Sumerian Myths
3 Even within the world of mythology, the Sumerian legends date back a very long time – at least 5,000 years ago.
2As fascinating as this sounds, there is very little detail available in terms of known mythology from this period. 3The Sumerians were a fairly advanced civilisation for their time, but with so much time having passed since their era, only a few stone tablet fragments remain. 4As such, our examination of these myths will be a little different, but you ll soon notice some very interesting parallels with other myths and current mainstream religions.
5The religion of the Sumerians was a polytheistic one, and their pantheon of deities was quite similar to that of ancient Greece. 6Deities ruled over the sun, moon, earth, sea and sky as well as more human areas such as love, war and the afterlife.
A Great Flood
7This story comes from a damaged clay tablet so not all the details are known. 8Mankind is said to have made the god Enki angry through bad behaviour, so he decided to destroy all of humanity. 9He sent a great flood that covered the world for seven days and seven nights. 10King Ziusudra built a huge boat and saved his family as well as all the seeds of plants, and animal kind, and they repopulated the earth once the sun returned and dried out the water.
11Sound familiar? 12Many people immediately see the similarity with the Biblical story of Noah and the flood and the usual conclusion is that the writers of the Bible have borrowed from this older Sumerian story. 130thers have said that this is actual proof that the event actually took place because two very separate cultures recorded it in their myths. 14Unfortunately, that doesn t pan out.
15Biblical scholars placed the event of their great Flood as taking place roughly 4,900 BeE based on other measureable events recorded in the 0ld Testament. 16That would mean that the flood occurred during the Sumerian era, which is highly unlikely since their story of it describes an event in their own distant past.
17So was the telling of two similar flood stories just a coincidence based on a very primitive or basic archetype that humans tend to gravitate towards? 181t is possible. 190ther cultures have flood myths of their own, which would indicate that people have naturally used this type of disaster in their stories because it resonates so well. 201n any case, it seems highly probable that we have a widespread case of ongoing plagiarism where one myth feeds into another. 21The obvious theme here is that the gods can (and will) punish all of mankind if they are displeased, but you can also see how myths seep from one culture into another.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
22Technically, this is a Mesopotamian story rather than a Sumerian one but the cultures are similar enough to bring them together for a moment. 23The story of Gilgamesh is a long epic poem that is considered to be one of the earliest pieces of literature that still exists today. 24If you re looking to find the most original archetypes and mythical constants, this is the place to look.
25Very little of the original story remains but subsequent documents that are based on the original epic have been found to help put together the majority of the tale. 26As with other epics, the story is made up of many smaller tales linked together around central characters. 27Gilgamesh is a God-like king who is oppressive and cruel to his subjects, so the gods send him a wild man named Enkidu to be his friend, and to distract him from brutalising his citizens, as well as from his political ambitions.
28They have many adventures together until Enkidu is killed by the gods because the two are getting into too much trouble. 29In despair, Gilgamesh continues his journey to seek out immortality. 30He never finds it, but when he returns to his kingdom he has been humbled by everything he s learned and becomes a more kind-hearted and just king.
Similarities with Ancient Greece
31Many aspects of these myths are similar to the tales told in ancient Greece, even though this is a much older time period. 32That makes for a good illustration of how a culture s mythical collection is more a reflection of their own development rather than simply how long ago they existed. 33More primitive cultures in Africa have myths revolving around natural elements almost exclusively, but Sumerian ones involved elements that we see in Greece and Egypt. 34The hero s journey is just one example of where these myths lined up with Greek ones.