On Sleep and Death: Acutualizing a Sleep Disorder

[us4-he2-gal2]

I am at library at the moment attempting to stay awake. Am taking notes on sleep and death, as I still believe the Mesopotamians linked the two...

[xuchilpaba]

I have heard of this link when I was child from another source. However, it was not Mesopotamian. I would think this belief would be easier to find.

[ummia-inim-gina]

The great sleep, this is an interesting topic. I am wondering now, is there reference to gods needing to sleep in Sumerian literature? How about dreaming? What happens when a god has a nightmare?

[us4-he2-gal2]

Sleep and Death




As some of you may know I have been working myself into something of a sleep disorder for the last seven months due to unhealthy ideas about sleep. I'm sure it stems from some sort of acute awareness of mortality, the passing of time, and how finite oppurtunity really is. Among other things.

So I have become fascinated with ancient ideas of the relation between sleep and death both other why rob man of his resolve, either for a short time or for eternity. I have found the idea of the connection to be present in Mesopotamian context, though very hard to substantiate. The Greeks seem to have more clearly defined the connection between sleep and death, and here we can refer to a segment of Heisod's theogony (Heisod was an early philsopher, roughly contemporary with Homer - his thegony discusses the different generations of gods and their relations.)


In Heisod's theogony, sleep and death were siblings, the children of night. (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/). They were both "aweful gods" though one is "kindly" toward men:

_______________________________________

"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. And the house never holds them both within; but always one is
without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and
waits until the time for her journeying comes; and the one holds all-seeing light
for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms Sleep the brother of Death
, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous cloud. And there the children of dark
Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never
looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he
comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the
earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart
of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomever of men he has
once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods."

_______________________________________

Mesopotamian context/



A strong indication that the Mesopotamians had some similar belief in a similarity of some sort between sleep and death is found in the Gilgamesh Epic. When Gilgamesh in his quest for immortality is challenged by Uta-napishtim to a test, the test, on tablet XI line 209 is given as: "For six days and seven nights, come, do without slumber!" The idea of the test is this, that if Gilgamesh cannot defeat sleep, how can he hope to be immortal - how can he hope to defy death? This dynamic in itself suggests the similarity of the concepts of sleep and death in the Mesopotamian mind. Gilgamesh does not defeat sleep, and in fact as soon as he had squatted down on his haunches..

____________________________________________

like a.....

šit-tu ki-ma im-ba-ri i-nap-pu-uš UGU-šú

ki-ma im-ba-ri i-nap-pu-uš UGU-šú

like a...like a...

like...[/center]

Sleep like a fog breathed over him

šit-tu

...i-nap-pu-uš UGU-šú

šit-tu

like a fog..

breathed over..

__________________________________________________

Gilgamesh slept for 6 days and 7 nights, whereupon Uta-napistim touched him and awoke him. Said Gilgamesh to him, to Uta-napishtim:

"No sooner had sleep spilled itself over me,
than forthwith you touched me and made me awake!"

Subsequently it is proven to Gilgamesh that he did indeed sleep 6 days and 7 nights, and he laments:

"O Uta-napishtim, what should I do and where should I go?
A theif has taken hold of me flesh!
For there in my bed-chamber Death does abide,
and where I turn, there too will be Death."

In these line we have a direct comparison between sleep, a theif in the night, which in the bed-chamber is or acts like Death. Gilgamesh fails his test and submits to sleep which like death limits man to his mortality.

---

Dammit. My stupid alarm was set to PM and not AM this morning so I get nothing much done and have to go to work. Still to come: Other Mespotamian context, and consideraiton of the below lines:


ETCSL lines:

An elegy on the death of Nannaya: c.5.5.2
"Utu, the great lord of the nether world, after turning the dark places to light, will judge your case. May Nanna decree your fate on the day of sleep. Nergal, the Enlil of the underworld, …… before it, may the …… utter your name, may he cause you to eat fresh food. May you be …… of the underworld, and may she have pity on you. May your household bring fresh water to the libation place. May Lord Ninĝišzida …… the house ……. May the mighty Gilgameš …… health for you. May Neti and Etana be your helpers. May the god of the underworld utter prayers for you."


