CREATION MYTHS

-
-Ancient Egyptian creation myths


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia











The sun rises over the circular mound of creation as goddesses pour out the primeval waters around it


Ancient Egyptian creation myths are the ancient Egyptian accounts of the creation of the world. The Pyramid Texts, tomb wall decorations and writings, dating back to the Old Kingdom (2780 – 2250 B.C.E) have given us most of our information regarding early Egyptian creation myths.[1] These myths also form the earliest religious compilations in the world.[2] The ancient Egyptians had many creator gods and associated legends. Thus the world or more specifically Egypt was created in diverse ways according to different parts of the country.[3]


In all of these myths, the world was said to have emerged from an infinite, lifeless sea when the sun rose for the first time, in a distant period known as zp tpj, "the first occasion".[4] Different myths attributed the creation to different gods: the set of eight primordial deities called the Ogdoad, the self-engendered god Atum and his offspring, the contemplative deity Ptah, and the mysterious, transcendent godAmun. While these differing cosmogonies competed to some extent, in other ways they were complementary, as different aspects of the Egyptian understanding of creation.


Contents

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1 Common elements
2 Cosmogonies
2.1 Hermopolis
2.2 Heliopolis
2.3 Memphis
2.4 Thebes
3 References


Common elements[edit source | editbeta]


The different creation myths had some elements in common. They all held that the world had arisen out of the lifeless waters of chaos, called Nu. They also included a pyramid-shaped mound, called the benben, which was the first thing to emerge from the waters. These elements were likely inspired by the flooding of the Nile River each year; the receding floodwaters left fertile soil in their wake, and the Egyptians may have equated this with the emergence of life from the primeval chaos. The imagery of the pyramidal mound derived from the highest mounds of earth emerging as the river receded.[5]


The sun was also closely associated with creation, and it was said to have first risen from the mound, as the general sun-god Ra or as the god Khepri, who represented the newly-risen sun.[6] There were many versions of the sun's emergence, and it was said to have emerged directly from the mound or from a lotus flower that grew from the mound, in the form of a heron, falcon, scarab beetle, or human child.[7][6]


Another common element of Egyptian cosmogonies is the familiar figure of the cosmic egg, a substitute for the primeval waters or the primeval mound. One variant of the cosmic egg version teaches that the sun god, as primeval power, emerged from the primeval mound, which itself stood in the chaos of the primeval sea.[8]
Cosmogonies[edit source | editbeta]


The different creation accounts were each associated with the cult of a particular god in one of the major cities of Egypt: Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Memphis, and Thebes.[9] To some degree these myths represent competing theologies, but they also represent different aspects of the process of creation.[10]
Hermopolis[edit source | editbeta]


The creation myth promulgated in the city of Hermopolis focused on the nature of the universe before the creation of the world. The inherent qualities of the primeval waters were represented by a set of eight gods, called the Ogdoad. The god Nu and his female counterpart Naunet represented the inert primeval water itself; Huh and his counterpart Hauhetrepresented the water's infinite extent; Kuk and Kauket personified the darkness present within it; and Amun and Amaunet represented its hidden and unknowable nature, in contrast to the tangible world of the living. The primeval waters were themselves part of the creation process, therefore, the deities representing them could be seen as creator gods.[10]According to the myth, the eight gods were originally divided into male and female groups.[11] They were symbolically depicted as aquatic creatures because they dwelt within the water: the males were represented as frogs, and the females were represented as snakes.[12] These two groups eventually converged, resulting in a great upheaval, which produced the pyramidal mound. From it emerged the sun, which rose into the sky to light the world.[13]
Heliopolis[edit source | editbeta]


In Heliopolis, the creation was attributed to Atum, a deity closely associated with Ra, who was said to have existed in the waters of Nu as an inert potential being. Atum was a self-engendered god, the source of all the elements and forces in the world, and the Heliopolitan myth described the process by which he "evolved" from a single being into this multiplicity of elements.[14][15] The process began when Atum appeared on the mound and gave rise the air god Shu and his sister Tefnut,[16] whose existence represented the emergence of an empty space amid the waters.[17] To explain how Atum did this, the myth uses the metaphor of masturbation, with the hand he used in this act representing the female principle inherent within him.[18] He is also said to have to have "sneezed" and"spat" to produce Shu and Tefnut, a metaphor that arose from puns on their names.[19] Next, Shu and Tefnut coupled to produce the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, who defined the limits of the world.[20] Geb and Nut in turn gave rise to four children, who represented the forces of life: Osiris, god of fertility and regeneration; Isis, goddess of motherhood; Set, the god of male sexuality; and Nephthys, the female complement of Set. The myth thus represented the process by which life was made possible. These nine gods were grouped together theologically as the Ennead, but the eight lesser gods, and all other things in the world, were ultimately seen as extensions of Atum.[21][22]
Memphis[edit source | editbeta]


