World Mythology, Tuesday, 2nd Period.

[atreideslioness]

"Today, we start at the very beginning," Ghanima announced crisply, Trebor on her hip as he chewed on what looked like a toy dragon. "--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 the Greek mythology which came later." That was for you, Stewart. "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." Trebor brightened up and waived his dragon around excitedly, narrowly missing bopping his mother on her head. "Trebor, you are getting ahead of yourself, we are not there yet."

"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." She smiled wryly. "Hence Trebor's choice of prop for today. However, it is important to note that these associations first came to light during the late American 1960s, in a journal about oriental society, which then spread to the popular consciousness. Take that particular citation with a grain of salt, and read 'The Battle between Marduk and Tiamat' by Thorkild Jacobsen for yourself to decide."

"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."

Comments

Re: Discussion

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Sure, but was that really what was planned from the start? Because everything that came after sure sounds like he was pissed off about it. It sounds like he just got mad because he didn't have our unthinking obedience anymore, that we'd taken it upon ourselves to learn more than he'd intended. We kicked our way out of the cage he'd put us in with the apple and then he got so pissy about it, he threw us out of the house entirely. He doesn't get credit for the fact that we picked ourselves up and we took hold of our own destiny. He would have been happy to keep us as perpetual children in the garden. If anything, we owe our thanks to the serpent for letting us take the first steps to grow."

Anyway, Arden was feeling very normal about this and it wasn't at all being related to anything personal.