Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods.
The Tablet of Nippur: Discovering the Ancient Sumerian Texts
As one of the earliest known written creation stories, the Sumerian creation legend holds significant importance offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.
The Sumerian creation myth can be found on a tablet in Nippur, an ancient Mesopotamian city founded in approximately 5000 BC. The creation of Earth (Enuma Elish) according to the Sumerian tablets begins like this:
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being,
And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;
Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven,
Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being...The texts mention that at some point the gods mutinied against their labor.
When the gods like men
Bore the work and suffered the toll
The toil of the gods was great,
The work was heavy, the distress was much.
The figures can be identified as gods by their pointed hats with multiple horns. The figure with streams of water and fish flowing from his shoulders is Ea (Sumerian Enki), god of subterranean waters and of wisdom. Behind him stands Usimu, his two-faced vizier (chief minister). At the centre of the scene is the sun-god, Shamash (Sumerian Utu), with rays rising from his shoulders. He is cutting his way through the mountains in order to rise at dawn. To his left is a winged goddess, Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna). The weapons rising from her shoulders symbolise her warlike characteristics. (Public Domain)
The Unity of God and Man: How the First Human Came into Existence
Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too great. His son Enki, or Ea, proposed to create man to bear the labour, and so, with the help of his half-sister Ninki, he did. A god was put to death, and his body and blood was mixed with clay. From that material the first human being was created, in likeness to the gods.
You have slaughtered a god together
With his personality
I have removed your heavy work
I have imposed your toil on man.
…
In the clay, god and man
Shall be bound,
To a unity brought together;
So that to the end of days
The Flesh and the Soul
Which in a god have ripened –
That soul in a blood-kinship be bound.
This first man was created in Eden, a Sumerian word which means ‘flat terrain’. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Eden is mentioned as the garden of the gods and is located somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Adapa, the first human being in ancient Sumerian Texts failed to answer the question of “the bread and water of life” Anu. (AAref/Adobe Stock)
Initially human beings were unable to reproduce on their own, but were later modified with the help of Enki and Ninki. Thus, Adapa was created as a fully functional and independent human being. This ‘modification’ was done without the approval of Enki’s brother, Enlil, and a conflict between the gods began. Enlil became the adversary of man, and the Sumerian tablet mentions that men served gods and went through much hardship and suffering.
- Garden of Eden Depicted in Ancient Greek Religious Art
- Divine, Forbidden and Dangerous? Magic Apples in Ancient Mythology
Adapa, with the help of Enki, ascended to Anu where he failed to answer a question about ‘the bread and water of life’.
Opinions vary on the similarities between this creation story and the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Eden. While Adapa was granted great wisdom and knowledge by Enki, he unknowingly rejected the gift of immortality when offered the "bread and water of life. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and instructed not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, they were tempted by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, leading to their expulsion from paradise.
Overall, the Sumerian creation myth holds significant importance as one of the earliest known written creation stories, offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.
Top image: Sumerian chaos monster and sun god. Source: Public Domain
Note: Ancient Sumerian translations were taken from William Bramley’s book, The Gods of Eden.
By John Black
References
Sumerian creation myth. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_creation_myth
1902. Enuma Elish - The Epic of Creation. Available at: https://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/enuma.htm
Sumerian Myths of Origins. Available at: https://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/sum07.htm
Sumerian Deities. Available at: http://www.sarissa.org/sumer/sumer_g.php
The Global Flood Myths
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In reply to Why do you think the biblical by Tsurugi
Hello Tsurugi,
You asked:
"Why do you think the biblical flood is connected to creation myths"?
Because, as I wrote above, the contours of the Milky Way is mythically named and mentioned as "the great river in the Sky".
Thus, this great river runs/floats in the (night) Sky and it can be observed "running all OVER the Earth" up in the Sky.
