The Moon-God Nanna-Sin Visits his Ziggurat at Ur

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The Moon-God Nanna-Sin Visits his Ziggurat at Ur

Associated to Place: AncientWorlds > Mesopotamia > Sumeria > Ur > articles -- by * DIonysia Xanthippos (50 Articles), Historical Article

by Sin Assurbanipal & DIonysia Xanthippos

Thanks to Leonard Woolley's reconstruction of this temple-tower, and Herodotus' account of the Babylonian New Year's festival, we can picture what that festival was like at Ur in the reign of Ur-Nammu about 2000 BC. Represented by his golden statue, and accompanied by a procession of priests and musicians, the moon god Nanna-Sin is paraded on his throne toward the long staircase leading to his blue-clad temple at the top. He wears a fringed sheepskin robe and a high-god's triple crown of bull horns. In his right hand he holds the tools of his rule: a rod and a ring, or rather a rod and reel - the measuring rod and measuring line of the Architect and Master Builder, first of the world, and then of Ur, the world's first city. What will happen at the summit? If we can trust Herodotus (called both the Father of History and the Father of Lies), the god himself will descend from heaven and, in a sacred union of heaven and earth, of the divine and human, he (perhaps impersonated by the king) will sleep with a beautiful princess on a golden bed.

NOTE: For the full article on the Ziggurat at Ur from which this excerpt was taken, click here

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~ Table of Contents ~

TYCHE & OEDIPUS
Adonis & Aphrodite
Fatal Boar Hunts, Fatal Loves: Meleager & Adonis
A Valentine for Camille Flammarion
The Met returns its Euphronios vase!
Camille Flammarion: Romantic Astronomer
The Fountains of Enceladus
The Eye of God
Is Ganymede the Boy from Marathon Bay?
THE ANCIENT OLYMPIEIA FESTIVAL AT ATHENS
Which satyr would you choose...
The Marathon Boy and the Satyr
Contrapossto from Praxiteles to Rubens and Playboy
The Afternoon of a Faun
The Dancing Satyr - A Lost Bronze of Praxiteles?
Hermes, The Liar Who Invented the Lyre
Inanna, Queen of Uruk
Inanna Adored: The Uruk Vase

The Moon-God Nanna-Sin Visits his Ziggurat at Ur

Apollo Sauroktonos, or How the Romans Killed the Lizard-Killer
Jacob's Ladder
Inanna and the Harrowing of Hell
Lilith: Wild Demon of Sex and Death
DUMUZI FEEDS INANNA'S SHEEP
The Sun God in his Dragon Boat
A Stairway to Heaven: The Ziggurat at Ur
Lassalle's Post-Modern Male Torso
Brancusi's Torsos: Pure Platonic Forms?
Brancusi on Men and Women: Take the Tate Test?
Four Gods Greet the Rising Sun God
Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo
Culsu & Vanth Lead the Dead into Hades
Aita, the Etruscan Hades
Socrates' Apology: The Background
A FATEFUL CHARIOT RACE: The STORY of PELOPS and OENOMAUS

Posted Apr 29, 2006 - 00:51 , Last Edited: May 16, 2006 - 11:08