Afterpants: Nether Regions Pt10 (GotG Eridu)

In ancient Sumerian, the word for underwear/loincloth is "dara"

So put on your Daras and sit back. Today's Nether Region (the next on Wikipedia's list anyway) is the "Garden of the gods." No, we're not talking about the park in Colorado.

We're talking about the Sumerian realm where their deities are supposed to have lived.

If you go the wiki on it, you'll get some decent information and several proposed theories on it's location.

That's great, but I want to focus specifically on Eridu. Why? because not only was it an actual Sumerian city, but as Piches suggests; the city was based on a place in the actual underworld! He wrote that it is "not the earthly city of that name, but a city conceived as lying also "within the Abyss", containing a tree of life fed by the Euphrates river."

(Incidentally the word abyss comes directly from the Sumerian word "Absu" and was meant to describe both the primeval waters AND the consciousness-entity which inhabited it)

As with many cultures, the Sumerians believed that their gods lived in a different place than their dead. The dead, (as I've mentioned before but I will make a seperate entry for) lived in a place called "Kar"

(I just LOVE this glyph! It's both linguistically simple and graphically poignant)

So, if you wanted to say "Afterpants" in ancient Sumerian it'd be something like

"Dara Kar!" LOL! I might just change the name of the whole series to Dara Kar...or maybe not.

The word for garden/pleasure is Kirimah...

(If you're wondering where I'm getting my information...you can look at the ePSD from Penn U.)

and it is likely that the Sumerians used this word to describe where their deities lived.

In the so named "Incantation of Eridu" the nether region is described as having a "glorious fountain of the abyss", a "house of wisdom", sacred grove and a kiskanu-tree with the appearance of lapis-lazuli.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, it describes the Garden of the Gods this way;

"There was a garden of the gods: all round him stood bushes bearing gems ... fruit of carnelian with the vine hanging from it, beautiful to look at; lapis lazuli leaves hung thick with fruit, sweet to see ... rare stones, agate and pearls from out the sea."

There are obviously parallels and/or derivations here to the Hindu Patalas .

(Though I'll admit, my suggestion that pre-Hindu ritual and belief in the Indus valley was influenced by Mesopotamian culture is not a popular one.)

Regardless, the Garden of the Gods seems like a beautiful and peaceful place.

Afterpants awards the GotG 4 Hellbriefs out of 5.