Mesopotamian myths Puns

In his first few lectures in the biblical series, he uses the Mesopotamian creation myths as a good contrast and comparison to the Christian creation story.

I could spend an entire day thinking about all the creation myths of all the different civilizations that have ever lived. But to find the commonalities between them and address them so sophisticated was such a wonderful thing to listen to.

I do hope he returns to the biblical series.

Hello!

I am reading Irving Finkel’s The Ark Before Noah and, while Atra-hasis doesn’t seem to have influenced Noah’s flood myth any more than any other early flood myth, it’s making me curious about Babylonian myths and their influences on the Old Testament.

Do you have any books you can recommend on the subject of similarities between ancient Mesopotamian myths and the Old Testament?

Hi guys, I am a freelance ghostwriter and have a client who is wanting a book about ancient Mesopotamia with a focus on mythology. I have studied history and mythology extensively but Mesopotamia is not my strongest point and I have read little on the topic for quite a while now. Can anyone point me in the direction of some retellings of Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian etc mythological stories? Thank you!

Did the early Israelites have any myths about "monsters" like those from the Greeks/Egyptians/Mesopotamians? In my mind the only thing that comes close to a story like Theseus and the Minotaur is maybe David and Goliath.

This June, the Discord community will be largely focusing on the mysterious myths of Mesopotamia!

Stop by the Discord if you have ever wanted to learn about the various Mesopotamian myths, or are already knowledgeable on the matter and fancy an in-depth discussion. The more the merrier!

This month will no doubt be an exciting one for the Discord. But when it comes to Reddit there is no finer a place to discuss Mesopotamian myths on this site than r/Sumer, our sister subreddit. u/Nocodeyv runs this subreddit and describes their community as "-- a subreddit dedicated to the academic reconstruction and spiritual revival of Mesopotamia's polytheistic religious traditions."

Here you will find a lifetime of well-organized research and resources all related to the ancient religions of Mesopotamia.

Im mainly talking about the similarities in the Myth of Adapa and a separate Mesopotamian story involving a god named Ningishzida a serpent with a human head and also is the “Lord of the Good Tree”.

Is there anything to these similarities? Was the book of genesis based on Mesopotamian myths?

Edit: Thank you all so much for your incredible insight and help with these questions! Im a bit new to ancient Mesopotamian myths and it helps a ton getting others feedback on this.

My favorite archetypal myth is that of the storm or thunderer god facing off and defeating a giant serpent or dragon. A variation of this myth occurs in practically all Indo-European religions and is most likely occured in the theorized Proto-Indo-European mythology. Thor fighting Jormunandr in the Germanic mythos, the Hittite storm god Tarhunt slayed the serpent Illuyanka, Zeus and Typhon, Perun and Veles in Slavic mythology, Indra and Vrita in the Vedic religion and many more variations. The gods I just mentioned were all thunder/storm gods in their respective mythologies and they all killed a serpent in their stories.

A similar myth exists in the religions of the ancient Near East. Hadad Ba'al was a storm and rain god in the Canaanite and Mesopotamian religion. Hadad Ba'al fought and defeated Lotan, a sea serpent who was the servant of the sea god Yam. A varation of this myth is als found in the Hebrew religion with Yahweh fighting the Leviathan. Yahweh had some storm god qualities and an association with thunder.

I initially figured that the near East adapted the myth from the Hittites, who entered Anatolia around 2000 BC and took over the lands of the Hatti and the Hurrians. However it seems to be that this myth also occurred amongst Hurrians and Hatti.

I now think it was a myth that originated in the Proto-Indo-European Mythology, which was most likely practiced by nomadic pastoralists of the Pontic-Caspian steppe. These people used horse carts and were really mobile, which lead to an expansion of their culture. The Uruk period in Mesopotamia started in 4500 BC and lasted until 3100 BC. During this same period the Kvalynhsk culture of the Pontic steppe developed into the Yamnaya culture, which around 3300 BC started the initial waves of the Indo-European migrations. Given their regional proximity and the mobility of the steppe pastoralists, there certainly could have been contact between these early cultures around that time, and maybe this is what lead to the existence of a Storm god vs Dragon Serpent story in both Indo-European and ancient Near Eastern religions.

These are my thoughts on this subject, what I want to know is what are the main theories for why these two cultures share this myth, if there are any? Did the Mesopotamian adopted this myth from interactions with Indo-European cultures or vice versa? Or is it actually a case of a myth which independently developed amongst two separate cultures?

I also posted this question in /r/askhis

I’ve been looking through the Sumerian literature archive and only a few of them are complete. How many complete myths are there? Have they completed any recently?

I know that similarities include parallels from the Flood Story of Gilgamesh/Enuma Elish to that of Genesis, that Gilgamesh and the Huluppu Tree is thought to have some parallel to the garden of Eden, and God is referred to as Elohim in Genesis 2, while the chief deity of Ancient Caanan was El. Are these parallels thought to be mere coincidence?

Quite a few times, I come across videos on youtube where Noah's flood is said to borrow from, or in some other way recycle, various components of Sumerian and Mesopotamian folklore that is much older than the writings in the book of genesis. I have looked into the validity of this claim, briefly, and am having a hard time verifying if it is true or not. So primarily, I want to know if this claim is accurate but I am also wondering if there is a standard by which historical claims may be verified for accuracy?

I've come to realise during my classes that I don't know as much as I'd like and probably should at this point of my studies (tail-end of undergraduate) about Mesopotamian beliefs/religion. I thought the summer might be a good time to read up on the subject.

I was recommended Jacobsen's Treasures of Darkness and I'm next on the list to get it from the library, but are there any other recommendations (English, German or French)?

