 | | | | | | View All Published Releases  Subscribe Un-Subscribe | | Date: 10-29-2006 | | Mesopotamian Mythology | | The geographical area that made up the Near Eastern region of Mesopotamia was “the land between the rivers” Tigris and Euphrates. From this fertile breeding ground, a successive series of remarkably sophisticated societies emerged, each inheriting and preserving elements of the sacred belief of its predecessor, while introducing its own local deities into the general Mesopotamian pantheon. | | | | It was the independent city-states of Sumeria that, between around 3000 and 250 bc, first began to unite into a coherent political unit, and to standardize their multitude of sacred beliefs. And, although each city retained its personal deity, to whom homage was paid in the pyramidal ziggurats (which symbolized the cosmic mountain— the body of the Goddess) that dominated it, seven deities gradually attained positions of supremacy throughout the whole of Sumeria. | | THE BEGINNING | | According to the Sumerian mythology, the cosmos was created from the primeval waters—that is, from the body of the Goddess Nammu. It was she who gave birth to the cosmic mountain,An-Ki, which in turn created Enlil, the air god, who forcibly separated his entwined parents, thus producing two divine entities: An— the masculine air god—and Ki—the feminine earth goddess. | | | | Other myths tell that the god who assumed Nammu’s original power over the water was Enki; and that the goddess Ninhursag assumed Ki’s role as the mother of the deities and the goddess whose realm was the earth. Three additional deities ruled over the heavens: Nanna, the moon god (the son of Enlil), Utu, the sun god (son of Enlil’s consort Ningal), and Inanna, goddess of the Morning and Evening Star (the planet Venus). Rulership of the underworld, Irkalla, was once the sole responsibility of the goddess Erishkigal, but myths relate that when Erishkigal, who was unable to leave her gloomy province to partake of the deities’ heavenly feast, sent her messenger, Namtar, to bring back her share, the terrible solar deity, Nergal, insulted him, thus causing Erishkigal to challenge him to combat. Nergal overcame the goddess, and the two finally united to rule the underworld together. Despite the fact that she was the goddess of death, Erishkigal was also regarded as having a benevolent aspect, for it was she who released the mineral wealth of the earth in order to enrich humans. | | BABYLON | | When King Hammurabi (1762–50 bc) conquered Sumeria, he united the various city-states into a new empire: Babylonia. Despite their victory, the Babylonians largely retained the Sumerian pantheon, albeit giving the old deities new names. Thus the Sumerian goddess Inanna became Ishtar, and her lover, Dumuzi, Tammuz. An important new addition to the Mesopotamian divine family was the supreme god Marduk, the Babylonian national deity, whose ascendancy is related in the Enuma Elish. According to this epic, the gods were created by the union of fresh water— personified as the masculine Apsu—and salt water—the feminine Tiamat. | | | | Internecine conflict followed, and the god of the waters, Ea (the Sumerian Enki) murdered his father Apsu, thus enraging his mother, Tiamat, who created a host of monstrous serpents to help her avenge her consort’s death. Marduk, however, defeated and dismembered her, creating the sky and world from parts of her body, and using the blood of her serpent son, Kingu, to create humanity. This myth is one of the first instances of a male god defeating his mother to assume a creator role for himself. Tiamat, like her Sumerian counterpart, Nammu, may be symbolized as a dragon, while her epic battle with Marduk inspired many subsequent heroic tales, including that of St. George and the dragon. | | ASSYRIA | | Following Sargon I of Agade’s conquest of Babylonia, the golden age of Babylon gave way in turn to Assyrian rulership. The warlike Assyrians preserved the Sumerian/Babylonian pantheon, although Marduk was displaced in favor of the Assyrian national deity, Ashur. As befitted a people which had risen to prominence through warfare, Ishtar, often depicted standing on the back of a fierce lion as she led the Assyrians to victory, was especially venerated. | | | | Within Assyrian society, women were highly honored, for the right to kingship passed though the matriarchal line: thus the daughter of Sargon, Enheduanna, was exalted as the chief priestess, or “moon-minister to the Most High.” It is through the vivid imagery of Enheduanna’s poetry that we learn that Ishtar was revered as “a dragon, destroying by fire and flood…filling rivers with blood.” Indeed, such was her importance that ishtar became a generic noun meaning “goddess.” | | About the author: | | Clare Gibson is the author of numerous books on history, dreams and astrology. This article is part of an extract from her book: The Symbols of the Goddess.
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