The house of night (1)

Text
The daughters of the Sun departing from and returning to the ‘house of the night’ in the Greek poems uses the Babylonian expression ‘House of Night’ (bīt mūši). The expression was cited specifically in the context of rituals aimed at balancing the lengths of day and night at the winter and summer solstices; according to Babylonian tradition the house or temple of night is approached and entered at certain specified times by the ‘daughters of Esagil’, Marduk being associated with the sun.

BM 34035 1-8:
On the 11th of Tammuz, Ṣillušṭāb and Katunna, the daughters of Esagil, go to Ezida, and on the 3rd of Kislim Gazbaba and Kirizalsurra, the daughters of Ezida, go to Esagil. Why do they go? In Tammuz, when the nights have become short, the daughters of Esagil go to Ezida to lengthen the nights. Ezida is the night temple. In Kislim, when the days have become short, the daughters of Ezida go to Esagil to lengthen the days. Esagil is the day temple.

Hesiod, Theogony 744-750:
There stands the awful home of gloomy Night wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus stands immovably upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door.

Parmenides B 1.8-12:
… they hastened to convey me, the girls, daughters of the Sun, who had left the House of Night for the light and pushed back with their hands the veils from their heads. Here are the gates of the paths of Night and Day, and a lintel and a stone treshold enclose them.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
BM 34035 1-8
Hesiod, Theogony 744-750
Parmenides B 1.8-12

Bibliography

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001126.php