Sumerian creation myth. Mythology of ancient Mesopotamia The name of the sky god in the myths of the ancient Sumerians

At first, the entire world space was filled with the waters of the great ocean. It had neither beginning nor end. Nobody created it, it has always existed, and for many thousands of thousands of years there was nothing but it.

In the depths of this great ocean lurked the mighty goddess, the foremother of all things, Nammu. No one knows how much time passed before the moment when a giant mountain shaped like a hemisphere appeared in the womb of the goddess Nammu. The base of this mountain was made of soft clay, and the top was made of shiny flexible tin. At the top of this mountain lived the most ancient of the gods, the forefather An, and below on a flat disk floating in the primordial ocean lay the goddess Ki. They were inextricably linked to each other, and there was no one between them. Their mother was the ocean goddess Nammu, and they had no father.

From the marriage of Ana and Ki, a god was born Enlil. His aerial members shone with extraordinary brilliance, and from his every movement a stormy wind arose, shaking the top and base of the world mountain.

Following Enlil, the first married couple had more and more children. The seven elder gods and goddesses, the wisest and most powerful, began to rule the entire world and determine the fate of the universe. Everything that existed became subject to them, and they predetermined in advance what would happen in the future. Without their will, Enlil himself did not dare to control the elements and establish world order. He was the eldest of An and Ki's children, the most respected among his brothers and sisters, but he did not consider himself omnipotent. Before determining the paths of the future, he convened the seven wisest gods and goddesses for a council. Enlil appointed one of them, the swift and indomitable god of fire Nusku, whose body was filled with unquenchable flame, as his chief assistant, the divine vizier, and entrusted him with carrying out the deeds decided in the meeting of the seven oldest gods. Sometimes fifty great gods and goddesses participated in the meeting. They gave advice to the Supreme Seven, but could not decide the fate of the world.

The youngest in the family of gods were the Anunnaki, named after their father An. These spirits, generated by the god An and descended to earth, were subordinate to the fifty elder gods. They unquestioningly followed the orders of the great gods, but had no right to make decisions on their own. The family of gods grew more and more. Following the first generation, the second appeared. The gods and goddesses grew up, got married, had children, and it became increasingly difficult for them in the close embrace of the heavenly father An and the earth mother Ki. They were eager for space and asked for help from their elder brother Enlil, who was growing by leaps and bounds and becoming stronger and more indomitable. And so Enlil decided on a great deed. With a copper knife he cut the edges of the sky. The sky god An with a groan broke away from his wife, the earth goddess Ki. The Great World Mountain cracked open. The flat disk on which the earth goddess ran remained on the surface of the primeval ocean that washed its edges, and the roof of the world - a huge tin hemisphere - hung in the air, and only small pieces that broke off here and there from it fell to the ground, and people The most valuable fragments of celestial metal are still found in the mountains. (Tin and lead were called "annaku" by the Sumerians and Akkadians - from the word "an", sky.)

This is how the first married couple separated. Heavenly forefather and mother earth were forever separated from each other. Great An remained to live at the top of the tin vault and never went down to his wife. Enlil became the master on earth. He founded the city of Nippur in the very middle of the earth's disk and settled gods and goddesses there. The huge space that formed between the earth and the sky was provided to them. Rushing across the vast expanses of the universe, they sometimes rose upward to their father Anu, then returned to Nippur.

The land liberated by Enlil sighed. Here and there high mountains rose, and stormy streams flowed from their slopes. The irrigated soil produced grasses and trees. The family of gods grew and, under the leadership of Enlil, brought order to the vast expanses of the universe, and the god An silently looked down on his children and grandchildren.

Adad, Ishkur (“wind”), in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology, the god of thunder, storms and wind, the son of the sky god Anu. God personified both the destructive and fruitful forces of nature: floods destroying fields and fertile rain; he is also responsible for soil salinization; if the wind god took away the rain, drought and famine began. According to the myths about Adad, the flood did not begin due to a flood, but was the result of a rain storm, which is why one of the constant epithets of God is understandable - “lord of the dam of heaven.” The bull was associated with the image of the storm god as a symbol of fertility and indomitability at the same time. The emblem of Adad was the bident or trident of lightning. In Semitic mythology, he corresponds to Baal, in Hurrito-Urartian mythology - Teshub.

Anu

Ashur

Ashur, in Akkadian mythology, the central deity of the Assyrian pantheon, originally the patron saint of the city of Ashur. He is called the “lord of countries”, “father of the gods” and is considered the father of Anya; his wife is Ishtar of Ashur or Enlil. Ashur was revered as the arbiter of destinies, a military deity and a deity of wisdom. The emblem of God was the winged solar disk over the sacred tree of life, and on the monuments of the 2nd - 1st millennia BC. e. Ashur was depicted with a bow, half hidden by the winged disk of the sun, as if he was floating in its rays.

