Sumero-Akkadian mythology. Legend of Paradise Sumerian myths read

The Sumerian civilization and Sumerian mythology are considered to be one of the most ancient in the history of all mankind. The golden age of this people, who lived in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), fell on the third millennium BC. The Sumerian pantheon consisted of many different gods, spirits and monsters, and some of them were preserved in the beliefs of subsequent cultures of the Ancient East.

Common features

The basis on which Sumerian mythology and religion rested was communal beliefs in numerous gods: spirits, demiurge deities, patrons of nature and the state. It arose as a result of the interaction of the ancient people with the country that fed them. This faith did not have a mystical teaching or orthodox doctrine, as was the case with the beliefs that gave birth to modern world religions - from Christianity to Islam.

Sumerian mythology had several fundamental features. She recognized the existence of two worlds - the world of the gods and the world of phenomena, which they ruled. Each spirit in it was personified - it possessed the features of living beings.

Demiurges

The main god of the Sumerians was considered An (another spelling - Anu). It existed even before the separation of the Earth from the Sky. He was portrayed as an adviser and manager of the assembly of the gods. Sometimes he was angry with people, for example, he once sent a curse on the city of Uruk in the form of a heavenly bull and wanted to kill the hero of ancient legends Gilgamesh. Despite this, for the most part, Ahn is inactive and passive. The main deity in Sumerian mythology had its own symbol in the form of a horned tiara.

An was identified with the head of the family and the ruler of the state. The analogy was manifested in the depiction of the demiurge along with the symbols of royal power: a staff, a crown and a scepter. It was An who kept the mysterious "me". So the inhabitants of Mesopotamia called the divine forces that ruled the earthly and heavenly worlds.

Enlil (Ellil) was considered the second most important god by the Sumerians. He was called Lord Wind or Lord Breath. This creature ruled over the world located between earth and sky. Another important feature that Sumerian mythology emphasized was that Enlil had many functions, but they all boiled down to dominion over wind and air. Thus, it was the deity of the elements.

Enlil was considered the ruler of all foreign countries for the Sumerians. It is in his power to arrange a disastrous flood, and he himself does everything to expel people alien to him from his possessions. This spirit can be defined as the spirit of the wild nature, which resisted the human collective trying to settle in desert places. Enlil also punished kings for neglecting ritual sacrifices and ancient holidays. As punishment, the deity sent hostile mountain tribes to peaceful lands. Enlil was associated with the natural laws of nature, the passage of time, aging, death. In one of the largest Sumerian cities, Nippur, he was considered their patron. It was there that ancient calendar this lost civilization.

Enki

Like other ancient mythologies, Sumerian mythology included directly opposite images. So, a kind of "anti-Enlil" was Enki (Ea) - the lord of the earth. He was considered the patron saint of fresh waters and all mankind as a whole. The master of the earth was assigned the traits of a craftsman, magician and craftsman, who taught his skills to the younger gods, who, in turn, shared these skills with ordinary people.

Enki is the protagonist of Sumerian mythology (one of the three along with Enlil and Anu), and it was he who was called the protector of education, wisdom, scribal craft and schools. This deity personified the human collective, trying to subjugate nature and change its habitat. Enki was especially often called upon during wars and other grave dangers. But in peaceful periods, its altars were empty, there were no sacrifices made, so necessary to attract the attention of the gods.

Inanna

In addition to the three great gods, in Sumerian mythology there were also the so-called elder gods, or gods of the second order. Inanna is included in this host. She is best known as Ishtar (an Akkadian name that was later used also in Babylon during its heyday). The image of Inanna, which appeared among the Sumerians, survived this civilization and continued to be revered in Mesopotamia and in later times. Its traces can be traced even in Egyptian beliefs, and in general it existed until Antiquity.

So what does Sumerian mythology say about Inanna? The goddess was considered associated with the planet Venus and the power of military and love passion. She embodied human emotions, the elemental force of nature, as well as feminine in society. Inanna was called a warrior maiden - she patronized intersexual relations, but she herself never gave birth. This deity in Sumerian mythology was associated with the practice of cult prostitution.

Marduk

As noted above, each Sumerian city had its own patron god (for example, Enlil in Nippur). This feature was associated with the political features of the development of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization. The Sumerians almost never, except for very rare periods, did not live within the framework of one centralized state. For several centuries, their cities formed a complex conglomerate. Each settlement was independent and at the same time belonged to the same culture, connected by language and religion.