Proverbs: collection 3: c.6.1.03
My drink is a river. The place where I sleep is a place of reed mats.

[xuchilpaba]

Jul 29, 2008 16:34:46 GMT -5 ummia-inim-gina said:

The great sleep, this is an interesting topic. I am wondering now, is there reference to gods needing to sleep in Sumerian literature? How about dreaming? What happens when a god has a nightmare?

Check out Inanna's rape.

[us4-he2-gal2]

ummia:

In answering your question as well, Xuch has mentioned the myth sometimes called "Inanna's rape." This a great example of god's sleeping, it is usually referred to as "Inana and Šu-kale-tuda these days. See ETCSL t.1.3.3. It is pretty much the case that while the gods may -usually- be consider deathless, they are not ever taken for sleepless in the Mesopotamian myths. Another sleeping god is Enki, when the gods clamor for a solution before the creation of mankind ( ETCSL t.1.1.2). Additionally, if you are able to access the Mesopotamian myth Atrahasis (not at ETCSL) it is said there that Enlil decreed the flood to come because the clamor of mankind was too great- they were denying him sleep.

Additionally, we see in that in t.1.8.2.1 that the Sun god went to sleep:

"Utu, shepherd of the land, father of the black-headed, when you go to sleep, the people go to sleep with you"

This stems from the Sumerian belief that developed in the 3rd millennium that when Utu descended from the sky at night, he went to the netherworld to sleep. We may wonder, if the Sumerians believed their dead to be in a sleep like state, as Utu when he traveled to the Netherworld. Or, if this is to far, if they didnt in some similar way romanticize or postulate death as some final form of sleep. Here information about burial practices is interesting (see below).

[us4-he2-gal2]

The Posture of the Dead

(from Excavations at Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley (1954))

The "sleep" position/

Another piece of information that may be worth consideration here, is the posture of the dead when they were buried in Sumer. Sir Leonard Woolley excavated at Ur, and we can refer here to his findings for a good insight into Sumerian burial practices. In the book I have cited above, page 54, the author explains that he found at Ur a cemetery, and that the lower level of this (dating to the early dynastic period) contained two type of graves: Commoners graves of which there were 2000, and the tombs of kings of which there were roughly 16 intact. The commoners graves are actually of interest here, and the author remarks on them as follows:


"The ordinary grave consisted of a rectangular shaft, anything from four to twelve feet deep, in which the dead man was laid either wrapped in matting or enclosed in a coffin which might be of basket-work, of wood or of clay; there was no rule regarding orientation and the head might be facing in any direction, but the attitude of the body was invariable; it lay on its side, the back straight or very slightly curved, the legs more or less flexed at hip and knee and the hands brought up in front of the breast almost to the level of the mouth; it is the attitude of a person asleep, and is wholly unlike the rigid straightness of the al 'Ubaid dead or the tightly-contracted 'embryonic' position which marks the Jemdat Nasr graves. That this should be invariable whereas so much else in the ritual of the burials seems casual and capricious must mean that a special significance attached to it and that it reflected some religious belief."


It's also interested to note Woolley the custom of to placing the body in a wrapping of reed mats. This may have been a precaution to keep the of the earth from directly contacting the body - in other cases the bottom of the grave was lined with the same reed matting. Woolley states that even in graves that showed little or no sign of these reed mats, this is likely simply a result of the decay of a fragile material, but in any case the practice was largely attested. At this point, the proverb below becomes interesting:



(See ETCSL Proverbs: collection 3: c.6.1.03)

My drink is a river. The place where I sleep is a place of reed mats.

Obviously, graves were not the only use for reed matting in Ancient Mesopotamia.. A survey of search results for the term "reed mat" at ETCSL attest that it was used to line boats, and to cover chariots, and also as an aid in preparing "cooked mash". The above proverb however, tells that it also was used as a sort of bedding in some cases - if in fact the above doesn't allude abstractly to the grave itself.. But if a bed is meant, then this to makes an interesting object to consider: the grave as bed (and the body placed in a :-"sleeping" position..)