The Memphite version of creation centered on Ptah, who was the patron god of craftsmen. As such, he represented the craftsman's ability to envision a finished product, and shape raw materials to create that product. The Memphite theology said that Ptah created the world in a similar way.[23] This, unlike the other Egyptian creations, was not a physical but an intellectual creation by the Word and the Mind of God.[24] The ideas developed within Ptah's heart (regarded by the Egyptians as the seat of human thought) were given form when he named them with his tongue. By speaking these names, Ptah produced the gods and all other things.[25]


The Memphite creation myth coexisted with that of Heliopolis, as Ptah's creative thought and speech were believed to have caused the formation of Atum and the Ennead.[26] Ptah was also associated with Tatjenen, the god who personified the pyramidal mound.[25]
Thebes[edit source | editbeta]


Theban theology claimed that Amun was not merely a member of the Ogdoad, but the hidden force behind all things. There is a conflation of all notions of creation into the personality of Amun, a synthesis which emphasizes how Amun transcends all other deities in his being “beyond the sky and deeper than the underworld”.[27] One Theban myth likened Amun's act of creation to the call of a goose, which broke the stillness of the primeval waters and caused the Ogdoad and Ennead to form.[28] Amun was separate from the world, his true nature was concealed even from the other gods. At the same time, however, because he was the ultimate source of creation, all the gods, including the other creators, were in fact merely aspects of Amun. Amun eventually became the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon because of this belief.[29]


Amun is synonymous with the growth of Thebes as a major religious capital. But it is the columned halls, obelisks, colossal statues, wall-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Theban temples that we look to gain the true impression of Amun’s superiority. Thebes was thought of as the location of the emergence of the primeval mound at the beginning of time.[30]






--Aztec Creation Story



How did the world begin? The Aztec creation story has its own answer - or you could say, answers, to that question. The five suns were the key to the rebirths of the world.


The story of creation in ancient Mexico and surrounding areas actually changed as time went by. It was likely adapted by the Aztecs for their own political purposes, though even within the Aztec empire there were variations of the story. But basic components of the story had evolved over centuries and centuries, so we do see similarities between the Aztec's stories and the beliefs of earlier cultures.


Rebirth








The story of creation, according to the Aztecs, is actually a story of birth, death, and rebirth. When the world is destroyed, it's born again through the sacrifice of one of the gods, and so through the birth of a new sun. So you'll often hear of the legend of the five suns - the five births of the world. Five suns, and so five different worlds, have existed. When the story is told, the order of the worlds is sometimes different, sometimes there are even less that five suns, but the general idea remains the same.


But it's not a story of endless cycles, as you may see in other cultures. For the Aztecs, the universe did have an actual beginning...



In the Beginning



In the beginning was the void. It was at some ancient time in the Aztec creation story that the dual god, Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl, created itself. (Looking back, of course, the Aztecs believed that the many opposites that they saw in the world would have to somehow unite in the origin of the world.) This god was good and bad, chaos and order, maleand female. Being male and female, it was able to have children. It had four, which came to represent the four directions of north, south, east and west. The gods were Huizilopochtli (south), Quetzalcoatl (east),Tezcatlipoca (west), and Xipe Totec (north).


The directions were very important to the Aztecs, since their great empire was believed to be at the very centre of the universe (remember what I mentioned about the Aztec creation story being political?).


These four gods began to create. They created water, and other gods, and the sea monster Cipactli. Cipactli was part fish and part crocodile, a massive creature as big as all things that now are. This was a consuming monster, a jaw at every joint. Cipactli was to become the source of the cosmos in a strange way.


As the gods continued to create, they had a problem - their creations would fall into the water and be eaten by the dreadful Cipactli. So it was time for war - the four gods attacked the sea monster, pulling her in four directions. She fought back, biting Tezcatlipoca and tearing off his foot. But at last Cipactli was destroyed.


From this enormous creature the universe was created (in some traditions this happened between the last two suns). All the 13 heavens stretch into her head. The earth was created in the middle, and her tail reaches down to the underworld (Mictlán) (nine underworlds, to be exact).


You could say that in the Aztec creation story the world is on the back of this sea monster, floating in the water of space (reminiscent of the Iroquois belief that the world rests on the back of a turtle).


Check this University of Texas page for a quick summary (and slightly different version than what is below) of the Aztec Creation Story.


The first sun - Jaguar Sun (Nahui Ocelotl)



To complete the world, the great source of energy had to be created - the sun. This is the key to the cycles in the Aztec creation story. But the sun is so powerful, it can't just be created. It can only come into being through the sacrifice of a god. The god chosen was Tezcatlipoca.


Tezcatlipoca only managed to become half a sun, however, making this first creation incomplete. During the first age, the gods created giants from ashes, and gave them acorns to eat.


A fight began, however, between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. In the end, the sun was knocked from the sky, and in anger Tezcatlipoca sent jaguars to destroy the giants.