The Sumerian and Akkadian mythology of Mesopotamia left its traces in the monuments of many Mesopotamian cities. She also influenced the development of Babylon. In a later period, it became the largest city of antiquity, where its own unique civilization was formed, which became the basis big empire. However, Babylon was born as a small Sumerian settlement. It was then that Marduk was considered his patron. Researchers attribute him to a dozen elder gods, which gave rise to Sumerian mythology.

In short, the importance of Marduk in the pantheon grew along with the gradual growth of the political and economic influence of Babylon. His image is complex - as he evolved, he included the features of Ea, Ellil and Shamash. Just as Inanna was associated with Venus, Marduk was associated with Jupiter. Written sources of antiquity mention its unique healing powers and the art of healing.

Together with the goddess Gula, Marduk was able to resurrect the dead. Also, the Sumerian-Akkadian mythology put him in the place of the patron of irrigation, without which the economic prosperity of the cities of the Middle East was impossible. In this regard, Marduk was considered the giver of prosperity and peace. His cult reached its apogee in the period (7th-6th centuries BC), when the Sumerians themselves had long since disappeared from the historical scene, and their language was consigned to oblivion.

Marduk vs Tiamat

Thanks to cuneiform texts, numerous legends of the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia have been preserved. The confrontation between Marduk and Tiamat is one of the main plots that Sumerian mythology has preserved in written sources. The gods often fought among themselves - similar stories are known in Ancient Greece where the legend of gigantomachy was spread.

The Sumerians associated Tiamat with the global ocean of chaos, in which the whole world was born. This image is associated with the cosmogonic beliefs of ancient civilizations. Tiamat was depicted as a seven-headed hydra and a dragon. Marduk entered into a fight with her, armed with a club, a bow and a net. God was accompanied by storms and heavenly winds, called by him to fight with monsters, generated by a powerful opponent.

Each ancient cult had its own image of the foremother. In Mesopotamia, Tiamat was considered to be her. Sumerian mythology endowed her with many evil traits, because of which the rest of the gods took up arms against her. It was Marduk who was chosen by the rest of the pantheon for the decisive battle with the ocean-chaos. Having met the foremother, he was horrified by her terrible appearance, but joined the battle. A variety of gods in Sumerian mythology helped Marduk prepare for battle. The demons of the water element Lahmu and Lahamu granted him the ability to summon a flood. Other spirits prepared the rest of the warrior's arsenal.

Marduk, who opposed Tiamat, agreed to fight the ocean-chaos in exchange for the recognition by the rest of the gods of their own world domination. A deal was made between them. At the decisive moment of the battle, Marduk drove a storm into the mouth of Tiamat so that she could not close it. After that, he shot an arrow into the monster and thus defeated a terrible rival.

Tiamat had a consort husband, Kingu. Marduk dealt with him, taking away the tables of fate from the monster, with the help of which the winner established his own dominance and created a new world. From the upper part of the body of Tiamat, he created the sky, the signs of the zodiac, the stars, from the lower part - the earth, and from the eye the two great rivers of Mesopotamia - the Euphrates and the Tigris.

The hero was then recognized by the gods as their king. In gratitude, Marduk was presented with a sanctuary in the form of the city of Babylon. Many temples dedicated to this god appeared in it, among which were the famous monuments of antiquity: the Etemenanki ziggurat and the Esagila complex. Sumerian mythology left much evidence of Marduk. The creation of the world by this god is a classic story of ancient religions.

Ashur

Ashur is another god of the Sumerians, whose image survived this civilization. Initially, he was the patron of the city of the same name. In the XXIV century BC there arose When in the VIII-VII century BC. e. this state reached the peak of its power, Ashur became the most important god of all Mesopotamia. It is also curious that he turned out to be the main figure of the cult pantheon of the first empire in the history of mankind.

The king of Assyria was not only the ruler and head of state, but also the high priest of Ashur. This is how theocracy was born, the basis of which was still Sumerian mythology. Books and other sources of antiquity and antiquity testify that the cult of Assur lasted until the 3rd century AD, when neither Assyria nor independent Mesopotamian cities existed for a long time.

