to produce a deity that would be acceptable to both the local Egyptian population, and the influx of Hellenic visitors, to bring the two groups together, rather than allow a source of rebellion to grow. Thus Osiris was identified explicitly with Apis, really an aspect of Ptah, who had already been identified as Osiris by this point, and a syncretism of the two was created, known as Serapis, and depicted as a standard Greek god.

Destruction of cult

Philae Island.

The cult of Osiris continued until the 6th century AD on the island of Philae in Upper Nile. The Theodosian decrees of the 390s, to destroy all pagan temples, were not enforced there. The worship of Isis and Osiris was allowed to continue at Philae until the time of Justinian, by treaty between the Blemmyes-Nobadae and Diocletian. Every year they visited Elephantine, and at certain intervals took the image of Isis up river to the land of the Blemmyes for oracular purposes. The practices ended when Justinian I sent Narses to destroy sanctuaries, arrest priests, and seize divine images, which were taken to Constantinople.

See also

• Aaru
• Egyptian soul

• Freemasonry and its Ancient Mystic Rites. p. 35-36, by C. W. Leadbeater, Gramercy, 1998 ISBN 0-517-20267-0

References

• Martin A. Larson, The Story of Christian Origins (1977, 711 pp. ISBN 0-88331-090-2 ).
• C. W. Leadbeater, Freemasonry and its Ancient Mystic Rites (Gramercy, 1998) ISBN 0-517-20267-0

External links

• Ancient Egyptian God Osiris

Nimrod as Belus

George Rawlinson believed Nimrod was Belus based on the fact Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions bear the names inscriptions Bel-Nimrod or Bel-Nibru. The word Nibru comes from a root meaning to 'pursue' or to make 'one flee', and as Rawlinson pointed out not only does this closely resemble Nimrod’s name but it also perfectly fits the description of Nimrod in Genesis 10: 9 as a great hunter. The Belus-Nimrod equation or link is also found in many old works such as Moses of Chorene and the Book of the Bee.

Belus from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Belus or Belos (Βῆλος) in classical Greek or classical Latin texts (and later material based on them) in a Babylonian context refers to the Babylonian god Bel Marduk. Though often identified with Greek Zeus and Latin Jupiter as Zeus Belos or Jupiter Belus, in other cases Belus is euhemerized as an ancient king who founded Babylon and built the ziggurat. He is recognized and worshipped as the God of war.

Eusebius of Caesarea (Praeparatio Evangelica 9.18) cites Artabanus as stating in his Jewish History that Artabanus found in anonymous works that giants who had been dwelling in Babylonia were destroyed by the gods for impiety, but one of them named Belus escaped and settled in Babylon and lived in the tower which he built and named the Tower of Belus. A little later Eusebius (9.41) cites Abydenus' Concerning the Assyrians for the information that the site of Babylon:

... was originally water, and called a sea. But Belus put an end to this, and assigned a district to each, and surrounded Babylon with a wall; and at the appointed time he disappeared.

This seems to be a rationalized version of Marduk's defeat of Tiamet in the Enuma Elish followed here by Belus becoming a god. A little earlier in the same section, in a supposed prophecy by King Nebuchadnezzar, King Nebuchadnezzar claims to be descended from Belus.

Diodorus Siculus (6.1.10) cites Euhemerus as relating that Zeus (a euhemerized Zeus) went to Babylon and was entertained by Belus. Diodorus also relates (17.112.3) how the Chaldean of Babylon requested Alexander the Great to restore the "Tomb of Belus" which had been demolished by the Persians. Strabo (16.1.5) likewise refers to the ziggurat as the "Tomb of Belus" which had been demolished by Xerxes.

See Belus (Egyptian) for statements that Belus in reference to the Babylonian Zeus Belus actually refers to the Belus of Greek mythology, son of Poseidon by Libya.

It is likely the Babylonian Belus was not clearly distinguished from vague, ancient Assyrian figures named Belus though some chronographers make the distinction (see Belus (Assyrian)).

See also

• Bel (god)
• Ba‘al

Nimrod as a king of the first dynasty or Uruk

Joseph Poplicha wrote in 1929 about the identification of Nimrod of [a king of Kingdom of Eanna] in the first dynasty or Uruk

Neo-Assyrian form of the É sign

É (Cuneiform: 𒂍) is the Sumerian word or symbol for house or temple.

The Sumerian term É.GAL ("palace", literally "big house") denoted a city's main building. É.LUGAL ("king's house") was used synonymously. In the texts of Lagash, the É.GAL is the center of the ensi's administration of the city, and the site of the city archives. Sumerian É.GAL "palace" is the probable etymology of Semitic words for "palace, temple", such as Hebrew היכל heikhal, and Arabic هيكل haykal. It has thus been speculated that the word É originated from something akin to *hai or *ˀai, especially since the cuneiform sign È is used for /a/ in Eblaite.

The term temen appearing frequently after É in names of ziggurats is translated as "foundation pegs", apparently the first step in the construction process of a house; compare, for example, verses 551–561 of the account of the construction of E-ninnu:

He stretched out lines in the most perfect way; he set up (?) a sanctuary in the holy uzga. In the house, Enki drove in the foundation pegs, while Nance, the daughter of Eridu, took care of the oracular messages. The mother of Lagac, holy Jatumdug, gave birth to its bricks amid cries (?), and Bau, the lady, first-born daughter of An, sprinkled them with oil and cedar essence. En and lagar priests were detailed to the house to provide maintenance for it. The Anuna gods stood there full of admiration.

Temen has been occasionally compared to Greek temenos "holy precinct", but since the latter has a well established Indo-European etymology (see temple), the comparison is either mistaken, or at best describes a case of popular etymology or convergence.

In E-temen-an-ki, "the temple of the foundation pegs of heaven and earth", temen has been taken to refer to an axis mundi connecting earth to heaven (thus re-enforcing the Tower of Babel connection), but the term re-appears in several other temple names, referring to their physical stability rather than, or as well as, to a mythological world axis; compare the Egyptian notion of Djed.

List of specific temples

• E-ab-lua (House with teeming cattle) temple to Suen in Urum
• E-ab-shaga-la (House which stretches over the midst of the sea) temple to Ninmarki in Gu-aba
• E-abzu, "temple of the abzu" (also E-engura "House of the subterranean waters") temple to Enki in Eridu.
• E-ad-da, temple to Enlil
• E-akkil (House of lamentation) temple to Ninshubur in Akkil
• E-am-kur-kurra, "temple of the lord of lands" to Bēl in Assur
• E-^dama-geshtin "mother of wine"
• E-ama-lamma
• E-^da-mal, temple in Babylon
• E-amash-azag, "temple of the bright fold" in Dur-ilu
• E-ana (House of heaven) temple to Inanna in Uruk
• E-an-da-di-a, the ziggurat of Akkad
• E-an-ki, "temple of heaven and earth"
• E-a-nun, temple of Lugal-girra
• E-an-za-kar "temple of the pillar"
• E-a-ra-li "temple of the underworld"
• E-a-ra-zu-gish-tug "temple of the hearing of prayers"
• E-^das-^dmah "temple of the supreme god"
• E-^das-ra-tum "temple to the goddess Ashratum"
• E-babbar (Shining house) temple to Utu in Larsa
• E-bara-igi-e-di "temple of wonders", zigurrat to Dumuzi in Akkad
• E-bagara
• E-^dbau, temple to the goddess Bau in Lagash
• E-belit-mati "temple to the mother of the world"
• E-bur-sigsig (House with beautiful bowls) temple to Shara in Umma
• E-^dbur-^dsin, temple to the deified king Bur-Sin in Ur
• E-dam, built by Ur-Nanshe in Lagash
• E-dara-an-na "temple of the darkness of heaven"
• E-di-kud-kalam-ma "temple of the judge of the world"
• E-Dilmuna "temple of Dilmun" in Ur
• E-dim-an-na "temple of the bond of heaven", built by Nebuchadnezzar for Sin
• E-dim-gal-abzu in Lagash
• E-dim-gal-kalama (House which is the great pole of the Land) temple to Ishtaran in Der
• E-du-azaga "temple of the brilliant shrine", to Marduk
• E-du-kug (House of the sheer heap) in Eridu, Nippur
• E-dub (Storage house) temple to Zababa in Kish (Sumer)
• E-dubba, scribal schools
• E-duga
• E-dumi-zi-abzu, to Tammuz, destroyed in the time of Urukagina
• E-^ddun-gi, temple to the deified king Dungi
• E-dur-gi-na "temple of the lasting abode", built by Nebuchadnezzar
• E-^de-a, shrine to Ea (Enki) at Khorsabad built by Sargon.
• E-engura (House of the subterranean waters, also "E-abzu") temple to Enki in Eridu
• E-eshdam-kug in Girsu
• E-gida (Long house) temple to Ninazu in Enegir
• E-gud-du-shar (House with numerous perfect oxen) temple of Ningublaga in Ki-abrig
• E-hamun
• E-hursang (House which is a hill) of Shulgi in Ur
• E-hush
• E-ibe-Anu, temple to Urash in Dilbat
• E-igi-kalama (House which is the eye of the Land) of Lugal-Marad to Ninurta in Marad
• E-igi-shu-galam
• E-igi-zi(d)-bar-ra, temple to Ningirsu, built by Entemena
• E-igizu-uru (House, your face is mighty) temple to Ninshubur in Akkil
• E-Iri-kug
• E-itida-buru
• E-kish-nu-ngal (House sending light to the earth (?)) temple to Nanna in Ur
• E-kug-nuna temple to Inanna in Uruk
• E-kur "mountain temple" to Enlil in Nippur
• E-ku-nin-azag "temple of the brilliant goddess" in Girsu
• E-nga-duda (House, chamber of the mound) temple to Shu-zi-ana in Nga-gi-mah
• E-nga-ngish-shua
• E-ngalga-sud (House which spreads counsel far and wide) temple to Bau (goddess) in Iri-kug
• E-ngeshtug-Nisaba (House of the Wisdom of Nisaba) in Ur
• E-ngipar in Uruk
• E-ngishkeshda-kalama (House which is the bond of the Land) temple to Nergal in Kutha
• E-ninnu, temple to Ningirsu in Lagash

E-a-mer, the ziggurat of E-ninnu

• E-mah (Great house) temple to Shara in Umma
• E-mah (Great house) temple to Ninhursanga in Adab.
• E-me-ur-ana (House which gathers the divine powers of heaven) temple to Ninurta in Nippur
• E-me-urur
• E-melem-hush (House of terrifying radiance) temple to Nuska in Nippur
• E-meshlam, temple of Nergal
• E-mu-mah (House with a great name)
• E-mud-kura, in Ur
• E-mush (House which is the precinct) or E-mush-kalama, temple to Lulal in Bad-tibira
• E-namtila
• E-ni-guru
• E-ningara
• E-ninnu (House of 50), temple to Ningirsu in Lagash
• E-nun, the abzu in Eridu
• E-nun-ana (House of the prince of heaven), temple to Utu in Sippar
• E-nutura
• E-puhruma
• E-sag-il "temple that raises its head", the temple of Marduk in Babylon, according to the Enuma elish home to all the gods under the patronage of Marduk.
• E-sang-ila
• E-sara (Cuneiform: E₂SAR.A) "House of the Universe" dedicated to Inanna in Uruk by Ur-Nammu
• E-sikil (Maiden house) temple to Ninazu in Eshnunna
• E-sila
• E-Sirara
• E-shag-hula, in Kazallu
• E-shara, in Adab
• E-sheg-meshe-du, in Isin
• E-shenshena, to Ninlil
• E-sherzid-guru (House clad in splendour) temple to Inanna in Zabala
• E-shu-me-sha (House which deals being rouge)
• E-suga (Merry house)
• E-tar-sirsir
• E-temen-anki "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth", the ziggurat to Marduk in Babylon
• E-temen-ni-guru, main ziggurat of Ur
• E-tilla-mah
• E-Tummal (Tummal House), temple to Ninlil in Nippur
• E-tur-kalama
• E-uduna, built by Amar-Suena
• E-Ulmash, in Akkad
• E-unir (House of gaze reach) temple to Enki in Eridu
• E-uru-ga
• E-zagin (Lapis lazuli house), temple to Nisaba in Uruk
• Ezi-Kalam-ma, to Inanna in Zabala, built by Hammurabi

See also

• Ziggurat
• Bayt, Bethel (Israel), Bethel (god)
• Temenos

References

• The building of Ningirsu's temple: composite text (translation), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
• Abraham and the City of Ur, The Book of the Cave of Treasures (1927)
• D. D. Luckenbill, The Temples of Babylonia and Assyria, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures (1908) [14]

Gudea of Lagash (Louvre)

The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods, spans the 5^th to 3^rd millennia BC, ending with the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BC, followed by a transitional period of Amorite states before the rise of Babylonia in the 18th century BC.

The first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was Eridu. The Sumerians claimed that their civilization had been brought, fully formed, to the city of Eridu by their god Enki or by his advisor (or Abgallu from ab=water, gal=big, lu=man), Adapa U-an (the Oannes of Berossus). The first people at Eridu brought with them the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and are identified with the Ubaid period, but it is not known whether or not these were Sumerians (associated later with the Uruk period).

The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language listing kings of Sumer, including a few foreign dynasties. Some of the earlier dynasties may be mythical; the historical record does not open up before the first archaeologically attested ruler, Enmebaragesi (ca. 2600 BC), while conjectures and interpretations of archaeological evidence can vary for earlier events. The best-known dynasty, that of Lagash, is omitted from the kinglist.