The second sun - Wind Sun (Nahui Ehecatl)


At this point Quetzalcoatl took over for his brother as the sun. Humans were created as they are now (normal size). They lived on piñon nuts, and for a while things were fine. But the people became corrupt, and perhaps out of revenge Tezcatlipoca turned them into monkeys. Furious, Quetzalcoatl sent a hurricane to blow the monkeys away.
The third sun - Rain Sun (Nahui Quiahuitl)


Tlaloc was one of the early creations of the gods, the god of rain and water. He became the next sun. But his personal problems became his downfall. Once again, Tezcatlipoca was the instigator. Tezcatlipoca stole Tlaloc's wife (Xochiquetzal), and Tlaloc was grief-stricken. He shone as the sun but refused to send rain, in spite of the pleas of the people. Drought swept the earth, and finally in a rage Tlaloc made it rain fire, burning away this version of the world. (Another version attributes the destruction of this world directly to the continuing battle between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl).
The fourth sun - Water Sun (Nahui Atl)



The Aztec creation story continues... This time the gods selected Tlaloc's sister to be the sun. She was Calchiuhtlicue. But filled with jealousy, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl struck down the sun. As she fell, the sky opened up and water flooded the earth. All things were destroyed again.


In the darkness between the suns, Quetzalcoatl descended into the underworld to bring up the bones of the dead. They would be used to bring to life the people who are now here. (That's a whole other story!)





The fifth sun - Earthquake Sun



The gods gathered to bring another sun into being. This is when the Aztec creation story really gets around to explaining what the world is today.


The proud god Tecuciztecatl offered himself, but the other gods preferred the humble Nanahuatzin. A great fire was built, but Tecuciztecatl was too afraid at the last minute to jump in. Nanahuatzin did jump. Filled with jealousy, Tecuciztecatl jumped after, followed by a brave eagle and jaguar.


Two suns began to rise in the east. It was too bright - the gods threw a rabbit into the face of Tecuciztecatl to dim the light, and he became the moon.


But Nanahuatzin was weak. He was motionless, so the other gods gave their blood to give him the energy to rush across the sky.


This is the world in which we now live. The Aztecs believed its end would come in massive earthquakes.


Here's something else interesting about the Aztec creation story. The identity of the final sun isn't actually as simple as it may seem. Read here for more on the Aztec sun god.





--Chinese creation myth


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia










This article contains Chinesetext. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbolsinstead of Chinese characters.



Chinese creation myths explain the legendary beginnings of the universe, earth, and life.




Contents

[hide]


1 Mythology
2 Cosmogony
3 References
4 External links


Mythology[edit source | editbeta]







Sancai Tuhui's portrait of Pangu


Early Chinese texts recorded fragments of creation stories. The Zhuangzi and Huainanzi cosmogonically mention Hundun. The Shujingand Guoyu describe the separation of Heaven and Earth during the legendary era of Zhuanxu. The Huainanzi and Chuci say that Nüwacreated the first humans from yellow clay and repaired the fallen pillars of Heaven (cf. Axis mundi).


One of the most popular creation myths in Chinese mythology describes Pangu 盤古 separating the world egg-like Hundun 混沌 "primordial chaos" into Heaven and Earth. However, none of the ancient Chinese classics mentions the Pangu myth, which was first recorded in the (3rd century CE) Sanwu Liji 三五歴記 "Record of Cycles in Threes and Fives", written by Three Kingdoms period Daoist author Xu Zheng.Derk Bodde, who linked the myth to the ancestral mythologies of the Miao people and Yao people in southern China, paraphrases.


Heaven and Earth were once inextricably commingled (hun-tun) like a chicken's egg, within which was engendered P'an-ku (a name perhaps meaning "Coiled-up Antiquity"). After 18,000 years, this inchoate mass split apart, what was bright and light forming Heaven, and what was dark and heavy forming Earth. Thereafter, during another 18,000 years, Heaven daily increased ten feet in height, Earth daily increased ten feet in thickness, and P'an-ku, between the two, daily increased ten feet in size. This is how Heaven and Earth came to be separated by their present distance of 9 million li (roughly 30,000 English miles). (1961:382-3)
Cosmogony[edit source | editbeta]





The (ca. 4th century BCE) Daodejing suggests a less mythical Chinese cosmogony and has some of the earliest allusions to creation.


There was something featureless yet complete, born before heaven and earth; Silent – amorphous – it stood alone and unchanging. We may regard it as the mother of heaven and earth. Not knowing its name, I style it the "Way." (tr. Mair 1990:90)


The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality, Duality gave birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures bear yin on their back and embrace yang in their bosoms. They neutralize these vapors and thereby achieve harmony. (tr. Mair 1990:9)


Later Daoists interpreted this sequence to mean the Dao "Way", formless Wuji "Without Ultimate", unitary Taiji "Great Ultimate", and binary yin and yang or Heaven and Earth.


The (ca. 4th-3rd centuries BCE) Taiyi Shengshui "Great One gave birth to water", a Daoist text recently excavated in theGuodian Chu Slips, offers an alternate creation myth, but analysis remains uncertain.







