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To any confused students:
With my co-professor's recent retirement, there may be some slightly confusing references to other instructors in the lessons (Professor Morgan). I am slowly beginning the process to ensure that this confusion is mitigated, but it will take some time. All lessons will eventually indicate the correct professor, and credits to the original author will be indicated at the bottom of the lesson itself. Slight modifications will be made in order to make this happen, as some descriptions, personal details, or reasoning will no longer make sense as it pertains to me, but these changes will be minimal and cosmetic.
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Lesson 6) Sumerian Mythology: Major Myths and Magic
Professor Morgan ushers the students into the classroom, seemingly impatient to get started.
Welcome back, students! I hope you have recovered from your midterms and that you found them challenging, but not impossible.
Today is both our second and our last class discussing Sumerian Mythology and we have lots to cover! Let’s begin by examining the Sumerian Pantheon, then we shall discuss major Sumerian myths and the impact that the Sumerians had on magical development.
As is quite common throughout ancient history, the Sumerian Pantheon is directly related to their creation myth. Nammu is the head of the pantheon and is depicted as “the Primeval Sea”. You may have noted in early Mythology lessons that this concept of a primeval sea or chaos seems is quite common for the top of a pantheon. While at first this may seem like a curious coincidence, I assure you it is not. If you think back to what life was like during this time, much of the focus of daily activities was securing the basic necessities of life, namely food, shelter, and water. Water especially was seen as the giver of life. Without it, your plants would fail, and both you and your livestock would die. Given how crucial water was - and still is - to life, it is unsurprising that these ancient civilizations believed that some sort of water was from where their deities emerged.
Let’s look at that chart again. Nammu’s offspring, An and Ki, form the first tier of the ruling gods. The Pantheon itself is often referred to as the Annuna - that is, the “offspring of An.”
You may have noticed a difference between this pantheon and others you have studied. The pantheon includes gods and goddesses that represent the earth, sky, and elements as we have seen before, however there are also gods and goddesses that represent the the physical aspects of the human world - grain, vegetation, and reeds.We can infer from the inclusion of these gods and goddesses the extreme value that the Sumerians placed on their way of life - agriculture being the one advantage they had over all other civilizations at the time.
Major Myths
Those of you familiar with Greco-Roman mythology know that there are seemingly countless myths and legends in that culture. We can assume the same for the Sumerians; however most of these stories have been lost to time as stories passed verbally became less popular and forgotten, and very little of Sumerian writing has survived.
Those that are not lost focus on the creation of the world - such as the creation myth we looked at last class - as well as a great flood. If you took Year Three Ancient Studies, you may remember mention of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is the first recorded myth in the known world . It was the Sumerians who originally created this epic. Whether it was considered a myth or a fictional story by the Sumerians, we are not entirely certain.
The Reason for Man and the Great Flood
One of the most interesting of the surviving Sumerian myths is the creation of mankind, as it is rather different from other civilizations’ stories of origin. In the Sumerian myth, the gods were required to till the soil of the newly created Earth and found the chore rather tedious. Fed up with the work, they created man in order to do the work for them.
An unfortunate consequence (at least in the eyes of the gods) of man’s creation was his ability to multiply rapidly. So quickly did the human race grow that it frightened the gods. This fear lead to our second myth - the great flood.
The gods, bullied mostly by the god Enlil who was finding it difficult to sleep with all the ruckus, devised several different plots by which to end humanity. There were famines and drought, but none of them worked. Finally, it was decided that a great flood would wash out humanity.
The god Enki decided that he was not willing to see all of humanity perish. While standing on the opposite side of a wall from a human, he announced the plan and how the human could survive it, thereby fulfilling a promise not to tell anyone directly about what was going to happen. That human - Ziusudra - heeded the advice of Enki and built a great ship to protect his family and the livestock from the flood.
After the floodwaters receded, the gods lamented their decision and chastised Enlil for his folly. Ziusudra was granted immortality for his perseverance and the gods implemented a few changes - namely barren women and a few other “birth control” features - to help limit the population growth.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The flood story is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The most complete and well known version of this myth is from Babylonian times; however some parts of the epic have survived in Sumerian. In the Sumerian version, Gilgamesh was known as Bilgamesh, and his friend Enkidu was also his servant, a relationship missing from the Babylonian version.
The myth, however, remained the same in its essence. Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third man, was powerful and brutal to his people and boasted to the gods of his might. The gods grew quite tired of his behaviour and sent someone to destroy him - a primitive man named Enkidu. Enkidu and Gilgamesh fought a great battle and somewhere in the midst of the fight became friends.
The two friends went on great journeys and defeated some fairly formidable foes, including the “ogre” Humbaba (Huwawa in Sumerian) whose description more accurately describes a Nundu as opposed to an ogre, and Gugalanna - the Bull of Heaven. Their triumphs were short-lived, however, as the gods were not impressed. They decided that one of the two heroes must die and Enkidu perished after an illness.
Gilgamesh was heartbroken over the loss of his friend and also became terrified by death. He spent a great amount of time after Enkidu’s loss trying to find a way to become immortal.
Through his journeys, Gilgamesh managed to find Ziusudra and begged him for the secret to immortality. Ziusudra told him that if he could stay awake for 6 days and 7 nights, he would become immortal. Of course, Gilgamesh could not complete that task and believed that all hope was lost. After a few more chances at regaining his youth - all of which failed - Gilgamesh returned home and looked at the great empire he had built. He then realized that his legacy was the only piece of him that was immortal and that life cannot be precious if it does not ultimately end in death.
Mythological impact on Magical Development
You can tell a lot about a culture based on its belief systems and stories. Our beliefs form how we think about our world and, in turn, have an impact on what and how we go about our lives.
In Sumerian times, we know that agriculture was a huge focus. The Sumerians were the first civilization to implement a form of irrigation to keep their crops watered. They are also one of the only civilizations we have studied so far where one of the major gods of the pantheon is the god of agriculture. This focus had a direct impact on the types of magic that were used and experimented during the time. For example, much of the charms work focussed on helping plants grow and keeping pests away from the crops.
It is this type of inference that is important to watch for as you progress in your studies. Much of what magianthropologists do is look for relationships between a people’s culture and practices, and knowledge of their mythology and stories can greatly increase the understanding of their way of life.
And that is all for today! Next class we will have a whirlwind tour of Babylonian mythology and see how similar it is to its Sumerian relative. Today you will have a quiz and, as you are still recovering from midterms, an optional extra credit assignment.
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Sources:
Cotterell, Arthur & Storm, Rachel. 1999. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. Hermes House Anness Publishing Ltd. New York.
Grimal, Pierre. Ed. 1989. Larousse World Mythology. Gallery Books, New York.
http://history-world.org/sumeria.htm
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/sumerianmyth.htm
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