So the similarity between sleep and death in ancient reckoning would again be hinted at.

[us4-he2-gal2]

SAD = (Scribal Anxiety Disorder?)

While some of the last days of the last months have been spent with 3 or 4 hours of sleep, other days I am totally unsuccessful and am humbled by 7 hours; and so, some of my researches proceed whereas this thread is not completed - and wonderings of Sisig as a netherworld god of Dreams who also functions in someway at the Ne.IZI.gar festival, opening a through-way for the dead (the ancestors), must go un-examined for now. Perhaps we have here again a connection between sleep and death.

For today, I am thinking over a few lines I have recently stumbled on from a composition referred to as The advice of a supervisor to a younger scribe. This lines I find particularly interesting occur when the instructor, the elder scribe, recollects to the young scribe what he himself was taught by his own teacher, words this elder scribe evidently lived by and which lead to his success. These gleanings were recited to the younger scribe "like a magic spell" - and within these lines I find some notions very familiar to me, they express a peculiar sense of urgency that it would mean failure to suppress:

t.5.1.3

---

9-15. "I just did whatever he outlined for me -- everything was always in its place. Only a fool would have deviated from his instructions. He guided my hand on the clay and kept me on the right path. He made me eloquent with words and gave me advice. He focused my eyes on the rules which guide a man with a task: zeal is proper for a task, time-wasting is taboo; anyone who wastes time on his task is neglecting his task."

16-20. "He did not vaunt his knowledge: his words were modest. If he had vaunted his knowledge, people would have frowned. Do not waste time, do not rest at night -- get on with that work! Do not reject the pleasurable company of a mentor or his assistant: once you have come into contact with such great brains, you will make your own words more worthy."


21-26. "And another thing: you will never return to your blinkered vision; that would be greatly to demean due deference, the decency of mankind. Worthy plants calm the heart, and sins are absolved. An empty-handed man's gifts are respected as such. Even a poor man clutches a kid to his chest as he kneels. You should defer to the powers that be and …… -- that will calm you."

---

[saratara]

:-) about the scribe disorder. But I think that sleep is essential for elaboration of what we do during the hours we are awake. That's why I like so much to sleep... (poor excuse?).
About sleep and death you may find interesting this excerpt from the Hymn to Utu:

" Let the dead man eat in front of his house/ let him drink water in his house/ let him sleep in the shade of his house". (Utu Hymn, 151-152)

Very interesting to me for two reasons: one, the dead were buried under the house, so this is a literary counterproof. Second, because the majority of the ancestors were buried under a room which was interpreted by Woolley "private chapel" but which in my opinion and after a long analysis of texts and archaeological evidence, was the bed-room of the owner of the house. So he slept above the "rest-place" of his fathers. I think this is indeed a parallelism between sleep and death!
Happy halloween to you all!
Sara

[us4-he2-gal2]

An Update on S.A.D (Scribal Anxiety Disorder)

I am recording some later thoughts on S.A.D. I have invented that term and it actually only loosely fits my 18 month opposition of sleep - an opposition which once ranged from mild derangement to weak protestation and back again. I think its always been ambition that has been my problem, a burning want for things that I cannot touch currently and cannot reach. I suppose I've felt if I could stop my demise at the end of every day, I could grasp anything, could make my way anywhere..