Zhou's Taiji tushuo diagram


The (ca. 120 CE) Lingxian 靈憲, by the polymath Zhang Heng, thoroughly accounts for the creation of Heaven and Earth.


Before the Great Plainness (or Great Basis, Taisu 太素) came to be, there was dark limpidity and mysterious quiescence, dim and dark. No image of it can be formed. Its midst was void; its exterior was non-existence. Things remained thus for long ages; this is called obscurity (mingxing 溟涬). It was the root of the Dao. … When the stem of the Dao had been grown, creatures came into being and shapes were formed. At this stage, the original qi split and divided, hard and soft first divided, pure and turbid took up different positions. Heaven formed on the outside, and Earth became fixed within. Heaven took it body from the Yang, so it was round and in motion; Earth took its body from the Yin, so it was flat and quiescent. Through motion there was action and giving forth; through quiescence there was conjoining and transformation. Through binding together there was fertilization, and in time all the kinds of things were brought to growth. This is called the Great Origin (Taiyuan 太元). It was the fruition of the Dao. (tr. Cullen 2008:47)


The Neo-Confucianist philosopher Zhou Dunyi provided a multifaceted cosmology in his Taiji tushuo 太極圖說 "Diagram Explaining the Supreme Ultimate", which integrated the Yijing with Daoism and Chinese Buddhism.





--Panbabylonism


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia











A map of the "Fertile Crescent". Panbabylonism holds that the ancientHebrews/Israelites (in the west) were influenced by the mythology of the ancient Mesopotamians(to the north and east)


Panbabylonism is a school of thought within Assyriology and Religious studies that considers the Hebrew Bible and Judaism as directly derived from Mesopotamian (Babylonian) mythology. Appearing in the late 19th century, it gained popularity in the early 20th century, advocated notably by Alfred Jeremias.


The ideas presented within its framework still carry importance in mythological studies, due to similarities between myths in the comparatively young Bible and much older myths from ancient Mesopotamian mythologies.




Contents

[hide]


1 Creation myths
1.1 Cosmography
2 Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis
2.1 Dating of the tales
2.2 Failure to gain immortality
2.3 Loss of innocence
2.4 Great Flood
3 Emesh and Enten, Cain and Abel
4 Gods
5 See also
6 External links
7 References


Creation myths[edit source | editbeta]







The Atra-Hasis on a cuneiform tablet in the British Museum


Panbabylonists believe the creation myth in the Book of Genesis came from older Mesopotamian creation myths. The Mesopotamian creation myths are recorded in the Enûma Eliš (or Enuma Elish), the Atra-Hasis, the 'Eridu Genesis' and on the 'Barton Cylinder'. Although the plots are different, there are similarities between the Mesopotamian and Jewish myths.


In the beginning of both myths the universe is shapeless and there is nothing but water. In the beginning of Enûma Eliš there is Abzu(freshwater) and Tiamat (saltwater), which mingle together. In the beginning of Genesis, "darkness was over the surface of the deep" and the Jewish god Yahweh is "hovering over the waters".[Genesis 1:2] It has been argued that the Hebrew word for "the deep", tehom, is cognate withtiamat.


In the Enûma Eliš there are six generations of gods, created one after the other. Each god is associated with something, such as sky or earth. This parallels the six days of creation in Genesis, where Elohim (plural) creates a different thing on each day.


In the Enûma Eliš, the sixth-generation god Marduk consults with other gods and decides to make mankind as servants, so that the gods can rest. Likewise, Elohim makes mankind on the sixth day (saying "let us make mankind in our image") and then rests.


In both myths, day and night forego the creation of the luminous bodies (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, and 14ff.; Enûma Eliš 1:38), whose function is to yield light and mark time (Genesis 1:14; Enûma Eliš 5:12–13).


He Fashioned stands for the great gods. As for the stars, he set up constellations corresponding to them. He designated the year and marked out its divisions, Apportioned three stars each to twelve months. When he had made plans of the days of the year… (Enûma Eliš, Tablet 5)


And God said, "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth". And it was so. (Genesis 1:14-15)


The days of the week and their ritual implications from Genesis 1:5-2, 3 can be compared to the Atra-Hasis, which describes the evolution of the weekly calendar as prescribed by the creator god Enki. As in Genesis, the seventh day is seen as the end of the week, which consists of six regular days. For Babylonians the first, seventh and fifteenth of the month were holy days and each month lasted for five seven-day weeks.