Marduk

Marduk, in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology, the central deity of the Babylonian pantheon, the main god of the city of Babylon, the son of Ey (Enki) and Domkina (Damgalnun). Written sources report on the wisdom of Marduk, his healing arts and spell power; God is called "judge of the gods", "lord of the gods" and even "father of the gods". Marduk's wife was considered Tsarpanitu, and his son Nabu, the god of scribal art, scribe of tables of destinies. Myths tell of the victory of Marduk over the army of Tiamat, who embodies world chaos. The god, armed with a bow, a club, a net and accompanied by the four heavenly winds and seven storms that he created to fight the eleven monsters of Tiamat, entered the battle. He drove an “evil wind” into Tiamat’s gaping mouth, and she was unable to close it. Marduk immediately finished off Tiamat with an arrow, dealt with her retinue and took away the tables of destinies that gave him world domination from the monster Kingu (Tiamat’s husband) he killed. Then Marduk began to create the world: he cut Tiamat's body into two parts; from the lower he made the earth, from the upper he made the sky. Moreover, God locked the sky with a bolt and placed a guard so that the water could not seep down to the ground. He determined the domains of the gods and the paths of the heavenly bodies; according to his plan, the gods created man and, in gratitude, built him “heavenly Babylon.” The symbols of Marduk were a hoe, a shovel, an ax and the dragon Mushkhush, and parts of the body of the god himself were compared with various animals and plants: “his main entrails are lions; his small entrails are dogs; his spine is cedar; his fingers are reeds; his skull - silver; the outpouring of his seed is gold."
The Babylonian creation story is a myth in honor of the Babylonian god Marduk. The Lord of Babylon, Marduk, by unanimous decision of the gods, became king in the world of the gods; he is the owner of the tables of fate, taken from the defeated dragon. The annual festival of Tsakmuk is dedicated to the creation of the world and the “judge of the gods” Marduk. The cosmogonic ideas underlying Sumerian-Akkadian mythology distinguish between the heavenly world of the god Anu, the aboveground world of Bel and the underground world belonging to Eya. Under the ground lies the kingdom of the dead. The main ideas of the Sumerian-Akkadian myths, which determine the position of the three worlds, were first set forth by Diodorus Siculus.

Syn

Sin, in Akkadian mythology, the god of the moon, the father of the sun god Shamash, the planet Venus (Inanna or Ishtar) and the fire god Nusku. He was conceived by the god of air Enlil, who took possession of the goddess of agriculture Ninlil, and was born in the underworld. Sin's wife is Ningal, the "great lady." Usually the god was depicted as an old man with a blue beard, who was called the “shining heavenly boat.” Every evening, sitting in a wonderful crescent-shaped boat, the god sailed across the sky. Some sources claim that the month is the instrument of God, and the moon is his crown. Sin is the enemy of malefactors, since his light revealed their vicious plans. One day, the evil utukku spirits started a conspiracy against Sin. With the help of Shamash, the goddess of love and fertility Ishtar and the thunder god Adad, they obscured his light. However, the great god Marduk went to war against the conspirators and returned Sin to his radiance. Sin, whose symbol was the crescent moon, was considered a sage and it was believed that the moon god measured time by waxing and waning. In addition, the tides of water in the swamps around the city of Ur, where his temple was located, provided abundant food for livestock.

Teshub

Teshub, god of thunder, revered throughout Asia Minor. The texts of Hittite mythology tell how the formidable Teshub defeated the father of the gods Kumarbi. Kumarbi gave birth to an avenger son, Ullikumme, designed to restore power to him; created from diorite and grown to enormous size on the back of the giant Upelluri, it was so large that, trying to examine it, Teshub climbed to the top of a high mountain, and when he saw the monster, he was horrified and called on the gods for help. However, this did not bring him success. Ullikumme reached the gates of Kummiya, Teshub's hometown, and forced the god to abdicate power. Teshub sought advice from the wise god Enki; after some thought, he pulled out from the ground an ancient saw with the help of which heaven and earth were separated, and cut the diorite at the base. As a result, Ullikumme quickly weakened, and the gods decided to attack him again. The end of the text is lost, but it is generally accepted that Teshub nevertheless regained his kingdom and throne. Teshub's wife, Hebat, occupied an equal position with her husband, and sometimes even surpassed him. Teshub's attributes are an ax and lightning. Sometimes he was depicted with a beard, armed with a club, trampling a sacred mountain.

Utu

Utu (“day”, “shining”, “light”), in Sumerian mythology the solar god, son of the moon god Nanna, brother of Inanna (Ishtar). On his daily journey through the sky, Utu-Shamash hid in the underworld in the evening, bringing light, drink and food to the dead at night, and in the morning he again emerged from behind the mountains, and the exit was opened for him by two guardian gods. Uta was also revered as a judge, the guardian of justice and truth. Most often, the god was depicted with rays behind his back and a sickle-shaped serrated knife in his hand.

Shamash

Shamash, in Akkadian mythology, the all-seeing god of the sun and justice. His radiance illuminated all atrocities, which allowed him to foresee the future. In the morning the guardian, a scorpion man, opened the gates of the huge Mount Mashu, and Shamash rose to the highest point of the sky; in the evening he drove his chariot to another high mountain and hid in its gates. At night, God passed through the depths of the earth to the first gate. Shamash's wife, Aya, gave birth to justice, Kittu, and law and righteousness, Mishara. In Sumerian mythology it corresponds to Utu.

Enki

Enki, Eya, Ea ("lord of the earth"), in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology one of the main deities; he is the master of the Abzu, the underground world ocean of fresh water, all earthly waters, as well as the god of wisdom and the lord of the divine powers of me. The ancients revered him as the creator of grain and livestock, the organizer of world order. One of the myths tells how Enki fertilized the earth and “determined the fate” of cities and countries. He created the plow, the hoe, the brick mold; Having created plants and animals, Enki gave them to the power of the “king of the mountains” Samukan, and made the shepherd Dumuzi master of the stalls and sheepfolds. God is also credited with the invention of gardening, vegetable gardening, flax growing and the collection of medicinal herbs.

Enlil

Enlil (“lord of the wind”), in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology one of the main deities, the son of the sky god Anu. His wife was considered Ninlil, whom he mastered by force, for which he was banished to the underworld. According to the myths that compared Enlil with a roaring wind and a wild bull, he was particularly vicious towards people: he sent pestilence, drought, salinization of the soil and, to top it all, a global flood, during which only Ut-Napishtim, who built ark on the advice of the gods. Enlil, who was often irritated by the noise and bustle of human life, in anger sent storms, storms, terrible disasters to the earth, even the flood.

Mythology of the ancient world, -M.: Belfax, 2002
Myths and legends of the Ancient East, -M.: Norint, 2002

From the first written sources (the earliest pictographic texts of the so-called Uruk III - Jemdet-Nasr period date back to the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium), the names (or symbols) of the gods Inanna, Enlil, etc. are known, and from the time of the so-called. n. the period of Abu-Salabiha (settlements near Nippur) and Fara (Shuruppak) 27-26 centuries. - theophoric names and the most ancient list of gods (the so-called “list A”).

