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Document Details : Title: Professional Fatigue Subtitle: 'Hibil's Lament' in the Mandaean Book of John Author(s): BUCKLEY, J.J. Journal: Le Muséon Volume: 110 Issue: 3-4 Date: 1997 Pages: 367-381 DOI: 10.2143/MUS.110.3.525792 Abstract : The mythologies of Mandaeism, the last surviving form of Gnosticism from the Late Antiquity period, portray a number of {utras, beings from the Lightworld. They function as primordial messengers, revealers, and saviors. But they may also become involved in the creation of the world and of the human being — activities that usually taint the {utras, threatening their perfection and subjecting them to suffering. At the top of the Lightworld hierarchy presides the Lord of Greatness, the Great Life, the King of Light — he bears different names depending on the specific literary tradition and time-period of a given text. The ‘utras, however, are lesser, intermediary beings, and it seems that among them only Manda ḏ-Hiia, 'Knowledge of Life,' remains as one of the few to escape degrading entanglements in the lower worlds. |
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