The Enûma Eliš portrays Marduk as setting the constellations in place rather than being bound by their movements as had all former gods. The henotheistic idea that one god had control over the movement of the stars, which represented the other gods, appears as a transit to Biblical monotheism.
Cosmography[edit source | editbeta]


The cosmography of Genesis is that of the ancient Near East,[1] in which the Earth was thought to be a flat disk floating on water. The flat-disk Earth was seen as one bigsupercontinent surrounded by a superocean, of which the known seas—what today is called the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea—were inlets. The Earth, the sea around it and the air (or sky) above it were thought to be inside a huge hemisphere, and this hemisphere was thought to be surrounded by water. The dome of this hemisphere (the firmament) was thought of as a solid upside-down bowl (made of tin according to the Sumerians, and iron according to the Egyptians) with the stars embedded in it. The fresh-water sea beneath the Earth was the source of all fresh-water springs, rivers and wells.[1]


In both the Enûma Eliš and Genesis, a god creates this hemisphere (or upside-down bowl) in the midst of the water. In Genesis 1:6 Elohim says "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water" and goes on to create dry land within it. In the Enûma Eliš, Marduk cuts Tiamat in two to make the heavens above and Earth below.
Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis[edit source | editbeta]
Dating of the tales[edit source | editbeta]


The written Epic of Gilgamesh (or Gilgameš) possibly finds its roots as far back as 3,700 years ago but the oral tale seems to have appeared circa 2100 BCE[citation needed] This is in stark contrast to the age of the main story in the Book of Exodus where Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt. There is no evidence for any historical "Exodus"; efforts to connect the biblical story to real historical figures and eras have often tried to connect them to the 14th or 13th century BCE. Even if we were to accept these dates as being accurate, this would make the earliest known tales told about Gilgamesh close to a thousand years older than any possible oral telling of the story in the Book of Exodus. Based on evidence alone, even the oldest written biblical accounts are at least some 1500 years younger than the Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh.


Sections dealing with Utnapishtim may date to a later period, as the flood myth appears to originate from a flooding of the Euphrates around 1900 BCE that affected several cities, including Shuruppak, a major setting of the story.[2][3]
Failure to gain immortality[edit source | editbeta]


Further information: Serpent (symbolism)


In both tales there is a plant that can bestow immortality and a snake that prevents the characters from gaining that immortality.[4]:37 In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh finds a plant that can restore youthfulness, but it is snatched from him by a snake. In Genesis, Yahweh tells Adam and Eve not to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, saying that they will die if they do so.[Genesis 3:2-3] However, a snake convinces Adam and Eve to eat from the tree, saying "You will not certainly die ... you will be like God, knowing good and evil".[Genesis 3:4-5] Yahweh then banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, lest they also eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.[Genesis 3:22-23]


In another Mesopotamian tale, a mythical man named Adapa also unknowingly excludes himself from immortality. The tale is first attested in the Kassite period (14th century BC). There are three main parallels between the tales of Adapa and Adam. Both men undergo a test before a god based upon something they were to eat; both fail the test and thus forgo immortality; their failure has consequences for mankind. The god Enki/Ea tells Adapa to go to heaven and apologize to the god Anu, but warns him that he will die if he eats the food in heaven. When Adapa declines Anu's food, Anu tells him that it was not the food of death but of immortality, and sends Adapa back to Earth.[5][6][7] Likewise, in Genesis, Yahweh tells Adam that he will die if he eats from the Tree of Knowledge. When Adam eats from the tree he is cast out of Eden lest he also eat from the Tree of Life and gain immortality.[Genesis 3:22-23]
Loss of innocence[edit source | editbeta]


In the beginning both Enkidu and the Eden couple are in harmony with nature. They live naked among the trees and wildlife and have a naive innocence. However, that innocence is lost once each does something that puts him out of harmony with nature.[4]:37


In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Shamhat is sent to civilize Enkidu. After they have sex and spend a week alone with each other, the wild animals no longer respond to Enkidu as they did before. Shamhat proclaims that Enkidu has become "wise" and "like a god". She makes clothing for him and introduces him to a human diet. In the last stage of his civilization, Enkidu journeys to the great city of Uruk where new pleasures and experiences await. In Genesis, however, Adam and Eve's loss of innocence is portrayed as something bad. The snake tells Adam and Eve that they will become "like God" if they eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. When they do so, they realize that they are naked and hide themselves out of shame.[Genesis 3:7-8] Yahweh then makes clothes for them[Genesis 3:21] and dooms them to a life of hardship (specifically, farming and childbirth) outside the Garden.
Great Flood[edit source | editbeta]


Further information: Gilgamesh flood myth, Flood myth, and Noah's Ark


The 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh contains the Utnapishtim flood myth and has a number of parallels to the Noah flood myth of Genesis 6–9. According to Alan Millard, "No Babylonian text provides so close a parallel to Genesis as does the flood story of Gilgamesh XI".[8] Michael Coogan mentions the following similarities.[4]:56-57


Both tales begin with a god becoming angry at mankind. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil was disturbed so much by the noise of mankind that he decided to wipe it out with a flood. In Genesis, Yahweh decided to wipe-out mankind with a flood because of mankind's "wickedness".[Genesis 6:5-7]


In both tales, a god warns a man of the coming flood so that he and his family can be saved. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the god Ea/Enki disagrees with Enlil's plan and warns a man called Utnapishtim. In Genesis, Yahweh warns Noah because he is "righteous", "blameless" and "walked faithfully with God".[Genesis 6:9]


In both tales, the god tells the man to build a boat, gives specific instructions on how to build it, and tells him to take his family and all kinds of animals on board:



