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Weeping in Sun’s temple (1)

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Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)

04 Religious and philosophical literature and poetry
06 Visual arts and architecture
03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices
01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery




 		Keywords
planets
statues
weeping
Period
10th century CE 		Channel
Islamic philosophers and scholars

Text
Ibn Waḥshīya, Nabatean Agriculture 296:
The people of the time of Yanbūshādh claimed that all the dwellings (sakīna) of gods and idols wept for him after his death, just like angels and sakīnas had all wept for Tammūzā. Further, they claimed that all the idols came from all regions to Bayt al-ˀŠKWL in Bābil and all went to the temple (haykal) of the Sun … The idol of the Sun stood in the middle of the temple and all the world’s idols stood around him. Closest to him were the idols of the Sun from every region, then the idols of the Moon, then the idols of Mars, then the idols of Mercury, then the idols of Jupiter, then the idols of Venus, then the idols Saturn. Then the idol of the Sun started weeping for Tammūzā and all the idols wept. The idol of the Sun read litanies of Tammūzā and told his story in detail, and all the idols wept from sundown till sunrise the next morning. After that they flew back to their regions.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Ibn Waḥshīya, Nabatean Agriculture 296

Bibliography

Hämeen-Anttila 2002, 96-97Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko. “Continuity of Pagan Religious Traditions in Tenth-Century Iraq.” In: A. Panaino and G. Pettinato (eds.). Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena. Melammu Symposia 3. Milan: Universita di Bologna & IsIAO 2002, 89-108. [PDF]

Links (external links will open in a new browser window)
Cf. Weeping in Sun’s temple (2)

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000679.php

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