Timeline

Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details

Uruk III = Jemdet Nasr period

Earliest city-states

Map of Sumer

Permanent year-round urban settlement may have been prompted by intensive agricultural practices. The work required in maintaining irrigation canals called for, and the resulting surplus food enabled, relatively concentrated populations. The centres of Eridu and Uruk, two of the earliest cities, had successively elaborated large temple complexes built of mudbrick. Developing as small shrines with the earliest settlements, by the Early Dynastic I period, they had become the most imposing structures in their respective cities, each dedicated to its own respective god. From south to north, the principal temple-cities, their principal temple complex, and the gods they served, were

• Eridu, E-Abzu, Enki
• Ur, E-kishnugal, Nanna (moon)
• Larsa, E-babbar, Utu (sun)
• Uruk, E-anna, Inana and An
• Bad-tibira, E-mush, Dumuzi and Inana
• Girsu, E-ninnu, Ningirsu
• Umma, E-mah, Shara (son of Inana)
• Nippur, E-kur, Enlil
• Shuruppak, E-dimgalanna, Sud (variant of Ninlil, wife of Enlil)
• Marad, E-igikalamma, Lugal-Marada (variant of Ninurta)
• Kish, ?, Ninhursag
• Sippar, E-babbar, Utu (sun)
• Kutha, E-meslam, Nergal

Before 3000 BC the political life of the city was headed by a priest-king (ensi) assisted by a council of elders and based on these temples, but it is unknown how the cities had secular rulers rise in prominence from the earliest times. The development and system of administration led to the development of archaic tablets around 3500 BC-3200 BC and ideographic writing (ca 3100 BC) was developed into logographic writing around 2500 BC (and a mixed form by about 2350 BC). As Sumerologist Christopher Woods points out in Earliest Mesopotamian Writing: "A precise date for the earliest cuneiform texts has proved elusive, as virtually all the tablets were discovered in secondary archaeological contexts, specifically, in rubbish heaps that defy accurate stratigraphic analysis. The sun-hardened clay tablets, having obviously outlived their usefulness, were used along with other waste, such as potsherds, clay sealings, and broken mudbricks, as fill in leveling the foundations of new construction — consequently, it is impossible to establish when the tablets were written and used." Even so, it is proposed that the ideas of writing developed across the area, according to Theo J. H. Krispijn, along the following time-frame:

Relative stratigraphy chronology

A : ca. 3400 BC : Numerical Tablet; B : ca. 3300 BC : Numerical Tablet with Logograms;
C : ca. 3240 BC : Script (Phonograms); D : ca. 3000 BC : Lexical Script

Pre-dynastic period

The mythological pre-dynastic period of the Sumerian king list portrays the passage of power in antediluvian times from Eridu to Shuruppak in the south, until a major deluge occurred. Some time after that, the hegemony reappears the northern city of Kish at the start of the Early Dynastic period. Archaeologists have confirmed the presence of a widespread layer of riverine silt deposits, shortly after the Piora oscillation, interrupting the sequence of settlement, that left a few feet of yellow sediment in the cities of Shuruppak and Uruk and extended as far north as Kish. The polychrome pottery characteristic of the Jemdet Nasr period (3100–2900 BC) below the sediment layer was followed by Early Dynastic I artifacts above the sediment layer. The earliest tablets from this period were retrieved from Jemdet Nasr in 1928, and depict complex arithmetic calculations such as the areas of field-plots. However, they have never been fully deciphered, and it is not even certain that the few words on them represent the Sumerian language.

Early Dynastic period

The Early Dynastic Period began after a cultural break with the preceding Jemdet Nasr period that has been radio-carbon dated to about 2900 BC at the beginning of the Early Dynastic I Period. No inscriptions have yet been found verifying any names of kings that can be associated with the Early Dynastic I period. The ED I period is distinguished from the ED II period by the narrow cylinder seals of the ED I period and the broader wider ED II seals engraved with banquet scenes or animal-contest scenes. The Early Dynastic II period is when Gilgamesh, the famous king of Uruk, is believed to have reigned. Texts from the ED II period are not yet understood. Later inscriptions have been found bearing some Early Dynastic II names from the King List. The Early Dynastic IIIa period, also known as the Fara period, is when syllabic writing began. Accounting records and an undeciphered logographic script existed before the Fara Period, but the full flow of human speech was first recorded around 2600 BC at the beginning of the Fara Period. The Early Dynastic IIIb period is also known as the Pre-Sargonic period.

Hegemony, which came to be conferred by the Nippur priesthood, alternated among a number of competing dynasties, hailing from Sumerian city-states traditionally including Kish, Uruk, Ur, Adab and Akshak, as well as some from outside of southern Mesopotamia, such as Awan, Hamazi, and Mari, until the Akkadians, under Sargon of Akkad, overtook the area.

First Dynasty of Kish

 Kish (Sumer) 문서를 참고하십시오.

After a flood occurred in Sumer, kingship is said to have resumed at Kish. The earliest Dynastic name on the list known from other legendary sources is Etana, whom it calls "the shepherd, who ascended to heaven and consolidated all the foreign countries". He was estimated by Roux to have lived approximately 3000 BC. Among the 11 kings who followed, a number of Semitic Akkadian names are recorded, suggesting that these people made up a sizable proportion of the population of this northern city. The earliest monarch on the list whose historical existence has been independently attested through archaeological inscription is En-me-barage-si of Kish (ca. 2600 BC), said to have defeated Elam and built the temple of Enlil in Nippur. Enmebaragesi's successor, Aga, is said to have fought with Gilgamesh of Uruk, the fifth king of that city. From this time, for a period Uruk seems to have had some kind of hegemony in Sumer. This illustrates a weakness of the Sumerian kinglist, as contemporaries are often placed in successive dynasties, making reconstruction difficult.

First Dynasty of Uruk

 Uruk 문서를 참고하십시오.

Mesh-ki-ang-gasher is listed as the first King of Uruk. He was followed by Enmerkar. The epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta tells of his voyage by river to Aratta, a mountainous, mineral-rich country up-river from Sumer. He was followed by Lugalbanda, also known from fragmentary legends, and then by Dumuzid, the Fisherman. The most famous monarch of this dynasty was Dumuzid's successor Gilgamesh, hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh, where he is called Lugalbanda's son. Ancient, fragmentary copies of this text have been discovered in locations as far apart as Hattusas in Anatolia, Megiddo in Israel, and Tell el Amarna in Egypt.

First Dynasty of Ur

 Ur 문서를 참고하십시오.

This dynasty is dated to the 26th century BC. Meskalamdug is the first archaeologically recorded king (Lugal from lu=man, gal=big) of the city of Ur. He was succeeded by his son Akalamdug, and Akalamdug by his son Mesh-Ane-pada. Mesh-Ane-pada is the first king of Ur listed on the king list, and it says he defeated Lugalkildu of Uruk. He also seems to have subjected Kish, thereafter assuming the title "King of Kish" for himself. This title would be used by many kings of the preeminent dynasties for some time afterward. King Mesilim of Kish is known from inscriptions from Lagash and Adab stating that he built temples in those cities, where he seems to have held some influence. He is also mentioned in some of the earliest monuments from Lagash as arbitrating a border dispute between Lugal-sha-engur, ensi (high priest or governor) of Lagash, and the ensi of their main rival, the neighbouring town of Umma. Mesilim's placement before, during, or after the reign of Mesannepada in Ur is uncertain, owing to the lack of other synchronous names in the inscriptions, and his absence from the king list.

Dynasty of Awan

Main article: Awan dynasty

This dynasty is dated to the 26th century BC. According to the Sumerian king list, Elam, Sumer's neighbor to the east, held the kingship in Sumer for a brief period, based in the city of Awan.

Second Dynasty of Uruk

 Uruk 문서를 참고하십시오.

Enshakushanna was a king of Uruk in the later 3rd millennium BC who is named on the Sumerian king list, which states his reign to have been 60 years. He was succeeded in Uruk by Lugal-kinishe-dudu, but the hegemony seems to have passed briefly to Eannatum of Lagash.

Empire of Lugal-Ane-mundu of Adab

Following this period, the region of Mesopotamia seems to have come under the sway of a Sumerian conqueror from Adab, Lugal-Ane-mundu, ruling over Uruk, Ur, and Lagash. According to inscriptions, he ruled from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and up to the Zagros Mountains, including Elam. However, his empire fell apart with his death; the king-list indicates that Mari in Upper Mesopotamia was the next city to hold the hegemony.

Kug-Bau and the Third Dynasty of Kish

The Third Dynasty of Kish, represented solely by Kug-Bau or Kubaba, is unique in the fact that she was the only woman named on the king-list to reign as "king". It adds that she had been a tavern keeper before overthrowing the hegemony of Mari and becoming monarch. In later centuries she was worshipped as a minor goddess, particularly at Carchemish, achieving some status in the Hurrian and Hittites periods. In the post-Hittite Phrygian period she was called Kubele (Latin Cybele), Great Mother of the Gods.

Dynasty of Akshak

Akshak too achieved independence with a line of rulers extending from Puzur-Nirah, Ishu-Il, and Shu-Suen, son of Ishu-Il, before being defeated by the rulers in the Fourth Dynasty of Kish.

First Dynasty of Lagash

 Lagash 문서를 참고하십시오.

Ur-Nanshe: top, creating the foundation for a shrine; bottom, presiding over its dedication (Louvre)

Fragment of Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures (Louvre)

This dynasty is dated to the 25th century BC. En-hegal is recorded as the first known ruler of Lagash, being tributary to Uruk. His successor Lugal-sha-engur was similarly tributary to Mesilim. Following the hegemony of Mesannepada of Ur, Ur-Nanshe succeeded Lugal-sha-engur as the new high priest of Lagash and achieved independence, making himself king. He defeated Ur and captured the king of Umma, Pabilgaltuk. In the ruins of a building attached by him to the temple of Ningirsu, terracotta bas reliefs of the king and his sons have been found, as well as onyx plates and lions' heads in onyx reminiscent of Egyptian work. One inscription states that ships of Dilmun (Bahrain) brought him wood as tribute from foreign lands. He was succeeded by his son Akurgal.

Eannatum, grandson of Ur-Nanshe, made himself master of the whole of the district of Sumer, together with the cities of Uruk (ruled by Enshakushana), Ur, Nippur, Akshak, and Larsa. He also annexed the kingdom of Kish; however, it recovered its independence after his death. Umma was made tributary—a certain amount of grain being levied upon each person in it, that had to be paid into the treasury of the goddess Nina and the god Ningirsu. Eannatum's campaigns extended beyond the confines of Sumer, and he overran a part of Elam, took the city of Az on the Persian Gulf, and exacted tribute as far as Mari; however many of the realms he conquered were often in revolt. During his reign, temples and palaces were repaired or erected at Lagash and elsewhere; the town of Nina—that probably gave its name to the later Niniveh—was rebuilt, and canals and reservoirs were excavated. Eannatum was succeeded by his brother, En-anna-tum I. During his rule, Umma once more asserted independence under Ur-Lumma, who attacked Lagash unsuccessfully. Ur-Lumma was replaced by a priest-king, Illi, who also attacked Lagash.

His son and successor Entemena restored the prestige of Lagash. Illi of Umma was subdued, with the help of his ally Lugal-kinishe-dudu or Lugal-ure of Uruk, successor to Enshakushana and also on the king-list. Lugal-kinishe-dudu seems to have been the prominent figure at the time, since he also claimed to rule Kish and Ur. A silver vase dedicated by Entemena to his god is now in the Louvre. A frieze of lions devouring ibexes and deer, incised with great artistic skill, runs round the neck, while the eagle crest of Lagash adorns the globular part. The vase is a proof of the high degree of excellence to which the goldsmith's art had already attained. A vase of calcite, also dedicated by Entemena, has been found at Nippur. After Entemena, a series of weak, corrupt priest-kings is attested for Lagash. The last of these, Urukagina, was known for his judicial, social, and economic reforms, and his may well be the first legal code known to have existed.

Empire of Lugal-zage-si of Uruk

Urukagina ( ca. 2359–2335 BC short chronology) was overthrown and his city Lagash captured by Lugal-zage-si, the high priest of Umma. Lugal-zage-si also took Uruk and Ur, and made Uruk his capital. In a long inscription that he made engraved on hundreds of stone vases dedicated to Enlil of Nippur, he boasts that his kingdom extended "from the Lower Sea (Persian Gulf), along the Tigris and Euphrates, to the Upper Sea" or Mediterranean. His empire was overthrown by Sargon of Akkad.

Akkadian Empire

Main article: Akkadian Empire

Victory stele of Naram-Sin (Louvre)

The Akkadian period lasted ca. 2334–2218 BC (short chronology).

Sargon	ca. 2334–2279 BC
Rimush	ca. 2278–2270 BC	younger son of Sargon
Man-ishtishu	ca. 2269–2255 BC	elder son of Sargon
Naram-Suen	ca. 2254–2218 BC	son of Man-ishtishu
Shar-kali-sharri	ca. 2217–2193 BC	son of Naram-Suen
Irgigi
Imi
Nanum
Elulu
Dudu	ca. 2189–2168 BC
Shu-Durul	ca. 2168–2147 BC	Akkad defeated by the Gutians

Gutian period

 Gutian dynasty of Sumer 문서를 참고하십시오.

Following the fall of Sargon's Empire to the Gutians, a brief "Dark Ages" ensued. This period lasted ca. 2147–2047 BC (short chronology).

Second Dynasty of Lagash

 Lagash 문서를 참고하십시오.

This period lasted ca. 2260–2110 BC.

Ki-Ku-Id
Engilsa
Ur-A
Lugalushumgal
Puzer-Mama	ca. 2200 BC	contemporary of Shar-kali-sharri of Akkad
Ur-Utu
Ur-Mama
Lu-Baba
Lugula
Kaku or Kakug
Ur-Bau or Ur-baba	ca. 2093–2080 BC (short)
Gudea	ca. 2080–2060 BC	son-in-law of Ur-baba
Ur-Ningirsu	ca. 2060–2055 BC	son of Gudea
Pirigme or Ugme	ca. 2055–2053 BC
Ur-gar	ca. 2053–2049 BC
Nammahani	ca. 2049–2046 BC	grandson of Kaku, defeated by Ur-Nammu

Fifth Dynasty of Uruk

 Uruk 문서를 참고하십시오.

This dynasty lasted between ca. 2055–2048 BC short chronology. The Gutians were ultimately driven out by the Sumerians under Utu-hegal, the only king of this dynasty, who in turn was defeated by Ur-Nammu of Ur.

Third Dynasty of Ur

Main article: Third Dynasty of Ur

The Third Dynasty of Ur is dated to ca. 2047–1940 BC short chronology. Ur-Nammu of Ur defeated Utu-hegal of Uruk and founded the Third Dynasty of Ur. Although the Sumerian language ("Emegir") was again made official, Sumerian identity was already in decline, as the population became continually more and more Semiticised.

After the Ur III dynasty was destroyed by the Elamites in 2004 BC, a fierce rivalry developed between the city-states of Larsa, more under Elamite than Sumerian influence, and Isin, that was more Amorite (as the Western Semitic nomads were called). Archaeologically, the fall of the Ur III dynasty corresponds to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. The Semites ended up prevailing in Mesopotamia by the time of Hammurabi of Babylon, who founded the Babylonian Empire, and the language and name of Sumer gradually passed into the realm of antiquarian scholars. Nevertheless, Sumerian influence on Babylonia, and all subsequent cultures in the region, was undeniably great.

During the third millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a sprachbund.

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the third and the second millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the first century AD.

See also

• History of Mesopotamia
• List of Mesopotamian dynasties

Notes  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, 편집. (1911). 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. Cambridge University Press. 

The Sumerian King List is an ancient manuscript originally recorded in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of "official" kingship. Kingship was believed to have been handed down by the gods, and could be transferred from one city to another, reflecting perceived hegemony in the region. Throughout its Bronze Age existence, the document evolved into a political tool. Its final and single attested version, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, aimed to legitimize Isin's claims to hegemony when Isin was vying for dominance with Larsa and other neighboring city-states in southern Mesopotamia.

