Near Eastern Creation Myths

by
JEFFREY BULLER
ASSIGNMENT: P = James B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East: An Anthology
of Texts and Pictures (Princeton 1958) 1-2, 28-39, 75-76,
80-85
VOCABULARY:
Linear B
indigenous, aboriginal
Hammurabi
Nineveh
Nebuchadnezzar
Nun [or "Nu"]
Ra
Ben Ben
uraeus
Shu
Tefnut
Geb [also "Keb" or "Seb"]
Nut
Memphis
Ptah
Atum
ka
Horus
Thoth
ennead [or "paut"]
hypostasis
Nammu

Anki
An [also "Anu" or "Anum"]
Ki
Enlil
Dilmun
Ninhursag
Enki
sympathetic magic
Uttu
Inanna
Ishtar
Ereshkigal
Ea
Anunnaki
Dumuzi
Tammuz
Enuma Elish, Enuma Elis
Tiamat
Apsu [or "Abzu"]
Kingu
Marduk
Lullu

The Major Near Eastern Peoples:

Mesopotamia: Tigris and Euphrates
Sumerians
[ca. 3400 B.C.]
Akkadians
[ca. 2500 B.C.]
Babylonians
[ca. 1750 B.C.]
Assyrians
[ca. 1000 B.C.]
Chaldeans
[ca. 600 B.C.]
Asia Minor
Hittites

[ca. 2000-1200 B.C.]

Nile
Egyptians

[ca. 3200 B.C.]

Hindus

[ca. 1200 B.C.]

India
Palestine
Jews

[ca. 1020 B.C. - a.D. 70]

1) We shall devote most of this semester to an examination of ancient

Greek mythology.
--and ordinarily, when we think of the Greeks, we tend to think of
them as having been an incredibly ancient and early culture
--but what we should realize is that the Greeks are relative newcomers to the civilized world
--for the first Greek script, known as Linear B, dates only to
about 1500 B.C.
--now Linear B is even earlier than the Greek script which we are
familiar with
--and it was used mostly for palace inventories, not for literature: but it does represent the earliest possible form of
writing which could have been used to record a Greek myth
--yet, despite the antiquity of the Linear B script, we must
realize that the Sumerians were writing nearly 1900 years before
Linear B was invented
--in other words, the earliest Sumerian myth which we shall discuss today is roughly as far distant in time from these tablets
as the time of Jesus Christ is from our own day
2) Near Eastern history concerns five major areas:
a) Mesopotamia ["the land between two rivers"]
--the rivers referred to here are the Tigris and the Euphrates
--the area between the two rivers is known as the fertile
crescent
--Mesopotamia is located in the region labeled "Babylonia" on
most maps of the ancient world
--it is modern day Iraq
b) Asia Minor
--this is the area now known as Turkey
--it is located east of Greece, across the Aegean Sea
c) Nile Delta: where modern Egypt is
d) India: where modern India is
e) Palestine: where modern Israel is
3) Now, of these five areas, we wish to begin with Mesopotamia.
--this is where recorded human history begins
--indeed, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was
believed that the garden of Eden was located here
--the area is certainly no paradise now
--the rainfall is light, the sun intense, the wind relentless
--except for clay, there are few natural resources
--the land is unprotected by natural frontiers
--this means that the area is open to invasion on the east,
northeast and southwest
--this resulted in waves of invasions, the repeated influx of new
peoples
--but the soil here is easily tillable
--and that was the crucial thing to ancient peoples
--fighting over tracts of this arable land caused advanced
techniques of battle to emerge early in this area
--the Mesopotamians later used the battle techniques which they
learned here to subjugate other peoples
--civilization was also enhanced in this area because of the need
for a strong centralized government to supervise and organize
irrigation; this was an early impetus to the building of
strongly centralized cities and this, in turn, aided the development of civilization
--so in an area only about the size of Massachusetts, all of these
great civilizations arose:

a) Sumerians
--first traces are ca. 3500 B.C.
--they were a blending of the Semitic tribes from the north
with the indigenous, aboriginal population [this people is
of obscure origin but is believed to have been an Asianic
people]
b) Akkadians
--a people, separate from the Sumerians, living further north
in Mesopotamia
--the Akkadians were a completely Semitic people
--the Akkadians succeeded the Sumerians in the third millenium
B.C.
--one Akkadian soldier, Sargon (whose myth we shall read for
the next class), united Sumer for the first time
--this unification was relatively peaceful
--Akkadian power was finally toppled by the Guti [a wild group
of mountain tribesmen from the northeast, Gutium in Iran]
ca. 2180
c) Babylonians
--an outgrowth of the Sumerians
--a new Semitic people [the Amorites] invaded Mesopotamia, established itself as the ruling dynasty in the area and took
control of the remnants of the Sumerian/Akkadian civilization
--because the southern portions of the Tigris and Euphrates
were silting up, the Amorites moved the capital of the
region north from Sumer to Babylon in 1850 B.C.
--from here, the name of the people is derived
--King Hammurabi [flourished ca. 1750 B.C.] was a Babylonian
--the traditional date for the ascension of Hammurabi to the
throne is 1792 B.C.
--his law code codified the eye for an eye style of justice
d) Assyria
--the most famous capital of the Assyrians was at Nineveh
--in 728 B.C., the Assyrians conquered Babylon and most of
the surrounding region, down into Egypt
--but the Assyrians were extremely cruel and their rule did not
last long
e) Chaldea
--once again, an outgrowth of the Babylonians
--the new Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, whom Daniel encounters
in the Old Testament, threw off the Assyrian rule in about
600 B.C.
--the Chaldeans thus caused the overthrow of Assyria and helped
to make Babylon a major power again
--Nebuchadnezzar also exiled the Jews from Palestine to
Babylon: this is what is known as the Babylonian captivity
--the Chaldeans were the developers of astrology
4) In contrast to all of these shifts of power in Mesopotamia, Egypt
was a very stable country.
--the stability of Egypt caused it to resist innovations in art
and literature
--consequently, even in antiquity Egypt was known as a nation of
great conservativism and hoary antiquity
--indeed, to modern eyes, Egyptian art seems to change very little
from 3200 to 525 B.C. (when Egypt was conquered by the Persian
king Cambyses)

