The myths of the Ancient Near East differ according to region, historical period, and
political influence; however, they also share similarities which act together to demonstrate
peoples' desire to understand themselves and the creative forces behind their existence. When
analyzing these mythologies one must remember their historical order of occurrence, Sumerian,
Babylonian, and Christian, because latter societies were influenced by their predecessors. By
looking at the changing mythologies one can also better comprehend our own psychological
evolution.
Perhaps the most complex portion of any culture's mythology is their cosmology and two of the most interesting are those belonging to the Babylonians and Christians. The Babylonians had many gods who were the personifications of nature co-existing as family. The Bablylonians' location between the Tigris and Euphrates influenced their desire to bring order to chaos as the rivers unpredictably flooded the city and destroyed both crops and homes. A host of male and female deities initially personified chaos itself with Father Apsu and Mother Tiamat representing the abysmal waters of a creative mass. From these parents sprang the first gods and goddesses who eventually began to annoy their mother, Tiamat. In her desire to make her children behave she sought advice from her husband and son who instructed her to destroy them. However, one child, the wisest of them all, Ea, tricked the gods and killed his father, Apsu, and imprisoned his brother, Kingu. After saving his kin, Ea and his wife gave birth to Marduk who became the greatest of gods. Meanwhile, the god of the heavens, Anu, upset Tiamat with his powerful winds inciting her children to rally her in revolution and vengeance for her husband's death and son's bondage. Tiamat created a monstrous army to destroy her children and it was left to Marduk to bring order to chaos.
Marduk agreed to kill Tiamat on the conditions that his decrees would be everlasting: he would reign supreme over the universe; and he would take possession of the tablets of destiny. After facing Tiamat in hand-to-hand combat, Marduk destroyed her then cut Tiamat's body in half to create the heavens and earth; used her saliva to make the clouds; her head to make the mountains; and her eyes to make the Tigris and Euphrates. He then used Kingu's, the revolt instigator, blood and created bones to make "a savage called man" that would live to serve the gods so they could rest. Marduk then ordered the universe with Anu governing the heavens; Ea the earth; Enlil the air between heaven and earth; Sin the moon to mark the days; and Shamash the sun to give light to day. He instructed the people and the gods to never forget the Mother Goddess and was described as having a vast mind and broad sympathy. Next, Marduk declared Babylon as the earthbound city of the gods and goddesses where they could live, luxuriously served by humankind.
In contrast to Babylonian mythology Christianity held only one god as the supreme creator whose spirit ruled over the waters and brought order to a dark, empty, formless void. In seven days the Christian god created night and day; the sky from separated waters; land and vegetation from the sea; sun, moon, and the stars; sea and sky creatures; wild animals; and the gender roles of male and female. Although seemingly anthropomorphic in his creation of gender roles, the Christian god is definitely male and the creation mythology surrounding humankind reflects this patriarchal tendency. After ordering the universe, the Christian god breathed into dust creating the first man, Adam, in order to work and rule the land. God planted the garden of Eden for Adam and placed in its center the trees of life and consciousness. God warned Adam not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Consciousness or he would know evil and die. A river ran through Eden branching off into four sections: the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates which irrigated the land and allowed for lush, tropical conditions.
Next, God created a companion for Adam from his rib and called her "woman." God explained that this form of creation was the reason men married and left their parents to become joined to their mate as one person. Here, in this paradisal land Adam and Eve lived naked and unashamed wanting for nothing and no one. Eve came upon the universal serpent of wisdom who instructed her to eat the fruit of the Tree of Consciousness. She refused on the grounds that God said she would die an evil death. The serpent explained that "once you eat it you will become like him because you can distinguish good from evil" and this is why God wants to keep you from the fruit. Eve was convinced and she and Adam ate the fruit resulting in a shameful awareness of their nudity. Soon afterward, God came strolling through the garden and noticed the couple had covered themselves. Immediately, he became enraged and suffered punishment on them both. He told the couple that their sins caused the following: eternal distinction from wild animals; a relationship of hate between men and women and their offspring; intense pain and suffering for women during childbirth and a subordinate role to men who became their masters; toil and work for men who must cultivate the soil; and death to all humankind who would return to the earth from which they came. God then banished the couple from Eden for fear they might eat from the Tree of Life and become immortal.
Christian mythology is transparent in its confusion regarding its own God. Although he is to reign supreme, God seems to fear the ability of humans to discover his powers of immortality and consciousness. Furthermore, when Eve gives the gift of consciousness to she and Adam she suffers the wrath of a very angry, seemingly immature God. Perhaps this is because, like Babylonian mythology, ancient Christianity wanted to end the role of matriarchs and supplant them with a patriarchal ideology. Although both mythologies desired to bring order out of chaos they each went about it quite differently. The Babylonians had several Gods with human emotions including anger and compassion who worked together to make decisions with one man-god becoming supreme only after proving his worth. However, Old Testament Christianity has a singular god who decreed rules and belief systems without question or interference. Both mythologies are the result of religious and political influences needed to rebuild a society; however, Babylonians did not completely dismiss the role of women while Christianity worked to do so. Furthermore, both Babylonian and Christian mythology of the Old Testament stressed to humanity that death would simply be returning to the soil and that existence was meant for serving the gods. However, Babylonians encouraged humankind to make the most of life while Christians insisted that life should be work and toil.
