Mesopotamia: The firmament of Heaven

The Epic of Gilgamesh.

 "I have come on account of my ancestor Utanapishtim,
 who joined the Assembly of the Gods, and was given eternal life.
 About Death and Life I must ask him!"

The scorpion-being spoke to Gilgamesh ..., saying:
"Never has there been, Gilgamesh, a mortal man who could do that(?). No one has crossed through the mountains, for twelve leagues it is darkness throughout--dense is the darkness, and light there is none.
To the rising of the sun ...
To the setting of the sun ...
To the setting of the sun ...
They caused to go out..."

[67 lines are missing, in which Gilgamesh convinces the scorpion-being to allow him
passage.]

"Though it be in deep sadness and pain, in cold or heat ...   gasping after breath ... I will go on! Now! Open the Gate!"

The scorpion-being spoke to Gilgamesh, saying:
"Go on, Gilgamesh, fear not! The Mashu mountains I give to you freely (!), the mountains, the ranges, you may traverse ...In safety may your feet carry you. The gate of the mountain ..."
To the rising of the sun ...
To the setting of the sun ...
To the setting of the sun ...

Reading this it is clear that the Mesopotamians didn't view the positions of Sun and Earth as we do. As far as I know, we are all on a ball of rock, that surrounds a weird magnetic ball, with molten lava under our feet. And this ball of rock is rolling through space at 66,660 miles per hour, and at my latitude it is falling eastwards at 639 miles an hour. I understand the sun to be at the centre of our planetary system, and though our ball of rock is bound spinning around the sun, we are not. 

For us, the Sun and the other planets are spherical islands in a sea of death. But it doesn't sound as if the Mesopotamians saw it this way. And it seems that for them, the Sun rolled from day to night through an immense tunnel.

Though I find it interesting that they say:

To the rising of the sun ...
To the setting of the sun ...
To the setting of the sun ...

And though this is the tunnel of the Sun, why is it dark - or is it simply a very bad sign if it starts to get light!

No one has crossed through the mountains,
for twelve leagues it is darkness throughout--
dense is the darkness, and light there is none.

The tunnel is dark - so either the sun is too far away to cast it's light into the tunnel, or is the Sun itself dark? Were they saying that the sun smoulders like charcoal, and only begins to glow when the wind causes it to flare into light as it gets to the mouth of the tunnel?

Eight leagues he travelled and cried out,
Dense was the darkness, light there was none,
Neither what lies ahead nor behind does it allow him to see.
Nine leagues he travelled ... the North Wind.
It licked at his face,
Dense was the darkness, light there was none,
Neither what lies ahead nor behind does it allow him to see.
Ten leagues he travelled ...
... is near,
... four leagues.
Eleven leagues he travelled and came out before the sun(rise).
Twelve leagues he travelled and it grew brilliant.
...it bears lapis lazuli as foliage,
  bearing fruit, a delight to look upon.

It was also said that the Sun visited the Underworld at night and whilst he is there he acts as judge. The God of the Sun, Shamash (Utu)  is judge of 'those above and those below'. But how is it below - and if the tunnel goes horizontally to Dilmun, may it also take a steep incline down to the Underworld?

How then did Gilgamesh avoid the terrible slide into the abyss?

But when Inanna made her descent into the Underworld, she took 'The road that leads one way' and had to enter the Underworld itself through seven bolted gates. No actual descent is described....

And yet, the Sun rises and descends.

Once through the tunnel Gilgamesh came to the paradise land of Dilmun. And there, Siduri tells him, he must  cross  "the Waters of Death" if he is to continue his search for the secret of eternal life.

Forgetting all about the Gates of Heaven, and the similarity with the Egyptian Book of Gates, for the present  the second tablet of the series Bit Meseri provide more clues about the stony nature of the heavens. 

It tells us that the heavens are divided into three zones, assigned to Anu, Enlil and Ea. Translations of clay tablets [KAR 307 30-38 and AO 8196 iv 20-22] dated to the first millennium BC. explain that:

• The upper heavens are luludanitu-stone- they belong to Anu. 
• The middle heavens are saggilmud-stone- they belong to the Igigi
• The lower heavens are iashpu [jasper]- they belong to the stars.

Pliny in his 'Natural history' says:

'The fourth variety of jasper is known among the Greeks as 'boria' or 'north wind' jasper because it is like the sky on an autumn morning. This will be identified with the kind known as ' aerizusa. The stone whose appearance is like the clear heavens...

If Pliny is right, then the sky of the lowest heaven, jasper, is our sky, and therefore our realm belongs to the stars. 