Epic of Gilgamesh

Genesis



All the living beings that I had I loaded on it, I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat, all the beasts and animals of the field…(Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI)


...Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind... (Genesis 7:13-14))



In both tales, when the storm ends, the man releases a dove and a raven to find if dry ground has appeared again:



Epic of Gilgamesh

Genesis



I sent out a dove, and let her go. The dove flew hither and thither, but as there was no resting-place for her, she returned. Then I sent out a swallow, and let her go. The swallow flew hither and thither, but as there was no resting-place for her she also returned. Then I sent out a raven, and let her go. The raven flew away and saw the abatement of the waters. She settled down to feed, went away, and returned no more. (Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI)


Noah ... sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. (Genesis 8:6-12)



When the flood ends, the boats are sitting on top of a mountain and the man then makes an offering to his god(s):



Epic of Gilgamesh

Genesis



To Mount Nisir the ship drifted. On Mount Nisir the boat stuck fast and it did not slip away. [...] Then I let everything go out unto the four winds, and I offered a sacrifice. I poured out a libation upon the peak of the mountain. [...] The gods gathered like flies around the sacrifice. (Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI)


...on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on themountains of Ararat [...] Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma ... (Genesis 8:4 andGenesis 8:20-21)



At the end of the Utnapishtim tale, he and his wife are given immortality by the gods and are sent to dwell in a faraway paradise. At the end of the Noah tale, he and his family receive the Covenant of the Rainbow - Yahweh's promise to never again destroy mankind with a flood.[Genesis 9:12-16]
Emesh and Enten, Cain and Abel[edit source | editbeta]


Many scholars[who?] have pointed to the similarities between the Sumerian tale of Emesh and Enten and the biblical tale of Cain and Abel.[9] Samuel Noah Kramer called the Emesh and Enten tale "the closest extant Sumerian parallel to the Biblical Cain and Abel story".[10] The Emesh and Enten tale is found on clay tablets from the 3rd millennium BCE[11] while the oldest source of the Hebrew Bible is thought to have been written during the 6th century BCE.[12]


In the Sumerian tale, the god Enlil has sex with the Earth, which gives birth to two boys named Emesh and Enten. Emesh is a personification of summer and Enten a personification of winter. Each brother brings an offering to Enlil, but Enten becomes angry with Emesh and the two begin an argument.[13] In Genesis, Adam has sex with Eve, who gives birth to two boys named Cain and Abel. Cain worked the soil and Abel kept flocks. Each brother brings an offering to Yahweh. Yahweh looks favorably on Abel's offering but not on Cain's, so Cain becomes angry.[Genesis 4:1-5]


At this point, however, the similarities end. In the Sumerian tale, Enlil intervenes and declares Enten the winner of the debate. Emesh accepts Enlil's judgment and the brothers reconcile.[13] In Genesis, Cain murders his brother Abel.[Genesis 4:8]
Gods[edit source | editbeta]







The Sumerian god Ningizzidaaccompanied by two gryphons. It is the oldest known image of snakes coiling around an axial rod, dating from before 2000 BC (see Caduceus)


The ancient Sumerian chief deity was Enlil, the Lord of the Wind. Enlil owed nominal loyalty to his father Anu/Heaven but outside of southern Mesopotamia he gradually became more important evolving to the status of king of the gods. In Canaan Enlil was known as El, the father of an entire pantheon of gods that included Yahweh.


In the Atra-Hasis, the chief of the gods, Enlil (known as Ellil in Akkadian) had been confronted by a revolt of the lesser gods, which caused him to create humans as servants. However, after some centuries pass the humans became a nuisance. Finally, Enlil released a devastating flood to reduce the human population.


In the second verse of Genesis God, who is called Elohim in the Hebrew, is said to hover over the waters. This description of God and the use of the name Elohim further reveals this Mesopotamian god’s influence.


Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2)


This image of God moving over the waters compares directly with the mythology of Enlil who was made visible by traces of his passing such as ripples on the water.


Ningishzida was a Mesopotamian serpent deity associated with the underworld. He was often depicted protectively wrapped around a tree as a guardian. Thorkild Jacobsen interprets his name in Sumerian to mean "lord of the good tree."[14]


Despite apparent similarities between Genesis and the Enûma Eliš, there are also significant differences. The most notable is the absence from Genesis of the "divine combat" (the gods' battle with Tiamat) which secures Marduk's position as king of the world, but even this has an echo in the claims of Yahweh's kingship over creation in such places asPsalm 29 and Psalm 93, where he is pictured as sitting enthroned over the floods and Isaiah 27:1. "In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword; his fierce, great and powerful sword; Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea." Thus this creation account may be seen as either a borrowing or historicizing of Mesopotamian myth[15] or, in contrast, may be seen as a repudiation of Mesopotamian ideas about origins and humanity.[16]
See also[edit source | editbeta]






Ancient Near East portal

Mesopotamian religion
Christianity and other religions
Christianity and Paganism
Comparative mythology
Comparative religion
Sumerian King Alulim as biblical Adam
External links







--Enûma Eliš




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The Enûma Eliš (Akkadian Cuneiform: 𒂊𒉡𒈠𒂊𒇺, also spelled "Enuma Elish"), is the Babylonian creation mythos (named after its opening words). It was recovered by Austen Henry Layard in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh(Mosul, Iraq), and published by George Smith in 1876.[1]


The Enûma Eliš has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Old Babylonian on seven clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of text. Most of Tablet V has never been recovered, but aside from this lacuna, the text is almost complete. A duplicate copy of Tablet V has been found in Sultantepe, ancient Huzirina, located near the modern town of Şanlıurfa in Turkey.