The earliest actual mythological literary texts - hymns to the gods, lists of proverbs, presentation of some myths (for example, about Enlil) also go back to the Farah period and come from the excavations of Farah and Abu-Salabih. From the reign of the Lagash ruler Gudea (c. 22nd century BC), building inscriptions have come down that provide important material regarding cult and mythology (description of the renovation of the main temple of the city of Lagash Eninnu - the “temple of the fifty” for Ningirsu, the patron god of the city ). But the bulk of Sumerian texts of mythological content (literary, educational, actually mythological, etc., one way or another connected with myth) belong to the end. 3 - beginning 2nd thousand, to the so-called the Old Babylonian period - a time when the Sumerian language was already dying out, but the Babylonian tradition still preserved the system of teaching in it.

Thus, by the time writing appeared in Mesopotamia (late 4th millennium BC), a certain system of mythological ideas was recorded here. But each city-state retained its own deities and heroes, cycles of myths and its own priestly tradition. Until the end 3rd millennium BC e. there was no single systematized pantheon, although there were several common Sumerian deities: Enlil, “lord of the air,” “king of gods and men,” god of the city of Nippur, the center of the ancient Sumerian tribal union; Enki, lord of underground fresh waters and the world ocean (later the deity of wisdom), the main god of the city of Eredu, the ancient cultural center of Sumer; An, the god of keb, and Inanna, the goddess of war and carnal love, the deity of the city of Uruk, who rose to the top. 4 - beginning 3rd millennium BC e.; Naina, the moon god worshiped at Ur; the warrior god Ningirsu, worshiped in Lagash (this god was later identified with the Lagash Ninurta), etc.

The oldest list of gods from Fara (c. 26th century BC) identifies six supreme gods of the early Sumerian pantheon: Enlil, An, Inanna, Enki, Nanna and the solar god Utu. Ancient Sumerian deities, including astral gods, retained the function of a fertility deity, who was thought of as the patron god of a separate community. One of the most typical images is that of the mother goddess (in iconography she is sometimes associated with images of a woman holding a child in her arms), who was revered under different names: Damgalnuna, Ninhursag, Ninmah (Mah), Nintu. Mom, Mami. Akkadian versions of the image of the mother goddess - Beletili (“mistress of the gods”), the same Mami (who has the epithet “helping during childbirth” in Akkadian texts) and Aruru - the creator of people in Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian myths, and in the epic of Gilgamesh - “wild” man (symbol of the first man) Enkidu. It is possible that the patron goddesses of cities are also associated with the image of the mother goddess: for example, the Sumerian goddesses Bay and Gatumdug also bear the epithets “mother”, “mother of all cities”.

In the myths about the gods of fertility, a close connection between myth and cult can be traced. Cult songs from Ur (late 3rd millennium BC) speak of the love of the priestess “Lukur” (one of the significant priestly categories) for King Shu-Suen and emphasize the sacred and official nature of their union. Hymns to the deified kings of the 3rd dynasty of Ur and the 1st dynasty of Isin also show that a ritual of sacred marriage was annually performed between the king (at the same time the high priest “en”) and the high priestess, in which the king represented the incarnation of the shepherd god Dumuzi, and the priestess the goddess Inanna.

The content of the works (constituting a single cycle “Inanna-Dumuzi”) includes motives for the courtship and wedding of hero-gods, the descent of the goddess into the underworld (“the land of no return”) and her replacement by a hero, the death of the hero and crying for him, and the hero’s return to land. All the works of the cycle turn out to be the threshold of the drama-action, which formed the basis of the ritual and figuratively embodied the metaphor “life - death - life”. The numerous variants of the myth, as well as the images of departing (perishing) and returning deities (which in this case is Dumuzi), are connected, as in the case of the mother goddess, with the disunity of Sumerian communities and with the very metaphor “life - death - life” , constantly changing its appearance, but constant and unchanged in its renewal.

More specific is the idea of ​​replacement, which runs like a leitmotif through all the myths associated with the descent into the underworld. In the myth about Enlil and Ninlil, the role of the dying (departing) and resurrecting (returning) deity is played by the patron of the Nippur community, the lord of the air Enlil, who took possession of Ninlil by force, was expelled by the gods to the underworld for this, but managed to leave it, leaving instead himself, his wife and son "deputies". In form, the demand “for your head - for your head” looks like a legal trick, an attempt to circumvent the law, which is unshakable for anyone who has entered the “country of no return.” But it also contains the idea of ​​some kind of balance, the desire for harmony between the world of the living and the dead.

In the Akkadian text about the descent of Ishtar (corresponding to the Sumerian Inanna), as well as in the Akkadian epic about Erra, the god of plague, this idea is formulated more clearly: Ishtar at the gates of the “land of no return” threatens, if she is not allowed in, to “release the dead eating the living,” and then “the dead will multiply more than the living,” and the threat is effective. Myths related to the cult of fertility provide information about the Sumerians' ideas about the underworld. There is no clear idea about the location of the underground kingdom (Sumerian Kur, Kigal, Eden, Irigal, Arali, secondary name - Kur-nugi, “land of no return”; Akkadian parallels to these terms - Erzetu, Tseru). They not only go down there, but also “fall through”; The border of the underworld is the underground river through which the ferryman ferries. Those entering the underworld pass through the seven gates of the underworld, where they are greeted by the chief gatekeeper Neti. The fate of the dead underground is difficult. Their bread is bitter (sometimes it is sewage), their water is salty (slop can also serve as a drink). The underworld is dark, full of dust, its inhabitants, “like birds, dressed in the clothing of wings.” There is no idea of ​​a “field of souls”, just as there is no information about the court of the dead, where they would be judged by their behavior in life and by the rules of morality. The souls for whom funeral rites were performed and sacrifices were made, as well as those who fell in battle and those with many children are awarded a tolerable life (clean drinking water, peace). The judges of the underworld, the Anunnaki, who sit before Ereshkigal, the mistress of the underworld, pronounce only death sentences. The names of the dead are entered into her table by the female scribe of the underworld Geshtinanna (among the Akkadians - Beletseri). Among the ancestors - inhabitants of the underworld - are many legendary heroes and historical figures, for example Gilgamesh, the god Sumukan, the founder of the III dynasty of Ur Ur-Nammu. The unburied souls of the dead return to earth and bring misfortune; the buried are crossed across the “river that separates from people” and is the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The river is crossed by a boat with the ferryman of the underworld Ur-Shanabi or the demon Khumut-Tabal.