This ancient myth is confused be historic interpreters and modern scholars and interpreted as "a river coming from the Sky (from the God in the Sky), running down on, and all over the surface of the Earth". (Google Milky Way Mythology)
The two hemisphere Milky Way contours are also named by ancient people as "huge boats in the sky" because the Milky Way shows up a crescent figure on each hemispheres and when one mark the celestial poles on each hemispheres, these two crescent figures seemingly revolves around the celestial poles, "sailing around these poles in the Sky". (Google heavenly ship++barque)
The ancient known part of the Universe was at the most connected to what could be observed be the physical eyes and this included the contours of the Milky Way. For instants the Egyptian creator Goddess Hathor, was directly connected to the Milky Way and the Egyptian story of creation, the Ogdoad, speaks specifically of the elementary times before and under the creation of the Milky Way, where all elements came together and created at huge light, Ra, in the Sky from where everything were created. (Google Hathor and Ra)
And, since Hathor and Ra have a very close relationship in the story of creation, this story deals specifically with the Milky Way on which crescent figure Ra is sailing on the night Sky. In this logical way, the connection of the Mythical Flood, the heavenly river, and the Story of Creation is fully explained.
In the Egyptian telling, it is RA and Hathor who sails in the heavenly ship and in the biblical telling, it is Noa and his wife and children. (Google mythical ship)
Regards
Ivar
Heya Ivar,
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In reply to The Global Flood Myths by Ivar Nielsen (not verified)
Heya Ivar,
Thanks for the detailed answer! All very interesting stuff.
I don't dispute any of it either, the mythos connections you make seem accurate to me.
Still...the presence of known mythological references in the flood story does not mean there was no flood...? It seems like you are assuming that mythological symbolism indicates a purely symbolic narrative or story. But couldn't mythological symbolism be injected into relevant parts of a story about real events? Especially if said event was monstrous, godlike....such as the deluge.
In my opinion, the Flood was a real event. We know that at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, there were meltwater pulses of vast size taking place amidst a world in a state of geological upheaval. Immense tidal waves and glacial waves repeatedly inundated landmasses, and global sea levels rose some 300-400 ft., permanently flooding around twenty five million square miles of costal lowlands.
Humans witnessed and (some)lived through this period. Perhaps the flood stories they told survived to eventually be written down, albeit changed over the years and "mythologicized"....
All that water . . .
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In reply to Heya Ivar, by Tsurugi
Hello Tsurugi and thanks for your reply.
Og course there have been numerous factual disasters of floodings all over the world, just as today.
But think about it: The bible state "water completely covering the Earth and after 40 days, the water sank" so Noa coould land the ark on Ararat mountain.
Water covering even the mountains? Where should this amonunt of water come from? And to where did all this water disppear afterwards?
I think this logical questions bins the standing Flood Myths interpretation and qualify the mytho-comsological perception of the Milky Way River running OVER the Earth up in the Sky and not ON the Earth.
Regards
Ivar
A Lot of Water
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In reply to All that water . . . by Ivar Nielsen (not verified)
"Water covering even the mountains? Where should this amonunt of water come from? And to where did all this water disppear afterwards?"
Good questions. I don't know the answers, but there are some possibilities.
There are huge reservoirs of water underground, all over the world. Some are ocean-sized. How would these have gotten to the surface, I have no idea...but the Bible does say "the waters came from above and below".
It is also possible that the highest mountains weren't submerged, and it just took a long time(40 days etc) for the ark to drift close to any remaining dry land. By the way, I don't think it says the water was all gone in 40 days....that's just how long it took to find land.
It is difficult to believe or understand how there could have been enough water to totally submerge every bit of dry land on the entire planet. But remember, there are ancient terraced mountain slopes in the Andes that go all the way up to glacial ice and continue even beneath the ice. And there are marine sedimentary deposits in the highest places of the Himalayas. :)
Floodings
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In reply to A Lot of Water by Tsurugi
Tsurugi
There have probably been severall floodings and of different nature in history, as I am sure you also would believe. My Point with this statement is that a more local flooding would posibly manage a greater change of the water level as compared to a global one. For example, it is clear that the mediteranian sea have been isolated and partly dried out with a much lower coast line, and then at some point, the Atlantic sea broke in. It is supposed that this happened much earlier than to appear in any myth, but proven how?