Hell Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Ancient Mesopotamia==== {{main|Ancient Mesopotamian underworld}} [[File:Dumuzi aux enfers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Ancient Sumerian [[cylinder seal]] impression showing the god [[Dumuzid the Shepherd|Dumuzid]] being tortured in the [[Kur|Underworld]] by ''[[gallu|galla]]'' demons]] The [[Sumer]]ian afterlife was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground,<ref name=Choksi2014>{{cite web|last=Choksi|first=M.|date=2014|title=Ancient Mesopotamian Beliefs in the Afterlife|url=http://www.worldhistory.org/article/701/|website=World History Encyclopedia|publisher=worldhistory.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820114719/http://www.ancient.eu/article/701/|archive-date=20 August 2017}}</ref> where inhabitants were believed to continue "a shadowy version of life on earth".<ref name=Choksi2014/> This bleak domain was known as [[Kur]],<ref name=Black1992>{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=Jeremy|first2=Anthony|last2=Green|title=Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary|publisher=The British Museum Press|year=1992|isbn= 978-0-7141-1705-8}}</ref>{{rp|114}} and was believed to be ruled by the goddess [[Ereshkigal]].<ref name=Choksi2014/><ref name=Nemet1998>{{citation|last=Nemet-Nejat|first=Karen Rhea|author-link=Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat|date=1998|title=Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=978-0-313-29497-6|url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinancie00neme}}</ref>{{rp|184}} All souls went to the same afterlife,<ref name=Choksi2014/> and a person's actions during life had no effect on how the person would be treated in the world to come.<ref name=Choksi2014/> The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry [[dust]]<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|58}} and family members of the deceased would ritually pour [[libation]]s into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing the dead to drink.<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|58}} Nonetheless, funerary evidence indicates that some people believed that the goddess [[Inanna]], Ereshkigal's younger sister, had the power to award her devotees with special favors in the afterlife.<ref name=Choksi2014/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barrett |first1=CaitlΓn |title=Was Dust Their Food and Clay Their Bread? Grave Goods, the Mesopotamian Afterlife, and the Liminal Role of Inana/Ishtar |journal=Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions |date=2007 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=7β65 |doi=10.1163/156921207781375123 |s2cid=55116377 }}</ref> During the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]], it was believed that a person's treatment in the afterlife depended on how he or she was buried;<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|58}} those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well,<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|58}} but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly.<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|58}} The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the [[Zagros mountains]] in the far east.<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|114}} It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass.<ref name=Choksi2014/> The god [[Neti (deity)|Neti]] was the gatekeeper.<ref name=Nemet1998/>{{rp|184}}<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|86}} Ereshkigal's ''sukkal'', or messenger, was the god [[Namtar]].<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|134}}<ref name=Nemet1998/>{{rp|184}} ''[[Gallu|Galla]]'' were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld;<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|85}} their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur.<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|85}} They are frequently referenced in magical texts,<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|85β86}} and some texts describe them as being seven in number.<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|85β86}} Several extant poems describe the ''galla'' dragging the god [[Dumuzid the Shepherd|Dumuzid]] into the underworld.<ref name=Black1992/>{{rp|86}} The later Mesopotamians knew this underworld by its [[East Semitic]] name: [[Irkalla]]. During the [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian Period]], Ereshkigal's role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to [[Nergal]], the god of death.<ref name=Choksi2014/><ref name=Nemet1998/>{{rp|184}} The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal's husband.<ref name=Choksi2014/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page