The ancients would chastise a scribe: Do not waste time, do not rest at night! but, they knew well the unfortunate limitations of a mortal like me, or even a semi-divine mortal like Gilgamesh who went so far to fulfill his ambition, or to conquer his anxiety, but fell asleep the first night of his trial - and so I have fallen asleep every night, or sometimes on some morning or afternoon. In good times it was just a few hours but now my S.A.D is leaving me.. I sleep a regular amount of time, I don't feel very bad for it, the urgency seems to be going. But I still never intentionally fall asleep, every night it is an accident 0_0 And so it is reaching its most comical stage hm. I lay down and rest my eyes, telling myself it is to regain energy. I tell myself "I would never fall asleep at a time like this!" and this reassures me enough that I relax - and fall asleep. I have almost lost my S.A.D., and will sometime go to sleep intentionally, just not tonight. I have many things to do tonight 0_0

[us4-he2-gal2]

Arg! Sleep is humiliating me now! I no longer have S.A.D., at least now I will admit sleep and Im not trying to beat it anymore. But now, I am more vulnurable to sleep then the average person! I think I have forgotten how to productively manage it as a result of my long effort of denying it. Im sleeping 9 or 10 hours a day!! erg. (And still by accident with, lying down with the assumption I wont fall asleep.)

[madness]

Uh, and why are you trying to deprive yourself of sleep, again?

As Sara said above,

Sleep is essential.

[sheshki]

Apr 29, 2009 2:49:08 GMT -5 madness said:

Uh, and why are you trying to deprive yourself of sleep, again?

As Sara said above,

Sleep is essential.

I agree!

[us4-he2-gal2]

Hypnos:



Above I quoted some lines from Heisod's Theogony which discuss Sleep and Death who are brother and sons of Night. They are defined as "aweful gods" yet Sleep is kindly toward men while Death if pitiless and hated "even among the deathless gods."





I've learned a little more about them in my Greek Religion course. Above is a picture of Sleep and Death, their names in Greek are Thanatos (Death, winged on left) and Hypnos (Sleep, winged on right). They carry a slain hero from the Iliad, and above stand Hermes, as traveling god and guide of the departing souls. The image is from a vase painting of the late Archaic period (510 B.C)

Harris and Platzner's work on Classical mythology say this about Hypnos: "Thanato's (Death's) twin brother Hypnos (Sleep) also inhabits the Underworld. A fatherless child of Night, he is commonly depicted as a winged youth who pours soporific liquid from a horn or gently touches the weary with a leafy branch. Generally regarded as friendly toward humans, Hypnos appears in Greek funerary art as a kindly figure helping to carry the recent dead to the next world."


The question remains to me whether Hypnos is really a kindly god. The Netherworld to the Greeks was as the Netherworld to the Mesopotamians, a place of waste and stagnation - The ghost of Achilles, as the ghost of Enkidu, speaks despairingly relating that he would 'rather be a poor man's living slave than king of all the dead'. To be carryed off to the Netherworld was to suffer total loss of vitality and identity. Even if Hypnos were kindly or compassionate his cooperation with Thanatos seems unmerciful even if necessary.

[george616]

us4-he2-gal2,

There is a spell using Hypnos. It's in The Seven Faces of Darkness, by Don Webb: "You are the Essence of the Goat of Mendes. Ever awake. Ever vigilant. Hypnos flees from you. You are as alert as Re." (p.70, Runa Raven Press, 1996) This is a version of the "Spell to induce insomnia by means of a bat" in the Greek Magical Papyri(PGM VII.652-60) You can send the bat to stop someone from sleeping (or indeed yourself, should you wish to, nightshifts, etc.) Originally, real bats were used. Mr. Webb's bat-friendly version uses magical words written on papyrus.

Don Webb's book: www.runaraven.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19&zenid=ea80aa9acfad02b47d3032dbe0051f3d

[us4-he2-gal2]

Ah! Brilliant! I must know more here George Well, I don't know about Webb's version, I tend to seek out absolute authenticity in as far as that is possible, I'm not sure how much he has improvised..however, I am very interested in this original papyrus version! Must see what we can do on this

[george616]

Here, especially for the cuneiform monk, but also for any enenurians in general who might like to stay awake during the crepuscular hours , is...

PGM VII. 652-60

Spell to induce insomnia by means of a bat.

