The following passage is about the palace of Irkalla(the epic of gilgamesh.) Enkidu tells Gilgamesh about the dream he has...where he sees himself entering a palace of the dead ( a large underground region below the earth. I just don't really understand the passage below. Can you tell me what role the dead play in the palace of Irkalla? Help, I am really weak in English.
‘ He turned his state towards me, and he led me away to the palace of Irkalla, the Queen of darkness, to the house from which none who enters ever returns, down the road from which there is no coming back.'There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds " with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away for ever; rulers and princes, all those who once wore kingly crowns and ruled the world in the days of old. They who had stood in the place of the gods like Ann and Enlil stood now like servants to fetch baked meats in the house of dust, to carry cooked meat and cold water from the water-skin. In the house of dust which I entered were high priests and acolytes, priests of the incantation and of ecstasy; there were servers of the temple, and there was Etana, that king of Dish whom the eagle carried to heaven in the days of old. I saw also Samuqan, god of cattle, and there was Ereshkigal the Queen of the Underworld; and Befit-Sheri squatted in front of her, she who is recorder of the gods and keeps the book of death. She held a tablet from which she read. She raised her head, she saw me and spoke:" Who has brought this one here?" Then I awoke like a man drained of blood who wanders alone in a waste of rashes; like one whom the bailiff has seized and his heart pounds with terror.'
So, based on the above passage about the palace of Irkalla, Can you tell me what role the dead play in the palace of Irkalla?
2007-12-12
13:01:23
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8 answers
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