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Giparu or, more correctly, Gipar (Sumerian: ĝipar Akkadian: ''gipāru'') is a central concept of both the Sumerian belief system and temple architecture. Typically translated as 'cloister', the actual meaning of gipar includes multiple linked concepts. The gipar was originally a woven reed mat used as wedding bed. Its symbolic meaning expanded to include the idea of the generative power of fertility to create and sustain life. In this sense the gipar expressed multiple ideas of abundance, the storehouse containing abundance, as well as a point of union with the generative power itself. In its role as point of union, the Gipar was residence of the '' en'', where the ''
Ĝipar is written with two forms attested back to 2500 BC.
* Main form: ĝi6-par4 (Sign: MI.NI.GIŠ, Cuneiform: 𒈪𒉌𒄑)
* Variant form: ĝi6-par3 (Signs: MI.DAG, Cuneiform: 𒈪𒁖)
The first Sign, MI, was developed from the pictogram of a storm cloud dropping rain. Cuneiform was initially written top to bottom then written rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees later in history. The second Sign, NI was developed from a pictogram of plow.
Other variants in spelling come from the Ur expedition report, ''Royal Inscriptions from Ur''.
* Inscription 67 Line (7): "the brilliant gi(g)-par, her beloved temple"
* Inscription 67 Line (7) footnote: "gi(g)-par-ku(g)-ga-ni"
* Inscription 106 Line (I4): "the e-gi(g)-par"
Giparu or, more correctly, Gipar (Sumerian: ĝipar Akkadian: ''gipāru'') is a central concept of both the Sumerian belief system and temple architecture. Typically translated as 'cloister', the actual meaning of gipar includes multiple linked concepts. The gipar was originally a woven reed mat used as wedding bed. Its symbolic meaning expanded to include the idea of the generative power of fertility to create and sustain life. In this sense the gipar expressed multiple ideas of abundance, the storehouse containing abundance, as well as a point of union with the generative power itself. In its role as point of union, the Gipar was residence of the '' en'', where the ''hierosgamos
''Hieros gamos'', hieros (ἱερός) meaning "holy" or "sacred" and gamos (γάμος) meaning marriage, or Hierogamy (Ancient Greek, Greek , "holy marriage"), is a sacred marriage that plays out between a god (male deity), god and a goddess, ...
'' was consummated. Often the gipar temple was built over a gipar mat embedded in the structure. For this reason, cloister, connoting the residence of a priest, is given as the primary definition ( ePSD).
Orthography
Ĝipar is written with two forms attested back to 2500 BC.
* Main form: ĝi6-par4 (Sign: MI.NI.GIŠ, Cuneiform: 𒈪𒉌𒄑)
* Variant form: ĝi6-par3 (Signs: MI.DAG, Cuneiform: 𒈪𒁖)
The first Sign, MI, was developed from the pictogram of a storm cloud dropping rain. Cuneiform was initially written top to bottom then written rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees later in history. The second Sign, NI was developed from a pictogram of plow.
Other variants in spelling come from the Ur expedition report, ''Royal Inscriptions from Ur''.
* Inscription 67 Line (7): "the brilliant gi(g)-par, her beloved temple"
* Inscription 67 Line (7) footnote: "gi(g)-par-ku(g)-ga-ni"
* Inscription 106 Line (I4): "the e-gi(g)-par"
In Literature
The gipar of Inanna inUruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
is mentioned in ''Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta'' Line 1-24:
"Before the land of Dilmun yet existed, the E-ana of Unug Kulaba was well founded, and the holy ĝipar of Inana in brick-built Kulaba shone forth like the silver in the lode."Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta
Giparu
Often gipar is written as 'giparu' from the Akkadian ''giparū''. In certain contexts giparu refers to a specific gipar in Ur where the ''entu'' (priestess) of the godNanna
Nanna may refer to:
*Grandmother
Mythology
* Sin (mythology), god of the moon in Sumerian mythology, also called Suen
* Nanna (Norse deity), goddess associated with the god Baldr in Norse mythology
* Nana Buluku, Fon/Dahomey androgynous deity cre ...
dwelt. In this case giparu derives from ''gipar ku'' (Sumerian: e2gi6-par4-ku3), or Palace of the Gipar.
Notes
Sources
* * * *{{Citation , last = Gadd , first = C. J. , title = Ur Excavations Royal Inscriptions , year = 1928 , url = http://www.etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/20361.pdf , accessdate = January 1, 2021 Sumerian art and architecture