Composition

The list blends prehistorical, presumably mythical predynastic rulers with implausibly lengthy reigns with later, more plausibly historical dynasties. Although the primal kings are historically unattested, this does not preclude their possible correspondence with historical rulers who were later mythicized. Some Assyriologists view the predynastic kings as a later fictional addition. Only one ruler listed is known to be female: Kug-Bau "the (female) tavern-keeper", who alone accounts for the Third Dynasty of Kish. The earliest listed ruler whose historicity has been archaeologically verified is En-me-barage-si of Kish, ca. 2600 BC. Reference to this individual in the Epic of Gilgamesh has led to speculation that Gilgamesh himself may be historical. Three dynasties are notably excluded from the list: the Larsa dynasty, which vied for power with the (included) Isin dynasty during the Isin-Larsa period; and the two dynasties of Lagash, which respectively preceded and ensued the Akkadian Empire, when Lagash exercised considerable influence in the region. Lagash in particular is known directly from archaeological artifacts dating from ca. 2500 BC. The list is important to the chronology of the 3rd millennium BC. However, the fact that many of the dynasties listed reigned simultaneously from varying localities makes it difficult to reproduce a strict linear chronology.

Sources

The following extant ancient sources contain the Sumerian King List, or fragments:

• WB 62
• WB 444 (Weld-Blundell Prism)
• Kish Tablet (Scheil dynastic tablet)
• UCBC 9-1819 ("California Tablet")
• Dynastic Chronicle (ABC 18) including copies, K 11261+ and K 12054
• Babyloniaca (Berossus)
• Apkullu-list (W.20030, 7)

The first two sources (WB) are a part of the "Weld-Blundell collection", donated by Herbert Weld Blundell to the Ashmolean Museum. WB 62 is a small clay tablet, inscribed only on the obverse, unearthed from Larsa. It is the oldest dated source (c. 2000 BC) containing the list. WB 444 in contrast is a unique inscribed vertical prism, dated c. 1817 BC, although some scholars prefer c. 1827 BC. The Kish Tablet or Scheil dynastic tablet is an early 2nd millennium BC tablet which came into possession of Jean-Vincent Scheil; it only contains king list entries for four Sumerian cities. UCBC 9-1819 is a clay tablet housed in the collection of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California. The tablet was inscribed during the reign of the Babylonian King Samsu-iluna, or slightly earlier, with a minimum date of 1712 BC. The Dynastic Chronicle (ABC 18) is a Babylonian king list written on six columns, beginning with entries for the antideluvian Sumerian rulers. K 11261+ is one of the copies of this chronicle, consisting of three joined Neo-Assyrian fragments discovered at the Library of Ashurbanipal. K 12054 is another of the Neo-Assyrian fragments from Uruk (c. 640 BC) but contains a variant form of the antediluvians on the list. The later Babylonian and Assyrian king lists, preserved the earliest portions of the list well into the 3rd century BC, when Berossus' Babyloniaca popularized fragments of the list in the Hellenic world. In 1960, the Apkullu-list (Tablet No. W.20030, 7) or “Uruk List of Kings and Sages” (ULKS) was discovered by German archaeologists at an ancient temple at Uruk. The list, dating to c. 165 BC, contains a series of kings, equivalent to the Sumerian antediluvians called "Apkullu".

The list

Early dates are approximate, and are based on available archaeological data; for most pre-Akkadian rulers listed, this king list is itself the lone source of information. Beginning with Lugal-zage-si and the Third Dynasty of Uruk (which was defeated by Sargon of Akkad), a better understanding of how subsequent rulers fit into the chronology of the ancient Near East can be deduced. The short chronology is used here.

Antediluvian rulers

None of the following predynastic "antediluvian" rulers has been verified as historical via archaeological excavations, epigraphical inscriptions, or otherwise. It is possible that they correspond to the Early Bronze Age Jemdet Nasr period culture which ended approximately 2900 BC, immediately preceding the dynasts, if they were not purely mythological inventions.

The following reigns were measured in Sumerian numerical units known as sars (units of 3600), ners (units of 600), and sosses (units of 60).

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
"After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years."
Alulim		8 sars (28,800 years)	Between 35th and 30th century BC
Alalngar		10 sars (36,000 years)
"Then Eridug fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira."
En-men-lu-ana		12 sars (43,200 years)
En-men-gal-ana		8 sars (28,800 years)
Dumuzid, the Shepherd	"the shepherd"	10 sars (36,000 years)
"Then Bad-tibira fell and the kingship was taken to Larag."
En-sipad-zid-ana		8 sars (28,800 years)
"Then Larag fell and the kingship was taken to Zimbir."
En-men-dur-ana		5 sars and 5 ners (21,000 years)
"Then Zimbir fell and the kingship was taken to Shuruppag."
Ubara-Tutu		5 sars and 1 ner (18,600 years)
"Then the flood swept over." Excavations in Iraq have revealed evidence of localized flooding at Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq) and various other Sumerian cities. A layer of riverine sediments, radiocarbon dated to ca. 2900 BC, interrupts the continuity of settlement, extending as far north as the city of Kish. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period (3000-2900 BC) was discovered immediately below the Shuruppak flood stratum.

First Dynasty of Kish

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
"After the flood had swept over, and the kingship had descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish."
Jushur		1200 years	historicity uncertain	names before Etana do not appear in any other known source, and their existence is archaeologically unverified
Kullassina-bel		960 years
Nangishlishma		670 years
En-tarah-ana		420 years
Babum		300 years
Puannum		840 years
Kalibum		960 years
Kalumum		840 years
Zuqaqip		900 years
Atab (or A-ba)		600 years
Mashda	"the son of Atab"	840 years
Arwium	"the son of Mashda"	720 years
Etana	"the shepherd, who ascended to heaven and consolidated all the foreign countries"	1500 years
Balih	"the son of Etana"	400 years
En-me-nuna		660 years
Melem-Kish	"the son of En-me-nuna"	900 years
Barsal-nuna	("the son of En-me-nuna")*	1200 years
Zamug	"the son of Barsal-nuna"	140 years
Tizqar	"the son of Zamug"	305 years
Ilku		900 years
Iltasadum		1200 years
En-me-barage-si	"who made the land of Elam submit"	900 years	ca. 2600 BC	the earliest ruler on the List confirmed independently from epigraphical evidence
Aga of Kish	"the son of En-me-barage-si"	625 years	ca. 2600 BC	contemporary with Gilgamesh of Uruk, according to the Epic of Gilgamesh[15] Gilgameš and Aga Translation at ETCSL
"Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to E-ana."

First Dynasty of Uruk

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Mesh-ki-ang-gasher of E-ana	"the son of Utu"	324 years	ca. 27th
"Mesh-ki-ang-gasher entered the sea and disappeared."
Enmerkar	"the son of Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, the king of Unug, who built Unug (Uruk)"	420 years
Lugalbanda	"the shepherd"	1200 years
Dumuzid (Dumuzi)	"the fisherman whose city was Kuara." ("He captured En-me-barage-si single-handed.")*	100 years	ca. 2600 BC
Gilgamesh	"whose father was a phantom (?), the lord of Kulaba"	126 years	ca. 2600 BC	contemporary with Aga of Kish, according to the Epic of Gilgamesh
Ur-Nungal	"the son of Gilgamesh"	30 years
Udul-kalama	"the son of Ur-Nungal"	15 years
La-ba'shum		9 years
En-nun-tarah-ana		8 years
Mesh-he	"the smith"	36 years
Melem-ana		6 years
Lugal-kitun		36 years
"Then Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to Urim (Ur)."

First dynasty of Ur

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Mesh-Ane-pada		80 years	ca. 26th century BC
Mesh-ki-ang-Nanna	"the son of Mesh-Ane-pada"	36 years
Elulu		25 years
Balulu		36 years
"Then Urim was defeated and the kingship was taken to Awan."

Dynasty of Awan

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Three kings of Awan		356 years	ca. 26th century BC
"Then Awan was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish."

Second Dynasty of Kish

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Susuda	"the fuller"	201 years	ca. 26th century BC
Dadasig		81 years
Mamagal	"the boatman"	360 years
Kalbum	"the son of Mamagal"	195 years
Tuge		360 years
Men-nuna	"the son of Tuge"	180 years
(Enbi-Ishtar)		290 years
Lugalngu		360 years
"Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to Hamazi."

The First Dynasty of Lagash (ca. 2500 – ca. 2271 BC) is not mentioned in the King List, though it is well known from inscriptions

Dynasty of Hamazi

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Hadanish		360 years	ca. 2500 BC
"Then Hamazi was defeated and the kingship was taken to Unug (Uruk)."

Second Dynasty of Uruk

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
En-shag-kush-ana		60 years	ca. 25th century BC	said to have conquered parts of Sumer; then Eannatum of Lagash claims to have taken over Sumer, Kish, and all Mesopotamia.
Lugal-kinishe-dudu or Lugal-ure		120 years		contemporary with Entemena of Lagash
Argandea		7 years
"Then Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to Urim (Ur)."

Second Dynasty of Ur

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Nanni		120 years	ca. 25th century BC
Mesh-ki-ang-Nanna II	"the son of Nanni"	48 years
(?)		2 years
"Then Urim was defeated and the kingship was taken to Adab."

Dynasty of Adab

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Lugal-Ane-mundu		90 years	ca. 25th century BC	said to have conquered all Mesopotamia from the Persian Gulf to the Zagros Mountains and Elam
"Then Adab was defeated and the kingship was taken to Mari."

Dynasty of Mari

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Anbu		30 years	ca. 25th century BC
Anba	"the son of Anbu"	17 years
Bazi	"the leatherworker"	30 years
Zizi of Mari	"the fuller"	20 years
Limer	"the 'gudug' priest"	30 years
Sharrum-iter		9 years
"Then Mari was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish."

Third Dynasty of Kish

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Kug-Bau (Kubaba)	"the woman tavern-keeper, who made firm the foundations of Kish"	100 years	ca. 25th century BC	the only known woman in the King List; said to have gained independence from En-anna-tum I of Lagash and En-shag-kush-ana of Uruk; contemporary with Puzur-Nirah of Akshak, according to the later Chronicle of the É-sagila
"Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to Akshak."

Dynasty of Akshak

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Unzi		30 years	ca. 25th – 24th century BC
Undalulu		6 years
Urur		6 years
Puzur-Nirah		20 years		contemporary with Kug-Bau of Kish, according to the later Chronicle of É-sagila
Ishu-Il		24 years
Shu-Suen of Akshak	"the son of Ishu-Il"	7 years
"Then Akshak was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish."

Fourth Dynasty of Kish

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Puzur-Suen	"the son of Kug-Bau"	25 years	ca. 24th – 23rd century BC
Ur-Zababa	"the son of Puzur-Suen"	400 (6?) years	ca. 2300 BC	according to the king list, Sargon of Akkad was his cup-bearer
Zimudar		30 years
Usi-watar	"the son of Zimudar"	7 years
Eshtar-muti		11 years
Ishme-Shamash		11 years
(Shu-ilishu)*		(15 years)*
Nanniya	"the jeweller"	7 years	ca. 2303-2296 BC (short)
"Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to Unug (Uruk)."

Third Dynasty of Uruk

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Lugal-zage-si		25 years	ca. 2296–2271 BC (short)	said to have defeated Urukagina of Lagash, as well as Kish and other Sumerian cities, creating a unified kingdom; he in turn was overthrown by Sargon of Akkad
"Then Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to Agade (Akkad)"

Dynasty of Akkad

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Sargon of Akkad	"whose father was a gardener, the cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, became king, the king of Agade, who built Agade"	40 years	ca. 2270–2215 BC (short)	defeated Lugal-zage-si of Uruk, took over Sumer, and created the Akkadian Empire
Rimush of Akkad	"the son of Sargon"	9 years	ca. 2214–2206 BC (short)
Man-ishtishu	"the older brother of Rimush, the son of Sargon"	15 years	ca. 2205–2191 BC (short)
Naram-Sin of Akkad	"the son of Man-ishtishu"	56 years	ca. 2190–2154 BC (short)
Shar-kali-sharri	"the son of Naram-Sin"	25 years	ca. 2153–2129 BC (short)
"Then who was king? Who was the king?"
Irgigi Imi Nanum Ilulu	"and the 4 of them ruled for only 3 years"		ca. 2128–2125 BC (short)
Dudu of Akkad		21 years	ca. 2125–2104 BC (short)
Shu-Durul	"the son of Dudu"	15 years	ca. 2104–2083 BC (short)	Akkad falls to the Gutians
"Then Agade was defeated and the kingship was taken to Unug (Uruk)."

Fourth Dynasty of Uruk

(Possibly rulers of lower Mesopotamia contemporary with the Dynasty of Akkad)

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Ur-ningin		7 years	ca. 2091? – 2061? BC (short)
Ur-gigir	"the son of Ur-ningin"	6 years
Kuda		6 years
Puzur-ili		5 years
Ur-Utu (or Lugal-melem)	("the son of Ur-gigir")*	25 years
"Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to the army of Gutium."

The 2nd Dynasty of Lagash (before ca. 2093–2046 BC (short)) is not mentioned in the King List, though it is well known from inscriptions.

Gutian rule

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
"In the army of Gutium, at first no king was famous; they were their own kings and ruled thus for 3 years."
Inkishush		6 years	ca. 2147–2050 BC (short)
Zarlagab		6 years
Shulme (or Yarlagash)		6 years
Silulumesh (or Silulu)		6 years
Inimabakesh (or Duga)		5 years
Igeshaush (or Ilu-An)		6 years
Yarlagab		3 years
Ibate of Gutium		3 years
Yarla (or Yarlangab)		3 years
Kurum		1 year
Apilkin		3 years
La-erabum		2 years		mace head inscription
Irarum		2 years
Ibranum		1 year
Hablum		2 years
Puzur-Suen	"the son of Hablum"	7 years
Yarlaganda		7 years		foundation inscription at Umma
(?)		7 years		Si-um or Si-u? — foundation inscription at Umma
Tirigan		40 days		defeated by Utu-hengal of Uruk
"Then the army of Gutium was defeated and the kingship taken to Unug (Uruk)."

Fifth Dynasty of Uruk

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Utu-hengal		conflicting dates (427 years / 26 years / 7 years)	ca. 2055–2048 BC (short)	defeats Tirigan and the Gutians, appoints Ur-Namma governor of Ur
"Then Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to Urim (Ur)."

