Ancient Mythology East and West Exam 1 Study Guide Review Questions 1 Compare the beginning of creation in Babylonian Israelite Greek and Roman accounts What is the first element of the cosmos in these accounts What is its significance What are the different processes that are used to bring about the creation of the world How are these accounts similar in terms of their descriptions of the processes of creation How are they different Babylonian Creation Babylonian version of creation was told of in Enuma Elish In the beginning there was water The Mesopotamians believed this because they are surrounded by rivers the Tigris and Euphrates These waters were Apsu the bi natural god of fresh water and Tiamat the bi natural goddess of salt water or the seas Apsu and Tiamat let their waters mingle have sex and produce gods Many of these gods make up the physical features of the world For example Anu is the uppermost part of the tripartite sky half of Tiamat is the lower part of the sky and her other half is the Earth In Enuma Elish humans are created last to perform the work of the gods Isrealite Creation The Israelite version of creation was told of in Genesis In Genesis there were pre existing waters then God brings light to the world Genesis contains 2 seperate creation myths In the first God Yahweh creates the universe first followed by the earth then humans In the second creation myth God creates the earth first followed by the humans then the heavens The first story is meant to focus more on the heavens while the second is meant to focus more on the Earth These 2 opposing stories exist because there was more than one author of Genesis In both accounts Yahweh is responsible for creating the universe the Earth and all living things The role of humans in Genesis is to hold power and dominion over the world Greek Creation The Greek version of creation was told of in Hesiod s Theogony In Theogony creation begins with a primal god named Chaos who is a bi natural god and a huge empty space Chaos does not mean disorder like it does in English but means nothingness After Chaos comes goddess Gaia who is the Earth Tartaros who is an underworld prison and Eros who is sexual desire These 4 primal gods reproduce to create children which form the physical elements of the universe This aspect of Greek creation is similar to Mesopotamian creation physical elements such as the sky the seas and the Earth are bi natural gods and goddesses The creation of humans is not mentioned in Theogony Roman Creation The Roman version of creation was told of in Ovid s Metamorphoses In Metamorphoses the first metamorphosis that occurred was the creation of the universe In the beginning there is chaos but NOT the same as Hesiod s chaos Ovid s definition of chaos is closer to the human definition Everything in the universe is present but shapeless and disordered Then an unnamed creator god gives order to the universe The creator god first organizes the elements into physical spaces then organizes animals Humans are the last aspect to be created their creation seems to be an afterthought and Ovid does not find it important to settle on one method of human creation 2 How are succession myths related to creation myths Why might these two kinds of myth be linked Compare and contrast the battles between the gods or god like forces in Babylonian Israelite and Greek accounts Babylonian succession In Enuma Elish Marduk succeeds Apsu Tiamat and becomes king of the gods This succession is related to creation because the dead bodies of the slain gods are used to form the physical elements of the universe After Marduk kills Tiamat he uses her body to form the lower part of the sky and the Earth From Tiamat s eyes the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow and her breasts become mountains Apsu s dead body is used to form a fresh water reservoir To defeat Tiamat Marduk shoots the 4 winds down Tiamat s throat she fills like a balloon and Marduk shoots an arrow and pops her Isrealite succession There is no succession in Irealite stories because Yahweh is the one and only God Yahweh must battle the sea but in the story of God vs the sea the sea is not a god The sea is a more of a dragon like or serpentine creature This sea creature is commonly referred to as Leviathan Greek succession Hesiod s Theogony tells a succession myth in which the king of the gods is always overthrown by his son Ouranos is the first king of the gods but is castrated and succeeded by his son Kronos Kronos is eventually thrown into Tartaros an underground prison by his son Zeus who succeeds him There are many threats to Zeus s rule but Zeus overcomes them all and remains the Greek king of the gods One of the battles Zeus must fight is against Typhois a 100 headed fire breathing dragon This battle is the commonly seen pattern of a storm god vs a dragon like monster Analagous to Marduk vs Tiamat Baal vs Yam and Yahweh vs Leviathan 3 Compare the creation of humans in Babylonian and Israelite accounts From what substance are humans created For what purpose are they created How important is the creation of humans to the authors of these stories Babylonian creation of humans In Enuma Elish humans are created from the blood of Qingu Qingu was the leader of Tiamat s army of monsters and was defeated and killed by Marduk Qingu s blood was chosen to create humans because he incited the war and led the army of monsters and the gods wanted to convict penalize Qingu Marduk chooses to create humans to complete the work of gods Humans do not hold importance only exist to give the gods more leisure Isrealite creation of humans In the Isrealite book of Genesis Yahweh creates humans to hold dominion over the Earth Compared to Babylonian ideas of human creation human race has much more significance in creation of Genesis Yahweh is portrayed as an anthropomorphic god he has many human like qualities Yahweh speaks to create things walks through the Garden of Eden and creates men out of clay using his hands To the Isrealites God has a much closer relationship to humans than humans do with the Mesopotamian polytheistic gods It is unique that the Isrealite God Yahweh speaks one on one with humans 4 What are the similarities and differences between the following pairs of gods Tiamat and Yam Yahweh and Baal Yahweh and Marduk Ea and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden Anat and Gaia Anu and Ouranos Tessub and Zeus and Ellil and Jupiter Tiamat and Yam Tiamat is the Mesopotamian bi natural
View Full Document
Unlocking...