cosmos-godsWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.
Dilmun, the Pure Land
A clean bright land where no one falls ill and no one grows old — until desire enters even there.
Dilmun was an actual land — the Gulf region around modern Bahrain — with which Mesopotamia traded for copper and precious goods. But in myth, especially in 'Enki and Ninhursaga,' Dilmun is also a pristine place: clean, bright, and untouched, where the lion does not kill, the wolf does not snatch the lamb, no one grows old or sick, and the very idea of suffering has not yet entered. It is a vision of a world before pain — though the myth itself goes on to complicate that purity with desire, illness, and healing.
Key passages(1)
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