Cultural/religious like mythCreation Myth 2Similar to the Works and Days (5 Races of man)Explaining why humans toil and man made a mistake in the past and we have to live up to it; things used to be better than they are nowMore manualAuthor is J (he does things differently; older text)He calls God by his name Yahweh; Name that is later called in tabooYahweh is concrete, walks around the earth and makes things out of clay with his hands, he talks to people directly and asks them things. Similar to Homers view of the gods.Order of Creations (different) and ALL created in ONE dayMen, beasts, vegetation and woman is created at the very endMan is created from the dirt and clay of the earth “from dust you shall form and from dust you shall return” it’s an etymologyWhen woman is created, she is made from a part of the man (his rib) because they are of one fleshSnake and trees and if you eat the fruit it will give you knowledge (both good and evil)People told to not eat the fruit and if you do you will dieThe serpent (subtle) he is sneaky/clever/cunning and tells them that it is not true; they could communicate with each otherThe woman eats it and shares it with man; they didn’t realize that they were naked until they ate the fruit and started to care. By eating the fruit they become different than the animals. The Garden of Eden was denied to them (everything provided for free nothing to work for was taken from them) A land of innocenceWhen the man and the woman eat the fruit, they no longer have this innocence because they realize what they don’t have and they are shameful for being naked. They are denied access to the Garden of Eden and now have to work for a living. If they didn’t, where would humanity be?Similar to Enkidu (in the Epic of Gilgamesh) he was a part of the savage animals drinking from the same water and then after having sexual relations with the harlot then he was officially a human and part of societyExplains why serpents (evil) it lost its legs and has to crawl on their belly and eat dirt as a form of punishment. (consequence for getting the man and the woman to eat the fruit) Also, explains why humans and snakes don’t get a long.Flood Myth from Genesis: (reversed)NoahClear connections to the one in the Epic of GilgameshBirds at the end (3 birds sent out for people to get out)They both told ONE person that builds a boat that knows that the flood is coming and puts people and things on the boatNoah’s boat is made out of wood planks and the other is made out of reedsThere is only one god doing both; same God destroying and saving humanityMesopotamian: 1 god wants to destroy them with a flood and the other wants to save itThe very beginning, there is a reference to things that show up in the Book of EnochAround 240 BCSetting out to answer why the flood happened; Tie both the flood and Book of Enoch togetherThey decide that the angels and going to mate with the attractive human woman and create giant children and goes out of control.Nepholin that are created are great (powerful) these are the Giants; children of angels and mortals (super-human and demi-gods) not necessarily nice creaturesThey are violent giants that eat up all of the food and then start eating people (cannibal giants)The angels also teach the arts of heaven to mankind; given the forbidden knowledge of sciences etc. This corrupts mankind and start warring on each other.The flood resolves the problemThe loyal arc-angels go to the most-high and say that there is a problem with the human race; his solution is the flood but there are various stages:Ezazel was second in command after Samyasa but gets the most blamed for what happened and he was mostly in trouble because he taught them 1. Swords & knives (weapons) and 2. How to make cosmetics (vain)Ezazel’s punishment to but thrown into the earth (Raphael does this)Forces the Giants to kill each otherThrow the other angels that caused it to throw under the earth to imprison them; basically sending them to hell and similar to imprisonment of the TitansThen, one of them tells Noah to make the arcAngels that become rebellious and get punished (wasn’t put in the bible or in Hebrew) Neither tradition kept this book and also shows up in BeowulfEXAM 2 STUDY GUIDE ANCIENT MYTH2/11/13 Mesopotamia: The Epic of Creation:It opens with a theogony, the descent of the gods, set in a time frame prior to creation of the heavens and earth. At that time, the ocean waters, called Tiamat, and her husband, the freshwater Apsu, mingled, with the result that several gods emerged in pairs. Like boisterous children, the gods produced so much noise that Apsu decided to do away with them. Tiamat, more indulgent than her spouse, urged patience, but Apsu, stirred to action by his vizier, was unmoved. The gods, stunned by the prospect of death, called on the resourceful god Ea to save them. Ea recited a spell that made Apsu sleep. He then killed Apsu and captured Mummu, his vizier. Ea and his wife Damkina then gave birth to the hero Marduk, the tallest and mightiest of the gods. Marduk, given control of the four winds by the sky god Anu, is told to let the winds whirl. Picking up dust, the winds create storms that upset and confound Tiamat. Other gods suddenly appear and complain that they, too, cannot sleep because of the hurricane winds. They urge Tiamat to do battle against Marduk so that they can rest. Tiamat agrees and decides to confront Marduk. She prepares for battle by having the mother goddess create eleven monsters. Tiamat places the monsters in charge of her new spouse, Qingu, who she elevates to rule over all the gods. When Ea hears of the preparations for battle, he seeks advice from his father, Anshar, king of the junior gods. Anshar urges Ea and afterward his brother Anu to appease the goddess with incantations. Both return frightened and demoralized by their failure. The young warrior god Marduk then volunteers his strength in return for a promise that, if victorious, he will become king of the gods. The gods agree, a battle ensues, and Marduk vanquishes Tiamat and Qingu, her host. Marduk then uses Tiamat's carcass for the purpose of creation. He splits her in half, "like a dried fish," and places one part on high to become the heavens, the other half to be the earth. As sky is now a watery mass, Marduk stretches her skin to the heavens to prevent the waters from escaping, a motif that explains why there is so little rainfall in southern Iraq. With the
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