This epic is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonian worldview, centered on the supremacy of Marduk and the creation of humankind for the service of the gods. Its primary original purpose, however, is not an exposition of theology or theogonybut the elevation of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, above other Mesopotamian gods.


The Enûma Eliš exists in various copies from Babylon and Assyria. The version from Ashurbanipal's library dates to the 7th century BCE. The composition of the text probably dates to the Bronze Age, to the time of Hammurabi or perhaps the early Kassite era (roughly 18th to 16th centuries BCE), although some scholars favour a later date of ca. 1100 BCE.[2]
Contents

[hide]
1 Summary
2 Relationship with the Bible
3 Editions and translations
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links



Summary[edit source | editbeta]


When the seven tablets that contain this were first discovered, evidence indicated that it was used as a "ritual", meaning it was recited during a ceremony or celebration. That celebration is now thought to be the Akitu festival, or Babylonian new year. This tells of the creation of the world, and of Marduk's triumph over Tiamat, and how it relates to him becoming king of the gods. This is then followed by an invocation to Marduk by his fifty names.[3]


The title, meaning "when on high", is the incipit. The first tablet begins:



e-nu-ma e-liš la na-bu-ú šá-ma-mu

When the sky above was not named,


šap-liš am-ma-tum šu-ma la zak-rat

And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,


ZU.AB-ma reš-tu-ú za-ru-šu-un

And the primeval Apsû, who begat them,


mu-um-mu ti-amat mu-al-li-da-at gim-ri-šú-un

And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both,


A.MEŠ-šú-nu iš-te-niš i-ḫi-qu-ú-ma

Their waters were mingled together,


gi-pa-ra la ki-is-su-ru su-sa-a la she-'u-ú

And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;


e-nu-ma dingir dingir la šu-pu-u ma-na-ma

When of the gods none had been called into being.



The epic names two primeval gods: Apsû (or Abzu) who represents fresh water, and Tiamat representing oceanic waters. Several other gods are created (Ea and his brothers) who reside in Tiamat's vast body. They make so much noise that the babel or noise annoys Tiamat and Apsû greatly. Apsû wishes to kill the young gods, but Tiamat disagrees. The vizier, Mummu, agrees with Apsû's plan to destroy them. Tiamat, in order to stop this from occurring, warns Ea (Nudimmud), the most powerful of the gods. Ea uses magic to put Apsû into a coma, then kills him, and shuts Mummu out. Ea then becomes the chief god, and along with his consort Damkina, has a son, Marduk, greater still than himself. Marduk is given wind to play with and he uses the wind to make dust storms and tornadoes. This disrupts Tiamat's great body and causes the gods still residing inside her to be unable to sleep.


They persuade Tiamat to take revenge for the death of her husband, Apsû. Her power grows, and some of the gods join her. She creates 11 monsters (Bašmu, Ušumgallu,Mušmaḫḫū, Ugallu), Umū dabrūtu, Kulullû, Kusarikku, Scorpion man, ?, ?, ?) to help her win the battle and elevates Kingu, her new husband, to "supreme dominion." A lengthy description of the other gods' inability to deal with the threat follows. Marduk offers to save the gods if he is appointed as their leader and allowed to remain so even after the threat passes. When the gods agree to Marduk's conditions he is selected as their champion against Tiamat, and becomes very powerful. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat and destroys her. He then rips her corpse into two halves with which he fashions the earth and the skies. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets and stars, and regulates the moon, the sun, and weather. [4]


The gods who have pledged their allegiance to Tiamat are initially forced into labor in the service of the gods who sided with Marduk. But they are freed from these labors when Marduk then destroys Tiamat's husband, Kingu and uses his blood to create humankind to do the work for the gods.[4]Most noteworthy is Marduk's symbolic elevation over Enlil, who was seen by earlier Mesopotamian civilizations as the king of the gods.
Relationship with the Bible[edit source | editbeta]


See also: Panbabylonism


The Enûma Eliš was recognized as being related to the Jewish Genesis creation mythos from its first publication (Smith 1876), and it was an important step in the recognition of the roots of the account found in the Bible and in other Ancient Near Eastern (Canaanite and Mesopotamian) myths.


