Chapter 9: Myth and War
readx;? Tumus is a plant god paired with Eanna (the god of fertility), and their union represents a good harvest in agriculture, and his worship has been popular for a long time. There are three main types of ritual rituals www.biquge.info Pen & Fun & Pavilion: celebrating the wedding of Tumus and Eanna, mourning the untimely death of Tumus, and celebrating the resurrection of Tumus. This custom is recorded in the Bible's book of Ezekiel. Fraser also analyzed the figure of Tumus in his "Golden Bough", and believed that he was the beautiful boy Adonis in Greco-Roman mythology.
The union of King Tumus with the goddess implied the custom of "holy marriage" in the valley of the two rivers: the goddess Aianna (i.e., Ishtar) became the husband of the king and granted him the right to the throne, and their union was a guarantee of good weather and prosperity for the country. Rituals were performed in which priestesses played the role of goddesses, and kings were often seen as gods born in mortal bodies, a ritual that was stereotyped during the reign of Tumus.
Because of her arranged marriage, Eanna dislikes her husband and likes to be violent to her, so she becomes very debauched and finds many lovers, even Eunki has seduced. Using seduction, Eanna stole 100 treasures from Enki and gave them to the city-state of Uruk, making it an important city in the Sumerian world. In the meantime, she also killed the troops sent by Enki to reclaim the treasure, leaving no armor behind, leaving the "Lord of the Abyss" with a loss of face.
Aianna did not even spare her brother-in-law Gugalana, causing her sister Ereshkigal to take Gugalana, who was unfaithful to her, to the underworld and kill her, and the two became enemies ever since.
As a result, Eanna was called a "prostitute" by the gods, and even her priests used the temple as a hotel and a brothel, openly flirting with men on the street (passers-by generally did not take it seriously). It is said that every maiden who has not yet left the house must go to the temple of Aianna and sell her first time or risk not being married, and that the male priests must leave the palace to serve in her temple.
Legend has it that Eanna killed her husband, Tumus, by mistake.
However, since Tumus is the god of plants, he died and nothing can grow on the earth, knowing that without plants, Eanna's god of fertility is meaningless. Realizing her responsibility as a goddess of abundance, Eanna decided to change her ways. Risking her life, Eanna embarked on a "journey to the underworld" (see the epic poem Ishtar into the underworld) in order to save Tumus.
In the end, Ereshkigale went through the seven trials of the underworld alone and came to Ereshkigall, but the hostile Ereshkigalle made full use of the "home" advantage and almost effortlessly put Ereshkigale to death in the Land of Death.
Her priests turned to Enlil, Ann, Kee, Nanna, and Enki for help to save her. Both Enlile and Nanna stood by and watched, and only Enki stepped forward, not only did he not hold a grudge against her, but also designed to save her. Eventually, with Enki's help, Eanna defeated her sister (the evil Queen of the Underworld) and brought back her husband, restoring her fertility and vitality to the world. After Ereshkigal learned the truth, she was angry and her husband Gugalana's widow had a miscarriage. Therefore, Ereshkigal was even more angry with Eanna.
The Sumerians believed that there was no harvest in winter because Aéanna and Tumus were in the underworld for several months, so after the harvest, they knew how to fertilize the land, the fertilizer represented the broken corpse of Tumus, the fertilization represented Tumus nourishing the land with his own flesh and blood (sacrifice), and the women wept loudly to express their condolences for the death of Tumus, and the spring of each year represented the return of Aeanna and Tumus.
After this resurrection, Aianna woke up to herself even more deeply. Since then, she has begun to work diligently for human beings and give them mother-like care.
Because the Sumerian civilization practiced the system of "divine authority of kings", the gods could basically be regarded as the lords of each city-state.
Then the previous myth can be seen:
Badtibila (the god Tumus) married King Uruk (the god Aianna) to form a united front, and then sent troops to destroy the Second Dynasty of Eredu (Enki), from which Uruk gained a large number of civilization achievements, and then rapidly increased in power and became a regional power.
Later, the new ruler of Eredu went to war with Uruk for revenge (Enki sent an army to recover the treasure), but failed.
Afterwards, Uruk turned against Badtibera and killed Timus, the king of Badtibila (Eanna killed Tumus). As a result, Bad Tibera's successor king Lural (Eanna died in the underworld) united with various states to fight against Uruk, and the king of Uruk was defeated and killed. Uruk's strength was greatly damaged.
Then the king of Nipur took the opportunity to attack (the underworld was under the jurisdiction of the descendant god of Enlil). Uruk was unable to resist and urgently asked for help from various countries, but all countries stood idly by, only Eredu (Enki saved Anna) Although he had fought with Uruk before, because Badtibera was also his feud, he took the opportunity to form an alliance with the weak Uruk and fight against Nipur together, and finally defeated Nippur.
Eventually, after many battles, the hatred was eliminated and peace was restored thanks to the efforts of King Lural of Badtibila (Tumus was resurrected, reconciled with Eanna, and lived happily ever after).
The epic poem "Aianna (Ishtar) Enters the Underworld" is a work handed down by the later Babylonians:
"Who?" asked the gatekeeper on the other end.
"It's Venus when the sun is about to rise. "Eanna reported herself.
"Since it is a star in the sky, how did you come to this place where there is no return?"
Aianna didn't want to entangle with the gatekeeper: "Open the door and let me see Elskigal!
Eanna was known to have a fiery temper, and the gatekeeper hurriedly passed her word on to her.
After a while, the order of the Queen of Hades came down, and she ordered to let the **** in and follow the rules that had already been determined.
The doors opened, and Eanna entered the first door, at which point she was forcibly stripped of her crown.
"What is this!" said Eanna.
"This is the rule of Hades. A voice replied coldly.
Eanna walked through the second door, stripped of her yardstick.
"Here's what to do!"
"This is the rule of Hades. ”
Aianna walked through the third door, stripped of her chain of lapis lazuli beads.
"Here's what to do!"
"This is the rule of Hades. ”
At the fourth gate, she was stripped of her double pendant, at the fifth she was stripped of her gold bracelet, at the sixth she was stripped of her net, and at the seventh she was stripped of her belt. By the time Ereshkigal finally stood in front of Ereshkigal, she had lost all her powers.
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