Nanna

The moon god of the Sumerians was Nanna (the Akkadian name Sin is also common). He was considered the patron of one of the most important cities of Mesopotamia - Ur. This settlement existed for several millennia. In the XXII-XI centuries. BC, the rulers of Ur united all of Mesopotamia under their rule. In this regard, the importance of Nanna also increased. His cult had an important ideological significance. The high priestess of Nanna became eldest daughter king of Ur.

The moon god favored cattle and fertility. He determined the fate of animals and the dead. For this purpose, every new moon, Nanna went to the underworld. The phases of the Earth's celestial satellite were associated with his numerous names. The Sumerians called the full moon Nanna, the crescent - Zuen, the young crescent - Ashimbabbar. In the Assyrian and Babylonian tradition, this deity was also considered a soothsayer and healer.

Shamash, Ishkur and Dumuzi

If the god of the moon was Nanna, then the god of the sun was Shamash (or Utu). The Sumerians considered the day to be the product of the night. Therefore, Shamash, in their view, was Nanna's son and servant. His image was associated not only with the sun, but also with justice. At noon, Shamash judged the living. He also fought evil demons.

The main cult centers of Shamash were Elassar and Sippar. The first temples (“houses of radiance”) of these cities are attributed by scientists to the incredibly distant 5th millennium BC. It was believed that Shamash gives wealth to people, freedom to captives, and fertility to lands. This god was depicted as a long-bearded old man with a turban on his head.

In any ancient pantheon there were personifications of each natural element. So, in Sumerian mythology, the thunder god is Ishkur (another name for Adad). His name often appeared in cuneiform sources. Ishkur was considered the patron of the lost city of Karkara. In myths, he occupies a secondary position. Nevertheless, he was considered a warrior god, armed with terrible winds. In Assyria, the image of Ishkur evolved into the figure of Adad, which had an important religious and state significance. Another nature deity was Dumuzi. He personified the calendar cycle and the change of seasons.

Demons

Like many other ancient peoples, the Sumerians had their own hell. This lower underworld was inhabited by the souls of the dead and terrible demons. Hell was often referred to in cuneiform texts as "the land of no return". There are dozens of underground Sumerian deities - information about them is fragmentary and scattered. As a rule, each individual city had its own traditions and beliefs associated with chthonic creatures.

One of the main negative gods of the Sumerians is Nergal. He was associated with war and death. This demon in Sumerian mythology was portrayed as a distributor of dangerous epidemics of plague and fever. His figure was considered the main one in the underworld. In the city of Kutu there was the main temple of the Nergal cult. Babylonian astrologers personified the planet Mars with the help of his image.

Nergal had a wife and his own female prototype - Ereshkigal. She was Inanna's sister. This demon in Sumerian mythology was considered the master of the chthonic creatures of the Anunnaki. The main temple of Ereshkigal was located in major city Kuta.

Another important chthonic deity of the Sumerians was Nergal's brother Ninazu. Living in the underworld, he possessed the art of rejuvenation and healing. Its symbol was a snake, which later in many cultures became the personification of the medical profession. With special zeal, Ninaza was revered in the city of Eshnunne. His name is mentioned in the famous Babylonian where it is said that offerings to this god are obligatory. In another Sumerian city - Ur - there was an annual festival in honor of Ninazu, during which plentiful sacrifices were arranged. The god Ningishzida was considered his son. He guarded the demons imprisoned in the underworld. The symbol of Ningishzida was a dragon - one of the constellations of Sumerian astrologers and astronomers, which the Greeks called the constellation Serpent.

sacred trees and spirits

Spells, hymns and recipes of the Sumerians testify to the existence of sacred trees among this people, each of which was attributed to a particular deity or city. For example, tamarisk was especially revered in the Nippur tradition. In the spells of Shuruppak, this tree is considered to be Tamarisk used by exorcists in rites of purification and treatment of diseases.

Modern science knows about the magic of trees thanks to the few traces of conspiracy traditions and epic. But even less is known about Sumerian demonology. Mesopotamian magical collections, according to which evil forces were expelled, were already compiled in the era of Assyria and Babylonia in the languages ​​of these civilizations. Only a few things can be said for sure about the Sumerian tradition.

There were ancestral spirits, guardian spirits, and hostile spirits. The latter included the monsters killed by the heroes, as well as the personifications of illnesses and diseases. The Sumerians believed in ghosts, very similar to the Slavic mortgaged dead. Ordinary people treated them with horror and fear.