The oppressive Christian mythology represented in "The Fall of Man" portion of their cosmology further plays itself out in the story of Cain and Abel, especially when compared to the Babylonian story of Dumuzi and Enkimdu. In these mythologies, agricultural and pastoral lifestyles come into conflict; however, only Christianity has murderous results due to their God's decree that all offspring of men and women would hate each other. In Babylonian mythology, Dumuzi was a shepherd god and Enkimdu a farmer, both of which wanted to win the love of Ishtar. Because Dumuzi was able to offer more goods to her, she chose him causing Enkimdu to become angry. The two men met and quarreled but Enkimdu submitted and even agreed to let Dumuzi's flocks pasture on his farmland. Although the Christian's Cain was a farmer like Enkimdu and Abel a shepherd like Dumuzi, their love was for God not a woman. When Abel offered livestock to God he was looked upon favorably while Cain was ignored. Cain became angry like Enkimdu but rather than facing Abel man-to-man he tricked him into his fields and murdered him in cold blood. When God confronted him, Cain replied, "I am not my brother's keeper," which is completely different than Enkimdu who thought that being brothers meant more than murder. The main difference between the mythologies is that Christianity forces man to rely on God to give him instructions about necessary life choices while Babylonian mythology seems to have instilled free will in man. This Christian dependence has been justified as God watching over and protecting humanity; however, it would seem that the Babylonian freedom produces healthier results.
The Sumerian, Babylonian, and Hittite understanding of the human psyche is further demonstrated in the myths relating to journeys into the underworld or otherworld. In the mythologies of Gilgamesh, Ishtar, and Telepinu the main protagonists must face their own subconscious in order to find inner-peace, the task of all humanity. Although Ishtar and Telepinu are gods while Gilgamesh is human, they must also deal with anger and themselves which speaks volumes regarding the importance these societies place on humanity's existence.
In the epic story of Gilgamesh there are two instances where he must journey into the otherworld in order to make peace withhimself. The first is when Gilgamesh decides to journey into the Cedar Forest with Enkidu to kill the evil giant Humbaba. This journey is Gilgamesh's way of conquering the fear of failure (Humbaba) resulting from inactivity within himself (forest). He tells Enkidu that "when we come face to face with Humbaba, if we are afraid we will conquer our fear...The man who is a coward is not at peace with himself and leaves nothing behind to give him a good name." By successfully killing his fear personified by the giant's death, Gilgamesh's faith in himself and his abilities is restored.
The second instance of Gilgamesh's underworld journey occurs when he undertakes the search for immortality as a result of Enkidu's untimely death. Again, Gilgamesh must face his fear of mortality and his uncertainty about his own worth. As he wanders the earth, Gilgamesh changes both mentally and physically until he actually becomes Enkidu and represents the unconscious incarnate. He undergoes several trials and tribulations, ultimately losing his royal identity and living off the land, killing wild beasts for food. Gilgamesh descends into the Tunnel of Mount Mashu, again, the unconscious itself, which is thirty-six miles of "darkness black as pitch" to successfully reach the light of Shamash who symbolizes awareness. Here he is told that he will not find the immortality he seeks but Gilgamesh is still not satisfied. In spite of the ferrier's dissatisfaction Gilgamesh crosses the Utanapishtim, Waters of Death, explaining that if he does not he will "continue to roam like a hunter over the grassy plain and the scorching desert" of his unsettled heart. Gilgamesh receives the plant of immortality only to lose it to a serpent, but his journey was not in vain. Returning home, he has resigned himself to humanity's mortality and proudly declares "No human being, not even a king, will ever to be able to construct more impressive walls than I have built around the city of Uruk!...Gaze upon one man's supreme achievement!"
The goddess Ishtar and the god Telepinu also undertake journeys into their psyches but their actions effect all of creation rather than just themselves. Both mythologies surrounding the gods deal with agricultural themes but Ishtar's myth also deals with the necessary female meeting of the shadow side. Ishtar descends voluntarily into her unconscious for reasons not completely known and, upon entrance, she must rid herself of her royal identity, as Gilgamesh did. When Ishtar questions her need to stand naked before herself, she hears, "Quiet Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect. They are not to be questioned." Here in the underworld she confronts her sister, who symbolizes her unconscious incarnate, and tries to destroy her only to become a corpse. Ishtar is revived by the Plant and Water of Life and told she can leave the underworld only by providing a substitute. She chooses her husband, Dummuzi, who spends half a year below and half a year above the earth. Because Dummuzi is the god of vegetation, his presence gives the myth further meaning in that his descent and resurrection personify the changing of the seasons. When he is in the underworld the vegetation dies, but when he comes back the land is restored.
Like Dumuzzi, Telepinu is also a god of vegetation whose absence causes the land to become barren and humanity to fear starvation. Telepinu, unlike Dumuzzi, becomes insanely angry for reasons he does not even know. In an attempt to dissolve his rage as well as his inability to understand it, he decides to go to sleep in a field. Because he does not properly deal with his anger, all the earth is made to suffer. The gods try desperately to locate him to no avail and finally a bee is sent who successfully finds and irritates the god into arousal. Upon awakening, the bee tells Telepinu to symbolically envision putting his anger into the seven bronze jars in the underworld where it will safely perish. Literally analyzed, the bee is telling Telepinu to put the anger into his unconscious away from his ego where it can become compassion and no longer hurt him or those in his presence. This myth describes the affect rage has on nature as well as humankind and the fact that one must come to terms with their emotions and face themselves in order to find peace.
Each of the mythologies dealing with the underworld are a way for humanity to understand the vital role of meeting the unconscious. In order to deal with the fact that life is suffering one must look behind the pain and joyfully participate in sorrow. When one denies suffering as Telepinu did the results are disastrous but if one casts away the illusion like Gilgamesh then they can reach the "wholely" land.
© Copyright Paula Vaughan
Not to be reprinted without permission.
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