Third Dynasty of Ur

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Ur-Namma (Ur-Nammu)		18 years	ca. 2047–2030 BC (short)	defeats Nammahani of Lagash; contemporary of Utu-hengal of Uruk
Shulgi	"the son of Ur-Namma"	46 years	ca. 2029–1982 BC (short)	possible lunar/solar eclipse 2005 BC
Amar-Suena	"the son of Shulgi"	9 years	ca. 1981–1973 BC (short)
Shu-Suen	"the son of Amar-Suena"	9 years	ca. 1972–1964 BC (short)
Ibbi-Suen	"the son of Shu-Suen"	24 years	ca. 1963–1940 BC (short)
"Then Urim was defeated. The very foundation of Sumer was torn out. The kingship was taken to Isin."

Independent Amorite states in lower Mesopotamia. The Dynasty of Larsa (ca. 1961–1674 BC (short)) from this period is not mentioned in the King List.

Dynasty of Isin

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Ishbi-Erra		33 years	ca. 1953–1730 BC (short)	contemporary of Ibbi-Suen of Ur
Shu-Ilishu	"the son of Ishbi-Erra"	20 years
Iddin-Dagan	"the son of Shu-ilishu"	20 years
Ishme-Dagan	"the son of Iddin-Dagan"	20 years
Lipit-Eshtar	"the son of Ishme-Dagan (or Iddin-Dagan)"	11 years		contemporary of Gungunum of Larsa
Ur-Ninurta	("the son of Ishkur, may he have years of abundance, a good reign, and a sweet life")*	28 years		Contemporary of Abisare of Larsa
Bur-Suen	"the son of Ur-Ninurta"	21 years
Lipit-Enlil	"the son of Bur-Suen"	5 years
Erra-imitti		8 years
Enlil-bani		24 years		contemporary of Sumu-la-El of Babylon. During his reign, the king's gardener, to celebrate the New Year was named 'king for a day' then sacrificed, the "king" died during the celebration; Enlil-Bani remained on the throne.
Zambiya		3 years		contemporary of Sin-Iqisham of Larsa
Iter-pisha		4 years
Ur-du-kuga		4 years
Suen-magir		11 years
(Damiq-ilishu)*	("the son of Suen-magir")*	(23 years)*

* These epithets or names are not included in all versions of the king list.

See also

• Chronology of the Ancient Near East
• Cities of the ancient Near East
• History of Sumer
• Kings of Assyria
• List of kings of Iraq
• List of lists of ancient kings
• List of Mesopotamian dynasties
• Short chronology timeline

Literature

• Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Sumerian King List. Oriental Institute, Assyriological Studies 11, University of Chicago Press, 1939
• Rowton, M. B. The Date of the Sumerian King List, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 156–162, 1960
• P. Steinkeller, An Ur III Manuscript of the Sumerian King List. In Literatur, Politik und Recht in Mesopotamien: Festschrift fur Claus Wilcke, ed. W. Sallaberger et al., Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 267–92, 2003
• Young, Dwight W. The Incredible Regnal Spans of Kish I in the Sumerian King List, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 23–35, 1991
• Hallo, William W. Beginning and End of the Sumerian King List in the Nippur Recension, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 52–57, 1963
• Vincente, Claudine-Adrienne, "The Tall Leilan Recension of the Sumerian King List", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 50 (1995), 234–270
• Friberg, Jöran. "The Beginning and the End of the Sumerian King List", in A remarkable collection of Babylonian mathematical texts: Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection Cuneiform Texts I, Springer, 2007, ISBN 0-387-34543-4
• Michalowski, Piotr. History as Charter Some Observations on the Sumerian King List, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 103, no. 1, pp. 237–248, 1983
• Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles, Brill, 2005, ISBN 90-04-13084-5
• J. J. Finkelstein, The Antediluvian Kings: A University of California Tablet, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 39–51, 1963
• Albrecht Goetze, Early Kings of Kish, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 105–111, 1961
• Thomas Jacobs, The Sumerian King List, UGent paper, GONO department

Nimrod as Sargon the Great

Because another of the cities said to have been built by Nimrod was Accad, an older theory, proposed by 1910, connects him with Sargon the Great, grandfather of Naram-Sin, since, according to the Sumerian king list, that king first built Agade (Akkad). Sargon was known from archaeology by 1860, and for some time remained the earliest-known Mesopotamian ruler. The assertion of the king list that it was Sargon who built Akkad has since been called into question, however, with the discovery of inscriptions mentioning the place in the reigns of some of Sargon's predecessors, such as kings Enshakushanna and Lugal-Zage-Si of Uruk. Moreover, Sargon was credited with founding Babylon in the Babylonian Chronicle (ABC 19:51), another city (Babel) attributed to Nimrod in Genesis. However, a different tablet (ABC 20:18-19) suggests that Sargon merely "dug up the dirt of the pit" of the original Babylon, and rebuilt it in its later location fronting Akkad.

This page is about the Akkadian king.For the Assyrian kings, see Sargon Iand Sargon II.

Sargon
King of Akkad
Bust of an Akkadian ruler, probably Sargon, Nineveh, c. 23rd – 22nd century BC. This bust might depict Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin
Reign	c. 2334  BC – 2279  BC
Full name	Šarru-kin ("the true King" or "the legitimate King")
Titles	King of Kish, Lagash, Umma, Uruk, overlord of Sumer, Elam, Mari, and Yarmuti
Birthplace	Azupiranu, Mesopotamia
Place of death	Akkad, Mesopotamia
Successor	Rimush
Consort to	Tashlultum
Issue	Enheduanna, Rimush, Manishtushu, Ibarum, and Abaish-Takal
Royal House	House of Sargon
Dynasty	Akkadian dynasty
Father	La'ibum (natural) Akki (foster-)

Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great "the Great King" (Akkadian 𒈗𒁺 Šarru-kīnu, meaning "the true king" or "the king is legitimate"), was a Semitic Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 23rd and 22nd centuries BC. The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned during the last quarter of the third millennium BC. Cuneiform sources agree that he was cup-bearer (official in charge of wine) of king Ur-Zababa of Kish, and some later historians have speculated that he killed the king and usurped his throne before embarking on the quest to conquer Mesopotamia. He was originally referred to as Sargon I until records concerning an Assyrian king also named Sargon (now usually referred to as Sargon I) were unearthed.

Sargon's vast empire is thought to have included large parts of Mesopotamia, and included parts of modern-day Iran, Asia Minor and Syria. He ruled from a new, but as yet archaeologically unidentified capital, Akkad, which the Sumerian king list claims he built (or possibly renovated). He is sometimes regarded as the first person in recorded history to create a multiethnic, centrally ruled empire, although the Sumerians Lugal-anne-mundu and Lugal-zage-si also have a claim. His dynasty controlled Mesopotamia for around a century and a half.

Origins and rise to power

The exact dates of Sargon's birth, death or even reign are unknown. According to the short chronology, he reigned from 2270 to 2215 BC (the Middle Chronology lists his reign as 2334 to 2279 BC). These dates are based on the Sumerian king list. There is discussion among Assyriologists over whether or not the name Sargon was given at birth or a regnal name adopted later in life.

The story of Sargon's birth and childhood is given in the "Sargon legend", a Sumerian text purporting to be Sargon's biography. The extant versions are incomplete, but the surviving fragments name Sargon's father as La'ibum. After a lacuna, the text skips to Ur-Zababa, king of Kish, who awakens after a dream, the contents of which are not revealed on the surviving portion of the tablet. For unknown reasons, Ur-Zababa appoints Sargon as his cup-bearer. Soon after this, Ur-Zababa invites Sargon to his chambers to discuss a dream of Sargon's, involving the favor of the goddess Inanna and the drowning of Ur-Zababa by the goddess. Deeply frightened, Ur-Zababa orders Sargon murdered by the hands of Beliš-tikal, the chief smith, but Inanna prevents it, demanding that Sargon stop at the gates because of his being "polluted with blood." When Sargon returns to Ur-Zababa, the king becomes frightened again, and decides to send Sargon to king Lugal-zage-si of Uruk with a message on a clay tablet asking him to slay Sargon. The legend breaks off at this point; presumably, the missing sections described how Sargon becomes king.

The Sumerian king list relates: "In Agade [Akkad], Sargon, whose father was a gardener, the cup-bearer of Ur-Zababa, became king, the king of Agade, who built Agade; he ruled for 56 years." There are several problems with this entry in the king list. Thorkild Jacobsen marked the clause about Sargon's father being a gardener as a lacuna, indicating his uncertainty about its meaning. Ur-Zababa and Lugal-zage-si are both listed as kings, but separated by several additional named rulers of Kish, who seem to have been merely governors or vassals under the Akkadian Empire. The claim that Sargon was the original founder of Akkad has come into question in recent years, with the discovery of an inscription mentioning the place and dated to the first year of Enshakushanna, who almost certainly preceded him. The Weidner Chronicle (ABC 19:51) states that it was Sargon who built Babylon "in front of Akkad." The Chronicle of Early Kings (ABC 20:18-19) likewise states that late in his reign, Sargon "dug up the soil of the pit of Babylon, and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Agade." Van de Mieroop suggested that those two chronicles may in fact refer to the much later Assyrian king, Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, rather than to Sargon of Akkad.

Sargon survives as a legendary figure into the Neo-Assyrian literature of the Early Iron Age. Tablets with fragments of a Sargon Birth Legend were found in the Library of Ashurbanipal from the 7th century BC. According to this legend, Sargon was the illegitimate son of a priestess (older translations describe his mother as lowly). She brought him forth in secret and placed him in a basket of reeds on the river. He was found by Akki the irrigator who raised him as his own son.

Formation of the Akkadian Empire

Map of the Akkadian Empire (brown) and the directions in which military campaigns were conducted (yellow arrows)

After coming to power in Kish, Sargon soon attacked Uruk, which was ruled by Lugal-Zage-Si of Umma. He captured Uruk and dismantled its famous walls. The defenders seem to have fled the city, joining an army led by fifty ensis from the provinces. This Sumerian force fought two pitched battles against the Akkadians, as a result of which the remaining forces of Lugal-Zage-Si were routed. Lugal-Zage-Si himself was captured and brought to Nippur; Sargon inscribed on the pedestal of a statue (preserved in a later tablet) that he brought Lugal-Zage-Si "in a dog collar to the gate of Enlil." Sargon pursued his enemies to Ur before moving eastwards to Lagash, to the Persian Gulf, and thence to Umma. He made a symbolic gesture of washing his weapons in the "lower sea" (Persian Gulf) to show that he had conquered Sumer in its entirety.

Another victory Sargon celebrated was over Kashtubila, king of Kazalla. According to one ancient source, Sargon laid the city of Kazalla to waste so effectively "that the birds could not find a place to perch away from the ground."

To help limit the chance of revolt in Sumer he appointed a court of 5,400 men to "share his table" (i.e., to administer his empire). These 5,400 men may have constituted Sargon's army. The governors chosen by Sargon to administer the main city-states of Sumer were Akkadians, not Sumerians. The Semitic Akkadian language became the lingua franca, the official language of inscriptions in all Mesopotamia, and of great influence far beyond. Sargon's empire maintained trade and diplomatic contacts with kingdoms around the Arabian Sea and elsewhere in the Near East. Sargon's inscriptions report that ships from Magan, Meluhha, and Dilmun, among other places, rode at anchor in his capital of Agade.

The former religious institutions of Sumer, already well-known and emulated by the Semites, were respected. Sumerian remained, in large part, the language of religion and Sargon and his successors were patrons of the Sumerian cults. Sargon styled himself "anointed priest of Anu" and "great ensi of Enlil". While Sargon is often credited with the first true empire, Lugal-Zage-Si preceded him; after coming to power in Umma he had conquered or otherwise come into possession of Ur, Uruk, Nippur, and Lagash. Lugal-Zage-Si claimed rulership over lands as far away as the Mediterranean.

While various copies of the Sumerian king list credit Sargon with a 56, 55, or 54 year reign, dated documents have been found for only four different year-names of his actual reign. The names of these four years describe his campaigns against Elam, Mari, Simurrum (a Hurrian region), and Uru'a (an Elamite city-state). His Akkadian dynasty continued another century after his reign.

Wars in the northwest and east

Shortly after securing Sumer, Sargon embarked on a series of campaigns to subjugate the entire Fertile Crescent. According to the Chronicle of Early Kings, a later Babylonian historiographical text:

“

[Sargon] had neither rival nor equal. His splendor, over the lands it diffused. He crossed the sea in the east. In the eleventh year he conquered the western land to its farthest point. He brought it under one authority. He set up his statues there and ferried the west's booty across on barges. He stationed his court officials at intervals of five double hours and ruled in unity the tribes of the lands. He marched to Kazallu and turned Kazallu into a ruin heap, so that there was not even a perch for a bird left.

”

Sargon captured Mari, Yarmuti, and Ebla as far as the Cedar Forest (Amanus) and the silver mountain (Taurus). The Akkadian Empire secured trade routes and supplies of wood and precious metals could be safely and freely floated down the Euphrates to Akkad.

In the east, Sargon defeated an invasion by the four leaders of Elam, led by the king of Awan. Their cities were sacked; the governors, viceroys, and kings of Susa, Barhashe, and neighboring districts became vassals of Akkad, and the Akkadian language became the lingua franca of the entire region. During Sargon's reign, Akkadian was standardized and adapted for use with the cuneiform script previously used in the Sumerian language. A style of calligraphy developed in which text on clay tablets and cylinder seals was arranged amidst scenes of mythology and ritual.

Later reign

The Epic of the King of the Battle is known from an Akkadian-language tablet in the Amarna archives; translations have since been discovered in Hittite and Hurrian. It depicts Sargon advancing deep into the heart of Anatolia to protect Akkadian and other Mesopotamian merchants from the exactions of the King of Purushanda (Purshahanda). It is anachronistic, however, portraying the 23rd-century Sargon in a 19th-century milieu; the story is thus probably fictional, though it may have some basis in historical fact. The same text mentions that Sargon crossed the Sea of the West (Mediterranean Sea) and ended up in Kuppara, which some authors have interpreted as the Akkadian word for Keftiu, an ancient locale usually associated with Crete or Cyprus.

Famine and war threatened Sargon's empire during the latter years of his reign. The Chronicle of Early Kings reports that revolts broke out throughout the area under the last years of his overlordship:

“

Afterward in his [Sargon's] old age all the lands revolted against him, and they besieged him in Akkad; and Sargon went onward to battle and defeated them; he accomplished their overthrow, and their widespreading host he destroyed. Afterward he attacked the land of Subartu in his might, and they submitted to his arms, and Sargon settled that revolt, and defeated them; he accomplished their overthrow, and their widespreading host he destroyed, and he brought their possessions into Akkad. The soil from the trenches of Babylon he removed, and the boundaries of Akkad he made like those of Babylon. But because of the evil which he had committed, the great lord Marduk was angry, and he destroyed his people by famine. From the rising of the sun unto the setting of the sun they opposed him and gave him no rest.

”

However Oppenheim translates the last sentence as "From the East to the West he [i.e. Marduk] alienated (them) from him and inflicted upon (him as punishment) that he could not rest (in his grave)."