Evolution of mythology

The religion and mythology of the Sumerians went through three stages of its formation. At the first, communal-tribal totems evolved into the owners of cities and gods-demiurges. At the beginning of the III millennium BC, incantations and temple hymns appeared. There was a hierarchy of gods. It began with the names of Ana, Enlil and Enki. Then came the suns and moons, the warrior gods, etc.

The second period is also called the period of Sumero-Akkadian syncretism. It was marked by a mixture of different cultures and mythologies. Alien to the Sumerians, the Akkadian language is considered the language of the three peoples of Mesopotamia: the Babylonians, Akkadians and Assyrians. Its oldest monuments date back to the 25th century BC. Around this time, the process of merging the images and names of Semitic and Sumerian deities began, performing the same functions.

The third, final period is the period of unification of the common pantheon during the III dynasty of Ur (XXII-XI centuries BC). At this time, the first totalitarian state in the history of mankind arose. It subjected to strict ranking and accounting not only people, but also scattered and many-sided gods before. It was during the III dynasty that Enlil was placed at the head of the assembly of the gods. An and Enki were on either hand of him.

Below were the Anunnaki. Among them were Inanna, Nanna, and Nergal. About a hundred more minor deities were placed at the foot of this staircase. At the same time, the Sumerian pantheon merged with the Semitic one (for example, the difference between the Sumerian Enlil and the Semitic Bela was erased). After the fall of the III dynasty of Ur in Mesopotamia, it disappeared for some time. In the second millennium BC, the Sumerians lost their independence, falling under the rule of the Assyrians. The mixture of these peoples later gave rise to the Babylonian nation. Along with ethnic changes came religious changes. When the former homogeneous Sumerian nation and its language disappeared, the mythology of the Sumerians also disappeared into the past.

Ancient Greek geographers called Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) the flat area between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The self-name of this area is Shinar. Development Center ancient civilization was in Babylon. Northern Babylonia was called Akkad, and southern Babylonia was called Sumer. Not later than the 4th millennium BC in the extreme south of Mesopotamia, the first Sumerian settlements arose, gradually they occupied the entire territory of Mesopotamia. Where the Sumerians came from is still unknown, but according to a legend common among the Sumerians themselves, from the islands of the Persian Gulf. The Sumerians spoke a language whose relationship to other languages ​​has not been established. In the northern part of Mesopotamia, starting from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. lived Semites, pastoral tribes of ancient Asia Minor and the Syrian steppe, the language of the Semitic tribes was called Akkadian.

In the southern part of Mesopotamia, the Semites spoke Babylonian, and to the north, the Assyrian dialect of the Assyrian language. For several centuries, the Semites lived next to the Sumerians, but then they began to move south and by the end of the 3rd millennium BC. occupied all of southern Mesopotamia, as a result of which the Akkadian language gradually replaced Sumerian, but it continued to exist as the language of science and religious worship until the 1st century BC. AD The Mesopotamian civilization is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the world. It was in Sumer at the end of the 4th millennium BC. human society has left the primitive stage and entered the era of antiquity, which means the formation of a new type of culture and the birth of a new type of consciousness.

An important role in the formation and consolidation of the new culture of the ancient society was played by writing, with the advent of which new forms of information storage and transmission became possible. Mesopotamian writing in its most ancient, pictographic form appeared at the turn of the 4th - 3rd millennium BC. It is believed that in early pictographic writing there were over one and a half thousand signs-drawings. Each sign meant one or more words. The improvement of the writing system went along the line of unifying badges, reducing their number, as a result, cuneiform impressions appeared. At the same time, the phonetization of the letter takes place, i.e. icons began to be used not only in their original, verbal meaning, but also in isolation from it. The most ancient written messages were a kind of puzzles, while the developed cuneiform system, capable of transmitting all shades of speech, developed only by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Most of what is known about the culture of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians has been obtained from the study of 25,000 tablets and fragments of the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. Ancient Mesopotamian literature includes both monuments of folklore origin and author's works. The most outstanding monument is the Akkadian epic about Gilgamesh, which tells about the search for immortality, about the meaning of human life. Of great interest are the Old Babylonian Poem of Atrahasis, which tells of the creation of man and Deluge, and the cult cosmogonic epic Enuma Elish (When above). Mythology of Mesopotamia - the mythology of the ancient states of Mesopotamia: Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Sumer, Elam.
Sumero-Akkadian mythology is the mythology of the oldest known civilization located on the territory of Mesopotamia, and developed from the 4th to the 2nd millennium BC.

