É (temple)
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É[1] is the Sumerian for "house" or "temple", written ideographically with the cuneiform sign 𒂍 (Borger nr. 324, encoded by Unicode at codepoint U+1208D)
Specific temples:
- E-apzu, "temple of the apzu (Oceanus), temple to Ea at Eridu.
- E-ad-da, temple to Enlil
- E-igi-zi(d)-bar-ra, temple to Ningursu built by Entemena
- E-dama-geshtin "mother of wine"
- E-da-mal, temple in Babylon
- E-amash-azag, "temple of the bright fold" in Dur-ilu
- E-am-kur-kurra, "temple of the lord of lands" to Bēl in Assur
- E-an-da-di-a, the ziggurat of Agade
- E-an-ki, "temple of heaven and earth"
- E-an-na "temple of heaven" in Lagash, Girsu, Ur and Erech
- 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-aratta, temple of Aratta
- E-das-dmah "temple of the supreme god"
- E-das-ra-tum "temple of the goddess Ashratum
- E-babbara, temple to Shamash at Larsa and Lagash
- E-bara-igi-e-di "temple of wonders", zigurrat to Dumuzi at Agade
- E-dbau, temple to the goddess Bau at Lagash
- E-belit-mati "temple to the mother of the world"
- E-dbur-dsin, temple to the deified king Bur-Sin at Ur
- E-dam, built by Ur-nina 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-dilmun-na "temple of Dilmun"
- E-dim-an-na "temple of the bond of heaven", built by Nebuchadnezzar for Sin
- E-dim-gal-abzu at Lagash
- E-du-azaga "temple of the brilliant shrine", to Marduk
- 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, temple to Ea of Eridu, shrine of Ea at Khorsabad built by Sargon.
- E-kur "mountain temple" to Enlil at Nippur
- E-ku-nin-azag "temple of the brilliant goddess" at Girsu
- E-ninnu, temple to Ningirsu at Lagash
- E-a-mer, the ziggurat of E-ninnu
- E-temen-ni-gur, main ziggurat of Ur
- E-sag-il "temple that raises its head", the temple of Marduk at Babylon, according to the Enuma elish home to all the gods under the patronage of Marduk.
- E-temen-anki "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth", the ziggurat to Marduk at Babylon
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 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 popoular 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.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The word is phonologically simply /e/, the acute accent is an assyriological convention specifying the corresponding cuneiform sign.
[edit] See also
[edit] 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) [1]