The actual cosmogonic Sumerian myths are unknown. The text "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld" says that certain events took place at the time "when the heavens were separated from the earth, when An took the sky for himself, and Enlil the earth, when Ereshkigal was given to Kur." The myth of the hoe and the ax says that Enlil separated the earth from the heavens, the myth of Lahar and. Ashnan, goddesses of livestock and grain, describes the still fused state of earth and heaven (“mountain of heaven and earth”), which, apparently, was in charge of An. The myth "Enki and Ninhursag" talks about the island of Tilmun as a primeval paradise.

Several myths have come down about the creation of people, but only one of them is completely independent - about Enki and Ninmah. Enki and Ninmah sculpt a man from the clay of the Abzu, the underground world ocean, and involve the goddess Nammu - “the mother who gave life to all gods” - in the creation process. The purpose of human creation is to work for the gods: to cultivate the land, graze cattle, collect fruits, and feed the gods with their victims. When a person is made, the gods determine his fate and arrange a feast for this occasion. At the feast, drunken Enki and Ninmah begin to sculpt people again, but they end up with monsters: a woman unable to give birth, a creature deprived of sex, etc.

In the myth about the goddesses of cattle and grain, the need to create man is explained by the fact that the Anunnaki gods who appeared before him do not know how to conduct any farming. The idea that people used to grow underground, like grass, comes up repeatedly. In the myth of the hoe, Enlil uses a hoe to make a hole in the ground and people come out. The same motive sounds in the introduction to the hymn of the city of Ered. Many myths are dedicated to the creation and birth of gods.

Cultural heroes are widely represented in Sumerian mythology. The creator-demiurges are mainly Enlil and Enki. According to various texts, the goddess Ninkasi is the founder of brewing, the goddess Uttu is the creator of weaving, Enlil is the creator of the wheel and grain; gardening is the invention of the gardener Shukalitudda. A certain archaic king Enmeduranka is declared to be the inventor of various forms of predicting the future, including predictions using the pouring out of oil. The inventor of the harp is a certain Ningal-Paprigal, the epic heroes Enmerkar and Gilgamesh are the creators of urban planning, and Enmerkar is also the creator of writing. The eschatological line is reflected in the myths of the flood and the wrath of Inanna. In Sumerian mythology, very few stories have been preserved about the struggle of gods with monsters, the destruction of elemental forces, etc. (only two such legends are known - about the struggle of the god Ninurta with the evil demon Asag and the struggle of the goddess Inanna with the monster Ebih). Such battles in most cases are the lot of a heroic person, a deified king, while most of the deeds of the gods are associated with their role as fertility deities (the most archaic moment) and bearers of culture (the most recent moment). The functional ambivalence of the image corresponds to the external characteristics of the characters: these omnipotent, omnipotent gods, creators of all life on earth, are evil, rude, cruel, their decisions are often explained by whims, drunkenness, promiscuity, their appearance can emphasize unattractive everyday features (dirt under the nails, Enki's dyed red, Ereshkigal's disheveled hair, etc.).

The degree of activity and passivity of each deity is also varied. Thus, Inanna, Enki, Ninhursag, Dumuzi, and some minor deities turn out to be the most alive. The most passive god is the “father of the gods” An. The images of Enki, Inaina and partly Enlil are comparable to the images of the demiurge gods, “carriers of culture”, whose characteristics emphasize elements of the comic, the gods of primitive cults living on earth, among people whose cult supplants the cult of the “supreme being”. But at the same time, no traces of “theomachy” - the struggle between old and new generations of gods - were found in Sumerian mythology. One canonical text of the Old Babylonian period begins with a listing of 50 pairs of gods who preceded Anu: their names are formed according to the scheme: “the lord (mistress) of so-and-so.” Among them, one of the oldest, according to some data, gods Enmesharra (“lord of all me”) is named. From an even later source (a New Assyrian spell of the 1st millennium BC) we learn that Enmesharra is “the one who gave the scepter and dominion to Anu and Enlil.” In Sumerian mythology, this is a chthonic deity, but there is no evidence that Enmesharra was forcibly cast into the underground kingdom.

Of the heroic tales, only the tales of the Uruk cycle have reached us. The heroes of the legends are three consecutive kings of Uruk: Enmerkar, the son of Meskingasher, the legendary founder of the First Dynasty of Uruk (27-26 centuries BC; according to legend, the dynasty originated from the sun god Utu, whose son Meskingasher was considered); Lugalbanda, fourth ruler of the dynasty, father (and possibly ancestral god) of Gilgamesh, the most popular hero of Sumerian and Akkadian literature. The common outer line for the works of the Uruk cycle is the theme of the connections of Uruk with the outside world and the motif of the journey (journey) of the heroes.

The theme of the hero's journey to a foreign country and the test of his moral and physical strength in combination with the motifs of magical gifts and a magical assistant not only shows the degree of mythologization of the work compiled as a heroic-historical monument, but also allows us to reveal the early motives associated with initiation rites. The connection of these motifs in the works, the sequence of a purely mythological level of presentation, brings Sumerian monuments closer to a fairy tale.