Later literature proposes that the rebellions and other troubles of Sargon's later reign were the result of sacrilegious acts committed by the king. Modern consensus is that the veracity of these claims are impossible to determine, as disasters were virtually always attributed to sacrilege inspiring divine wrath in ancient Mesopotamian literature.

Legacy

Family tree of Sargon of Akkad

Sargon died, according to the short chronology, around 2215 BC. His empire immediately revolted upon hearing of the king's death. Most of the revolts were put down by his son and successor Rimush, who reigned for nine years and was followed by another of Sargon's sons, Manishtushu (who reigned for 15 years). Sargon was regarded as a model by Mesopotamian kings for some two millennia after his death. The Assyrian and Babylonian kings who based their empires in Mesopotamia saw themselves as the heirs of Sargon's empire. Kings such as Nabonidus (r. 556–539 BC) showed great interest in the history of the Sargonid dynasty, and even conducted excavations of Sargon's palaces and those of his successors. Indeed, such later rulers may have been inspired by the king's conquests to embark on their own campaigns throughout the Middle East. The Neo-Assyrian Sargon text challenges his successors thus:

“

The black-headed peoples I ruled, I governed; mighty mountains with axes of bronze I destroyed. I ascended the upper mountains; I burst through the lower mountains. The country of the sea I besieged three times; Dilmun I captured. Unto the great Dur-ilu I went up, I ... I altered ... Whatsoever king shall be exalted after me, ... Let him rule, let him govern the black-headed peoples; mighty mountains with axes of bronze let him destroy; let him ascend the upper mountains, let him break through the lower mountains; the country of the sea let him besiege three times; Dilmun let him capture; To great Dur-ilu let him go up.

”

Another source attributed to Sargon the challenge "now, any king who wants to call himself my equal, wherever I went [conquered], let him go."

Family

The name of Sargon's main wife, Queen Tashlultum, and those of a number of his children are known to us. His daughter Enheduanna, who flourished during the late 24th and early 23rd centuries BC, was a priestess who composed ritual hymns. Many of her works, including her Exaltation of Inanna, were in use for centuries thereafter. Sargon was succeeded by his son, Rimush; after Rimush's death another son, Manishtushu, became king. Manishtushu would be succeeded by his own son, who was the grandson of Sargon the Great, Naram-Sin. Two other sons, Shu-Enlil (Ibarum) and Ilaba'is-takal (Abaish-Takal), are known.

In comparative mythology

The similarities between the Neo-Assyrian Sargon Birth Legend and other infant birth exposures in ancient literature, including Moses, Karna, and Oedipus were noted by Otto Rank in 1909. The legend was also studied in detail by Brian Lewis and compared with a number of different examples of the infant birth exposure motif found in European and Asian folk tales. He discusses a possible archetype form giving particular attention to the Sargon legend and the account of the birth of Moses. Joseph Campbell has also made such comparisions.

Sargon is one of the many suggestions for the identity or inspiration for the biblical Nimrod. Ewing William (1910) suggested Sargon based on his unification of the Babylonians and the Neo-Assyrian birth legend. Yigal Levin (2002) suggested that Nimrod was a recollection of Sargon and of his grandson Naram-Sin, with the name "Nimrod" derived from the latter.

See also

• History of Mesopotamia
• List of kings of Akkad

References

• Beaulieu, Paul-Alain, et al. A Companion to the Ancient near East. Blackwell, 2005.
• Botsforth, George W., ed. "The Reign of Sargon". A Source-Book of Ancient History. New York: Macmillan, 1912.
• Bromiley, Geoffrey (Revised edition (31 Dec 1996)). 《The international standard Bible encyclopedia》. William B Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-3784-4. 
• Chavalas, Mark William (2006년 6월 29일). 《The ancient Near East: historical sources in translation》. Wiley-Blackwell. 23쪽. ISBN 978-0-631-23580-4. 
• Cooper, Jerrold S. and Wolfgang Heimpel. "The Sumerian Sargon Legend." Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 103, No. 1, (Jan.-Mar. 1983).
• Stephanie Dalley, Babylon as a Name for Other Cities Including Nineveh, in [16] Proceedings of the 51st Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Oriental Institute SAOC 62, pp. 25–33, 2005
• Frayne, Douglas R. "Sargonic and Gutian Period." The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Vol. 2. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1993.
• Glassner, Jean-Jacques. Mesopotamian Chronicles, Atlanta, 2004.
• Grayson, Albert Kirk. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. J. J. Augustin, 1975; Eisenbrauns, 2000.
• Hallo, W. and J. J. A. Van Dijk. The Exaltation of Inanna. Yale Univ. Press, 1968.
• Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Sumerian King List, Assyriological Studies, No. 11, Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1939.
• King, L. W., Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings, II, London, 1907, pp.  87–96.
• Kramer, S. Noah. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character, Chicago, 1963.
• Kramer, S. Noah. History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine "Firsts" in Recorded History. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1981.
• Levin, Yigal. "Nimrod the Mighty, King of Kish, King of Sumer and Akkad." Vetus Testementum 52 (2002).
• Lewis, Brian. The Sargon Legend: A Study of the Akkadian Text and the Tale of the Hero Who Was Exposed at Birth. American Schools of Oriental Research Dissertation Series, No. 4. Cambridge, MA: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1984.
• MacKenzie, Donald A. Myths of Babylonia and Assyria. Gresham, 1900.
• Nougayrol, J. Revue Archeologique, XLV (1951), pp. 169 ff.
• Oates, John. Babylon. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979.
• Oppenheim, A. Leo (translator). Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3d ed. James B. Pritchard, ed. Princeton: University Press, 1969.
• Postgate, Nicholas. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. Routledge, 1994.
• Rank, Otto. The Myth of the Birth of the Hero. Vintage Books: New York, 1932.
• Michael Roaf (1992). 《Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East》. Stonehenge Press. ISBN 978-0-86706-681-4. 2011년 7월 29일에 확인함. 
• Roux, G. Ancient Iraq, London, 1980.
• Sallaberger, Walther; Westenholz, Aage (1999), 《Mesopotamien. Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit》, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 160/3, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ISBN 3-525-53325-X 
• Schomp, Virginia. Ancient Mesopotamia. Franklin Watts, 2005. ISBN 0-531-16741-0
• Strange, John. "Caphtor/Keftiu: A New Investigation." Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 102, No. 2 (Apr.–Jun., 1982), pp. 395–396
• Studevent-Hickman, Benjamin; Morgan, Christopher (2006). 〈Old Akkadian Period Texts〉. Chavalas, Mark William. 《The ancient Near East: historical sources in translation》. Wiley-Blackwell. 24–27쪽. ISBN 978-0-631-23580-4. 
• Tetlow, Elisabeth Meier (2004). 《Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society: The ancient Near East》. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-1628-5. 2011년 7월 29일에 확인함. 
• Van de Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000–323 BC. Blackwell, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4051-4911-2.
• Van de Mieroop, Marc., Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History, Routledge, 1999.
• Vandersleyen, Claude. "Keftiu: A Cautionary Note." Oxford Journal of Archaeology. Vol. 22 Issue 2 Page 209 (2003).
• Wainright, G.A. "Asiatic Keftiu." American Journal of Archaeology. Vol. 56, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 196–212.

Further reading

• Albright, W. F., A Babylonian Geographical Treatise on Sargon of Akkad's Empire, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1925).
• Alotte De La Fuye, M. Documents présargoniques, Paris, 1908–20.
• Biggs, R.D. Inscriptions from Tell Abu Salabikh, Chicago, 1974.
• Deimel, A. Die Inschriften von Fara, Leipzig, 1922–24.
• Gadd, C.J. "The Dynasty of Agade and the Gutian Invasion." Cambridge Ancient History, rev. ed., vol. 1, ch. 19. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1963.
• Jestin, R. Tablettes Sumériennes de Shuruppak, Paris, 1937.
• Luckenbill, D. D., On the Opening Lines of the Legend of Sargon, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures (1917).
• Sollberger, E. Corpus des Inscriptions 'Royales' Présargoniques de Lagash, Paris, 1956.

작위
이전 Ur-Zababa	King of Kish ? – 2270 BC (short)	이후 Rimush
이전 Lugal-Zage-Si	King of Uruk, Lagash, and Umma ca. 2270–2215 BC (short)
새 칭호	King of Akkad ca. 2270–2215 BC (short)
이전 Luh-ishan of Awan	Overlord of Elam ca. 2270–2215 BC (short)

Nimrod as Sargon the Great · Naram-Sin

Inscription of Naram Sin found at the city of Marad

Yigal Levin (2002) suggests that Nimrod was a recollection of Sargon of Akkad and of his grandson Naram-Sin, with the name "Nimrod" derived from the latter.

Naram-Suen (Naram-Sin) may refer to any of four kings in the history of Mesopotamia:

• Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2190–2154 BC), an Akkadian king, the most famous of the four
• Naram-Sin of Assyria (c. 1872-1845 BC), an Assyrian king
• Naram-Sin of Uruk (c. 19th century BC), a king of Uruk known from a single inscription
• Naram-Suen of Eshnunna (c. 19th century BC), a king of Eshnunna

This page is about the Akkadian king.For other historical figures of the name, see Naram-Suen|Naram-Suen (disambiguation)|Naram-Suen.

Naram-Sin
Naram-Sin depicted on his victory stele
Born	Naram-Sin
Other names	Naram-Suen
Predecessor	Manishtushu
Successor	Shar-Kali-Sharri
Children	Shar-Kali-Sharri
Parents	Manishtushu (father) unknown mother
Relatives	Sargon of Akkad (grandfather) Tashlultum (grandmother) Rimush (uncle) En-hedu-ana (aunt)

Naram-Sin (also transcribed Narām-Sîn, Naram-Suen, Sin or Suen being the Akkadians' moon god equivalent to the Sumerian Nanna), reigned ca. 2254–2218 BCE, middle chronology, was the third successor and grandson of King Sargon of Akkad. Under Naram-Sin the Akkadian Empire reached its zenith. He was the first Mesopotamian king known to have claimed divinity for himself, and one of the first (following the earlier Lugal-Anne-Mundu) to be called "King of the Four Quarters".

Biography

Naram-Sin was born as a son of Manishtushu. He was thus a nephew of King Rimush and grandson of Sargon and Tashlultum. Naram-Sin's aunt was the High Priestess En-hedu-ana.

Reign

Naram-Sin traded with Meluhha (possibly corresponding to the Indus Valley civilization), and controlled a large portion of land along the Persian Gulf. He expanded his empire by defeating the King of Magan at the southern end of the Persian Gulf, and conquering the hill tribes to the north in the Taurus Mountains. His famous "Victory Stele" depicts his triumph over Satuni, chief of Lullubi in the Zagros Mountains. The king list gives the length of his reign as 56 years, and at least 20 of his year-names are known, referring to military actions against various places such as Uruk and Subartu. One unknown year was recorded as "the Year when Naram-Sin was victorious against Simurrum in Kirasheniwe, and took prisoner Baba the governor of Simurrum, and Dubul the ensi of Arame". Other year names refer to his construction work on temples in Akkad, Nippur, and Zabala. He also built administrative centers at Nagar and Nineveh.

One Mesopotamian myth has it that the goddess Inanna abandoned the former capital of Akkad following Naram-Sin's plunder of the Ekur (temple of the god Enlil) in Nippur. In his anger, Enlil brought the Gutians down from the hills east of the Tigris, to bring plague, famine and death throughout Mesopotamia. To prevent this destruction, eight of the gods decreed that the city of Akkad should be destroyed to spare the remaining cities. While this story may be mythological, it does suggest that Gutian raids were already beginning during this period.

Soon after the death of Naram-Sin, the Akkadian Empire came under increasing pressure from Gutian incursions. By around 2124 BC, all Akkad was in the hands of the Gutians. The Gutians remained there for 125 years before being replaced by the Ur III state as the dominant political power.

Victory stele

The Victory stele of Naram-Sin

Naram-Sin's famed victory stele depicts him as a god-king (symbolized by his horned helmet) climbing a mountain above his soldiers, and his enemies, the defeated Lullubi. Although the stele was broken off at the top when it was stolen and carried off by the Elamites, it still strikingly reveals the pride, glory, and divinity of Naram-Sin. The stele broke from tradition by using successive diagonal tiers, rather than a horizontal format, to communicate the story to viewers. It is six feet and seven inches tall, and made from pink sandstone. The stele was found at Susa, and is now in the Louvre Museum. A similar bas-relief depicting Naram-Sin was found a few miles north-east of Diarbekr, at Pir Hüseyin.

Children

The only known son of Naram-Sin was his successor Shar-Kali-Sharri.

See also

• Bassetki Statue
• History of Sumer
• Sumerian king list

Sources

• H.W.F. Saggs, The Babylonians, Fourth Printing, 1988, Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
• J. P. Naab, E. Unger, Die Entdeckung der Stele des Naram-Sin in Pir Hüseyin, Istanbul Asariatika Nesriyati XII (1934)[17].

External links

• Victory Stele of Naram-Sin

Nimrod as one of the founders of Masonry

Nimrod figures in some very early versions of the history of Freemasonry, where he was said to have been one of the fraternity's founders. According to the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry: The legend of the Craft in the Old Constitutions refers to Nimrod as one of the founders of Masonry. Thus in the York MS., No. 1, we read: "At ye making of ye toure of Babell there was a Masonrie first much esteemed of, and the King of Babilon yt called Nimrod was a Mason himself and loved well Masons." However, he does not figure in the current rituals.

Nimrod as Nyyrikki

The demon Nyyrikki, figuring in the Finnish Kalevala as a helper of Lemminkäinen, is associated with Nimrod by some researchers and linguists.

Nyyrikki is the Finnish god of the hunt, and son of Tapio. He has been tenuously associated with Nimrod.

칼레발라(Kalevala)는 핀란드의 국민 서사시이다. 엘리아스 뢴로트가 주로 카리알라 지방에서 수집한 시를 바탕으로 1835년에 32편으로, 다시 1849년에 50편으로 출판하였다. 칼레발라는 핀란드를 시적으로 이르는 말로 '영웅들의 나라'라는 뜻이다.

주요 내용은 천지 창조의 이야기와 예언자 베이네뫼이넨, 대장장이 일마리넨, 전형적인 협객 레민케이넨 등 세 사람이 북쪽 나라 포흐욜라의 로우히 여왕의 딸에게 구혼하러 가는 이야기이다. 장 시벨리우스의 음악에 상당한 영향을 주었다.

현재 영어판을 중역한 형태로 한국어판이 발간되어 있다.

핀란드에서는 매년 2월 28일을 '칼레발라의 날'로 기념하고 있다.