--"In Egypt the forms of excellence were long since fixed and
patterns of them displayed in the temples. No painter or artist
is allowed to innovate on the traditional forms or invent new
ones. To this day, no alteration is allowed -- none at all.
Their works of art are painted or molded in the same forms which
they had 10,000 years ago." Plato, Laws ii. 656 d 4-657 a 2
--this art, and Egyptian hieroglyphs, preserve some of the oldest
myths known to us
5) An Egyptian Creation Myth: The Heliopolitan Cosmogony
a) at first there was nothing but Nun [or "Nu"], a primaeval ocean
of chaos out of which everything would emerge
--in Egyptian society, Nun was associated with the "watery
sky": cf. the reference to the waters "above the firmament"
at Genesis 1.7
--yet, already at this early stage of creation, the Egyptians
believed that the seeds of all things that would be created
were present in Nun
--all living creatures and all physical objects reposed in
Nun, merely waiting to be created
--NOTE: this is not a creation out of nothing myth [i.,
where some deity says "Let there be light!" and there is
light] but a separation myth: everything is present; it
simply has to be divided
--thus even at this point in our first story, we begin to see
something about the mythologies of most peoples
--for most societies' creation myths will be one of three
types:
1) creation out of nothing
2) creation by separation
3) some combination of the two
b) now Ra, the sun god, reposed in Nun and, with a great exertion
of his will, he emerged from Nun
--Ra did this by uttering his own name and by establishing a
place upon which to stand
--the land which was formed [the Ben Ben] was conical: the
shape of the pyramids is said to recall this original land
mass
--as the sun god, Ra is frequently shown wearing the solar
disk and the uraeus [= the snake which appears on the front
of most Egyptian headdresses]
c) in some versions of the myth, Ra then mated with his own
shadow; in others, he "emitted" and "spit out":
Shu: god of air and of the dry atmosphere
Tefnut: goddess of moisture
d) Shu and Tefnut mated to produce:
Geb [also "Keb" or "Seb"]: an earth god and protector of
vegetation
Nut: a sky goddess, the female counterpart of Nun; later seen
as a primeval mother goddess
e) all of the "elements" which ancient peoples commonly believed
in were thus produced
f) during the day, as the eye of Ra [= the sun] traveled from east
to west, Nut remained above the earth
g) but in the evening, she came to rest upon the bosom of the
earth [--> upon Geb]
h) they produced the four gods who shall concern us extensively in
the next class: Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys
i) Pritchard has an ancient depiction of this Egyptian myth illus-

trating the creation of the world: see the manuscript from

Bahari [dating to the tenth century B.C.] at P plate #158
j) men were then created from the tears of Ra
NOTE: frequently, you can tell something about a society's view of the
human condition by examining its account of the origin of man;
here, man's life is based in tears; what would you conclude from
this? [Try to find out something about how the Egyptians viewed
human life and the possibility of human happiness to see if your
interpretation was correct.]
Another Egyptian Creation Myth: The Memphite Myth of Creation
a) sometime after 3200 B.C., the Egyptian ruler variously known as
Narmer or Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt creating a single
land of Egypt for the first time
b) Narmer/Menes is thus considered to have been the first Egyptian
pharoah [see the depiction of Narmer on the palette of Narmer
at P plate #84]
c) to serve as the capital of his new nation, Narmer/Menes chose
a previously undistinguished town on the border between the
former Upper and Lower Egypts: Memphis
d) there was thus a need to explain why this city was suddenly so
important
e) and so the Egyptian creation myth was "revised" to give prime
importance to Memphis
f) the myth now identified Nun with the local god of Memphis,
Ptah, and said that Ptah was actually the first principle of
all nature, "taking precedence over other recognized creatorgods" [P 1]
--Ptah is normally depicted as anthropomorphic: a man walking
and wearing a "skull cap" surmounted by the solar disk
g) it was Ptah who thought of (> conceived) and created (by
speech) the Egyptian creator god, Atum
h) and it was Ptah who gave life to all the gods and to their kas
--a ka is a spiritual double, something like a soul @though
not exactly the same as one\
--even the Egyptian gods have kas
--for an ancient depiction of a ka, see P plate #162
i) the gods
Horus: a falcon-headed god
Thoth: god of learning
are said to be nothing more than the tongue (which speaks >
produces) and heart (which thinks > invents) of Ptah
--Horus usually appears as a hawk-headed man or simply as a hawk
--Thoth is represented as ibis-headed
--Thoth was a scribe-god and was worshipped as the patron and
inventor of all the arts and sciences
--in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Thoth acts as the recorder of the verdicts of the fates of the souls of the dead
--in this role, he is frequently depicted as a baboon
j) the heart and tongue were thus given precedence over every
other part of the body in all creatures
k) and of these, the heart rules: "The sight of the eyes, the
hearing of the ears, and the smelling the air by the nose, they
report to the heart. It is this which causes every completed
(concept) to come forth, and it is the tongue which announces
what the heart thinks." [P 2]
l) all movement, all activity began to be ruled from the heart
m) and Ptah's ennead were his teeth and his lips
--an ennead, also known (in Egyptian) as a "paut," is a group