Take blood of a black ox or of a goat or of Typhon* - but preferably of a goat - and write on its right wing: "BÓRPHÓR PHORBA PHORPHARBA / PHÓRBÓRPHORBA PHORBA PHORBA PHORBA BAPHAIÉ PHÓRBAPHÓR BARBA" (put one word under another one, like bricks, and [add the usual, whatever] you want). And on the left wing write this in the same pattern: "PHÓRPHÓR PHORBA BORPHOR PHORBA BORPHOR PHORBA PHORPHOR PHORBABÓR / BORBORBA PHÓRPHÓR PHORBA" (likewise, add the usual as you want).

*The "blood of Typhon" is the blood of an ass.

(translation by R.F. Hock, p. 136 of The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation 2nd ed. edited. by Hans Dieter Betz, University of Chicago Press, 1992.)

The words in capitals are "voces magicae." On this particular series, the "BORPHOR-series", Gager has written:

"it appears on defixiones throughout the Mediterranean region as well as on amulets and in formularies; it is generally associated with Hekate... and Selene (the Moon), as their secret name or as an invocation" (p.266, John G. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, Oxford University Press, 1992.)

The purpose of the voces magicae is initiatory, it's to transform the soul of the magician from one state of being into another state of being.The voces magicae are the "gunpowder" that propel the "bullet".
The chapters "Magical Writing Systems" and "The Science of the Stoicheia" in Hermetic Magic by Dr. Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D. are very useful here. (Weiser Books, 1995.)Dr. Flowers has a method that involves firstly transliterating the letters of the voces magicae back into Ancient Greek. "B" becomes "beta." (-can't get Greek letters on this keyboard.) Then these letters are assigned a (Pythagorean) numerical value, with associated esoteric meanings. Then this becomes a kind of mental map of the universe within which the magician can operate. Also useful in this work are:

Magical Alphabets by Nigel Pennick, esp.chapter 2 on the Greek Alphabet (Weiser Books, 1992)
The Theology of Arithmetic by Iamblichus, trans. Robin Waterfield (Phanes Press,1988)
The Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans by Thomas Taylor (Weiser Books, 1972)

[xuchilpaba]

May 24, 2009 18:42:21 GMT -5 us4-he2-gal2 said:

The question remains to me whether Hypnos is really a kindly god. The Netherworld to the Greeks was as the Netherworld to the Mesopotamians, a place of waste and stagnation - The ghost of Achilles, as the ghost of Enkidu, speaks despairingly relating that he would 'rather be a poor man's living slave than king of all the dead'. To be carryed off to the Netherworld was to suffer total loss of vitality and identity. Even if Hypnos were kindly or compassionate his cooperation with Thanatos seems unmerciful even if necessary.

Hypnos was very minor. His brother and co-conspirator Morpheus seemed to be more popular.

All i remember is Hypnos's main myth was where he was instructed once to put Zeus to sleep. This was very dangerous. if he had gotten caught by Zeus he could have faced severe punishment. He was very apprehensive about the whole thing. But according to the myth he was successful and Zeus never noticed a thing.

That's about all i know.


About Hades though-- it gets complicated as Greek religion changes in its later days. Being influenced by Christians the Greeks began to adapt the idea of Hades being the same as hell, and a place of judgement/punishment. They started to have the same dualistic ideas about the afterlife as the Christians did at that time.

[us4-he2-gal2]

George:


Thanks very much for the follow up with the Hypnos spell! This is awesome Seems like this is a ritual or maybe even a means to construct a magical talisman - the bat itself (when anointed with the blood) becoming a magical ward against Hypnos - in this way the the god is driven off seeming as the Mesopotamian demoness Lamashtu was warded of by talismans of Pazazu.

There are many curiousities in these instructions - certainly why "Typhon" should be a name representing an ass is beyond me, since in my understanding this is a serpent agent of chaos 0_0 As for why the wings of a bat are given special attention, perhaps the flapping wings of these wings might be seen to disseminate the message into the night air, intercepting the effects of Hypnos (on the other hand, I thought he was said to induce sleep by means of pouring a liquid over the weary or by touching them gently with a leafy branch..certainly he would come in the night in any case).