In the early lists of gods from Fara, the heroes Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh are assigned to the gods; in later texts they appear as gods of the underworld. Meanwhile, in the epic of the Uruk cycle, Gilgamesh, Lugalbanda, Enmerkar, although they have mytho-epic and fairy-tale features, act as real kings - the rulers of Uruk. Their names also appear in the so-called. “royal list” compiled during the period of the III dynasty of Ur (apparently ca. 2100 BC) (all dynasties mentioned in the list are divided into “antediluvian” and those who ruled “after the flood”, the kings, especially the antediluvian period, are attributed mythical number of years of reign: Meskingasher, the founder of the Uruk dynasty, “son of the sun god,” 325 years old, Enmerkar 420 years old, Gilgamesh, who is called the son of the demon Lilu, 128 years old). The epic and extra-epic tradition of Mesopotamia thus has a single general direction - the idea of ​​the historicity of the main mytho-epic heroes.

It can be assumed that Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh were posthumously deified as heroes. Things were different from the beginning of the Old Akkadian period. The first ruler who declared himself during his lifetime to be the “patron god of Akkad” was the Akkadian king of the 23rd century. BC e. Naram-Suen; During the III dynasty of Ur, cult veneration of the ruler reached its apogee. The development of the epic tradition from myths about cultural heroes, characteristic of many mythological systems, did not, as a rule, take place on Sumerian soil.

A characteristic actualization of ancient forms (in particular, the traditional motif of travel) often found in Sumerian mythological texts is the motif of a god’s journey to another, higher deity for a blessing (myths about Enki’s journey to Enlil after the construction of his city, about the journey of the moon god Naina to Nippur to Enlil, his divine father, for a blessing). The period of the III dynasty of Ur, the time from which most of the written mythological sources come, is the period of development of the ideology of royal power in the most complete form in Sumerian history.

Since myth remained the dominant and most “organized” area of ​​social consciousness, the leading form of thinking, it was through myth that the corresponding ideas were affirmed. Therefore, it is no coincidence that most of the texts belong to one group - the Nippur canon, compiled by the priests of the III dynasty of Ur, and the main centers most often mentioned in myths: Eredu, Uruk, Ur, gravitated towards Nippur as the traditional place of general Sumerian cult. “Pseudomyth”, a myth-concept (and not a traditional composition) is also a myth that explains the appearance of the Semitic tribes of the Amorites in Mesopotamia and gives the etiology of their assimilation in society - the myth of the god Martu (the very name of the god is a deification of the Sumerian name for the West Semitic nomads).

The myth underlying the text did not develop an ancient tradition, but was taken from historical reality. But traces of a general historical concept - ideas about the evolution of humanity from savagery to civilization (reflected - already on Akkadian material - in the story of the “wild man” Enkidu in the Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh) appear through the “actual” concept of myth. After the fall at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. under the onslaught of the Amorites and Elamites of the III dynasty of Ur, almost all the ruling dynasties of individual city-states of Mesopotamia turned out to be Amorites. However, in the culture of Mesopotamia, contact with the Amorite tribes left almost no trace.

The first Sumerian settlements appeared around 4000 BC. The largest of these cities were Eridu, Nippur, Kish, Lagash, Uruk, Ur and Umma. Their population created one of the richest cultures in human history in the Euphrates and Tigris basin. The main creators of this great culture were the Sumerians. Already in the third millennium BC, they built wonderful cities, irrigated the soil with the help of an extensive network of irrigation canals, their craft flourished, and they created magnificent monuments of art and literature. The Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites and Arameans, who later founded their states in Mesopotamia and Syria, were students of the Sumerians and inherited great cultural values ​​from them. Until the middle of the 19th century, we had only scanty and even absurd information regarding the culture of these peoples. Only archaeological excavations, carried out on a wide scale in Mesopotamia, revealed to us the greatness and wealth of these peoples. Such powerful cities as Ur, Babylon and Nineveh were excavated, and thousands of tablets were found in the royal palaces, covered with cuneiform writing, which had already been read. According to their content, these documents are divided into historical chronicles, diplomatic correspondence, treaties, religious myths and poems, among which is the most ancient epic of mankind, dedicated to the Sumerian national hero Gilgamesh. As the cuneiform script was deciphered, it became clear that the Bible, which for centuries was considered the original creation of the ancient Jews, allegedly arose at the inspiration of God, had its roots in the Mesopotamian tradition, that many private details and even entire legends were, to a greater or lesser extent, borrowed from the rich treasury Sumerian myths and legends.

Almost all written sources by which one can judge the cosmology and theology of the Sumerians date back to the end of the 3rd millennium BC, when the integral religion of Sumer had already developed, therefore the study of earlier religious views is very difficult (the very first pictographic texts of the Uruk and Jemdet-Nasr, dating from the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, includes symbolic images of such gods as Enlil, Inanna, etc.). Its main motifs were adopted into Akkadian mythology after the conquest of Sumer in 2311 BC by the Akkadian king Sargon. The main Akkadian mythological sources date back to the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. (of the earlier works, unlike the Sumerian ones, not one has reached us in complete form). After the conquest of Mesopotamia by Assyria, Assyrian mythology inherits Akkadian mythology (with the names of the gods replaced). However, apparently, these myths were spread not only through military campaigns, since traces of them are also found in the west, for example, Ugarit.

The famous archaeologist George Smith read on cuneiform tablets an entire Babylonian poem about the creation of the world, known as Enuma Elish, which outwardly has nothing in common with the biblical legend. The content of this mythological epic, of course with large abbreviations, can be stated as follows. In the beginning, only water existed and chaos reigned. From this terrible chaos the first gods were born. Over the centuries, some gods decided to establish order in the world. This angered the god Abzu and his wife Tiamat, the monstrous goddess of chaos. The rebels united under the leadership of the wise god Ea and killed Abzu. Tiamat, depicted as a dragon, decided to avenge her husband's death. Then the gods of order, under the leadership of Marduk, killed Tiamat in a bloody battle, and her gigantic body was cut into two parts, one of which became the earth, and the other the sky. And the blood of Abzu was mixed with clay, and from this mixture the first man arose.