Meanwhile the sun arcs across the sky and floats over the ground to Heaven:

"Utu, when you enter heaven's interior, may the pure bolt of heaven greet you. May the the door of heaven pray to you. May law, your beloved visor, go straight towards you. Let your greatness shine towards the E.Barra, the seat of your royalty. May Sherda, your beloved spouse meet you happily. May she calm your heart with cool water. May she set before you the meal of your godhead....Utu, make straight your way, go the true road to your 'level place'. Utu, you are the judge of the land (Kalem) the one who straightens out its decisions"

The sun rests in the House of Radiance, and the place of judgement seems to be 'the level place' and it is a straight journey.

No descent.

The Underworld isn't under the surface of the earth?

So perhaps the Mesopotamians didn't imagine the Sun rising from the Underworld, or Dilmon - or was Dilmun a zone before the Underworld? It seems that the Underworld is a far away over there. Which explains the need for all those bolts and doors and walls to keep the dead away from the living.

Granted, prayers speak of a mountain of Sunrise. Was this understood to mean that the tunnel was horizontal, and an entry point through the aerizusa jasper sky? Was the rationalle here that the height of the sun above the ground is related to the sun's distance from us- so when the sun is low, the sun is imagined as further away, more distant?

How does the description of the stones of heaven, help solve this question?

luludanitu-stone of upper heaven..  The stone whose appearence is like hulalu stone and mush.sharu stone is named luludanite stone, it is red covered with white and black patches.

saggilmud-stone of middle heaven. The heaven of the Igigi is the same colour as lapis lazuli (lapis coloured or lapis? is hashmanu stone). 

And finally we have the jasper as described by Pliny.

In Tibetan Buddhism Mount Meru is the mountain at the centre of the universe. Each side is made of a different type of stone. This explains why the sky is different colours - because the sunlight is reflecting off Mount Meru.

In this map of the universe our Earth is one of the islands at the bottom of the mountain, in the blue sea.

In this version of the universe, the sky changes colour in relation to the position of the sun, so this map  predicts that we see the sky that is closest to the sun- regardless of physics.

If I use this as a clue to how the Babylonian sky worked, then when the sun is above us, the light bounces off the translucent-jasper sky. When the sun is rising or sinking in to upper heaven, the light bounces off the red and black luludanite stone, and finally when the sun is cool and dark in the middle heaven, we see the saggilmud, lapis stone sky?

As in the Tibetan Meru universe, the sky above the sun is projected up and over our heads too. Curiously this belief in a firmament is alive and well today (I have been told that there are no space craft that are able to leave the Earth, because they cannot get through the firmament).

Back to Mesopotamia!

The planets; Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn are companions of the sun, their rising and setting positions were seen to be predictable and related to the sun's position. The moon meanwhile, is more complicated and was imagined to be in a boat, to account for the moon being in the sky at odd times, and sometimes higher or lower than the sun. 

The moon was also said to take turns in entering the Underworld as judge. This occurred when the moon was beyond the thin crescent stage, and its rising and setting times are so close to the sun that the moon is invisible. 

Then the moon travels with the sun to the Underworld.

And the stars? The lower heavens belong to the stars, and their sky is our daylight...but we don't see them until the sun is in the middle heaven, because they were fixed in place- in the lapis sky- by Marduk, after he killed Tiamat...

I leave you with the Enuma Elish.

1. He.(i.e. Marduk) made the stations for the great gods;

2. The stars, their images, as the stars of the Zodiac, he fixed.

3. He ordained the year and into sections he divided it;

4. For the twelve months he fixed three stars.

5. After he had [...] the days of the year [...] images,

6. He founded the station of Nibir 1to determine their bounds;

7. That none might err or go astray,

8. He set the station of Bêl and Ea along with him.

9. He opened great gates on both sides,

10. He made strong the bolt on the left and on the right.

11. In the midst thereof he fixed the zenith;

12. The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night he entrusted to him.

13. He appointed him, a being of the night, to determine the days;

14. Every month without ceasing with the crown he covered(?) him, (saying):

15. “At the beginning of the month, when thou shinest upon the land,

16. “Thou commandest the horns to determine six days,

17. “And on the seventh day to [divide] the crown.

18. “On the fourteenth day thou shalt stand opposite, the half [...].

19. “When the Sun-god on the foundation of heaven [...] thee,

20. “The [...] thou shalt cause to …, and thou shalt make his [...].

21. “[...] … unto the path of the Sun-god shalt thou cause to draw nigh,

22. “[And on the ... day] thou shalt stand opposite, and the Sun-god shall … [...]

23. “[...] to traverse her way.

24. “[...] thou shalt cause to draw nigh, and thou shalt judge the right.

25. “[...] to destroy

26. “[...] me.