of nine: in this case, nine deities

--in Egyptian mythology, the ennead or paut was a group of
eight deities [four male and four female] who assist a main
deity, making nine gods in all
n) Ptah granted life to those who have peace and death to those
who are sinful
o) and Ptah was satisfied with his creation
6) Now what can we learn from these Egyptian creation myths?
a) to begin with, the Egyptians frequently "identify" their gods
with one another
--we saw, for instance, in the Memphite myth of creation that
the god Ptah was associated with the god Nun
--in a later myth, we shall hear of the god Khnum who was
also identified with Ptah [and hence with Nun]
--now, this phenomenon was quite common in Egyptian mythology
--we see it again in the Memphite myth of creation when the
text says of Ptah "He is indeed Ta-tenen." [P 2]
--and, in fact, in the original Egyptian texts, the god Ra is
given three separate names in that first creation myth:
Neb-er-tcher ["Lord to the uttermost limit"]; Khepera or
Kheperi [the creator]; and Ra [the god of the solar disk]
--originally it would appear that these deities had all been
distinct
--but their similarities caused them to be associated and
identified in the Egyptian mind
--and so, while the Egyptians were a highly polytheistic
people, the number of associations among their gods reduced
their deities to a relatively manageable number
b) Egyptian mythology frequently reflects political or economic
truths
--as we see in the Memphite myth of creation, when Memphis
became an important city, its god had to become important
--the mythology was forced to reflect a political truth
--this did not disturb the Egyptians because, of course, they
had not developed any notion of the separation of church
and state
--we must recall, too, that they believed that their political leaders, the pharaohs, were gods
--and we shall see repeatedly this semester that a changing
political or economic situation in ancient Egypt was often
OURSE, THEY
HAD NOT DEVELOPED ANY NOTION OF THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH
AND STATE
--WE MUST RECALL, TOO, THAT THEY BELIEVED THAT THEIR POLITICAL LEADERS, THE PHARAOHS, WERE GODS
--AND WE SHALL SEE REPEATEDLY THIS SEMESTER THAT A CHANGING
POLITICAL OR ECONOMIC SITUATION IN ANCIENT eGYPT WAS OFTEN
REFLECTED BY A CHANGE IN MYTHOLOGY
C) eGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY CONTAINED AN EARLY FORM THE LOGOS DOCTRINE:
THE BELIEF THAT, SOMEHOW, SPEECH HAS PRIMACY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS
--THE NAME OF THIS DOCTRINE IS TAKEN FROM THE OPENING OF THE
gOSPEL aCCORDING TO jOHN: "iN THE BEGINNING WAS THE wORD"
{= lOGOS IN THE ORIGINAL gREEK}
--WE RECALL THAT, IN THE MYTH, THE HEART {= "MIND"} AND
TONGUE WERE GIVEN PRECEDENCE OVER THE OTHER PARTS OF THE
BODY
--THUS THE VOCAL ORGANS WERE SEEN AN EXTENSION OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS WHICH ARISES IN THOUGHT
--NOW, THIS IS AN ASSUMPTION WHICH WE EXPECT TO FIND IN A