The Kalevala
Kalevala The Finnish national epic by Elias Lönnrot. First edition, 1835.
Author(s)	Elias Lönnrot
Original title	Kalevala
Translator	John Addison Porter, John Martin Crawford, William Forsell Kirby, Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr., Eino Friberg & Keith Bosley
Country	Grand Duchy of Finland now Republic of Finland
Language	Finnish, translated multiple times.
Genre(s)	Epic poetry, National epic
Publisher	J. C. Frenckellin ja Poika and many others.
Publication date	Old Kalevala: 1835 - New Kalevala: 1849
Published in English	1888, 1907, 1963 & 1989
Pages	Old Kalevala: vol 1, 208pp. vol 2, 334pp - New Kalevala: ~500pp

The Kalevala (IPA: [ˈkɑle̞ʋɑlɑ]) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.

It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. The Kalevala played an instrumental role in the development of the Finnish national identity, the intensification of Finland's language strife and the growing sense of nationality that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.

The first version of The Kalevala (called The Old Kalevala) was published in 1835. The version most commonly known today was first published in 1849 and consists of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty songs (Finnish: runot). The title can be interpreted as "The land of Kaleva" or "Kalevia".

Collection and compilation

Elias Lönnrot

Main article: Elias Lönnrot

Elias Lönnrot (9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a physician, botanist and linguist. During the time he was compiling The Kalevala he was the district health officer based in Kajaani responsible for the whole Kainuu region in the eastern part of what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland. He was the son of Fredrik Johan Lönnrot, a tailor and Ulrika Lönnrot; he was born in the village of Sammatti, Uusimaa.

At the age of 20, he entered the University in Turku and obtained a masters degree in 1827. His thesis was entitled De Vainamoine priscorum fennorum numine (Väinämöinen, a Divinity of the Ancient Finns). This was destroyed in the Great Fire of Turku the same year.

In the spring of 1828, he set out with the aim of collecting folk songs and poetry. Rather than continue this work though, he decided to complete his studies and entered Helsinki University to study medicine. He earned a masters degree 1832. In January 1833, he started as the district health officer of Kainuu and began his work on collecting poetry and compiling The Kalevala. Throughout his career Lönnrot made a total of eleven field trips within a period of fifteen years.

Prior to the publication of The Kalevala, Elias Lönnrot compiled several related works including the three-part Kantele (1829–1831) the Old Kalevala (1835) and the Kanteletar (1840).

Lönnrot's field trips and endeavours not only helped him to compile The Kalevala but they also brought considerable enjoyment to the people he visited; he would spend much time retelling what he had collected as well as learning new poems.

Poetry

The statue of Väinämöinen by Robert Stigell (1888) decorates the Vanha Ylioppilastalo (old house of Helsinki University students) built in 1870 in Helsinki, Finland.

History

Before the 18th century the Kalevala poetry was common throughout Finland and Karelia but in the 18th century it began to disappear in Finland, first in western Finland, because European rhymed poetry became more common in Finland. Finnish folk poetry was first written down in the 17th century and collected by hobbyists and scholars through the following centuries. Despite this, the majority of Finnish poetry remained only in the oral tradition.

Finnish born nationalist and linguist Kaarle Akseli Gottlund (1796–1875) expressed his desire for a Finnish epic in a similar vein to The Iliad, Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied compiled from the various poems and songs spread over most of Finland. He hoped that such an endeavour would incite a sense of nationality and independence in the native Finnish people. In 1820, Reinhold von Becker founded the journal Turun Wiikko-Sanomat (Turku Weekly News) and published three articles entitled Väinämöisestä (Concerning Väinämöinen). These works were an inspiration for Elias Lönnrot in creating his masters thesis at Turku University.

In the 19th century, collecting became more extensive, systematic and organised. Altogether, almost half a million pages of verse have been collected and archived by the Finnish Literature Society and other collectors in Estonia and the Republic of Karelia. The publication Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (Ancient Poems of the Finns) published 33 volumes containing 85,000 items of poetry over a period of 40 years. They have also archived 65,000 items of poetry that remain unpublished. By the end of the 19th century this pastime of collecting material relating to Karelia and the developing orientation towards eastern lands had become a fashion called Karelianism, a form of national romanticism.

The chronology of this oral tradition is uncertain. The oldest themes (the origin of Earth) have been interpreted to have their roots in distant, unrecorded history and could be as old as 3,000 years. The newest events (e.g. the arrival of Christianity) seem to be from the Iron Age. Finnish folklorist Kaarle Krohn proposes that 20 of the 45 poems of The Kalevala are of possible Ancient Estonian origin or they at least deal with a motif of Estonian origin (of the remainder, two are Ingrian and 23 are Western Finnish).

It is understood that during the Finnish reformation in the 16th century the clergy forbade all telling and singing of pagan rites and stories. In conjunction with the arrival of European poetry and music this caused a significant reduction in the number of traditional folk songs and their singers. Thus the tradition faded somewhat but was never totally eradicated.

Lönnrot's field trips

A caricature of Elias Lönnrot by A. W. Linsen "Unus homo nobis currendo restituit rem" – One man saved a kingdom for us by running

In total, Lönnrot made eleven field trips in search of poetry. His first trip was made in 1828 after his graduation from Turku University, but it was not until 1831 and his second field trip that the real work began. By that time he had already published three articles entitled Kantele and had significant notes to build upon. This second trip was not very successful and he was called back to Helsinki to attend to victims of the Second cholera pandemic.

The third field trip was much more successful and led Elias Lönnrot to Viena in east Karelia where he visited the town of Akonlahti, which proved most successful. This trip yielded over 3,000 verses and copious notes. In 1833, Lönnrot moved to Kajaani where he was to spend the next 20 years as the district health officer for the region. His fourth field trip was undertaken in conjunction with his work as a doctor; a 10-day jaunt into Viena. This trip resulted in 49 poems and almost 3,000 new lines of verse. It was during this trip that Lönnrot formulated the idea that the poems might represent a wider continuity when poem entities were performed to him along with comments in normal speech connecting them.

On the fifth field trip, Lönnrot met Arhippa Perttunen who provided a large portion of the verses for The Kalevala. He also met a singer called Matiska in the hamlet of Lonkka on the Russian side of the border. While this singer had somewhat of a poor memory, he did help to fill in many gaps in the work Lönnrot had already catalogued. This trip resulted in the discovery of almost 300 poems at just over 13,000 verses.

In autumn of 1834, Lönnrot had written the vast majority of the work needed for what was to become The Old Kalevala; all that was required was to tie up some narrative loose ends and officially complete the work. His sixth field trip took him into Kuhmo, a municipality in Kainuu to the south of Viena. There he collected over 4,000 verses and completed the first draft of his work. He wrote the foreword and published in February of the following year.

With the Old Kalevala now well into its first publication run, Lönnrot decided to continue collecting poems to supplement his existing work and to understand the culture more completely. The seventh field trip took him on a long winding path through the southern and eastern parts of the Viena poem singing region. He was delayed significantly in Kuhmo because of bad skiing conditions. By the end of that trip, Lönnrot had collected another 100 poems consisting of over 4,000 verses. Lönnrot made his eighth field trip to the Russian border town of Lapukka where the great singer Arhippa Perttunen had learned his trade. In correspondence he notes that he has written down many new poems but is unclear on the quantity.

Notable towns visited by Elias Lönnrot during his 15 years of field trips – to the right is Russia, to the left Finland

Elias Lönnrot departed on the first part of his ninth field trip on 16 September 1836. He was granted a 14-month leave of absence and a sum of travelling expenses from the Finnish Literary Society. His funds came with some stipulations: he must travel around the Kainuu border regions and then on to the north and finally from Kainuu to the south-east along the border. For the expedition into the north he was accompanied by Juhana Fredrik Cajan. The first part of the trip took Lönnrot all the way to Inari in northern Lapland. The second, southern part of the journey was more successful than the northern part, taking Lönnrot to the Russian town of Sortavala on Lake Ladoga then back up through Savo and eventually back to Kajaani. Although these trips were long and arduous, they resulted in very little Kalevala material; only 1,000 verses were recovered from the southern half and an unknown quantity from the northern half.

The tenth field trip is a relative unknown. What is known however, is that Lönnrot intended to gather poems and songs to compile into the upcoming work Kanteletar. He was accompanied by his friend C. H. Ståhlberg for the majority of the trip. During that journey the pair met Mateli Kuivalatar in the small border town of Ilomantsi. Kuivalatar was very important to the development of the Kanteletar. The eleventh documented field trip was another undertaken in conjunction with his medical work. During the first part of the trip, Lönnrot returned to Akonlahti in Russian Karelia, where he gathered 80 poems and a total of 800 verses. The rest of the trip suffers from poor documentation.

Methodology

Karelian poem singing brothers Poavila and Triihvo Jamanen reciting traditional Finnish folk poetry, Russia, 1894.

Lönnrot and his contemporaries (e.g. Matthias Castrén, Anders Johan Sjögren and David Emmanuel Daniel Europaeus) collected most of the poem variants (one poem could easily have countless variants) scattered across rural areas of Karelia and Ingria. Lönnrot was not really interested in, and rarely wrote down the name of the singer except for some of the more prolific cases. His primary purpose in the region was that of a physician and of an editor, not of a biographer or counsellor. He rarely knew anything in-depth about the singer himself and primarily only catalogued verse that could be relevant or of some use in his work.

The student David Emmanuel Daniel Europaeus is credited with discovering and cataloguing the majority of the Kullervo story.

Of the dozens of poem singers who contributed to the Kalevala, significant ones are:

• Arhippa Perttunen (1769–1840)
• Juhana Kainulainen
• Matiska
• Ontrei Malinen (1780–1855)
• Vaassila Kieleväinen
• Soava Trohkimainen

Form and structure

The poetry was often sung to music built on a pentachord, sometimes assisted by a kantele player. The rhythm could vary but the music was arranged in either two or four lines consisting of five beats each. The poems were often performed by a duo, each person singing alternative verses or groups of verses. This method of performance is called an antiphonic performance, it is a kind of "singing match".

Metre

Despite the vast geographical distance and customary spheres separating individual singers, The Kalevala, as well as the folk poetry it is based on were always sung in the same metre.

The Kalevala's metre is a form of trochaic tetrameter that is known as the Kalevala metre. The metre is thought to have originated during the Proto-Finnic period. Its syllables fall into three types: strong, weak, and neutral. Its main rules are as follows:

• A long syllable (one that contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or ends in a consonant) with a main stress is metrically strong.

In the second, third, and fourth foot of a line, a strong syllable can occur in only the rising part:

Veli / kulta, / veikko/seni (1:11)

("Dearest friend, and much-loved brother")

The first foot has a freer structure, allowing strong syllables in a falling position as well as a rising one:

Niit' en/nen i/soni / lauloi (1:37)

("These my father sang aforetime")

• A short syllable with a main stress is metrically weak.

In the second, third, and fourth feet, a weak syllable can occur only in the falling part:

Miele/ni mi/nun te/kevi (1:1)

("I am driven by my longing")

Again, the first foot's structure is more free, allowing weak syllables in a rising position as well as a falling one:

vesois/ta ve/tele/miä (1:56)

("Others taken from the saplings")

• All syllables without a main stress are metrically neutral. Neutral syllables can occur at any position.

There are two main types of line:

• A normal tetrameter, word-stresses and foot-stresses match, and there is a caesura between the second and third feet:

Veli / kulta, // veikko/seni

• A broken tetrameter (Finnish: murrelmasäe) has at least one stressed syllable in a falling position. There is usually no caesura:

Miele/ni mi/nun te/kevi

Traditional poetry in the Kalevala metre uses both types with approximately the same frequency. The alteration of normal and broken tetrameters is a characteristic difference between the Kalevala metre and other forms of trochaic tetrameter.

There are also four additional rules:

• In the first foot, the length of syllables is free. It is also possible for the first foot to contain three or even four syllables.
• A one-syllable word can not occur at the end of a verse.
• A word with four syllables should not stand in the middle of a verse. This also applies to non-compound words.
• The last syllable of a verse may not include a long vowel.

Schemes

There are two main schemes featured in The Kalevala:

• Alliteration

Alliteration can be broken into two forms. Weak: where only the opening consonant is the same, and strong: where both the first vowel or vowel and consonant are the same in the different words. (e.g. Vaka Vanha Väinämöinen "Steadfast old Väinämöinen").

• Parallelism

Parallelism in The Kalevala refers to the stylistic feature of repeating the idea presented in the previous line, often by using synonyms, rather than moving the plot forward. (e.g. Näillä raukoilla rajoilla / Poloisilla pohjan mailla "In these dismal Northern regions / In the dreary land of Pohja"). Lönnrot has been criticised for overusing parallelism in The Kalevala: in the original poems, a line was usually followed by only one such parallel line.

The verses are also sometimes inverted into chiasmus.

Poetry example

Verses 221 to 232 of song forty.

Vaka vanha Väinämöinen itse tuon sanoiksi virkki: "Näistäpä toki tulisi kalanluinen kanteloinen, kun oisi osoajata, soiton luisen laatijata." Kun ei toista tullutkana, ei ollut osoajata, soiton luisen laatijata, vaka vanha Väinämöinen itse loihe laatijaksi, tekijäksi teentelihe.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast, Answered in the words which follow: "Yet a harp might be constructed Even of the bones of fishes, If there were a skilful workman, Who could from the bones construct it." As no craftsman there was present, And there was no skilful workman Who could make a harp of fishbones, Väinämöinen, old and steadfast, Then began the harp to fashion, And himself the work accomplished.

Lönnrot's contribution to Kalevala

Very little is actually known about Elias Lönnrot's personal contributions to The Kalevala. Scholars to this day still argue and hypothesise about how much of The Kalevala is genuine folk poetry and how much is Lönnrot's own work. During the compilation process it is known that he merged poem variants and characters together, left out verses that did not fit and composed lines of his own in order to connect certain passages into a logical plot. Similarly, individual singers used their own words and dialects when reciting their repertoire even going as far as performing different versions of the same song at different times.

The Finnish historian Väinö Kaukonen suggests that 3% of The Kalevala's lines are Lönnrot's own composition, as well as 14% being Lönnrot compositions from variants, 50% verses which Lönnrot kept mostly unchanged except for some minor alterations and 33% original unedited oral poetry. It is fruitless, however, to attempt to extrapolate concrete percentages of how much of The Kalevala is genuine word-for-word oral tradition and how much is fabricated by the compiler. A loose collection of mixed and varied poems all with many possible versions cannot be combined into a single and solid epic without some editing, otherwise The Kalevala would be an anthology and not a national epic.

Publishing

The first version of Lönnrot's compilation was entitled Kalewala, taikka Wanhoja Karjalan Runoja Suomen Kansan muinoisista ajoista (The Kalevala, or old Karelian poems about ancient times of the Finnish people), also known as simply the Old Kalevala, was published in two volumes in 1835–1836. The Old Kalevala consisted of 12,078 verses making up a total of thirty-two poems.

