fandomhigh | World Mythology, Wednesday, Period Three

"Today, we start at the very beginning," Ghanima announced crisply. "Or as close to the beginning as such a young planet can get. Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian mythologies from parts of the fertile crescent, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq."

"The Sumerians practiced a polytheistic religion, with anthropomorphic gods or goddesses representing forces or presences in the world, in much the same way as later Greek mythology. According to said mythology, the gods originally created humans as servant and freed them when they became too much to handle. Many stories in Sumerian religion appear similar to stories in other Middle-Eastern religions. Gods and Goddesses from Sumer have similar representations in the religions of the Akkadians, Canaanites, and others."

"Today we look at one of the first primordial goddesses of this world: Tiamat. Tiamat is considered the embodiment of primordial chaos. Although there are no early precedents for it, some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon. In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, she gives birth to the first generation of deities; she later makes war upon them and is killed by the storm-god Marduk. The heavens and the earth are formed from her divided body."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

At the beginning of the world!

Mabel Pines

Garik Loran

Kathy Li

Hanna Heller

Blue Sargent

Take notes, pass notes, etc...

So, Kathy had only ever heard of Tiamat in fantasy RPG settings, so she was taking furious notes as Lady Ghanima lectured.

"Though Tiamat is often described by modern authors as a sea serpent or dragon, no ancient texts exist in which there is a clear association with those kinds of creatures. The Enûma Elish specifically states that Tiamat did give birth to dragons and serpents, but they are included among a larger and more general list of monsters including scorpion men and merpeople, none of which imply that any of the children resemble the mother or are even limited to aquatic creatures. Within the Enûma Elish her physical description includes a tail, a thigh, "lower parts" which shake together, a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and lips. She has a heart, arteries, and blood."

"Tiamat was the "shining" personification of salt water who roared and smote in the chaos of original creation. She and Apsu filled the cosmic abyss with the primeval waters. She is "Ummu-Hubur who formed all things". In the myth recorded on cuneiform tablets, the deity Enki -- later Ea -- believed correctly that Apsu, upset with the chaos they created, was planning to murder the younger deities; and so slew him. This angered Tiamat, whereupon she fashioned monsters to battle the deities in order to avenge Apsu's death. These were her own offspring: giant sea serpents, storm demons, fish-men, scorpion-men and many others. As often happens, she was overcome by a younger god -- Marduk, son of Ea. Slicing Tiamat in half, he made from her ribs the vault of heaven and earth. Her weeping eyes became the source of the Tigris and the Euphrates. With the approval of the elder deities, he took from Kingu the Tablets of Destiny, installing himself as the head of the Babylonian pantheon. Kingu, Tiamat's new, second husband, was captured and later was slain: his red blood mixed with the red clay of the Earth would make the body of humankind, created to act as the servant of the younger Igigi deities."

"I'd like you to make up your own creation stories today, and then share them with a friend. Either a story you are familiar with from your own homeworld, or how you, personally, think the world came into being. Or, if neither of those suit your fancy, why do you think Tiamat is so often portrayed as a dragon? What sort of connotations do dragons have in your culture? Are they creatures of chaos, creation, or both?"

Mabel's creation story involved a tiny leprechaun (she had no aversions to leprechauns just yet, though gnomes were completely out of the question these days) named Fimbly McFlannelpants, a jolly little fellow who was so small that instead of collecting gold, he carried a cauldron of glitter with him wherever he went.

Then one day he sneezed, and the glitter flew into the sky, making stars, and the cauldron, now emptied of its glittery treasure trove, became the ground underfoot when Fimbly threw it downward in frustration and understandable woe.

And then Dipper traveled through time and hit the cauldron with a grow ray and that's why the Earth is big but the stars still look really, really small. Thanks, Dipper.

Only some of this tale actually had any basis in reality. She'd leave it up to individual interpretation as to which bit was which.

She's around, before and after class!

*napz*

World Mythology, Wednesday, Period Three

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