SOCIETY WHERE THE MYTHIC/LITERARY TRADITION WAS ORIGINALLY

ORAL, NOT WRITTEN
--AND THE MYTH ASSURES US THAT, SINCE WE ALL HAVE THESE
ORGANS, pTAH {AND HENCE hORUS AND tHOTH} IS IN ALL OF US
--THROUGH US, AND THROUGH OUR THOUGHT AND SPEECH, pTAH ORDERS
THE WORLD
D) THE CREATION IS PERFORMED BY A HYPOSTASIS IN THE pTAH MYTH
--A HYPOSTASIS IS AN INTERMEDIARY GOD
--HYPOSTASES OFTEN EXIST IN MYTHS WHERE THE SUPREME GOD
{HERE: pTAH} IS TOO LOFTY AND ELEVATED TO "DIRTY HIS HANDS"
BY DIRECT ACTION IN THE WORLD
--AND SO THIS DEITY ACTS THROUGH AN INTERMEDIARY, THE HYPOSTASIS {HERE: aTUM}
E) eGYPTIAN CREATION MYTHOLOGY HAS VERY LITTLE PLOT
--NOW, AS WE SAW IN THE FIRST LECTURE, EVERY MYTH HAS TO HAVE
SOME PLOT OR ELSE IT WOULD NOT BE A MYTH
--BUT A MYTH CAN BE HIGHLY PLOTTY OR RATHER SPARSE IN PLOT
--AND eGYPTIAN MYTHS ARE OFTEN AS SPARING IN PLOT AS THEY CAN
POSSIBLY BE
--FOR THE MYTH IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AN AMUSING STORY BUT AN
UNFOLDING OF SOME RELIGIOUS TRUTH
--IT IS NOT AN ENTERTAINMENT BUT A JUSTIFICATION
F) WE NOTICE A NUMBER OF CLOSE PARALLELS BETWEEN THESE eGYPTIAN
MYTHS AND THE oLD tESTAMENT
--FOR INSTANCE, BOTH DEITIES CREATE BY SPEAKING
--AND AT THE END OF THEIR LABORS, THEY ARE SATISFIED WITH
THEIR WORKS AND PRONOUNCE THEM "GOOD"
--THIS LEADS US TO A VERY IMPORTANT CONCEPT IN THE STUDY OF
COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY: THE NOTION OF THE STORY PATTERN
--A STORY PATTERN IS A BIT OF PLOT OR A PLOT ELEMENT WHICH IS
REPEATED IN MORE THAN ONE STORY
--JUST BECAUSE TWO STORIES SHARE THE SAME STORY PATTERN, IT
DOES NOT (NECESSARILY) MEAN THAT ONE STORY HAS BORROWED
THIS PLOT ELEMENT FROM THE OTHER: THE SIMILARITY MAY BE
DUE TO COINCIDENCE OR IT MAY BE CAUSED BY OTHER FACTORS
--FOR EXAMPLE, IN BOTH THE STORIES OF "sLEEPING bEAUTY" AND
"sNOW wHITE," WE HAVE THE FOLLOWING STORY PATTERN: A GOOD
AND VIRTUOUS GIRL FALLS INTO A DEEP SLEEP WHICH IS SAID TO
BE SIMILAR TO DEATH
--WE MIGHT REFER TO THIS AS THE "MOTIF OF THE SLEEP WHICH IS
LIKE DEATH"
--NOW WE NEED NOT ASSUME THAT "sNOW wHITE" HAS BORROWED THIS
PATTERN FROM "sLEEPING bEAUTY" OR VICE VERSA: IT IS JUST
THAT THEY HAPPEN TO SHARE THE SAME STORY PATTERN
--THIS IS A VERY COMMON OCCURRENCE IN MYTHOLOGY
--FOR, AS WE SHALL SEE OVER THE COURSE OF THIS SEMESTER, THE
MYTHOLOGIES OF MOST PEOPLES ARE ASSEMBLIES OR COLLAGES OF A
FINITE NUMBER OF STORY PATTERNS, REPEATED OVER AND OVER
--IN ORDER TO APPRECIATE ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY, THEN, WE HAVE TO
LEARN WHAT THESE STORY PATTERNS ARE AND HOW TO ISOLATE THEM
--NOW, SOMETIMES, IN DOING THIS, STUDENTS HAVE DIFFICULTY
TELLING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PARTICULAR STORY {"sNOW
wHITE," "sLEEPING bEAUTY" AND SO ON} FROM A STORY PATTERN
{"THE SLEEP WHICH IS LIKE DEATH" AND SO ON}
--BUT HERE IS AN EASY WAY TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE > A STORY IS
SPECIFIC: IT HAS NAMES {"sNOW wHITE," "sLEEPING bEAUTY"}
--A STORY PATTERN IS GENERAL AND REPEATED: IT HAS NO NAMES
{"A GOOD AND VIRTUOUS GIRL"}
7) iN ANY CASE, THE mEMPHITE CREATION MYTH IS A CREATION-OUT-OF-NOTHING