American archaeologist James J. Pritchard took the trouble to scrupulously compare both texts and discovered many surprising coincidences in them. What is striking first of all is the sequence of events common to both texts: the emergence of the sky and celestial bodies, the separation of water from the earth, the creation of man on the sixth day, as well as the rest of God in the Bible and the joint feast of the Babylonian gods in the Enuma Elish text on the seventh day. Scientists rightly believe that the text of the book of Genesis (chapter 3, art. 5).

In the seventies of the last century, the discovery of the biblical flood made a huge impression. One fine day, a modest employee of the British Museum in London, George Smith, began deciphering cuneiform tablets sent from Nineveh and stored in the basement of the museum. To his surprise, he came across the oldest poem of mankind, describing the exploits and adventures of Gilgamesh, the legendary hero of the Sumerians. One day, while examining the tablets, Smith literally could not believe his eyes, because on some tablets he found fragments of the legend about the flood, strikingly similar to the biblical version. As soon as he published them, a storm of protest arose from the bigots of Victorian England, for whom the Bible was a sacred, inspired book. They could not come to terms with the idea that the story of Noah was a myth borrowed from the Sumerians. What Smith read, in their opinion, was more likely to point to a coincidence of details. This dispute could be finally resolved only by the discovery of the missing cuneiform tablets, which, however, seemed very unlikely. But George Smith did not lay down his arms. He personally went to Mesopotamia and in the gigantic ruins of Nineveh he found the missing fragments of the legend, which completely confirmed his assumption. This was evidenced by such identical details as episodes with a raven and a dove being released, a description of the mountain to which the ark landed, the duration of the flood, as well as the moral of the story: the punishment of humanity for its sins and the salvation of a pious man. Of course, there are differences. The Sumerian Noah is called Utnapishtim, in the Sumerian myth there are many gods endowed with all human weaknesses, and in the Bible the flood is brought upon the human race by Yahweh, the creator of the world, depicted in all the greatness of his power. The reworking of the myth in a monotheistic spirit probably dates back to a later time, and it apparently owes its final religious and ethical deepening to editors from priestly circles.

Myths about the creation of the world

Sumerian myths:

"Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld", "The Myth of the Hoe", "Lahar and Ashnan". As such, the Sumerians have no myths about the structure of the universe. There are only mentions that in the beginning there was a primordial endless sea. Somehow, the “universe” (the Sumerian word “an-ki” - heaven-earth) was born in it. The earth appeared to be a flat disk under a domed sky. Between them there was a certain substance “Lel”, in which stars and other celestial bodies were located. Then plants, animals and people appeared on earth. All this was controlled by a whole pantheon of deities, outwardly similar to humans, but much more powerful and strong. Such superhuman immortal beings were called dingir, which translates as god. The primeval paradise was located on the island of Dilmun (the poem "Enki and Ninhursag").

Babylonian myths:

"Enuma Elish" (10th century BC): In the beginning there was only water and chaos reigned. From this terrible chaos the first gods were born. Over the centuries, some gods decided to establish order in the world. This angered the god Abzu and his wife Tiamat, the monstrous goddess of chaos. The rebels united under the leadership of the wise god Ea and killed Abzu. Tiamat, depicted as a dragon, decided to avenge her husband's death. Then the gods of order, under the leadership of Marduk, killed Tiamat in a bloody battle, and her gigantic body was cut into two parts, one of which became the earth, and the other the sky. And the blood of Abzu was mixed with clay, and from this mixture the first man arose.

Bible:

The first book of Genesis (Genesis 1:1-8), in particular: “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.". (Gen. 2:7)

Here there is a noticeable difference in the words “clay” and “dust” from which the first man was made. There is also a more serious difference - in Mesopotamia, the “abyss” was represented by a personified pair of male and female principles: Apsu and Tiamat, and their copulation was considered the beginning of creation. In the late Jewish religion (c. 7th century BC), which was finally formed after the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity, Israel sees creation not as a struggle, but as an act of one God. In Canaan, creation is also described as a struggle between Baal, the king of the gods, and the primordial dragon of chaos called Leviathan (Latanu) or Sea (Yammu). The title “king of the gods” is applied in the Psalter to the Jewish god Yahweh.

In the Old Testament, this symbol of chaos is mentioned several times, and terms such as “serpent”, “dragon” or “monster” are used to designate it, as well as “Rahab”, “Leviathan” and “Sea” (for example, Ps. 73, 13-14; 88, 10; Job 3, 8, where “day” should be understood as “Sea” (Job 41; Isa. 27:1; 51: 9; Am. 9:3). In Christianity, this image is associated and the “beast” of the Apocalypse, the story of whose destruction ends very eloquently: “and the sea is no more” (Rev. 21: 1).

Differences between polytheistic religions and monotheism

The polytheist viewed creation as a struggle between various forces of nature, and the existing world order as a harmony of many wills. It was believed that a certain principle underlying the world order, which even the gods followed, was set at creation. Humanity had its own destiny or purpose that existed even before it, humanity, actually appeared. At the same time, biblical faith did not proceed from such principles of world order and from the idea of ​​​​the inevitability of soulless predestination. This world order is not something fixed and eternal; God enters into a struggle with the world that has departed from him, and therefore the current picture of the world should not be considered final. At the same time, it is necessary to mention the polytheism of the ancient Iranian religion Mazdaism (see), whose influence on Judaism cannot be ignored, in which the outcome of the struggle between the forces of “good” and “evil” depends on the “righteous” actions of people. Since the Jewish religion is a much later creation, the Israelite vision of man is also fundamentally different from the polytheistic ideas of the ancient peoples. A person has high dignity and value, since he is given the right to be a being responsible for his own actions, which generally reflects the overall course of universal morality.