All I know is I need a bat, and a goat. hmmmm. And an expanded Greek/Mesopotamian thread would be excellent, my course is done next week so will try and scan notes for a good starting post cheers

[us4-he2-gal2]

George: Nice post as always I had heard something of the sea shell as taboo object when I glimpsed a documentary on Rome recently, I guess a gang of theives used it as their insignia - I must present a topic somewhat different below at the moment as its on my mind

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Sisig, Morpheus and Necromancy

In the below I have attempted to note to fairly subtle aspects of the Greek and Mesopotamian Dream gods where in the latter case at least the information is quite sketchy, although still fascinating.

The Mesopotamian God of Dreams

In the somewhat unwieldy Revisions on Sisig thread, we observed many different considerations on this elusive Sumerian deity - Sisig is a dream god whose netherworld aspects are attestible as early as the Sumerian composition The Death of Gilgamesh, it is largely through the later Mesopotamian theologians equation of this deity with the Semitic Zaqiqu that we come to better insight on the deity - additionally, in CAD Z under Zaqiqu, Oppenheim further equates Sisig/Zaqiqu with the Sumerian term LIL2 - which can have the meaning of either wind or ghost. In his 1989 The Lil₂ of ^dEnlil₂, T. Jacobsen discusses the connections of wind, dreams and spirits:



Jacobsen: "Winds and dreams seem at one time to have been considered the same thing for the name of the god of dreams Sisig means "the winds" or "the ever blowing one." The point of similarity is apparently the evanescence of the dream world, on awakening it is gone like the wind.
In the dream experience the dreamer moves about and acts independently of his stationary body and this may underlie the notion of separate mode of being, as "spirit" as in evanescent manifestation that would arise and pass on like the wind. One word for it was lil2, and was sig3-sig3, which denoted the god of dreams. Both words mean "wind." The lil2 can be that of a living person or one dead, of one awake or one asleep, it can occur of its own volition to plead its case or to ask for help or it can be called; and it is, it seems, capable of engendering a child. There is no proper translation for it in English; "spirit" which we have used in the caption for this section does not really come close. (48)"

[note 48 reads: "Dream soul" is too narrow: terms like "phantom" and "apparition" suggest unreality and so do not fit the Mardu of the role of the lil2 as begetter. By pertaining to living persons it is different from "ghost" and "shade" which correspond to gidim."]




Sisig/Zaqiqu then is a god of dreams, a concept associated with wind, and with the LIL₂ of a man (something like dream spirit.) As for how this may relate him to necromancy, Irving Finkel in his Necromancy in Ancient Mesopotamia refers to an episode in Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld (as reported on the Sisig thread), he reports that the relevent section from this myth is the best known passage to touch on necromancy, the part when Enkidu's ghost is raised to converse with Gilgamesh "the ghost is induced to rise through a hole in the ground >>like the wind<< to converse with Gilgamesh." This term "like the wind" is one reading of the word si-si-ig that occurs there and links the passage to our dream god - Katz 2003 follows Finkel and comments on the same passage: "GEN 246-303 (end)....The description of Enkidu coming up from the netherworld points to necromancy. Presumably, si-si-ig-ni-ta in line 243 means that Enkidu appears to Gilgamesh in a dream, "in his dream form."

What this indicates than, is a form of necromancy in which the dead come to the sleeping in dreams, aided by Sisig the god of dreams, whose form is that of wind/ghost (and human/dream spirit).

The Greek god of Dreams

Morpheus is the son of Hypnos (sleep) and is the Greek god of dreams. My Greek religion textbook doesn't offer much information on Morpheus merely stating "Morpheus, the god of dreams, often visits sleepers in human shape, sometimes conveying messages from the dead."