MYTH WHERE THE CREATION OCCURS THROUGH SPEECH, JUST AS IT DOES IN

THE jUDEO-cHRISTIAN ACCOUNT OF CREATION.
--ON THE OTHER HAND, THAT FIRST eGYPTIAN MYTH, LIKE MOST mESOPOTAMIAN CREATION MYTHS, WAS A SEPARATION MYTH
--COMPARE THE EPISODE IN gENESIS 1.7 WHERE gOD DIVIDES THE LIGHT
FROM THE DARKNESS AND SEPARATES THE WATERS ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT FROM THE WATERS BELOW
--THIS, TOO, IS A SEPARATION ACCOUNT
8) iN MOST SEPARATION MYTHS, THERE IS SOME "AGENT" WHO PERFORMS THE
SEPARATION.
--FOR INSTANCE, IN THE jUDEO-cHRISTIAN ACCOUNT OF CREATION, gOD
SEPARATES THE LIGHT FROM THE DARKNESS AND THE WATERS ABOVE THE
FIRMAMENT FROM THElf, Nammu produced the first solid object ever seen
in the world: Anki [= the "heaven-earth"], the whole universe,
conceived of as a mountain, the base of which was the earth and
the summit of which was the heaven
d) the waters of the sea surrounded Anki on all sides
e) now the summit of Anki, An [or "Anu" or "Anum": the sky] was
masculine
f) and the base of Anki, Ki [the earth] was feminine
g) so, united as they were, An and Ki begat a new deity, Enlil,
the god of air
--Enlil's name means something like "Lord Atmosphere"
--"En" = "lord" [this is an actual Sumerian political title:
see Seton Lloyd, The Archaeology of Mesopotamia (London
1978) 88]
--"Lil" = the moving air which stood between heaven and the
earth
--many times, in modern works on mythology, Enlil is characterized as a "storm god" or "god of the hurricane"
--he certainly had those functions but, in general, Enlil was
a far more positive than a negative figure
--in addition to this, Enlil was the chief deity of the city
of Nippur
--also, in a number of legends, Enlil is seen as presiding
over the assemblies of the gods
h) Enlil then separated An from Ki for all time
i) he also mated with Ki himself and produced all kinds of living
creatures
j) on the earth that existed at this time, there was a land known
as Dilmun: Dilmun is the Sumerian version of the Garden of Eden
k) life in Dilmun is perfect
--there is no illness and no old age
--the lion does not kill
--the wolf does not carry off the lamb
--the savage wild dog is unknown
--it is a pastoral paradise
--[oddly enough, the Sumerians did know of a real land which
they called Dilmun, modern Bahrain, which must have seemed
to them an incredibly rich and perfect place]
l) the only thing which Dilmun lacked was a supply of fresh water
m) even this became supplied to Dilmun, however, at the request of
Ninhursag: her name means "Lady Mountain" and Geoffrey Kirk
refers to her as the "goddess of the primeval stone-heap"
[K 59]
--Nin
=
"lady"
--Hursag =
"mountain"
n) Ninhursag made this request of a water deity named Enki: his
name means "Lord Earth"

--En (as we have seen) = "lord"

--Ki (as we have seen) = "earth"
--the water is thus seen by the Sumerians as the lord of the
earth
--Enki is said to have brought civilization to mankind
--he taught human beings about medicine and writing
o) Enki granted Ninhursag this request and the two of them became
lovers
p) Enki was very fertile because, in Sumerian myth, water is often
viewed as the equivalent of semen
--in Sumerian society, priests and priestesses would re-enact
this sacred union in a ritual act of sex
--this was what is known as sympathetic magic: trying to produce a desired result by symbolically enacting that result
[cf. sticking pins in voodoo dolls]
--the Sumerian priests were thus trying to restore the fertility to the land
q) as a result of their relationship, Enki and Ninhursag produced
a daughter who became the goddess of plants [Ninsar or Ninmu]
r) but Enki had a roving eye: he had an affair with his own
daughter
s) this resulted in the birth of another goddess [Ninkurra]
t) and Enki had an affair with her as well, producing yet another
vegetation goddess, Uttu
u) Ninhursag, however, warned Uttu about Enki and told her that,
if he should try to seduce her, she should demand a present of
cucumbers, apples and grapes
v) indeed, Enki did try to seduce Uttu and Uttu demanded these
presents from Enki
w) when Enki had brought them and slept with Uttu, eight plants
were created
x) Enki quickly gobbled up these plants, not even giving Ninhursag
the chance to name them
y) as a result of this, Ninhursag placed a curse on Enki and Enki
was stricken with illness in eight different parts of his body
NOTE: Ereshkigal's curses of Ishtar which affect her in different parts
of her body: we shall see these later
z) the fox, however, tricked Ninhursag into returning and she
cured Enki
aa) Ninhursag did this by creating eight new gods and goddesses
--notice that, with herself, these eight new gods and goddesses form an ennead, a very common grouping in Near
Eastern mythology and religion
--each of the eight gods and goddesses healed a different
part of Enki's body
--and there was some verbal connection or pun between the
name of the deity and the part of the body which it healed
--for instance, one deity healed Enki's rib: in Sumerian, the
word ti means both rib and life
--some scholars have felt that this may be why, in the Old
Testament, Eve was created out of Adam's rib: there may
have been some residual Near Eastern association between
the "rib" of a creature and its "life"
--on the other hand, the Cheyenne Indians also believed that
the all-spirit known as Maheo created the first woman from
the left rib of the first man [see A. Marriott and C.K.
Rachlin, American Indian Mythology (New York 1968) 42]
bb) Ninhursag further effected this cure by placing Enki inside of
herself [Kirk cites this as a primary mythic example of "displacement" or "dislocation": the dream-like suspension of

everyday logic and cause-and-effect in a story; see K 90]

