gods 'r' us (Part 6)
ANCIENT PERSIA - Zoroastrianism:
What was ancient Persia is now modern-day Iran. Coming from an Indo-European racial stock, Iranians are not Arabs and want everyone to know it. The Arabs want everyone to know it too.
The “Bundahishn” of the Middle Persian era tells of the creation of the world by the deity, Ahura Mazda, who it must be assumed is still receiving royalties from lending his name to the light bulb and Japanese automobile.
Having created the world, Mazda wasn't really a "hands on" kind of god - he relaxed while all of the action was carried on by entities of his creation.
A great mountain, Alburz, grew for eight hundred years until it touched the sky, after which, rain fell, forming the Vouruasha sea and two great rivers.
The first animal, a white bull, lived on the bank of the river Veh Rod (no relation to A-Rod), but an evil spirit, Angra Mainyu, killed it. It’s seed was carried to the moon and purified, creating many plants and animals.
Across the river lived the first Man, Gayomard, bright as the sun, but Angra Mainyu killed him as well. The sun purified his seed for forty years, which then sprouted a rhubarb plant, which grew into Mashya and Mashyang, the first Mortals.
Instead of killing them, Angra Mainyu deceived them into worshiping him. After fifty years, Mashya and Mashyang bore twins, but they ate them, owing to their original sin. After a very long time, another set of twins were born to them, somehow avoided consumption, and from those came all Humans, but especially Persians.
MESOPOTAMIA:
Now we’re closing in on the home stretch.
In a moment, we will examine Mesopotamian creation myths, focusing on the "Enuma Elish", written in the twelfth century BCE to celebrate the city of Babylon. The almost complete text is set out in cuniform on seven tablets, with about one hundred and fifty lines on each tablet, intended probably to be sung at festivals in honor of the gods and Babylon. It concerns the son of the most high god, who was sent by him to confront an evil. Triumphant, he returns to his father, whereupon he is made ruler of the universe, and called, “King of Kings, Lord of the Lords” as well as, “shepherd of Men.” Of him, it was said, “He is the light...light of the glory of his father....,” and “all people daily have their bread from him.” Sound familiar?
Interesting story - these tablets were found in the mid-nineteenth century in the ruins of the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, and George Smith first published the texts in 1876, as The Chaldean Genesis. Because of many parallels with the Genesis account, some historians concluded that Genesis was simply a rewriting of the Babylonian story. As a reaction, many who wanted to maintain the uniqueness of the Bible, argued that there were no real parallels between the accounts, or that the Genesis narratives were written first and the Babylonian myth borrowed from the biblical account. There is little doubt that the Sumerian versions predate the biblical account by several hundred years.
Consider also - as we shall see later - that Abraham, the Father of Judaism, came from Ur, in southern Iraq, and settled in Haran, also in Mesopotamia; both were “holy cities,” dedicated to the Mesopotamian god of the moon. An "apocryphal" (I'll explain later) book, The Book of Jubilies, relates that Abraham's father, Terah, made and sold clay idols for a living. Certainly Abraham would have grown up amid Mesopotamian culture and mythology.
But first, it is important to understand the background behind which the Enuma Elish was written. Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to the Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian mythologies (or religions, as they were known at the time) from the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Of these, the Sumerians were probably the oldest continuing civilization. Early Sumerian theology took the form of animism - all things possessing motion were also possessed of life, the rivers, the winds, as well as Man and beast, and each had one or more spirits who specialized in that particular phenomenon.
The Sumerians believed that the universe consisted of a flat disk, enclosed by a tin dome, and that the afterlife involved a descent into a gloomy netherworld to spend eternity in a wretched existence as a ghost.
Then the Sumerians came into contact with Semitic peoples. Now before I’m accused of anti-Semitism, let’s go to the handy-dandy American Heritage Dictionary for an impartial definition: “Pertaining to a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Arabic and Hebrew.” 'Nuff sed.