Although the text book gives no further details, I have found a bit from the Roman writer Ovid, who tels the story of Ceyx and his wife - Ceyx is killed at see and his wife is at home and doesn't know; Hera commands Iris, a messanger goddess and personification of the rainbow, to seek out Hypnos (god of sleep) and have him send a dream vision to the wife - the dream vision is in the form of Morpheus, and reflects his necromantic assoiciation:


From Ovid's Metamorphoses

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The father Somnus [Hypnos/Sleep] chose from among his sons, his thronging thousand sons, one who in skill excelled to imitate the human form; Morpheus his name, than whom none can present more cunningly the features, gait and speech of men, their wonted clothes and turn of phrase. He mirrors only men; another forms the beasts and birds and the long sliding snakes. The gods have named him Icelos; here below the tribe of mortals call him Phobetor. A third, excelling in an art diverse, is Phantasos; he wears the cheating shapes of earth, rocks, water, trees--inanimate things. To kings and chieftains these at night display their phantom features; other dreams will roam among the people, haunting common folk. All these dream-brothers the old god passed by and chose Morpheus alone to undertake Thaumantias' [Iris’] commands; then in sweet drowsiness on his high couch he sank his head to sleep. Soon through the dewy dark on noiseless wings flew Morpheus and with brief delay arrived at Trachis town and, laying his wings aside, took Ceyx‘s [ghostly] form and face and, deathly pale and naked, stood beside the poor wife‘s bed. His beard was wet and from his sodden hair the sea-drips flowed; then leaning over her, weeping, he said : `Poor, poor Alcyone! Do you know me, your Ceyx? Am I changed in death? Look! Now you see, you recognize - ah! Not your husband but your husband‘s ghost. Your prayers availed me nothing. I am dead. Feed not your heart with hope, hope false and vain. A wild sou‘wester in the Aegaeum sea, striking my ship, in its huge hurricane destroyed her. Over my lips, calling your name--calling in vain--the waters washed. These tidings no dubious courier brings, no vague report: myself, here, shipwrecked, my own fate reveal. Come, rise and weep! Put on your mourning! Weep! Nor unlamented suffer me to join the shadowy spirits of Tartara (the Underworld).’ So Morpheus spoke, spoke too in such a voice as she must think her husband‘s (and his tears she took for true), and used her Ceyx‘ gestures. Asleep, she moaned and wept and stretched her arms to hold him, but embraced the empty air. `Oh wait for me!’ she cried, `Why haste away? I will come too.’ Roused by her voice‘s sound and by her husband‘s ghost, now wide awake, she looked . . . but found him nowhere . . . She cried, `. . . He is dead, shipwrecked and drowned. I saw him, knew him, tried to hold him--as he vanished--in my arms. He was a ghost, but yet distinct and clear, truly my husband‘s ghost, though to be sure his face was changed, his shining grace was gone. Naked and deathly pale, with dripping hair, I saw him--woe is me!" - Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.585

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So, between the Greek and Mesopotamian notions of the Dream god, who can be argued to bring visions and information from the dead to the sleeping in their dreams, we have another connection between sleep and death in the ancient mind, in so far dreaming could bring one closer to the world of the dead and the insights hidden away from the waking world.

[xuchilpaba]

Jun 24, 2009 15:36:11 GMT -5 us4-he2-gal2 said:

Sisig/Zaqiqu then is a god of dreams, a concept associated with wind, and with the LIL₂ of a man (something like dream spirit.) As for how this may relate him to necromancy, Irving Finkel in his Necromancy in Ancient Mesopotamia refers to an episode in Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld (as reported on the Sisig thread), he reports that the relevent section from this myth is the best known passage to touch on necromancy, the part when Enkidu's ghost is raised to converse with Gilgamesh "the ghost is induced to rise through a hole in the ground >>like the wind<< to converse with Gilgamesh." This term "like the wind" is one reading of the word si-si-ig that occurs there and links the passage to our dream god - Katz 2003 follows Finkel and comments on the same passage: "GEN 246-303 (end)....The description of Enkidu coming up from the netherworld points to necromancy. Presumably, si-si-ig-ni-ta in line 243 means that Enkidu appears to Gilgamesh in a dream, "in his dream form."

What this indicates than, is a form of necromancy in which the dead come to the sleeping in dreams, aided by Sisig the god of dreams, whose form is that of wind/ghost (and human/dream spirit).