cc) Enki was thus healed
dd) Ninhursag had the power both to harm Enki and to help him
--this is a common folklore pattern in Near Eastern mythology
--in many Near Eastern tales, women both love and destroy
--this is a theme which we shall see again in the next story
ee) moreover, the troubles between Ninhursag and Enki made it
clear that a discordant note had been struck in the universe
and that "paradise" had begun to be lost
--compare this loss of paradise to the expulsion from Eden in
Genesis
--indeed, most ancient peoples believed that the world was
steadily getting worse, not better
--as we shall see when we discuss the Greek myth of the
"Golden Age of Mankind," the notion of progress really did
not arise until the Middle Ages, if not the nineteenth
century
10) Another Sumerian Story: The Descent of Ishtar to the Nether World
a) Inanna [or Ishtar] went to visit her sister Ereshkigal, goddess
of the underworld, apparently to steal Ereshkigal's throne
though no reason for the journey is expressly stated in the
myth
--Inanna or Ishtar was the earth mother goddess, the goddess
of fertility in Mesopotamian society
--the two figures are identical
--Inanna is merely her Sumerian name
--Ishtar is her Akkadian or Semitic name
b) as she was on her way, however, Inanna/Ishtar met the gatekeeper of Ereshkigal who refused to let her in
c) so Inanna/Ishtar threatened to burst open the gates of the
underworld and thus to free all of the dead, causing the dead
to outnumber the living
d) the doorkeeper thus went to check with Ereshkigal, to see what
he should do
e) Ereshkigal was terrified by the doorkeeper's report, but she
managed to tell him that Inanna/Ishtar should be let in, but
only if she agreed to act according to the "ancient rules":
this meant that Inanna/Ishtar had to remove one amulet or item
of clothing at each gate of the underworld
NOTE: the notion that one must leave behind the traces of one's life in
order to enter the world of death, and clothing is a sign of
one's identity in the land of the living
f) Inanna/Ishtar obeyed this injunction: there were seven gates
leading to the nether world and she removed something at each
gate: her crown, her pendants, the chains which she wore about
her neck, her ornaments, her girdle of birthstones, the clasps
around her hands and feet, and finally her breechcloth
g) so when Inanna/Ishtar arrived in the underworld, she was naked
h) but her clothing and amulets were the sources of her power:
without these she was powerless in the underworld
i) Ereshkigal thus attacked the naked Inanna/Ishtar and released
different curses against each part of her body @cf. the eight
plants which Ninhursag used against Enki\
j) Inanna/Ishtar was injured by these curses and could not leave
the underworld
k) in the Sumerian @though not in the Babylonian\ version of the
story, the "eyes of death" were turned upon Inanna: she was
reduced to being a corpse and hung upon a stake
l) but since Inanna/Ishtar was the earth mother, her absence was

felt on earth: without her power, the crops died and everything
was made barren
m) after three days, the loss of Inanna/Ishtar was so serious that
Ea [= Enki, the god of the waters] decided to send a messenger
to free the goddess from the nether world
n) and so, Ea created a handsome eunuch [Asushunamir] who would so
charm Ereshkigal that Inanna/Ishtar would be freed
o) Ea further decreed that the eunuch would be able to pass
through the seven gates of the underworld without hindrance
p) and so the eunuch proceeded to the underworld where he began to
charm Ereshkigal
q) having done this, he then asked if he might be allowed to
"drink" from the "life-water bag"
r) at this, of course, Ereshkigal knew what the eunuch was
planning and bitterly cursed the eunuch
s) but, despite her anger, Ereshkigal instructed her vizier to set
the Anunnaki [the seven judges of the underworld] upon their
thrones of gold and to retrieve the water from the life-water bag
t) the vizier thus took water from the life-water bag and
sprinkled it on the corpse of Inanna/Ishtar, reviving the goddess
u) Inanna/Ishtar was allowed to leave the underworld and at each
gate her clothing and amulets were returned
v) but Ereshkigal claimed a ransom: if she were not paid for the
release of Inanna/Ishtar, the goddess would have to be returned
w) apparently what Ereshkigal was seeking here was someone to
substitute for Inanna/Ishtar: it is traditional in Mesopotamian
myth that, when someone is released from the nether world, a
replacement must be provided
x) in the Sumerian version of this myth, a number of deities were
carried off one after another by demons to serve as this
substitute
y) but these deities humbled themselves before Inanna and so were
each in turn rescued by the goddess
z) finally, the demons carried off Inanna's own brother and consort, Dumuzi [his Sumerian name] or Tammuz [his Akkadian or
Semitic name]
aa) Dumuzi/Tammuz did not humble himself as the others had done
and so Inanna allowed him to remain her replacement in the
underworld
bb) the Sumerian version of the story ends at this point
cc) the Semitic or Babylonian version [which you have in your
textbook] ends merely with a discussion of Tammuz which does
not seem to follow logically from the text as we possess it
dd) Roux [pages 93-94; see "Bibliography"] thus suggests that, in
the original form of the story "Dumuzi was never revived at
all": in other words, that the story ended with Dumuzi trapped
in the underworld
ee) but other fragments of songs, known as the "Tammuz liturgies"
have also been found and, in these, Ishtar seems to lament
Tammuz's absence, goes down to the underworld to retrieve him,
and brings him back to earth with great rejoicing
ff) the Tammuz liturgies seem to have been sung as part of a
seasonal ritual
--the whole story, therefore, may have originally been a
cultic myth: it was sung to celebrate and explain the
passing of the seasons
--when Inanna/Ishtar [or later: Dumuzi/Tammuz] is with us,
things grow
--when the deity is trapped in the nether world, things are

