Kur
In Sumerian mythology, Kur is a primordial dragon-like being and the name of the underworld itself, cast as the chaos serpent that Enki or Ninurta must subdue.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Mesopotamian mythology
- Region
- Mesopotamia (place of origin)Underworld (habitat)
- Trait family
- The Rain-Serpents
- Symbols
- Dragon
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Dragon is image-domain The dragon denotes chaotic instinctual power, guardian of hoarded treasure and fertility, destructive in the West and, in China, the beneficent waterlike way of things.
why
In Sumerian mythology, Kur is a primordial dragon-like being and the name of the underworld itself, cast as the chaos serpent that Enki or Ninurta must subdue.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Serpentine elongated body
why
a scaly, coiling body befitting its serpent nature
- Body spans multiple valleys or hills
why
a vast brooding mountain-mass beneath the earth
- Body of cosmic immeasurable size
why
a great serpent or dragon-like cosmic force rather than a creature of fixed anatomy
- Faceless organless primordial being
why
a creature of fixed anatomy
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Earth carries both readings
2 citations
- Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, s.v. "Kur."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Kur."
- Threshold carries both readings
2 citations
- Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, s.v. "Kur."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Kur."
- Death meets
2 citations
- Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, s.v. "Kur."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Kur."
- Hero meets
2 citations
- Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, s.v. "Kur."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Kur."
- Water meets
2 citations
- Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, s.v. "Kur."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Kur."