So this was where Patai got Lliu and Lilitu being dream spirits that come to people sexually and prey on them in their sleep and dreams. Interesting.

[Salmu]

Well Bill, like a well trained hunting dog, I went out and did a bit of research for you on the Greek side of things (Ovid is a tad late)

Hypnos..Υπνοσ, is a rarely mentioned abstraction in Classical literature. He is mentioned in Hesiod Theogony: 211-212/755-766
Homer Illiad: Book XIV: 230-250/ Book XV 18
Strabo Geography Book XIII: Ch 1
elsewhere there are a couple of nominal references

The limited information which may be gleaned from such negligible sources is that it is a very early concept which may have lost favour in the Classical Period. Most references are Archaic.
He is the son of Night..Νυξ, (no father)..twin brother to Death..Θανατοσ, he resides in the Underworld with his brother near to Hades's dwelling. In the Illiad he is bribed by Hera to trick Zeus with the promise of marriage to one of the three Charites/Graces, Pasithea.
There is little mention of Morpheus..Μορφευσ, in connection to him. Ovid is the source most scholars cite. (1st century AD and Roman)

I found you this though, hope it pleases:

νυξ δ'ετεκεν στυγερον τε Μορον και κηρα μελαινον
και Θανατον, τεκε δ'Υπνον, ετικτε δε φυλον Ονειρων.

'Αnd Night bore loathesome Destiny, black Doom and Death,
and she bore Sleep, who bore the whole race of Dreams.' Hesiod .. Theogony

Dreams here is Ονειροι, not Morpheus, but Morpheus is another title and is cognate with the Greek noun Μορφοσ..'shape or form' as dreams alter their shape.

now I must return to the Bronze Age.......Andrea

[Salmu]

PS..No use looking the translation of the Greek up..I am not citing a modern text, it is mine

Andrea

[enkur]

"What is this sleep that has now come over you?" - this moment of Gilgamesh's lamentation over the dead Enkidu is the one which has mostly impressed me in the "Epic of Gilgamesh". For me, this single sentence contains all the human bewilderment before the face of death...

us4-he2-gal2,

Sleep is essential.

On the other hand, it's a good idea one to know one's limits. Generally I'm of an indulgent nature but time to time I've indulged in not more than 4 days of sleeplessness, 37 days without food, 9 months without ejaculation, some hours of death posture etc.

Yet I think magic starts when one starts to awake in one's dream - something I experience time to time but still cannot do it at will. However, I'm afraid that upon achieving it, I would lose my interest in anything else.

Would be interesting to hear of anybody else who have experienced such an awakening within one's dream. Maybe it's not so rare but we are forgetful. Yet it's often a frightening experience denied by the mundane ego.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Well my one and a half year campaign to defeat sleep and gain back productive hours (like John Dee or Mozart) was a disaster. I can only agree on that point. As for going without food for 39 days that would seem to have been a greater risk than I ever took. The worst that happened to me is that I disposed of my mattress and ended up with back pain for a week or so 0_0

[enkur]

Well I had some training behind prior to undertake that risky thing - there was a time I practised minimum food and sleep, and maximum physical activity - exercises, weights, walking long routes etc. + sex, tobacco and caffeine. If meanwhile one's organism doesn't enter another energy regime, it could be really disastrous. This other energy regime is what gives the inhuman endurance. While being in this other energy regime, I've managed to perceive and even to experience more other energy regimes or patterns. Here I appeal for your attention since that matter is very difficult to explain: some of these energy patterns predispose one to different activities, like drawing, singing, playing music, dancing, fighting, speaking, writing etc. skills one was never predisposed to do in one's mundane state of body-mind. Didn't the Sumerians have a certain concept for these energy patterns?

Growing older, I start to ask myself are there some more civilized ways to access the MEs instead of tormenting one's organism in such a barbarian way? Yes, there is always a critical point to be overcome and then the things start happening as if by itself but I tend to regard any bodily torment and discipline outside of an erotic context as barbarism I would here paraphrase Mr. Crowley and say it's will under love, which would work wonders provided it's allowed.