With the introduction of Semitic philosophies into Sumerian culture, animism gave way to anthropomorphic gods, no longer invisible spirits, but gods created in the image of Man. Hmmm - that'd make a great book title --
It was then that shrines began to be built in each city of Sumeria, as well as throughout Mesopotamia, and dedicated to a particular god, whom it was hoped, would protect and prosper that city. Initially, the shrines were basically an elevated yard surrounding a small building of wood and branches, where people came to offer tributes. The structures were later covered in mud, then bricks of burned material. As the villages and towns grew, so did the shrines, with the yard being surrounded by a brick wall, which even later, was turned into the shrine’s outer bulwark. As the towns grew into walled City-states, the shrines were torn down, the site flattened, and a larger temple complex, known as a ziggurat, which included a state granary, was built upon it. Gradually, the temples were raised toward the heavens, with elevated stair-towers, somewhat like the shape of a pyramid stretched upward, with each level being devoted to one of the known stars, or to the sun, or the moon, or to some gods, with the main part of the shrine on the roof, which was a flat surface on which ceremonies were conducted. The ziggurats were considered a place closer to the heavens - a gateway and shrine to the gods and a place for the ruler of the sky to rest his feet - one such was actually called that, "The Gateway to Heaven." As we look closer at the Enuma Elish, we will see that the god of the universe himself commanded that such a tower be built in Babylon, which many experts believe was most likely the biblical “tower of Bable” mentioned so prominently in Genesis.
A zigguraut
But near the end of the third millennium, rich slackers were allowed to make a payment in silver to the priests of the temple to avoid being conscripted for the work detail. Is it hard to see why priests want to preserve the priesthood?
Sumerian civilization as they knew it came to an abrupt end in 2002 B.C.E., at the hands of a Semitic peoples, the Elamites.
Then the Amorites, also a Semitic people, gained control over most of Mesopotamia, where they formed a series of small kingdoms. One of these Amorite dynasties was established in the City-state of Babylon.
An Akkadian Semite leader, Sargon (2334-2279 BCE), formed the first Babylonian empire from the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad uniting the cities of Mesopotamia through a series of conquests. He then conquered other cities and peoples that lay within a trade route that ran between the Euphrates river in Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean Sea, in order to open and secure that route for trade with the Mesopotamian cities. Further, he dug great canals to reroute water from the Euphrates to Mesopotamian agricultural areas. His long reign of fifty-five years, though born of bloodbaths throughout the area, nevertheless was one in which the cities of Mesopotamia, no longer drained by constant wars between the city-states, saw a great increase in art and innovation.
Sargon
Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use and retained the Sumerian language for religious use, which by that time, after surviving four thousand years, was no longer a spoken language. Now we know where the Catholics got the idea of adopting Latin - if parishioners can’t read it, they can’t question it.
Sumerian
Just to help you with your scorecard, although geographically, they lived next door to each other as the crow flies, Sumerians were a round-faced, clean-shaven people, whereas the Semitic Akkadians looked much like old Sargon (above) with a rather longish face and full, coiffed beard. Interestingly, Sumerian gods were usually depicted as looking much like the Akkadians. Go figure!
TABLET 1:
Apsu was the god of fresh water and male fertility. Tiamat, his wife, was goddess of the sea and of disorder and chaos in the world; she is also winter and barrenness. Tiamat bore Anshar and Kishar, gods who represented the boundary between the earth and the sky. To Anshar and Kishar was born Anu, god of the sky, who in turn bore Ea. These sons of the gods were so ill-behaved and caused so much commotion that Apsu decided to destroy them.
When Ea learned of Apsu’s plan, he killed him, and with his wife, Damkina, established their dwelling above his body. Damkina then gave birth to Marduk, the god of spring, symbolized both by the light of the sun and the lightening in storm and rain (it will be important to remember that Marduk was both a sun god and a storm god!), who ultimately became the patron of Babylon. Meanwhile, Tiamat was enraged at the murder of her husband, Apsu, and vowed revenge, creating eleven monsters to help her carry out her vengeance. She took a new husband (so much for a mourning period), Kingu (referred to as “the clumsy laborer”), and put him in charge of her newly-assembled army.