In one interpretation, Genesis 1:1-3 can be taken as describing the state of chaos immediately prior to God's act of creation:[5]


"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. "[6]


The Enûma Eliš and Genesis, however, have different aims according to some researchers. To address these similarities within a Christian framework, Conrad Hyers of thePrinceton Theological Seminary for example stated that the Genesis mythos polemically addressed earlier Babylonian and other pagan world views[7] to "repudiate the divinization of nature and the attendant myths of divine origins, divine conflict, and divine ascent," thus rejecting the idea that Genesis borrowed from or appropriated the form of the Enûma Eliš.[7]According to this view, The Enûma Eliš was comfortable using connections between the divine and inert matter while aim of Genesis was supposedly to trumpet the superiority of the Israelite Elohim over all creation (and subsequent deities).


Reconstruction of the broken Enûma Eliš tablet seems to define the rarely attested Sapattum or Sabattum as the full moon. This word is cognate or merged with Hebrew Shabbat (cf.Genesis 2:2-3), but is monthly rather than weekly; it is regarded as a form of Sumerian sa-bat ("mid-rest"), attested in Akkadian as um nuh libbi ("day of mid-repose"). This conclusion is a contextual restoration of the damaged tablet, which is read as: "[Sa]bbath shalt thou then encounter, mid[month]ly."[8]
Editions and translations[edit source | editbeta]
The Seven Tablets of Creation, The Babylonian Legends of Creation, by E. A. Wallis Budge, [1921], at sacred-texts.com
Seven Tablets of Creation, Luzac's Semitic Text and Translation Series, No 12 & 13, ISBN 978-0-404-11344-5 (1973).
Enûma Eliš: The Seven Tablets of Creation, by L. W. King, Enûma Eliš: The Seven Tablets of Creation, London (1902); 1999 reprint ISBN 978-1-58509-043-3; 2002 reprintISBN 1-4021-5905-6, at king-of-heroes.co.uk
Anton Deimel, Enûma Eliš (1936).
W. C. Lambert, S. B. Parker, Enûma Eliš. The Babylonian Epic of Creation, Oxford (1966).
D. D. Luckenbill, The Ashur Version of the Seven Tablets of Creation, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Oct., 1921), pp. 12-35 .
Zecharia Sitchin Translation: As a Cosmology of the Solar System with the names of the gods as the Sumerian names of our 9 planets, with Tiamat ( as old Earth ), a 10th planet called Nibir (Marduk), our Sun, and Earths moon (Kingu). An intruder planet called Nibiru, enters the early Solar System making Uranus turn a 90 degree axis, pulled a moon of Saturn away becoming Pluto, then has a moon impact with Tiamat (old Earth) between Mars and Jupiter. Half of Tiamat becomes the Asteroid belt and Comets. The other half of Tiamat from a second impact is pushed to 3rd from the sun as new Earth keeping Tiamats old Moon (Kingu). Marduk now as Nibir is locked in a counter clockwise 3600 year orbit. From Sitchin's — The Lost Book Of Enki. This translation is an example of a work of pseudo-religion, and Sitchin himself is not a qualified language scholar.[9]
See also[edit source | editbeta]
Sumerian creation myth
Mesopotamian pantheon
Religions of the Ancient Near East

CREATION VERSES

²² 

Isaiah 40

English Standard Version (ESV)

40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
    double for all her sins.

³ A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶ A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades
    when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
    surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

⁹ Go on up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
    lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Behold your God!”
¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young.

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
    and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
    and weighed the mountains in scales
    and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
    or what man shows him his counsel?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult,
    and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
    and taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
    and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
    behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
    nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him,
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God,
    or what likeness compare with him?
¹⁹ An idol! A craftsman casts it,
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
    and casts for it silver chains.
²⁰ He who is too impoverished for an offering
    chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
    to set up an idol that will not move.

²¹ Do you not know? Do you not hear?
    Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
²³ who brings princes to nothing,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
    scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
    and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵ To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
    calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
    and because he is strong in power
    not one is missing.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
    and my right is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

Proverbs 8:22-31 ESV (Wisdom)

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,
    the first of his acts of old.
²³ Ages ago I was set up,
    at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth,
    when there were no springs abounding with water.
²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped,
    before the hills, I was brought forth,
²⁶ before he had made the earth with its fields,
    or the first of the dust of the world.
²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there;
    when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
²⁸ when he made firm the skies above,
    when he established the fountains of the deep,
²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit,
    so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
³⁰     then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
    rejoicing before him always,
³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world
    and delighting in the children of man.

PSALM 8 ESV

O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
²     Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

⁵ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

PSALM 19 ESV

19 The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
² Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
³ There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
⁴ Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
⁵     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
⁶ Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect,
    reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
    making wise the simple;
⁸ the precepts of the Lord are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
    enlightening the eyes;
⁹ the fear of the Lord is clean,
    enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
    and righteous altogether.
¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold,
    even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
    and drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹ Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
    in keeping them there is great reward.

¹² Who can discern his errors?
    Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
¹³ Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
    let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
    and innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
    be acceptable in your sight,
    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.