1. *most important*

Do any of you have recommended general or introductory texts?

(Whether (text)books or articles) on religion/beliefs in Ancient Mesopotamia. Something that would cover things like the names of the gods and the relationships between them? What relationship did they have to cities? How did their roles change over ti? How did beliefs in general change from Sumer to Babylon and Assyria over time? What are the names of myths a student should know? What are they about? etc. Ditto with religious practices like which festivals were there, which were the major ones whose names I should know?

and I'm also hoping to read some of the myths themselves

2. I'd love some good translations just to read the myths and get an idea of what they are about.

3. are there any recommended editions (preferably with commentary) for me to work through on my own? (Sumerian or Akkadian).

Thanks!

There is an ancient Sumerian myth that has caught my attention recently because of its strong correspondence with (one explanation for) the origin of agriculture:

Enki and Ninhursag

The Sumerian god of water and the keeper of civilization, Enki lives in a land of purity called Dilmun [often noted for its similarity to the Garden of Eden] and impregnates his consort Ninhursag, an earth goddess of fertility. She gives birth to Ninsar, the goddess of plants. Enki then seduces Ninsar, not knowing he's her father, and she gives birth to Ninkurra, goddess of the pasture. She in turn is also seduced by Enki and gives birth to Uttu, the goddess of weaving, representing the web of life. Uttu refuses Enki's advances however and requests fruits and vegetables, which Enki acquires from a gardener in exchange for filling his irrigation ditches. Enki gives her this produce, but also gives her beer to get her drunk and rapes her. However Ninhursag removes Enki's seed from Uttu and plants it in the ground, causing 8 plants to rise up. Enki does not recognize any of the plants and gets sick after eating them. Ninhursag curses him, depriving Enki of the "eye of life," and disappears.

--

My interpretation of this story is that water (Enki) progressively fertilized the Earth (Ninhursag) to create plants (Ninsar), animals that feed on plants (Ninkurra), and thus resulting in the web of life (Uttu). All this takes place in Dilmun, possibly the inspiration for the Eden story which is sometimes taken to represent our hunter/gather past. Enki's need for fruits and vegetables to seduce Uttu could symbolize gaining the knowledge of planting from horticulturalists (hunter/gatherers are known to sometimes keep gardens). Further his offering of beer, which is produced from grains, could represent the invention of grain agriculture; there are scholars who believe the need for beer (which was drank in the Middle East before agriculture) drove the development of farming. Enki's rape of Uttu would therefore symbolize how the web of life was greatly disturbed by these monocropping practices. The seed being pulled out of the web of life and put into the ground would represent that food plants are no longer grown through the web of life, but through intentional planting. The 8 plants that emerge could be the so-called "Neolithic founder crops" upon which agriculture was developed: flax, emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, and bitter vetch. Enki do

If the the flood account in Genesis was an adaptation of the Mesopotamian Flood myths involving Gilgamesh and Atra-Hasis, then I think that points to the Garden of Eden creation account in Genesis being an adaptation of the Mesopotamian Huluppu Tree myth involving Gilgamesh and Inanna (Ishtar.) I was researching Lilith for a research paper and was really struck by the similarities between the Huluppu Tree story and the Garden of Eden creation account. They are especially similar if you believe that Lilith was the Serpent in Eden because Lilith and a serpent refused to leave Inanna's Huluppu Tree until Gilgamesh drove them away. I honestly want somebody to tell me if I'm right or wrong here, I also have some crack pot theories about Lilith that are driving me bonkers too.

My favorite archetypal myth is that of the storm or thunderer god facing off and defeating a giant serpent or dragon. A variation of this myth occurs in practically all Indo-European religions and is most likely occured in the theorized Proto-Indo-European mythology. Thor fighting Jormunandr in the Germanic mythos, the Hittite storm god Tarhunt slayed the serpent Illuyanka, Zeus and Typhon, Perun and Veles in Slavic mythology, Indra and Vrita in the Vedic religion and many more variations. The gods I just mentioned were all thunder/storm gods in their respective mythologies and they all killed a serpent in their stories.

A similar myth exists in the religions of the ancient Near East. Hadad Ba'al was a storm and rain god in the Canaanite and Mesopotamian religion. Hadad Ba'al fought and defeated Lotan, a sea serpent who was the servant of the sea god Yam. A varation of this myth is als found in the Hebrew religion with Yahweh fighting the Leviathan. Yahweh had some storm god qualities and an association with thunder.

I initially figured that the near East adapted the myth from the Hittites, who entered Anatolia around 2000 BC and took over the lands of the Hatti and the Hurrians. However it seems to be that this myth also occurred amongst Hurrians and Hatti.

I now think it was a myth that originated in the Proto-Indo-European Mythology, which was most likely practiced by nomadic pastoralists of the Pontic-Caspian steppe. These people used horse carts and were really mobile, which lead to an expansion of their culture. The Uruk period in Mesopotamia started in 4500 BC and lasted until 3100 BC. During this same period the Kvalynhsk culture of the Pontic steppe developed into the Yamnaya culture, which around 3300 BC started the initial waves of the Indo-European migrations. Given their regional proximity and the mobility of the steppe pastoralists, there certainly could have been contact between these early cultures around that time, and maybe this is what lead to the existence of a Storm god vs Dragon Serpent story in both Indo-European and ancient Near Eastern religions.

These are my thoughts on this subject, but what I would like to know is what the actual historians think is the origin behind this shared story. What are the main theories for why these two cultures share this myth? Did the Mesopotamian adopted this myth from interactions with Indo-European cultures or vice versa? Or is it actually a case of a myth which independently developed among