PATIENT
Mesopotamian mythology
SPAN
c. 3500 BCE to the Persian conquest, c. 539 BCE
WRITTEN ON
Fired clay tablets, cuneiform
KNOWN FOR
The world's oldest literary tradition
CHIEF COMPLAINT
If the gods keep life for themselves and give humanity death, what should a person do with that?
HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS
The religious and literary traditions of the Tigris-Euphrates valley (modern Iraq), spanning roughly 3,000 years from Sumer through Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian cultures. It is the oldest literary tradition in the world. Writing itself (cuneiform, c. 3400 BCE) was invented here, and what humanity first wrote down was largely religious and mythological. The texts survived on clay tablets that were fired, the most durable information storage in human history. Tens of thousands of tablets have been recovered from ancient libraries, and many are still being translated. The tradition holds the oldest flood story, the oldest epic and the earliest account of a goddess's descent to the underworld.
REVIEW OF SYSTEMS
CREATION
The Babylonian Enuma Elish: Tiamat, Marduk and a world made from a body. The Sumerian narratives of Enki, Ninhursag and the garden of Dilmun.
GILGAMESH
The friendship with Enkidu, Enkidu's death, the search for life, and Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah. The guide calls it the library's most honest text on mortality.
THE GREAT GODS
Anu, Enlil and Enki divide the cosmos. Inanna/Ishtar is queen of heaven and earth; Shamash, Nanna and Nergal are sun, moon and lord of the dead.
INANNA'S DESCENT
She goes down through seven gates, loses an item of power at each, and is killed. Coming back from the dead requires a substitute.
THE BIBLE LINK
The most documented ancient literary influence in the library, especially on the flood narrative.
PHYSICAL EXAM — STYLE & STRUCTURE
- —The Sumerian King List is the tradition's origin narrative, with kings reigning for tens of thousands of years.
- —Gilgamesh weeps for Enkidu six days and seven nights, refuses to bury him, and then sees what death does.
- —Utnapishtim sets Gilgamesh two tests. He fails the first by falling asleep, and loses the plant of rejuvenation to a snake in the second.
- —Inanna chooses to give up Dumuzi, who sat on his throne in splendor and did not mourn her.
- —Enki makes two beings from the dirt under his fingernails to bring Inanna back.
ASSESSMENT & PLAN
Start with the Epic of Gilgamesh, then the Descent of Inanna. Read the Enuma Elish for the creation. It is a non-denominational reference guide. The full guide recommends Andrew George's Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics) as the scholarly standard, Stephanie Dalley's Myths from Mesopotamia for the full range, and N. K. Sandars's older translation for readability, and says to read alongside the Norse mythology and Hebrew Bible guides.