Even after the publication of the Old Kalevala Lönnrot continued to collect new material for several years. He later integrated this additional material with significant edits of the existing material into a second version, The Kalevala, this version was published in 1849. This new Kalevala contains fifty poems, and is the standard text of The Kalevala read and translated to this day.

The name Kalevala rarely appears in the original folk poetry of the time and was coined by Lönnrot for the official name of his project sometime at the end of 1834. The first appearance of Kalevala in collected poetry was recorded in the April 1836. The choice of Kalevala as the name for his work was not a random choice however. The name Kalev appears in Finnic and Baltic folklore in many locations and the Sons of Kalev are known throughout Finnish and Estonian folklore.

Translations

 List of Kalevala translations 문서를 참고하십시오.

Of the five complete translations into English, it is only the older translations by John Martin Crawford (1888) and William Forsell Kirby (1907) which attempt to strictly follow the original rhythm (Kalevala meter) of the poems. Eino Friberg's 1988 translation uses it selectively but in general is more tuned to pleasing the ear than being an exact metrical translation also often reducing the length of songs for aesthetic reasons.

A notable partial translation of Franz Anton Schiefner's German translation was made by Prof. John Addison Porter in 1868 and published by Leypoldt & Holt.

Edward Taylor Fletcher, a British-born Canadian literature enthusiast, also translated selections of The Kalevala in 1869. He read them before the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec on 17 March 1869.

Francis Peabody Magoun published a scholarly translation of the Kalevala in 1963 written entirely in prose. The appendices of this version contain notes on the history of the poem, comparisons between the original Old Kalevala and the current version, and a detailed glossary of terms and names used in the poem. Magoun also translated The Old Kalevala which was published six years later entitled The Old Kalevala and Certain Antecedents.

The two most recent translations were both published in 1989 by Keith Bosley (Oxford University Press) and Eino Friberg (Otava).

So far The Kalevala has been translated into sixty-one languages and is Finland's most translated work of literature.

The story

The Kalevala begins with the traditional Finnish creation myth, leading into stories of the creation of the earth, plants, creatures and the sky. Creation, healing, combat and internal story telling are often accomplished by the character(s) involved singing of their exploits or desires. Many parts of the stories involve a character hunting or requesting lyrics (spells) to acquire some skill, such as boat-building or the mastery of iron making.

As well as magical spell casting and singing, there are many stories of lust, romance, kidnapping and seduction. The protagonists of the stories often have to accomplish feats that are unreasonable or impossible which they often fail to achieve leading to tragedy and humiliation.

The Sampo is a pivotal element of the whole work. Many actions and their consequences are caused by the Sampo itself or a character's interaction with the Sampo. It is described as a magical talisman or device that brings its possessor great fortune and prosperity.

There are also similarities with mythology and folklore from other cultures, for example the Kullervo character and his story bearing some likeness to the Greek Oedipus. The similarity of the virginal maiden Marjatta to the Christian Virgin Mary is also striking. The arrival of Marjatta's son in the final song spelling the end of Väinämöinen's reign over Kalevala is similar to the arrival of Christianity bringing about the end of Paganism in Finland and Europe at large.

Synopses

Main article: Kalevala (synopses)

Aino-Triptych by Akseli Gallen-Kallela 1891. Left: The first meeting of Aino and Väinämöinen. Right: Aino laments her woes and decides to end her life rather than marry an old man. Middle: The end of the story arc – Väinämöinen catches the Aino fish but is unable to keep hold of her.

The first Väinämöinen cycle

Songs 1 and 2: The poem begins with an introduction by the singers. The Earth is created from the shards of a duck egg and the first man (Väinämöinen) is born to the goddess Ilmatar. Väinämöinen brings trees and life to the barren world.

Songs 3 to 5: Väinämöinen encounters the jealous Joukahainen and they do battle. Joukahainen loses and pledges his sister's hand in return for his life, the sister (Aino) drowns herself in the sea.

Songs 6 to 10: Väinämöinen heads to Pohjola to propose the maiden of the north. Joukahainen attacks Väinämöinen again, he floats for days on the sea until he is carried by an eagle to Pohjola. He makes a deal with Louhi to get Ilmarinen to create the Sampo. Ilmarinen refuses to go to Pohjola so Väinämöinen forces him against his will. The Sampo is forged. Ilmarinen returns without a bride.

The first Lemminkäinen cycle

Songs 11 to 15: Lemminkäinen sets out to Saari (English: The Island) in search of a bride. He and the maid Kyllikki make vows to each other but thinking Lemminkäinen has repudiated his, the maiden repudiates hers so Lemminkäinen discards her and sets off to woo the Maiden of the North. He asks Louhi for her daughter's hand and she assigns tasks to him. Lemminkäinen is killed while attempting the tasks and thrown into the river of death. His mother goes in search of him and revives him.

Lemminkäisen äiti (Lemminkäinen's mother) by Akseli Gallen-Kallela 1897 – Lemminkäinen's mother on the banks of the river of Tuonela reviving her son

The second Väinämöinen cycle

Songs 16 to 18: Väinämöinen builds a boat to travel to Pohjola once again in search of a bride. He visits Tuonela (English: The land of Death) and is held prisoner. Väinämöinen uses his magical powers to escape and warns his people of the dangers present in Tuonela. Väinämöinen now sets out to gather the necessary spells from Antero Vipunen. Väinämöinen is swallowed and has to torture Antero Vipunen for the spells and his escape. His boat completed, Väinämöinen sets sail for Pohjola. Ilmarinen learns of this and resolves to go to Pohjola himself to woo the maiden. The Maiden of the North chooses Ilmarinen.

Ilmarinen's wedding

Songs 19 to 25: Ilmarinen is assigned dangerous unreasonable tasks in order to win the hand of the Maiden of the North. He accomplishes these tasks with some help from the maiden herself. In preparation for the wedding beer is brewed, a giant steer is slaughtered and invitations are sent out. Lemminkäinen is uninvited. The wedding party begins and all are happy. Väinämöinen sings and lauds the people of Pohjola. The bride and bridegroom are prepared for their roles in matrimony. The couple arrive home and are greeted with drink and viands.

The second Lemminkäinen cycle

Songs 26 to 30: Lemminkäinen is resentful for not having been invited to the wedding and sets out immediately for Pohjola. On his arrival he is challenged to and wins a duel with Sariola, the Master of the North. An army is conjured to enact revenge upon Lemminkäinen and he flees to his mother. She advises him to head to the Island of Refuge. On his return he finds his house burned to the ground. He goes to Pohjola with his companion Tiera to get his revenge, but Louhi freezes the seas and Lemminkäinen has to return home. When he arrives home he is reunited with his mother and vows to build larger better houses to replace the ones burned down.

Kullervo marches to war, fresco by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1901 – Kullervo goes to war against Untamo and his people.

The Kullervo cycle

Songs 31–36: Untamo kills his brother Kalervo’s people, but spares his wife who later begets Kullervo. Untamo sees the boy as a threat, and tries to have him killed several times without success, so Kullervo is sold as a slave to Ilmarinen. Ilmarinen's wife torments and bullies Kullervo so he sends a pack of wolves and bears to tear her to pieces. Kullervo escapes from Ilmarinen's homestead and learns from an old lady in the forest that his family is still alive, he is reunited with them. While returning home from paying taxes he meets and seduces a young maiden only to find out that she is his sister, she kills herself and Kullervo returns home distressed. Kullervo decides to wreak revenge upon Untamo and sets out to find him. Kullervo wages war on Untamo and his people laying all to waste, he then returns home to find the farm deserted. Filled with remorse and regret he kills himself in the place where he seduced his sister.

The second Ilmarinen cycle

Songs 37–38: Grieving for his lost love, Ilmarinen forges himself a wife out of gold and silver, but finds her to be cold and discards her. He heads for Pohjola and kidnaps the youngest daughter of Louhi. She is outraged and insults him badly so he sings magic and turns her into a bird. He returns to Kalevala and tells Väinämöinen about the prosperity and wealth of Pohjola's citizens because of the Sampo.

The plunder of the Sampo (the third Väinämöinen cycle)

Songs 39–44: Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen and Lemminkäinen sail to Pohjola to recover the Sampo. While on their journey they kill a monstrous pike and from its jaw bone the first kantele is made. The heroes arrive in Pohjola and demand a share of the Sampo's wealth or they will take the whole Sampo by force. Louhi musters her army however Väinämöinen lulls to sleep everyone in Pohjola with his music. The Sampo is taken from its vault of stone and the heroes set out for home. Louhi conjures a great army, turns herself into an eagle and fights for the Sampo. In the battle the Sampo is lost to the sea and destroyed.

Louhi's revenge on Kalevala

Songs 45–49: Enraged at the loss of the Sampo, Louhi sends the people of Kalevala diseases and a great bear to kill their cattle. She hides the sun and the moon and steals fire from Kalevala. Väinämöinen heals all of the ailments and, with Ilmarinen, restores the fire. Väinämöinen forces Louhi to return the Sun and the Moon to the skies.

The Marjatta cycle

Song 50: The shy young virgin Marjatta becomes impregnated from a lingonberry she ate while tending to her flock. She begets a son. Väinämöinen orders the killing of the boy, but the boy begins to speak and reproaches Väinämöinen for ill judgement. The child is then baptised King of Karelia. Väinämöinen sails away leaving only his songs and kantele as legacy.

The poem ends and the singers sing a farewell and thank you to their audience.

Characters

An ancient Finnish Hero – Illustration from inside front of Volume 1 of Kalevala

Väinämöinen

Väinämöinen is the central character of The Kalevala, a shamanistic hero with a magical power of song and music, similar to that of Orpheus. He is born of Ilmatar and contributes to the creation of Earth as it is today. Many of his travels resemble shamanistic journeys, most notably one where he visits the belly of a ground-giant, Antero Vipunen, to find the songs of boat building.

Väinämöinen created and plays the kantele, a Finnish stringed instrument that resembles and is played like a zither.

Väinämöinen's search for a wife is a central element in many stories; although he never finds one. One of his potential brides, Joukahainen's sister Aino, drowns herself instead of marrying him. He is the leading member of the group which steals the Sampo from the people of Pohjola.

Ilmarinen

Seppo Ilmarinen, is a heroic artificer (comparable to the Germanic Weyland and the Greek Daedalus). He crafted the dome of the sky, the Sampo and various other magical devices featured in The Kalevala. Ilmarinen is the second member of the group who steal the Sampo.

Ilmarinen, like Väinämöinen, also has many stories told of his search for a wife, reaching the point where he forges one of gold.

Lemminkäinen

Lemminkäinen is a handsome, arrogant and reckless ladies-man, he is the son of Lempi (English: lust or favourite). He shares a very close relationship with his mother who revives him after he has been drowned in the river of Tuonela while pursuing the object of his romantic desires. This section of The Kalevala echoes the myth of Osiris. Lemminkäinen is the third member of the group which steals the Sampo from Pohjola.

Ukko

Ukko (English: Old man) is the leading deity mentioned within The Kalevala. His character corresponds to Thor and Zeus. John Martin Crawford wrote that the name may be related the obsolete Hungarian word for an old man (agg).

Joukahainen

Joukahainen is a base, young man who arrogantly challenges Väinämöinen to a singing contest which he loses. In exchange for his life Joukahainen promises his young sister Aino to Väinämöinen. Joukahainen attempts to gain his revenge on Väinämöinen by killing him with a crossbow but only succeeds in killing Väinämöinen's horse. Joukahainen's actions lead to Väinämöinen promising to build a Sampo in return for Louhi rescuing him.

Louhi

Louhi the Mistress of the North, is the shamanistic matriarch of the people of Pohjola, a people rivalling those of Kalevala. She is the cause of much trouble for Kalevala and its people.

Louhi at one point saves Väinämöinen's life. She has many daughters whom the heroes of Kalevala make many attempts (some successful) at seducing. Louhi plays a major part in the battle to prevent the heroes of Kalevala from stealing back the Sampo which as a result is ultimately destroyed. She is a powerful witch with a skill almost on a par with that of Väinämöinen's.

Kullervo

Kullervo is the vengeful, mentally ill and tragic son of Kalervo. He was abused as a child and sold into slavery to Ilmarinen. He is put to work and treated badly by Ilmarinen's wife whom he later kills. Kullervo is a misguided and troubled youth often at odds with himself and his situation. He often goes into berserk rage and in the end commits suicide.

Marjatta

Marjatta is the young virgin of Kalevala. She becomes pregnant from eating a lingonberry. When her labour begins she is expelled from her parents' home and leaves to find a place where she can sauna and give birth. She is turned away from numerous places but finally finds a place in the forest and gives birth to a son. Marjatta's nature, impregnation and searching for a place to give birth are in allegory to the Virgin Mary and the Christianisation of Finland. Marjatta's son is later condemned to death by Väinämöinen for being born out of wedlock, the boy in turn chastises Väinämöinen and is later crowned King of Karelia. This angers Väinämöinen who leaves Kalevala after bequeathing his songs and kantele to the people as his legacy.

Influence of The Kalevala

The Kalevala is a major part of Finnish culture and history, and has impacted the arts in Finland, and in other cultures around the world.

Daily life

The influence of The Kalevala in daily life and business in Finland is tangible. Names and places associated with The Kalevala have been adopted as company and brand names and even as place names.

There are several places within Finland with Kalevala related names, for example: the district of Tapiola in the city of Espoo; the district of Pohjola in the city of Turku, the district of Metsola in the city of Vantaa and the district of Kaleva in the city of Tampere; the historic provinces of Savo and Karjala and the Russian town of Hiitola are all mentioned within the songs of The Kalevala. In addition the Russian town of Ukhta was in 1963 renamed Kalevala and in the United States a small community founded in 1900 by Finnish immigrants is named Kaleva, Michigan and many of the street names are taken from the Kalevala.

The banking sector of Finland has had at least three Kalevala related brands: Sampo (name changed to Danske Bank in late 2012), Pohjola and Tapiola.

The jewellery company Kalevala Koru was founded in 1935 on the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Old Kalevala. It specialises in the production of unique and culturally important items of jewellery. It is co-owned by the Kalevala Women's League and offers artistic scholarships to a certain number of organisations and individuals every year.

The Finnish dairy company Valio has a brand of ice-cream named Aino, specialising in more exotic flavours than their normal brand.

The construction group Lemminkäinen was formed in 1910 as a roofing and asphalt company, the name was chosen specifically to emphasise that they were a wholly Finnish company. They now operate internationally.

Celebration

The Kalevala Day is celebrated in Finland on 28 February, to match Elias Lönnrot's first version of The Kalevala in 1835. It is on the same day as the Finnish Culture Day.

