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#REDIRECT [[Ancient Mesopotamian underworld]] |
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{{other uses}} |
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{{Mesopotamian myth|expanded=5}} |
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'''Kur''' is a word from ancient Sumerian that could be used to express a broad variety of possible meanings. In [[Sumerian mythology]], '''Kur''' is considered the first [[dragon]] <ref>Kramer, Samuel Noah. ''Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.: Revised Edition''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961, Philadelphia.</ref>. The same word was often used to refer to the [[Zagros]] mountains to the east of [[Sumer]]. Additionally, the word could also mean "foreign land." The cuneiform for "kur" was written ideographically with the cuneiform sign 𒆳, a pictograph of a mountain.<ref>[http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/sum08.htm "Sumerian Mythology"] by [[Samuel Noah Kramer]], p.110</ref> |
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==Mythology== |
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Although the word for earth was [[Ki (goddess)|Ki]], Kur came to also mean land, and [[Sumer]] itself, was called "Kur-gal" or "Great Land". "Kur-gal" also means "Great Mountain" and is a metonym for both [[Nippur]] and [[Enlil]] who rules from that city.<ref>"Scenes from the Shadow Side", Frans Wiggermann, ''Mesopotamian Poetic Language'', Brill, 1996, pp. 208-209</ref> [[Ekur]], "mountain house" was the temple of [[Enlil]] at [[Nippur]]. A second, popular meaning of Kur was "underworld", or the world under the earth.<ref>Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary:Jeremy A. Black, Anthony Green, Tessa Rickards, University of Texas Press, 1992 |
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ISBN 0-292-70794-0, p 114</ref> |
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Kur was sometimes the home of the dead,<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/sum08.htm "Sumerian Mythology"] by [[Samuel Noah Kramer]] p.110 ''passim''</ref> it is possible that the flames on escaping gas plumes in parts of the Zagros mountains would have given those mountains a meaning not entirely consistent with the primary meaning of mountains and an abode of a god. The eastern mountains as an abode of the god with the farther East as the origin of all gods was popular in Ancient Near Eastern mythology. |
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The underworld Kur is the void space between the primeval sea ([[Abzu]]) and the earth ([[Ma (mythology)|Ma]]). |
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Kur is almost identical with "Ki-gal", "Great Land" which is the Underworld (thus the ruler of the Underworld is [[Ereshkigal]] "Goddess of The Great Land". In later Babylonian myth Kur is possibly an [[Anunnaki]], brother of [[Ereshkigal]], [[Inanna]], [[Enki]], and [[Enlil]]. In the [[Enuma Elish]] in [[Akkadian]] tablets from the first millennium BC, Kur is part of the retinue of [[Tiamat]], and seems to be a snakelike dragon. In one story the slaying of the great serpent Kur results in the flooding of the earth.<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/sum08.htm "Sumerian Mythology"] by [[Samuel Noah Kramer]], p. 112</ref> A first millennium BC [[cylinder seal]] shows a fire-spitting winged dragon—a nude woman between its wings—pulling the chariot of the god who subdued it, another depicts a god riding a dragon, a third a goddess.<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/sum08.htm "Sumerian Mythology"] by [[Samuel Noah Kramer]], p. 114</ref> |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist}}<!--added above categories/infobox footers by script-assisted edit--> |
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{{Portal|Ancient Near East}} |
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[[Category:Mesopotamian mythology]] |
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[[Category:Dragons]] |
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[[Category:Sumerian words and phrases|KUR]] |
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{{Reptile-stub}} |
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Latest revision as of 05:24, 8 August 2018
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