Summary
Julian the Emperor’s Cave of the Nymph shares many features with the Egal of the goddess Nungal.
Text
Julian the Emperor, Hymn to the Mother of the Gods 5.15.D (Wright):
But when he [Attis, Gallus] passed beyond this limit and came even to the lowest region, the myth said that he had descended into the cave, and had wedded the nymph. And the nymph is to be interpreted as the dampness of matter; … Indeed Heracleitus also says: “It is death to souls to become wet.”
Nungal Hymn 40-47
When a man of whom his god disapproves (?) arrives at the gate of the great house, which is a furious storm, a flood which covers everybody, he is delivered into the august hands of Nungal, the warden of the prison; this man is held by a painful grip like a wild bull with spread (?) forelegs. He is led to a house of sorrow, his face is covered with a cloth, and he goes around naked. He … the road with his foot, he … in a wide street. His acquaintances do not address him, they keep away from him.
Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Julian the Emperor, Hymn to the Mother of the Gods 5.15.D (Wright)
Nungal Hymn 40-47
Bibliography
| Civil 1993 | Civil, M. “On Mesopotamian Jails and Their Lady Warden.” In: Mark E. Cohen, Daniel C. Snell and David B. Weisberg (eds.). The Tablet and the Scroll. Near Eastern Studies in Honour of William W. Hallo. Bethesda MD: CDL Press 1993, 72-78. |
| Hallo 1979 | Hallo, W. W. “Notes from the Babylonian Collection, I. Nungal in the Egal. An Introduction to Colloquial Sumerian?.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 31 (1979) 161-165. [JSTOR (requires subscription)] |
| Hallo 1985 | Hallo, W. W. “Back to the Big House. Colloquial Sumerian, Continued.” Orientalia NS 54 (1985) 56-64. |
| Mander 2001, 119-124 | Mander, Pietro. “Antecedents in the Cuneiform Literature of the Attis Tradition in Late Antiquity.” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 1 (2001) 100-149. [Brill (requires subscription)] |
| Wright 1913, 462-463 | Wright, Wilmer Cave. The Works of the Emperor Julian, I. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1913. |
Links (external links will open in a new browser window)
Cf. The cosmic cave (2)
Cf. The cosmic cave (3)
Pietro Mander
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