brown and barren

--but we also notice that, once again, much of this change is
caused by the female figure in the story: woman is shown to
have the power to make things flourish and also to destroy
them
--the cycle of woman (her capacity for love and nurture, her
fertility) is thus related to the cycle of the year: an
early association between human life [which the society
feels that it can observe and understand] and nature [which
is mysterious to the society and which it wants to understand]
--and, as for Ninhursag and Enki, the union of Inanna/Ishtar
and Dumuzi/Tammuz was re-enacted by Mesopotamian priests
and priestesses in an act of sympathetic magic
11) The Akkadian Myth of Creation: The Enuma Elish
--this story is known as Enuma Elish or Enuma Elis ["When on high
. . . "], from the first words of the story in the surviving
Akkadian version: "When on high the heaven had not been named,
and the solid ground below had not yet received its name . . . "
--this form of the myth was recited twice on the fourth day of the
Babylonian festival ushering in the new year
--the myth is a combination creation myth and heroic epic
--in the surviving Akkadian version of the myth, the hero of the
story is Marduk; in Assyrian versions of this myth, however, the
Assyrian god Ashur is substituted for Marduk
--and it seems likely that an even earlier Sumerian version of the
myth existed in which Enlil played the central role
--the Enuma Elish is thus a useful example of a story which has
remained (relatively) unchanged, even though succeeding populations have each inserted their own deities
--this phenomenon is rather common in the study of mythology
--in the modern period, the text of the Enuma Elish was discovered, on seven tablets, and published only in 1876
a) Tiamat was the feminine goddess of waters of the sea: salt
water
b) Apsu [or "Abzu"] was the god of sweet, fresh water
c) at first, Tiamat and Apsu were the only things which existed in
the universe
d) but they had an affair which began to produce a race of gods
e) the new gods proved to be too noisy, however, and Apsu planned
to destroy them
f) but Tiamat was more moderate and wanted to let the new gods
live
g) Apsu, however, was insistent and continued with his plan to
kill them
h) so Ea [recall from the last myth: another name for the water
deity Enki], who was one of the new gods, lulled Apsu to sleep
and killed him
i) Tiamat's other children reproached her for allowing Apsu to be
killed: they roused her until she decided to go to war against
the new gods
j) to aid her in her destruction, Tiamat assumed the form of a
dragon before venturing into battle
k) Tiamat also chose Kingu, her eldest child, to be her general:
he would lead the army of monsters which intended to destroy
the new gods
l) but Ea learned of this plan

m) the new gods thus held a council and planned a strategy of

their own
n) they elected Marduk, the son of Ea, to be their general
o) Marduk was beautiful and wise: he had four ears and four eyes
to see and hear better than the others
p) the new gods declared Marduk to be supreme among them
q) a piece of cloth was placed before Marduk: the new gods told
him that, if he willed it, the cloth would vanish and, if he so
ordered, the cloth would return
r) Marduk spoke and the cloth vanished; he spoke again and the
cloth returned
s) the gods cried out "Marduk is king!" and gave him the vestments
of office
t) Marduk was also equipped with an entire panoply of impressive
weapons: a bow and arrow, a mace, the lightning, a flame which
fills his entire body, a net, the four winds and the hurricane
NOTE: the arming scene of a hero
u) Marduk rode off in his war chariot to do battle
v) he challenged Tiamat to single combat and accused her of
granting rank to Kingu which properly belonged to Anu [= An]
--in Semitic mythology [that is to say, Babylonian or
Assyrian mythology], Anu tends to play an even more important role than An had done in Sumerian mythology
--he is the supreme god, but also a sky god
--he reigns uppermost in heaven
--Anu rules an army of stars which he uses to destroy evildoers
--he was often viewed as the father and ruler of the other
deities
--but, for the most part, An or Anu was remote and concerned
himself with the great matters of the universe
w) Marduk then cast his net about Tiamat
x) as Tiamat stretched open her mouth to consume Marduk, he threw
into her mouth the hurricane [= the Evil Wind]
y) he struck her with an arrow and split her heart
z) Marduk then bound Kingu as well
aa) he took from Kingu the Tablets of Fate and fastened them on
his own breast, declaring himself to be supreme among the gods
bb) then Marduk crushed Tiamat's skull and split her in half:
--he made her top half the heavens: guards were assigned to
keep the "waters" from escaping [cf. once again the "waters
above the firmament" in Genesis]
--he made her bottom half the earth: in this he established
Esharra, the abode of the great gods [cf. Mount Olympus in
Greek mythology and Asgard in Norse mythology]
--Anu, Enlil and Ea were all given places in Esharra
--thus the universe was created by a most literal sort of
"separation" of Tiamat
--it is interesting to notice that Marduk's battle with
Tiamat is similar to the dragon combat of later heroes
cc) Marduk had thus imposed order upon the chaos of the world
dd) he gave the remaining gods added privileges
ee) and Marduk told Ea of his plan to create a "savage" who would
act as servant to the gods: this race of savages is to be
mankind
ff) Ea advised that this new creature be made from the blood of
Kingu
gg) and so, Marduk split Kingu open and created the first human
being, who was known as Lullu
hh) mankind is thus "divine" in part (because our ancestor, Lullu,

