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Between the Rivers: Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia
This group is dedicated to discussing the religious beliefs of the ancient peoples who lived in Mesopotamia and Persia.

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    Dilmun
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    Author: * Hanibal Assurbanipal - 2 Posts on this thread out of 5 Posts sitewide.
    Date: Jul 28, 2003 - 13:52

    Thank you for the welcome message. As a token of my interest in the subject of RAM, I am posting the "creation legend" as it relates to ancient Dilmun (Bahrain today).

    The myth of the Mesopotamian gods “Enki and Ninhursag” begin with a hymn parsing the sacred land of Dilmun - today the kingdom of Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf.

    “Blessed is the city that is bestowed upon you,
    Blessed (also) is the land of Dilmun:
    Blessed is Summer…, blessed is the land of Dilmun
    The land of Dilmun is blessed, the land of Dilmun is pure,
    The land of Dilmun is luminous, the land of Dilmun is radiant.
    When he settled there, the first at Dilmun,
    The place where Enki settled with his wife,
    This place (became) pure, this place became radiant.”

    The following passage describes in detail the state of this “paradise” where civilization and order did not exist.

    “At Dilmun no crow cawed
    the partridge (?) did not cackle,
    The lion did not kill,
    The wolf did not carry off the lamb,
    The dog did not know the heard of goats,
    Nor did the wild boar know how to eat grain,
    The widow spread the malt over her roof,
    The birds of the sky did not come and peck at it;

    The dove did not cure its neck;
    No one with pain in their eyes said
    “my eyes hurt”,
    No one with pain in their head said
    “my head hurts”;
    No old woman said; “I am old!”;
    No old man said; “I am old!”;
    Young woman did not bathe, no clear water
    Ran through the town;
    No one crossed the river shouting,
    No herald walked around his district,
    No poet broke into a song of joy,
    Nor sang a lamentation on the outskirts
    of the town.


    This text is from the book; "Traces of Paradise" that I purchesed in the Bahrain national museum.


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