Mesopotamian Mythology Study Guide

Covers the Sumerian/Akkadian/Babylonian mythological tradition (~3500-539 BCE) as the world's oldest surviving literary corpus, preserved on fired clay tablets. Centers the Enuma Elish creation epic (Tiamat, Marduk), the Epic of Gilgamesh (friendship with Enkidu, the flood narrative in Tablet XI, Utnapishtim, and Siduri's counsel as the tradition's answer to mortality), the major pantheon (Anu/Enlil/Enki, Inanna/Ishtar, Shamash/Nanna/Nergal), and the Descent of Inanna as the oldest death-and-resurrection narrative in world literature. Extensive documented parallels to the Hebrew Bible (flood, creation, wisdom literature) are treated as established literary influence, not speculative.