Mesopotamian Mythology

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Mesopotamian Mythology
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Mesopotamian Societies

• the land between the rivers (Tigris and
  Euphrates) primarily the area of modern Iraq
  Kuwait but often with greater borders
• It was the first area to have agriculture and
  cities consequently influenced much of the
  Mediterranean area including Greece.
• Was the first to develop large urban centers
• Each great city was politically independent, with
  its own king, lawcodes and religious festivals,
  although there were many in common
• Cities were often in conflict with one another,
  and at times different cities exercised wide
  dominion over others in their area
• Each city had a patron deity (such as Inanna for
  Uruk)
• Several civilizations developed in this area the
  most enduring and influential were

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Mesopotamian Societies

• Sumerians
• first major civilization (3000 BCE)
• non-Semitic people /language
• Uruk (and other cities)
• cuneiform writing
• elaborate mythology and cult-based mythic poems
• Babylonians / Akkadians
• later (c.1200-600 BCE)
• Semitic people, language
• myth based on Sumerian myth

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Mesopotamian Societies

• Both societies share
• social/political hierarchy with kings as head of
  state
• priestly class who also teach/write/preserve
  literature
• tradition of sacred writings associated with
  actual rituals
• high level of civilization (i.e. social
  structure material wealth)
• irrigation-based agriculture, water resources
  organized by government
• cuneiform writing

cuneiform tablet
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Sumerians and Babylonians shared a pantheon,
although the deities had different names (as with
the Greeks and Romans). The importance and in
some respects, the nature of these deities varied
over time and between these two societies.
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Gods and Goddesses

• Nanna (Sin) (the moon), had a higher place in the
  pantheon than his children
• Utu (Shamash) (the sun), who becomes important as
  a deity of all-seeing justice, and
• Inanna (Ishtar)(the morning star), whose
  multifaceted nature includes goddess of sexual
  love, of justice and warfare, of communal
  prosperity . . .

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Gods and Goddesses

• Dumuzi (Tammuz )was Ishtars husband a god like
  Attis (with Cybele) who died and was reborn every
  year.
• Ereshkigal was the goddess of the Underworld
  (Kurnugi).
• Geshtinanna (Belili) was Tammuzs sister, who
  took his place in the underworld
• Enki (Ea) god of fresh water and wisdom, often a
  helper to humans (as in the flood myth)

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Inanna

• Inanna was the city goddess of Uruk.
• In Sumerian tradition, she appeared in several
  important stories
• Story of the me (decrees which represent the key
  elements of Sumerian civilization) Inanna visits
  Enki here her father. He gets drunk, she steals
  the me, and thus confers power on Uruk.

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Inanna
In another story, she got the hero Gilgamesh to
chase a demon from her hulupu tree, and make her
a throne a story which shows a good
relationship between the powerful king of Uruk
and the citys patron goddess..
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Inanna
and played a key role in civic cult, in a sacred
marriage.
She was worshipped in ornate temples . . .
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Inanna
Here she takes a king by the hand and leads him,
a sign of divine favor. Ishtar is goddess of
prostitutes but the idea that there was sacred
prostitution at her temples is a western
misreading of the evidence blame Herodotus. But
its possible that in a yearly sacred marriage,
Ishtars priestess had a ritual (real or
symbolic?) sexual union with the citys king, to
insure fertility for the coming year.
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Inannas Descent
Inanna decides to visit the Underworld . . .
Inanna daughter of Nanna was determined to go
to the dark house, to the house which those who
enter cannot leave, where those who enter are
deprived of light, where dust is their food, clay
their bread . . .
Ereshkigal is angry that Inanna has come.
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As Inanna enters each of the underworlds seven
gates, the gatekeeper takes away an item of her
high-status adornment crown, earrings, jewelry,
and finally the proud garment of her body.
Inannas Descent
What brings her here? What has incited her
against me? Surely not because I eat clay for
bread, drink muddy water for beer? I have to
weep for young men forced to abandon their
sweethearts. . .
Go in, my lady. Such are the rites of the
Mistress of Earth.
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Inannas Descent
Inanna hangs like a corpse on a stake for three
days (the Sumerian version) During this time all
fertility on the earth stops. Ea sends a
pleasure boy to the underworld who apparently
performs the right action to get Ishtar
released. But a substitute must be found. In the
longer more complete Sumerian version, it is
Dumuzi. He is taken down into the underworld to
take Ishtars place. But he too is a fertility
god (young herd animals), and cannot remain under
ground forever.
Apparently his sister Geshtinanna (goddess of
vines) takes his place, and trades off parts of
the year with him.
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Inannas Descent