Creation of seven days

Babylonian myths:

Sequence of events: the emergence of the sky and celestial bodies, the separation of water from the earth, the creation of man on the sixth day, as well as the joint feast of the Babylonian gods in the Enuma Elish text on the seventh day.

Bible: See Gen. 1.

Remnants of polytheism in Judaism

Despite the traditional idea that the Jewish religion has always been a monotheism, there are many traces of the existence of polytheism already at the time of the cult of Yahweh.

"...and you will, like gods, know good and evil"(Gen. 3:5) - a remnant of the original polytheism - “gods” is used in the plural.

“2 Then the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took them as wives as any one chose.”. (Gen. 6:2)

“Sons of God” - this is the definition given by the Babylonian myth to the rebellious gods, since they really were the sons of the god Abzu and the goddess Tiamat.

The Creator's stay above water during the days of creation

Ugaritic epic (Phenicia):

The text according to which God sat on the water like a bird on eggs and hatched life out of chaos.

Bible:

“And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.”(Gen. 1:2) - here the “spirit of God” incubates life on earth.

Mention of (dragon) Leviathan

Ugaritic poem:

God Baal defeats the seven-headed dragon Leviathan.

Bible:

“On that day the Lord will smite with his heavy sword, and great and strong, Leviathan the straight running serpent, and Leviathan the crooked serpent, and he will kill the monster of the sea.”. (Isa. 27:1).

The monster also appears under the name Rahab. The conflict between Yahweh and Rahab is mentioned in the Book of Job, one of the psalms, and also the Book of Isaiah. In Sumerian times, Enlil was considered the victorious god who defeated the dragon. When Mesopotamia was conquered by the Akkadian (Babylonian) king Hammurabi, the god Marduk became the conqueror of the monster. The Assyrians replaced it with the name of their tribal god Ashur. An echo of the myth can be traced in Christianity - the legend of St. George killing the dragon.

About the creation of people

Sumerian myths:

“Enki and Ninmah”, according to which the gods fashioned a man from the clay of the underground world ocean Abzu and determined his fate - he had to work for the benefit of the gods.

Babylonian myths:

"Enuma Elish": the gods of order, under the leadership of Marduk, killed Tiamat in a bloody battle, and her gigantic body was cut into two parts, one of which became the earth, and the other the sky. The blood of the Abzu was mixed with clay, and from this mixture the first man arose.

Bible:

"And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground"(Genesis 2:7) (modeled from clay).

About the Fall of Man

Sumerian myths:

In the myth of the god Enki, paradise is depicted as a garden full of fruit trees, where people and animals live in peace and harmony, without suffering or disease. It is located in the area of ​​Dilnum, in Persia. The biblical paradise is undoubtedly located in Mesopotamia, for four rivers originate there, two of which are the Euphrates and the Tigris. The Sumerian hero Gilgamesh went to the paradise island, where the favorite of the gods Utnapishtim lived, to receive from him the plant of life. When he was returning across the river, one of the gods, not wanting man to gain immortality and become equal to the gods, took the form of a serpent and, emerging from the water, snatched a magical plant from Gilgamesh. By the way, in this Sumerian legend one should, in all likelihood, look for an explanation for why, from the time of Abraham, for many centuries, the Jews depicted Yahweh in the form of a serpent.

Bible:

The serpent tempts Adam and Eve to taste the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; in Mesopotamian myth, the god Ea is the insidious adviser to people. God cast out Adam and Eve not only for disobedience, but also out of fear that they would reach for the fruit of the tree of life and, like God, gain immortality:

“And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam has become like one of us (here again is a remnant of polytheism), knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and began to live forever"(Gen. 3:22).

About the creation of woman

In Sumerian myth:

The god Enki had pain in his rib. In the Sumerian language, the word “rib” corresponds to the word “ti”. The goddess who was called to heal the rib of the god Enki is called Ninti, that is, “woman of the rib.” But "ninti" also means "to give life." Thus, Ninti can equally mean "woman from the rib" and "woman who gives life."

Bible:

"21 And the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and when he fell asleep, he took one of his ribs and covered the place with flesh. 22 And the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said, Behold, this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken from [her] husband."(Gen. 2:21-23)

Tower to heaven and confusion of languages

In Babylonian the name of the capital "Babylon" means "gate of God" (bab-ilu), and in Hebrew the similar-sounding word "balal" means the process of mixing. As a result of the sound similarity of both words, Babylon could easily become a symbol of the linguistic chaos in the world, especially since it was a multilingual city.

Bible:

“Let us confuse their languages ​​there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other.”(Gen. 11:7)

The Flood and the Story of Salvation in the Ark

Babylonian myth:

Unfortunately, the tablet on which the Sumerian myth was written has not been completely preserved, and the beginning of the myth has been lost. We can fill in the meaning of the missing fragments from its later Babylonian version. It is inserted, as a story, into the epic of Gilgamesh “On Who Has Seen All...”. The first lines read tell about the creation of man, the divine origin of royal power and the founding of the five oldest cities.

Further, we are talking about the fact that at the council of the gods it was decided to send a flood to the earth and destroy all of humanity, but many gods are upset by this. Ziusudra, the ruler of Shuruppak, appears to be a pious and God-fearing king who is in constant anticipation of divine dreams and revelations. He hears the voice of a god, most likely Enki, informing him of the gods' intention to "destroy the human seed."

Further text has not survived due to a large crack, but, judging by the Babylonian counterpart, in it Ziusudra receives detailed instructions on how to build a huge boat to save himself from imminent disaster.

The text resumes with a vivid description of the flood. For seven days and seven nights, a storm of such strength rages on earth that even the gods are afraid of it. Finally, the sun god Utu appeared in the sky, who illuminated and warmed the earth. Ziusudra prostrated himself before him and sacrificed oxen and sheep.

The last lines of the myth describe the deification of Ziusudra. He received the gift of “life like a god,” that is, immortality, and together with his wife he was transferred to the divine paradise country of Dilmun.

