some of the names of the streets of Babylon at its height:
"Bow down, O haughty one"
"May the arrogant not flourish"
"HIs protection is not good for the feeble"
"What god compares to Marduk?"
"Gladden his land! Worship is his gift!"
names of the walls of Nineveh:
"The Wall Whose Splendor Overwhelms the Enemy" (inner wall) and "The Wall That Terrifies Evil" (outer wall).
The city gates had names as well:
“Adad who Gives Abundance to the Land: the Gate of Adad of the Game-park”
I feel like there’s an ancient Abbot and Costello routine here
“Where should I meet you?”
“Bow down, O haughty one!”
“Geez, it was just a question.”
“No, that’s across town.”
The Streets of Babylon sounds like an ancient noir story carved on clay tablets about detective Nasreen Of The Many Eyes hunting down a serial killer posing his victims to re-enact scenes from The Enuma Elish.
On a Greyhound bus in 1980s Colorado I met a young Italian dude who lamented our prosaic street names. “You name your streets with *numbers*? Yet you dominate cultures whose avenues are named for saints and heroes?” No need for Babylonian time travel. This 20th-century man had our number.