was made from the blood of a god) and evil in part (because
that god had been the rebellious deity Kingu)
ii) mankind was assigned the task of labor to free the gods from
the need to work
--"The purpose in creating man was that he might serve the
gods. The underlying idea is clear enough: there is no use
being a god unless you have men to worship you. Mankind was
created to make life agreeable for the pantheon; to perform
work, to provide food and drink and to practice religion
for the benefit of the gods." Cyrus H. Gordon, The Ancient
Near East (New York 1965) 44.
--here again we see how a myth about the creation of mankind
is useful in determining the view of human life in that
society
jj) Marduk was then given a lofty temple in Babylon [= a ziggurat]
kk) his status as supreme deity was confirmed as his "fifty names"
or titles were recited
12) The overall importance of the Enuma Elish has, perhaps, been best
summarized by Georges Roux: "To [the Akkadians'] deeply religious
minds it offered a non-rational but nevertheless acceptable
'explanation' of the universe. Among other things, it described
how the world had assumed its alleged shape; it made good the fact
that men must be the servants of the gods; it accounted for the
natural wickedness of humanity, created from the blood of the evil
Kingu; it also justified the exorbitant powers of Marduk (originally
Enlil) by his heroic exploit. But, above all, it had . . . a powerful
magical virtue. If every year for nearly two millenia Enuma Elish was
recited by the priests of Babylon on the fourth day of the New Year
Festival it was because the Babylonians felt that the great cosmic
struggle had never really ended and that the forces of Chaos were
always ready to challenge the established Order of the gods." [Roux,
pages 100-101, see "Bibliography"]
13) A different type of "creation" myth, and hence a slightly different
look at the human condition, can be seen in the Babylonian myth of
the Worm and the Toothache.
--early in the history of the universe, according to this story,
the worm went before Ea and Shamash [= a sun god about whom we
shall here next time] and complained that he had nothing to eat
--the worm was offered the fig and the apricot, but he refused: he
wanted to dwell in mankind's gums and suck the blood of our teeth
--this request was granted and is, supposedly, the origin of
toothache
--the myth is informative about the Babylonian attempt to explain
things in the universe and how they were created
--for the Babylonians believed in a world which was filled with
evil spirits and creatures trying to harm mankind
--those spirits and creatures were thought to be the cause of most
illnesses
--and so this myth, "cultic" in a way, was recited during the
extraction of teeth as an apotropaic charm against the "worm"
which caused the misery
--compare also this incantation, intended to exorcize evil:
"Wicked Alu, turn thy breast and depart!
O dweller in the ruins, return thee to thy ruins.
For the Great Lord, Ea, has sent me:
He has made his incantation fitting for my mouth.
He has given into my hand the cauldron for the Seven
according to the Holy Ordinances."

THE AFTERWORD

The following description of sympathetic magic, written by Joseph

Campbell, may
make the notion easier to understand: "[Sir James] Frazer's explanation of
[sympathetic] magic was that because things are associated in the mind they
are believed to be associated in fact. Shake a rattle that sounds like
falling rain, and rain will presently fall. Celebrate a ritual of sexual
intercourse, and the fertility of nature will be furthered. An image in the
likeness of an enemy, and given the enemy's name, can be worked upon,
stuck with pins, etc., and the enemy will die. Or a piece of his clothing,
lock of hair, fingernail paring, or other element once in contact with his
person can be treated with a like result. Frazer's first law of [sympathetic]
magic, then, is that 'like produces like,' an effect resembles its cause;
and his second, that 'things which once were in contact with each other
continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact
has been severed.'" [Joseph Campbell, Myths To Live By (New York 1972) 13]
1) The most important Egyptian ennead or paut, the one which was
recognized by every Egyptian temple, was: Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut,
Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.
2) Examine what Kirk says about the nature and goal of mythic
"displacement" or "dislocation" [K 90-91]. Be able to cite a number of
examples of displacement or dislocation from Near Eastern myths of
creation. Why do you believe that this phenomenon was so prevalent in
these myths? What value, according to Kirk, did dislocation or
displacement have for a society?
3) How was the underworld [= the "nether world"] described in the myth
of Inanna's or Ishtar's descent to Erishkigal's kingdom? [See P 80-81]
4) Be able to account for the importance of the Enuma Elish in
Akkadian and Babylonian society on a number of different levels.
5) Some scientists currently account for the origin of the universe
with the "Big Bang Theory." If you are not certain what this theory
entails, check in an encyclopedia or scientic handbook. Then: what sort
of "creation myth" would the "Big Bang Theory" be? A separation myth? A
creation out of nothing myth? Some combination of the two?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S.H. Hooke, Middle Eastern Mythology (Harmondsworth 1963)
Veronica Ions, Egyptian Mythology (New York 1968, 1982)
Samuel N. Kramer, Sumerian Mythology (New York 1961)
Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq, second edition (Harmondsworth 1980)