The Babylonian version of the flood myth exists in the form of an independent legend about Atrahasis and in the form of the above-mentioned insertion into the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the last story the hero's name sounds like Utnapishtim. It is an almost literal translation into Akkadian of the name Ziusudra - noise. "who has found the life of long days." In Akkadian, Utnapishtim means "found breath."

The myth of the flood was preserved both in the form of the well-known biblical legend about Noah, and in the works of the historian Berossus, who wrote in Greek. Only Berossus calls Ziusudra Xisuthros, and the god who warned him of the danger was Kronos.

The first 37 lines are broken.
I

The extermination of my people...
What I created for the goddess Nintu...
Truly I will return it to her.
I will return the people to their places of abode.
May their cities be built, may their troubles be dispelled.
Bricks in all their cities for sacred places
Verily let them deliver.
Let them be gathered in holy places.
The holiness of water - the extinguishing of fire - let it be
Established in righteousness.
Rituals, mighty Essences will truly be perfect,
Let water irrigate the earth, I will give them blissful peace."

When An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag
They created the black-headed people,
The living creatures in the earth began to multiply wildly,
All kinds of four-legged creatures
the valleys were covered with a worthy pattern.

More than 30 lines are destroyed.

“I want to direct the work of their efforts.
Let the Builder of the Country dig the ground and lay the foundations."

When the Essences of Royalty descended from heaven,
The mighty crown and royal throne were lowered from heaven,
He created their rites, he is the mighty Essence
Made perfect.
He founded villages and cities.
He gave them names, he distributed shares to them.

The first of them is Eredug, he gave it to the leader Nudimmud.
He gave the second one to the priestess of heaven - Badtibira.
The third is Larag, he gave it to Pabilsag.
The fourth is Sippar, he gave it to the hero Utu.
The fifth is Shuruppak, the Court gave it to him.
He gave names to these cities, he appointed them as capitals.
He didn't stop the floods, he dug up the ground,
He brought them water.
He cleaned small rivers and built irrigation channels.

40 lines destroyed

In those days Nintu... his creations...
Light Inanna starts crying for her people.
Enki consults with himself.
An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag,
The gods of the Universe swore in the name of Ana,
They swore in the name of Enlil.
In those days Ziusudra, God's anointed...
I built myself an oval canopy...
In submission, reverently, with the humble,
In righteous words...
Every day he stood, bowing...
It’s not a dream, it’s the output of his sayings...
To curse heaven and earth.

In Kiura there is a god... wall...
Ziusudra, standing at the edge, hears...
“The edge of the wall is on the left, come on, listen!
Edge of the wall, I’ll tell you my word, take my word!
Be attentive to my instructions!
The flood will sweep over the whole world,
In order to destroy the seed of humanity.
The final decision, the word of God's assembly...
The decision spoken by An, Enlil, Ninhursag,
Royalty, its interruption..."

About 40 lines, destroyed.

All the evil storms, all the hurricanes, they all came together.
The flood is raging over the whole world.
Seven days. Seven nights.
When the flood raged over the Country,
An evil wind with a high wave
Threw away a huge ship,
The sun rose, illuminated the sky and earth,
Ziusudra made a hole in his huge ship,
And a ray of sunlight penetrated the huge ship.
King Ziusudra
He fell prostrate before the sun-Utu.
The king slaughtered the bulls and slaughtered many sheep.

About 40 lines were destroyed.

They swore by the life of heaven and the life of earth,
An and Enlil swore with the lives of heaven and earth about this.
Who took refuge
So that living things can rise from the earth,
So that it comes out for them.
King Ziusudra
He humbly prostrated himself before An, Enlil.
Enlil and Ziusudra spoke kindly.
When life, like a god, was awarded to him,
A long life, as if to God, they told him,
Then they are king Ziusudra,
Who saved the name of life, saved the seed of humanity,
They settled him in the country of transition, in the country of Dilmun, there,
Where the sun-Utu rises...
"You..."

The ending is also ruined.

Bible: See Gen. 6.

Rescue of a child sent down the river and then became a great man

Rescue of the prince in 2316 BC. In Kish (Akkadian kingdom), a coup took place and the personal cupbearer of Lugal Ur-Zababa overthrew his master. After seizing power, he began to call himself Sharrumken, which in East Semitic means “true king.” Subsequently, this name was transformed into the one under which this outstanding person is well known to us - Sargon I the Ancient (2316-2261 BC). Legends say that Sargon's mother was of a noble family, but immediately after his birth she put the child in a basket and sent it down the Euphrates. The boy was found and raised by the water-carrier Akki. When Sargon grew up and became a gardener, the goddess of love Ishtar drew attention to him, promising him her special favor. Thus, the goddess’s favorite fell into the inner circle of the lugal Ur-Zababa, and then rose above the rest of the kings. The motives for the miraculous rescue of a child who was sent along the river and then became a great man are found very often in the legends of various peoples.

Bible:

Rescue of Moses by Pharaoh's daughter:
"1 A man from the tribe of Levi went and took for himself a wife from the same tribe. 2 The wife conceived and gave birth to a son, and seeing that he was very handsome, she hid him for three months; 3 but being unable to hide him any longer, she took a basket of reeds and tarred him with asphalt and tar, and putting the baby in it, she placed it in the reeds by the river bank, 4 and his sister began to watch from afar what would happen to him. 5 And Pharaoh’s daughter went out to the river to wash herself, and her maidens walked along the river bank. She saw basket among the reeds, and she sent her servant to take it. 6 She opened it and saw the child; and behold, the child was crying [in the basket]; and [Pharaoh’s daughter] had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the children of the Hebrews.” 7 And his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter: Shall I go and call a Hebrew nurse to you, so that she can nurse the baby for you? 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go down.” The girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me.” I will give you wages." The woman took the child and nursed him. 10 And the child grew up, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she had him instead of a son, and she called his name Moses, because, she said, I took him out of the water. "(Ex. 2:1-10)