É_(temple), É_(temple) Information, É

ÉThe word is phonologically simply /e/, the acute accent is an assyriological convention specifying the corresponding cuneiform sign. is the Sumerian for "house" or "temple", written ideographically with the cuneiform sign 𒂍 (Borger nr. 324, encoded by Unicode at codepoint U+1208D)

Specific temples:

E-apzu, "temple of the apzu (Oceanus)", temple to Enki in Eridu.
E-ad-da, temple to Enlil
E-igi-zi(d)-bar-ra, temple to Ningursu, built by Entemena
E-^dama-geshtin "mother of wine"
E-^da-mal, temple in Babylon
E-amash-azag, "temple of the bright fold" in Dur-ilu
E-am-kur-kurra, "temple of the lord of lands" to Bēl in Assur
E-an-da-di-a, the ziggurat of Akkad
E-an-ki, "temple of heaven and earth"
E-an-na "temple of heaven" in Lagash, Girsu, Ur and Erech
E-a-nun, temple of Lugal-girra
E-an-za-kar "temple of the pillar"
E-a-ra-li "temple of the underworld"
E-a-ra-zu-gish-tug "temple of the hearing of prayers"
E-aratta, fictional temple in fictional Aratta
E-^das-^dmah "temple of the supreme god"
E-^das-ra-tum "temple of the goddess Ashratum"
E-babbara, temple to Utu in Sippar, Larsa and Lagash
E-bara-igi-e-di "temple of wonders", zigurrat to Dumuzi in Akkad
E-^dbau, temple to the goddess Bau in Lagash
E-belit-mati "temple to the mother of the world"
E-^dbur-^dsin, temple to the deified king Bur-Sin in Ur
E-dam, built by Ur-nina in Lagash
E-dara-an-na "temple of the darkness of heaven"
E-di-kud-kalam-ma "temple of the judge of the world"
E-dilmun-na "temple of Dilmun"
E-dim-an-na "temple of the bond of heaven", built by Nebuchadnezzar for Sin
E-dim-gal-abzu in Lagash
E-du-azaga "temple of the brilliant shrine", to Marduk
E-dumi-zi-abzu, to Tammuz, destroyed in the time of Urukagina
E-^ddun-gi, temple to the deified king Dungi
E-dur-gi-na "temple of the lasting abode", built by Nebuchadnezzar
E-^de-a, temple to Enki in Eridu, shrine of Ea (Enki) at Khorsabad built by Sargon.
E-ibe-Anu, temple to Urash in Dilbat
E-igi-kalama, temple to Ninurta in Marad
E-kur "mountain temple" to Enlil in Nippur
E-ku-nin-azag "temple of the brilliant goddess" in Girsu
E-ninnu, temple to Ningirsu in Lagash
E-a-mer, the ziggurat of E-ninnu
E-sag-il "temple that raises its head", the temple of Marduk in Babylon, according to the Enuma elish home to all the gods under the patronage of Marduk.
E-temen-anki "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth", the ziggurat to Marduk in Babylon
E-temen-ni-gur, main ziggurat of Ur
E-zagin, sanctuary of Nidaba
Ezi-Kalam-ma, to Innana in Zabala, built by Hammurabi

The term temen appearing frequently after É in names of ziggurats is translated as "foundation pegs", apparently the first step in the construction process of a house, compare for example verses 551-561 of the account of the construction of E-ninnu:

He stretched out lines in the most perfect way; he set up (?) a sanctuary in the holy uzga. In the house, Enki drove in the foundation pegs, while Nance, the daughter of Eridu, took care of the oracular messages. The mother of Lagac, holy Jatumdug, gave birth to its bricks amid cries (?), and Bau, the lady, first-born daughter of An, sprinkled them with oil and cedar essence. En and lagar priests were detailed to the house to provide maintenance for it. The Anuna gods stood there full of admiration.

Temen has been occasionally compared to Greek temenos "holy precinct", but since the latter has a well established Indo-European etymology (see temple), the comparison is either mistaken, or at best describes a case of popoular etymology or convergence. In E-temen-an-ki, "the temple of the foundation pegs of heaven and earth", temen has been taken to refer to an axis mundi connecting earth to heaven (thus re-enforcing the Tower of Babel connection), but the term re-appears in several other temple names, referring to their physical stability rather than, or as well as, to a mythological world axis, compare the Egyptian notion of Djed.

Notes

References

The building of Ningirsu\'s temple: composite text (translation), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
Abraham and the City of Ur, The Book of the Cave of Treasures (1927)
D. D. Luckenbill, The Temples of Babylonia and Assyria, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures (1908) [1]

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É_(temple)

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See also

References