Did I mention that Marduk had four eyes, four ears, and when he spoke, he breathed fire? I wouldn't kid you, it’s in the book --
TABLET 2:
To avenge the murder of her husband, Apsu, Tiamat prepared to unleash upon the other gods the destructive forces she had assembled, which included vipers with venom for blood, mad dogs, scorpion-men, centaurs, dragons and lion-demons, all led by her new husband, Kingu. Ea heard of her plan and went to stop her, but he shrank back in fear. Then, Ea’s father, Anu, also went to try to calm Tiamat, but returned and confessed that he, also, had shrunk back in fear. The gods became afraid that no one would be able to stop Tiamat’s vengeful rampage. Finally, they sought out Ea’s son, Marduk, who agreed to go to stop Tiamat, but first a banquet was held to send him off in style.
TABLET 3:
This tablet merely relates how Anshar’s minister, Gaga (no relation to the Lady of the same name), invited the other gods to the great meeting hall for the banquet to honor Marduk for volunteering his services to stop Tiamat and her hordes. The gods entered, ate bread and drank wine, and became very, very relaxed.
TABLET 4:
The council of the gods tested Marduk’s powers by having him make a garment disappear, then reappear. After passing the test, the council enthroned Marduk as high king over the entire universe and commissioned him to fight Tiamat. With the authority and power of the council, Marduk assembled his weapons, the four winds, as well as the seven winds of destruction. He rode his chariot of clouds, with the weapons of the storm, to confront Tiamat.
After entangling Tiamat in a net, Marduk unleashed the evil wind to inflate her. When she was incapacitated by the wind, Marduk killed her with an arrow through her heart and took captive all of the other gods and monsters who were her allies, also capturing her husband, Kingu. After smashing Tiamat’s head with a club, Marduk “split her like a shellfish,” using half of her corpse to create the earth and the other half to create the sky. After creating a firmament to divide the sky from the earth, the tablet ends with Marduk creating dwelling places for his allies.
TABLET 5:
Marduk divided the year into twelve months, with specific constellations to mark each month. He caused the moon to shine and to wax and wane, to determine the days of the month. He used the spittle of Tiamat to form clouds and fill them with water, also creating the raising of the winds and the bringing of rain and cold. He then positioned Tiamat’s head, and on it, formed mountains, and “opening the deep, which was in flood,” he caused to flow from her eyes the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Having finished creating the heavens and the earth, he led all his captives back to the meeting place of the gods.
He informed the gods that he had hardened the earth in a particular location, and that there, he would cause to be built a great temple, in which he would live, and that the other gods were welcome to rest and spend the night there whenever they wished to visit earth. He said he would call it, Babylon, “house of the great gods.”
TABLET 6:
Marduk, now back in the meeting hall, told the other gods that he had a plan, he would take blood and create bone, and from this, “I will establish a savage, ‘Man’ shall be his name. Truly, savage-man I will create.” But he needed blood to make the bone from which to create “savage-Man,” and it was decided that one of the gods must die in order to furnish that blood. Remember Kingu, the “clumsy laborer”? Oh Kingu, could you step over here for a minute, please --?
Ea, the wise, Marduk’s father, actually created Mankind, using the donated blood of the recently departed Kingu.
Marduk then divided the gods, placing three hundred in the heavens and three hundred to dwell on earth. As a tribute to Marduk for all of his service, they set about constructing the temple Marduk wanted, and for an entire year, they molded bricks, then constructed the tower, “as high as Apsu,” who must have been very tall indeed.
By the end of the second year, the great tower of Babylon was finished (hmmm, that name sounds strangely familiar --). The gods then constructed a dais, a mighty throne which would be the earthly abode of Marduk, then created fifty seats for fifty gods. Upon the completion of their task, they held a housewarming banquet, whereupon they spent the remainder of the tablet extolling the praises of Marduk, bestowing upon him fifty titles of respect.
TABLET 7:
The epic ends in the meeting hall of the tower of Babylon, with a continuation of praise of Marduk as chief of Babylon and head of the Babylonian pantheon, because of his role in creation. The remainder of Marduk’s fifty throne names declaring his dominion were recited, with final blessings on Marduk and instructions to the people to remember and recite Marduk’s mighty deeds.
We’ve had a lot of fun in these chapters, reviewing various, but certainly not all-inclusive, creation myths of Mankind’s distant past - at least I know I have. We’ve examined a significant number of gods that primitive, uneducated Man has created for himself, in order to explain why things are as they are.