Several of the names in The Kalevala are also celebrated as Finnish name days. The name days themselves and the dates they fall upon have no direct relationship with The Kalevala itself however the adoption of the names became commonplace after the release of The Kalevala.

The lachrymose Kullervo has been a source of inspiration for several artists.

Fine art

Several artists have been influenced by The Kalevala, most notably Akseli Gallen-Kallela who has painted many pieces relating to The Kalevala.

Iittala group's Arabia brand kilned a series of Kalevala commemorative plates, designed by the late Raija Uosikkinen (1923-2004). The series ran from 1976 to 1999 and are highly sought after collectables.

One of the earliest artists to depict a scene from The Kalevala is Robert Wilhelm Ekman. One of his drawings from 1886 depicts Väinämöinen playing his kantele.

In 1989, the fourth full translation of Kalevala into English was published, richly illustrated by Björn Landström.

Literature

The Kalevala has been translated over one-hundred and fifty times into over sixty different languages. For more details about the translations into English please see the translations section.

Franz Anton Schiefner's translation of The Kalevala was one inspiration for Longfellow's 1855 poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is written in a similar trochaic tetrameter.

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg was inspired by The Kalevala. Both Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen are mentioned in the work and the overall story of Kalevipoeg (Kalev's son) bears similarities with the Kullervo story.

J.R.R. Tolkien claimed The Kalevala as one of his sources for The Silmarillion. For example, Kullervo's story is the basis of Túrin Turambar in Narn i Chîn Húrin, including the sword that speaks when the anti-hero uses it to commit suicide. Echoes of The Kalevala's characters, Väinämöinen in particular, can be found in Tom Bombadil of The Lord of the Rings.

Finnish cartoonist Kristian Huitula illustrated the comic book adaptation of the Kalevala. The Kalevala Graphic Novel contains the storyline of all the 50 chapters in original text form.

Finnish cartoonist and children's writer Mauri Kunnas wrote and illustrated Koirien Kalevala (The Canine Kalevala). The story is that of The Kalevala with the characters presented as anthropomorphized dogs, wolves and cats. The story deviates from the full Kalevala, presumably, to make the story more appropriate for children.

The Kalevala also inspired the American Disney cartoonist Don Rosa to draw a Donald Duck story based on The Kalevala, called The Quest for Kalevala. The comic was released in the year of the 150th anniversary of The Kalevala's publication.

The Neustadt Prize-winning poet and playwright Paavo Haavikko who is regarded as one of Finland's finest writers, has also taken influence from The Kalevala.

Emil Petaja was an American science fiction and fantasy author of Finnish descent. His best known works known as the Otava Series make up a series of novels based on The Kalevala. The series brought Petaja readers from around the world; while his mythological approach to science fiction was discussed in scholarly papers presented at academic conferences. He has a further Kalevala based work which is not part of the series, entitled The Time Twister.

The British science fiction writer Ian Watson's Books of Mana duology: Lucky's Harvest and The Fallen Moon both contain references to places and names from the Kalevala.

British fantasy author Michael Moorcock's sword and sorcery anti-hero, Elric of Melniboné is influenced by the character Kullervo.

Music

Jean Sibelius in the 1950s. Sibelius is Finland's most famous composer. Many of his works took influence from The Kalevala.

Music is the area which has the richest influence from The Kalevala, which is apt considering the way that the folk poetry and songs were originally performed.

The first recorded example of a musician influenced by The Kalevala is Filip von Schantz, in 1860 he composed the Kullervo Overture. The piece premièred on the opening of a new theatre building in Helsinki on November of the same year. Von Schantz's work was followed by Robert Kajanus' Kullervo's death and the symphonic poem Aino in 1881 and 1885 respectively. Aino is credited with inspiring Jean Sibelius to investigate the richness of The Kalevala.

Jean Sibelius is the best known Kalevala influenced classical composer. Twelve of Sibelius' best known works are based upon and influenced by The Kalevala, including his Kullervo, a tone poem for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra that he composed in 1892. Sibelius also composed the music of Jääkärimarssi (The Jäger March) to words written by Finnish soldier and writer Heikki Nurmio. The march features the line Me nousemme kostona Kullervon ("We shall rise in vengeance like that of Kullervo's").

Other classical composers influenced by The Kalevala:

• Einojuhani Rautavaara
• Leevi Madetoja
• Uuno Klami
• Tauno Marttinen
• Aulis Sallinen
• Veljo Tormis

Classical composers are not the only musicians who have delved into The Kalevala for inspiration. In the mid-1960s the progressive rock band Kalevala was active within Finland and in 1974 the now prolific singer-songwriter Jukka Kuoppamäki released the song Väinämöinen. These were some of the first pieces of modern music inspired by The Kalevala.

In 1994, the Finnish metal band Amorphis released their concept album Tales from the Thousand Lakes. This was a departure from their original death metal roots and into a more melodic style. This album was the first of many that have been Kalevala themed.

In 1998 Ruth MacKenzie recorded the album Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden, a song cycle covering the part of the story concerning Aino and her choice to refuse the hand of the sorcerer Väinämöinen and instead transform herself into a salmon. MacKenzie has continued to perform the piece live.

The Finnish Folk metal band Ensiferum have released songs, such as "Old Man" and "Little Dreamer" which are influenced by The Kalevala. The third track of their Dragonheads EP is entitled "Kalevala Melody". It is an instrumental piece following the rhythm of the Kalevala metre. Another Finnish folk metal band, Turisas, adapted several verses from song nine of The Kalevala "The Origin of Iron" for the lyrics of their song "Cursed Be Iron" which is track three of the album The Varangian Way. Finnish metal band Amberian Dawn used lyrics inspired by The Kalevala in their album River Of Tuoni, as well as in its successor.

The Karelian Finnish folk music group Värttinä has based some of its lyrics on motifs from The Kalevala and the Vantaa Chamber Choir have songs influenced by The Kalevala. Their Kalevala themed third album, Marian virsi (2005), combines contemporary folk with traditionally performed folk poetry.

In 2003, the Finnish progressive rock quarterly Colossus and French Musea Records commissioned 30 progressive rock groups from around the world to compose songs based on parts of The Kalevala. The publication assigned each band with a particular song from The Kalevala which the band was free to interpret as they saw fit. The result was a three-disc, multilingual, four-hour epic telling the entirety of The Kalevala. For more information, please see: Kalevala (project)

In the beginning of 2009, in celebration of the 160th anniversary of The Kalevala's first published edition the Finnish Literature Society the Kalevala Society premièred ten new and original works inspired by The Kalevala. The works included poems, classical and contemporary music and artwork. A book was published by the Finnish Literature Society in conjunction with the event and a large exhibition of Kalevala artwork and cultural artefacts were put on display at the Ateneum museum in Helsinki.

On 3 August 2012, Finnish Folk Metal band will be releasing a new album entitled "Manala". Jonne Järvelä of Korpiklaani said, "Manala is the realm of the dead – the underworld in Finnish mythology. Tuonela, Tuoni, Manala and Mana are used synonymously. This place is best known for its appearance in the Finnish national epic Kalevala, on which many of our new songs are based."

Film

In 1959, a joint Finnish/Soviet production entitled Sampo (aka The Day the Earth Froze) was released, inspired by the story of the Sampo from the Kalevala.

In 1982, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) produced a television mini-series called Rauta-aika (The Age of Iron). With music composed by Aulis Sallinen and the book by Paavo Haavikko. The series was set "during the Kalevala times" and based upon events which take place in The Kalevala. The series' part 3/4 won Prix Italia in 1983.

The martial arts film Jadesoturi (aka Jade Warrior), released in Finland on 13 October 2006, is based upon the Kalevala and set in Finland and China.

Interpretations of The Kalevala

The Kalevala, as the important work of national literature it is, has of course attracted many scholars and enthusiasts to interpret its contents in a historical context. Many interpretations of the themes in The Kalevala have been tabled. Some parts of the epic have been perceived as ancient conflicts between the early Finns and the Samis. In this context, the country of Kalevala could be understood as Southern Finland and Pohjola as Lapland.

However, the place names in Kalevala seem to transfer the Kalevala further south, which has been interpreted as reflecting the Finnic settlement expansion from the South that came to push the Samis further to the north. Some scholars locate the lands of Kalevala to East Karelia, where most of the Kalevala stories were written down. In 1961 a small town of Uhtua in the then Soviet Republic of Karelia was renamed Kalevala, perhaps to promote that theory.

Finnish politician and linguist Eemil Nestor Setälä rejected the idea that the heroes of Kalevala are historical in nature and suggested they are personifications of natural phænomena. He interprets Pohjola as the northern heavens and the Sampo as the pillar of the world. Setälä suggests that the journey to regain the Sampo is a purely imaginary one with the heroes riding a mythological boat or magical steed to the heavens.

The practice of bear-worship, arctolatry, was once very common in Finland and there are strong echoes of this in The Kalevala.

The old Finnish word väinä (a strait of deep water with a slow current) appears to be the origin of the name Väinämöinen; one of Väinämöinen's other names is Suvantolainen, suvanto being the modern word for väinä. Consequently it is possible that the Saari (Island) might be the island of Saaremaa in Estonia and Kalevala the Estonian mainland.

Finnish folklorists Matti Kuusi and Pertti Anttonen state that terms such as the people of Kalevala or the tribe of Kalevala are created of the whole cloth by Elias Lönnrot. Moreover, they contend that the word Kalevala is very rare in traditional poetry and that by emphasizing dualism (Kalevala vs. Pohjola) Elias Lönnrot created the required tension that made The Kalevala dramatically successful and thus fit for a national epic of the time.

See also

• Finnish mythology
• Kalevipoeg
• Kaleva, Michigan Many of the street names from this small Michigan (USA) village were taken from the Kalevala.

Further reading

Translations

• The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland, translation by John Martin Crawford, ISBN 0-7661-8938-4. Text at Project Gutenberg: Volume 1 and Volume 2.
• The Kalevala: Or the Land of Heroes, translation by William Forsell Kirby, ISBN 1-85810-198-0. Text at Project Gutenberg: Volume 1 and Volume 2.
• The Kalevala: Or Poems of the Kaleva District, translation by Francis Peabody Magoun, ISBN 0-674-50010-5. Preview at Google Books: [18].
• The Old Kalevala and Certain Antecedents, a translation of the original Old Kalevala by Francis Peabody Magoun, ISBN 0-674-63235-4
• The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People, translation by Eino Friberg, Björn Landström, George C. Schoolfield, ISBN 951-1-10137-4. Preview at Google Books: [19].
• The Kalevala: Or the Land of Heroes, translation by Keith Bosley, foreword by Albert B. Lord (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), ISBN 0-19-283570-X. Preview at Google Books: [20].

Retellings

• The Canine Kalevala Tim Steffa (Translator), Mauri Kunnas, ISBN 951-1-12442-0
• The Kalevala Graphic Novel, a complete comic book version of the 50 chapters of The Kalevala by Finnish artist Kristian Huitula, translation by Eino Friberg, ISBN 952-99022-1-2
• The Magic Storysinger: A Tale from the Finnish Epic Kalevala, M. E. A. McNeil, a retelling in a style friendly to children, ISBN 0-88045-128-9
• The Quest for Kalevala, Uncle Scrooge #334, by Don Rosa, A story in tribute to The Kalevala featuring Scrooge McDuck and some characters from Kalevala, ISBN 0-911903-55-0
• The Wizard of the North : A Tale From the Land of Heroes By Parker Hoysted Fillmore, (1923)
• Epic of the North by John Ilmari Kolehmainen (1973)
• Klaus K Hotel - A Hotel with Style and Story

Analysis

• The Kalevala and the World's Traditional Epics, edited by Lauri Honko (2002) ISBN 951-746-422-3
• A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfield (1998) ISBN 0-8032-4189-5
• Finland: a cultural encyclopedia, ed. by Olli Alho (1997) ISBN 951-717-885-9
• Finland: A Cultural Outline by Veikko Kallio (1994) ISBN 951-0-19421-2
• The Uses of Tradition : a Comparative Enquiry Into the Nature, Uses and Functions of Oral Poetry in the Balkans, the Baltic and Africa, ed. by Michael Branch and Celia Hawkesworth (1994) ISBN 0-903425-38-6
• Religion, Myth, and Folklore in the World's Epics, ed. by Lauri Honko (1990) ISBN 0-89925-625-2
• Kalevala Mythology by Juha Y. Pentikäinen (1999) ISBN 0-253-33661-9
• The Key to The Kalevala, by Pekka Ervast, John Major Jenkins, Tapio Joensuu, ISBN 1-57733-021-8
• Studies in Finnish Folklore by Felix J. Oinas (1985) ISBN 951-717-315-6
• Finnish Folk Poetry, ed. by Matti Kuusi et al. (1977) ISBN 951-717-087-4
• Folklore and Nationalism in Modern Finland by William A. Wilson (1976) ISBN 0-253-32327-4
• Väinämöinen, Eternal Sage by Martti Henrikki Haavio (1952)
• Sammon Arvoitus (The Riddle of the Sampo) by E.N. Setälä (1932)
• Lönnrot ja Kalevala (Lönnrot and The Kalevala) by Väinö Kaukonen (1978)
•  Edmund Gosse (1911). 〈Kalewala〉. 《Encyclopædia Britannica》 11판. 
•  Leo Wiener (1920). 〈Kalevala〉. 《Encyclopedia Americana》. 

Literature

• In the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (written 1308-21), Nimrod is a figure in the Inferno. Nimrod is portrayed as a giant (which was common in the Medieval period) and is found with the other giants Ephialtes, Antaeus, Briareus, Tityos, Typhon and the other unnamed giants chained up on the outskirts of Hell's Circle of Treachery. His only line is "Raphèl maí amèche zabí almi", an unintelligible statement which serves to accuse himself.

Idiom

In 15th-century English, "Nimrod" had come to mean "tyrant". Coined in 20th-century American English, the term is now commonly used to mean "dimwitted or stupid fellow", a usage first recorded in 1932 and popularized by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny, who sarcastically refers to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod", possibly as an ironic connection between "mighty hunter" and "poor little Nimrod", i.e. Fudd.

See also

• Nimrod Fortress

References

• The Legacy of Mesopotamia; Stephanie Dalley et al. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998)
• Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery; Stephen R. Haynes (NY, Oxford University Press, 2002)
• "Nimrod before and after the Bible" K. van der Toorn; P. W. van der Horst, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 83, No. 1. (Jan., 1990), pp. 1–29

External links

• Nimrod, entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia
• WebBible entry
• Against World Powers: A Study of the Judeo-Christian Struggle in History and Prophecy - Modern Christian writings which follow David Rohl's view on the legends of Nimrod. Another page from this site summarizes Rohl's theory of Nimrod and Enmerkar

Category:Torah monarchs
Category:Ham (son of Noah)