The Cosmic Imagery of the Temple in Sumerian Literature

The imagery used to describe the temple in Sumerian literature is rich and subtle, evoking a number of complex mythological traditions and resting on a cosmological framework that remains poorly understood. On the whole, both the imagery and the framework on which it relies are rarely examined outside of curt philological commentaries and side notes in much more general discussions. Most useful to the study of this imagery are the type of Sumerian literature usually referred to as temple hymns. Composed in the late 3 rd and early 2nd millennium BCE, these pieces offer praise to individual temples, glorifying their attributes and by proxy, those of the divinity to which they are dedicated. Notably the temple hymns are almost unique to Sumerian literature. Using these texts as the focal point of my research, but drawing on a variety of written and archaeological material, this dissertation advances our understanding of the worldview presented in the Sumerian literature by a more nuanced study of the representation and position of the temple within the ancient cosmos.;This dissertation first provides a detailed evaluation of the Sumerian cosmos as presented in literature and then identifies the wide range of imagery used relate the temple to the different cosmic realms (the heavens, the cosmic underground waters, the netherworld and the earth). Through careful consideration of the potential significance of this imagery, this work demonstrates the how the Sumerian temple was perceived as a representation of the cosmos.