No matter how close we each may be to others in our lives, we are still very much alone. No one else can read our thoughts or really know our feelings, no matter how we may attempt to express them. We’re born alone, we live alone, and we die alone. Is there any wonder that we create gods who can read our thoughts and feelings? And care? A heavenly father or mother who can sense our needs and comfort us in the dark hours that each of us, at one time or another, must face?
There were many myths that I omitted, simply due to the limitations of space and what I surmise to be the average length of the Human attention span.
One, in particular, has shown up in various, very similar forms among Native American tribes, widely scattered geographically across the United States. It concerned a magic woman who, for various reasons, depending on the tribe, fell from heaven toward the swirling waters below - the earth not yet having been formed - when two birds - again, the kinds of birds depend on the discretion of the storyteller, swoop down and catch her on their entwined wings. But there’s no place to safely deposit her, so various aquatic animals dive deeply into the waters, and little by little, bring up mud and deposit it on the back of a turtle. They gradually bring up enough soil to form the entire earth, where the birds gently place her. To this day, the great globe of the earth still rests on the back of one single, very patient turtle.
Ridiculous? Of course it is. So are most, if not all of the myths in this chapter. But as I mentioned in the beginning, in their time, each of these stories was believed as strongly as any creation story you may hold dear to you today.
What I’m suggesting is that you view your own strongly-held creation story in the light of the ones you’ve read in this chapter. Seek out its true origins, rather than accepting it at face value, or on the word of someone who purports to have an inside track on truth. Is there a hidden motive in its telling, such as we’ve read above, one of attempting to unite the various peoples of Mesopotamia behind the city of Babylon by intimating that the god who created the entire earth, had chosen their particular city as his home at a time when its leaders needed unity in the region? Or as when Moses needed to unite the rag-tag horde he led out of Egypt, who in four hundred years as strangers in a strange land, had all but lost sight of their original, common heritage? Religions can unite a people by providing them with a commonality. With the right commandments, issued by a wrathful god, religion can be used to control a population as well.
Don’t be afraid to question your beliefs in the light of modern science, as those who originated these stories and those who passed them on, had not even a fraction of the scientific information easily available to you today.
Simply ask yourself this: will the creation story you hold today to be the absolute truth, be found in a similar book in a few hundred years, while readers of the future muse as to how anyone could possibly have been so naive?
pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx
Posted by archaeopteryx at 8/29/2010 2:32 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: religions Christianity Judaism Islam Zoroastrianism Persia modern-day Iran the Bundahishn Ahura Mazda Alburz the Vouruasha sea Veh Rod Angra Mainyu Gayomard Mashya Mashyang original sin Mesopotamia the Enuma Elish The Chaldean Genesis Genesis Abraham Ur The Book of Jubilies Terah Sumeria Akkadia Semite Semitic ziggurat tower of Bable the Elamites the Amorites Sargon Hammurabi Moses Anu Enil Ninurta Babylonia Tiamat Apsu Anshar Kishar Ea Damkina Marduk Kingu mad dogs scorpion-men centaurs dragons lion-demons Gaga atheism
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: religions Christianity Judaism Islam Zoroastrianism Persia modern-day Iran the Bundahishn Ahura Mazda Alburz the Vouruasha sea Veh Rod Angra Mainyu Gayomard Mashya Mashyang original sin Mesopotamia the Enuma Elish The Chaldean Genesis Genesis Abraham Ur The Book of Jubilies Terah Sumeria Akkadia Semite Semitic ziggurat tower of Bable the Elamites the Amorites Sargon Hammurabi Moses Anu Enil Ninurta Babylonia Tiamat Apsu Anshar Kishar Ea Damkina Marduk Kingu mad dogs scorpion-men centaurs dragons lion-demons Gaga atheism
I say the we let the jewish followers, the christians followers, and members from the other top five religions engage in a poker game, with the winner getting to have their faith be the new Earth's religion. I chose poker because you end up with this major conflict among players. Either show your poker face, or spend the entire time playing the hand while simultaneously praying to your god that you'll win.
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