• How is this story like the Greek underworld myths
  we have encountered (Demeter and Persephone,
  Orpheus, Heracles, etc.)?
• How is it different?
• How similar are the ideas of the underworld and
  its deities?
• What underlying meanings are there are they
  similar to the ideas about human fate you see in
  the Mysteries at Eleusis?

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Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is on the Sumerian king-list as one of
Uruks earliest kings in the realm of myth. He
features in several Sumerian myths (such as the
one with Inannas hulupu tree), and in one long
poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh. This poem is the
most popular piece of literature in Mesopotamia,
found in many different languages and versions
across 2500 years. We discovered it in about
1920. There are two major versions we are
reading the Nineveh version, compiled by a priest
in about 800-700 BCE.
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Gilgamesh
I shall tell the land of the one who learned all
things, of the one who experienced everything, I
shall teach the whole. He searched lands
everywhere. He found out what was secret and
uncovered what was hidden, he brought back a tale
of times before the flood. He had journeyed far
and wide, weary and at last resigned. He built
the wall of Uruk. . . One square mile is the
city, one square mile is its orchards, one square
mile is its claypits, as well as the open ground
of Ishtars temple.
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Gilgamesh

• Son of Lugulbanda and the goddess Ninsun
• 2/3 god, 1/3 human. perfect in splendor, perfect
  in strength
• Like all humans he is destined to die.
• King of Uruk, building his city ever greater.
• causing problems at home.
• excess energy (in building, exploration, and sex
  everything in fact)
• people pray to the gods for relief.

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• The gods create Enkidu, a hairy wild man
• Good king of animals vs. difficult king in Uruk

Gilgamesh and Enkidu

• Gilgamesh sends a woman (called Shamhat, a cult
  name of Ishtar) to sleep with Enkidu
• Enkidu loses hair, eats bread, drinks beer, goes
  to Uruk.
• Gilgamesh dreams, Ninsun interprets.
• the two men meet at a celebration of Ishtar
  and fight to a standstill, then become fast
  friends.
• Next step a quest to free the Cedar Forest of
  Humbaba.

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Gilgamesh and Enkidu

• Nature vs. culture. . .
• Masculine quest vs. feminine desire for peace
  Ninsuns prayer to Shamash

Why did you single out my son Gilgamesh and
impose a restless spirit on him? He faces an
unknown struggle, he will ride along an unknown
road . . .
Ninsun adopts Enkidu , entreats him to watch
after Gilgamesh.
Enlil destined Humbaba to keep the pine forest
safe, to be the terror of people . . .
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Gilgamesh

• What does Gilgamesh have in common with
• Odysseus,
• Achilles,
• Heracles,
• Others?
• Is his story (so far) essentially different from
  theirs in some ways?

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The Cedar Forest

• Enkidus premonition at the gates
• Gilgameshs terrible dreams of destruction,
• Enkidus optimistic interpretations
• Humbaba, defeated, asks for mercy.
• Despite the gods possible displeasure Enkidu
  urges Gilgamesh to kill the monster.
• Humbaba cries out

• Triumphant return to Uruk
• The goddess Ishtar approaches Gilgamesh to become
  her lover.

Neither one of them shall outlive his friend!
Gilgamesh and Enkidu shall never become old men!
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Gilgamesh Ishtar
Come to me, Gilgamesh, and be my lover! Bestow
on me the gift of your fruit! You can be my
husband, I can be your wife. I shall have a
chariot of lapis lazuli and gold harnessed for
you . . . kings, nobles and princes shall bow
down beneath you. . .
But Gilgamesh scornfully rejects her
You are a door that cant keep out winds and
gusts, a palace that rejects its own warriors, a
waterskin which soaks its carrier . . . which of
your lovers lasted forever? Which of your
paramours went to heaven?
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The Bull of Heaven

• Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to ravage Uruk.
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it
• Enkidu insults and attacks Ishtar, even throwing
  the thigh of the bull in her face.

• Inanna mourns the bull a type scene related to
  fertility ritual. (The Bull of Heaven is the
  husband of Ereshkigal)

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Gilgamesh Ishtar
What reasons does Gilgamesh give for rejecting
the love of Ishtar? Have we seen anything like
this in Greek myth? Why is Gilgamesh so hostile
to Ishtar, given that he does reject her? How is
Ishtar characterized in this exchange
benevolent, cruel, as bad as Gilgamesh says, etc.
. . . What do you expect at the conclusion of
this episode, when Enkidu and Gilgamesh have both
disrespected the goddess?
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Enkidus death

• Enkidus lingering death
• He curses the hunter and the prostitute
• Shamash persuades him not to curse the
  prostitute.

Enkidu has a terrible nightmare
The gods were in council last night. And Anu
said to Enlil, As they have slain the Bull of
Heaven, so too have they slain Humbaba One of
them must die. Enlil replied, Let Enkidu die,
but let Gilgamesh not die. Then heavenly Shamash
said, Was it not according to your plans? But
Enlil turned in anger to Shamash You
accompanied them daily, like one of their
comrades.
Gilgamesh mourned bitterly for Enkidu his friend,
and roved the open country. Shall I die too?
Am I not like Enkidu? Grief has entered my
innermost being . . .
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Gilgamesh travels to the ends of the earth,
through the dark mountain, the pathways of
Shamash
He meets Siduri, the (female) innkeeper (another
cult name of Ishtar). She directs him to
Utnapishtim, and adds
When he had gone one double-hour, thick is the
darkness, there is no light he can see neither
behind him nor ahead of him When he had gone
seven double hours, thick is the darkness, there
is no light At the nearing of eleven
double-hours, light breaks out. At the nearing
of twelve double-hours, the light is steady.
As for you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
Make merry day and night. Of each day make a
feast of rejoicing. Day and night dance and play!
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Utnapishtim

• the boatman Urshanabi
• The crossing to Dilmun, the land at the edge of
  time . . .
• 60 saplings river of death.
• He finally uses his tattered clothing for a sail
• Says to Utnapishtim

• Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh
• how Ea told him to build a huge arc because a
  flood was coming
• how built the amazing thing, how he and his
  family alone of all mortals were saved from the
  Flood,
• how Ishtar mourned the dead
• and how he and his wife came to Dilmun, living
  as immortals.

I crossed uncrossable mountains. I travelled all
the seas. No real sleep has calmed my face. I
have worn myself out in sleeplessness my flesh
is filled with grief.
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Gilgamesh says to him, to Utnapishtim the remote,
"as soon as I was ready to fall asleep, right
away you touched me and roused me."
Utnapishtim offers Gilgamesh a way to become
immortal
Test yourself! Don't sleep for six days and seven
nights."

• But Utnapishtim shows him the loaves, and
  Gilgamesh realizes that he has failed his quest.
• The consolation prize a rejuvenating plant.
• But a snake takes it from him.

• Gilgameshs 7 day sleep
• The 7 loaves of bread, a metaphor for the seven
  decades of human life.

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Homecoming
Go up onto the wall of Uruk, and walk around!
Inspect it . . . One square mile is the city, one
square mile is its orchards, one square mile is
its claypits, as well as the open ground of
Ishtars temple.
Urshanabi accompanies Gilgamesh home, and when
they reach the city, Gilgamesh proudly points it
out to him
The story's quiet close belies the significance
of Gilgamesh's return. He is back where he
started but a changed man, his description of
Uruk here suggesting in the context a new
acceptance of the meaning of the city in his
life, an embracing rather than a defiance of the
limits it represents the king has evolved from a
hubristic, dominating male into a wiser man,
accepting the limitations that his mortal side
imposesand his essential kinship with all
creatures who must die . Thomas van Nortwick
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• How do Ishtars descent and Gilgameshs
  experiences on his way to Dilmun compare to one
  another?
• Is there a feel to the wisdom Gilgamesh returns
  with? In other words, what sort of wisdom does
  Gilgamesh gain?

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finis