Hurrian mythology - the mythology of the peoples who inhabited the Northern Mesopotamia in the III-II millennium BC. e.
Assyrian mythology - the mythology of Assyria, located in the Northern Mesopotamia in the XIV-VII centuries. BC e.; it relied on Sumero-Akkadian mythology, and after the capture of Assyria by the Babylonian kingdom, it had a strong influence on Babylonian mythology. Babylonian mythology - the mythology of Babylonia, a state in the south of Mesopotamia in the 20th-6th centuries BC. e.; influenced by Assyrian mythology. The history of the formation and development of the mythological representations of Sumer and Akkad is known from the materials of the fine arts approximately from the middle of the 6th millennium BC, and from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC according to written sources.

Sumerian mythology

The Sumerians are tribes of unknown origin, in con. 4th millennium BC e. mastered the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates and formed the first city-states in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian period of the history of Mesopotamia covers about one and a half thousand years, it ends in con. 3 - early 2nd millennium BC e. so-called. III dynasty of the city of Ur and the dynasties of Isin and Larsa, of which the latter was already only partially Sumerian. By the time the first Sumerian city-states were formed, the idea of ​​an anthropomorphic deity had apparently formed. The patron deities of the community were, first of all, the personification of the creative and productive forces of nature, with which the ideas about the power of the military leader of the tribe-community, combined (at first irregularly) with the functions of the high priest, are combined. 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 - the 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 headlights (Shuruppak) 27-26 centuries. - theophoric names and the most ancient list of gods (the so-called "list A"). The earliest actually mythological literary texts - hymns to the gods, lists of proverbs, exposition of some myths (for example, about Enlil) also date back to the period of Fara and come from the excavations of Fara and Abu-Salabih. From the time of the reign of the Lagash ruler Gudei (c. 22nd century BC), construction inscriptions have come down that provide important material regarding cult and mythology (a description of the renovation of the main temple of the city of Lagash to Eninnu - the “temple of fifty” for Ningirsu, the patron god of the city ). But the main mass of Sumerian texts of mythological content (literary, educational, actually mythological, etc., one way or another connected with myth) refers to con. 3 - early 2nd millennium, to the so-called. the Old Babylonian period - a time when the Sumerian language was already dying out, but the Babylonian tradition still retained the system of teaching in it. Thus, by the time writing appeared in Mesopotamia (the end of the 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 con. 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 people”, god of the city of Nippur, the center of the ancient Sumerian tribal union; Enki, the lord of underground fresh waters and the oceans (later also the deity of wisdom), the main god of the city of Eredu, the ancient cultural center of Sumer; An, the god of keba, and Inanna, the goddess of war and carnal love, the deity of the city of Uruk, who rose to the con. 4 - early 3rd millennium BC e.; Nain, the moon god worshiped in Ur; the warrior god Ningirsu, who was revered in Lagash (this god was later identified with the Lagash Ninurta), etc. oldest list gods from Farah (c. 26th century BC) identifies six supreme gods of the early Sumerian pantheon: Enlil, An, Inanna, Enki, Nanna and the sun god Utu. The ancient Sumerian deities, including the astral gods, retained the function of a fertility deity, which was thought of as the patron god of a separate community. One of the most typical images is the image of the mother goddess (in iconography, images of a woman with a child in her arms are sometimes associated with her), who was revered under various names: Damgalnuna, Ninhursag, Ninmah (Mach), Nintu. Mom, Mami. Akkadian versions of the image of the mother goddess - Beletili ("mistress of the gods"), the same Mami (having the epithet "helping with childbirth" in Akkadian texts) and Aruru - the creator of people in Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian myths, and in the epic about 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, there is a close connection between the myth and the cult. The cult songs from Ur (end of the 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 III Dynasty of Ur and the I Dynasty of Isin also show that between the king (at the same time the high priest "en") and the high priestess, a sacred marriage ceremony was performed annually, 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 the motives of the courtship and wedding of the heroes-gods, the descent of the goddess into the underworld ("country without return") and replacing her with a hero, the death of the hero and crying for him and the return of the hero to earth. All 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 the departing (dying) and returning deities (which in this case is Dumuzi), are connected, as in the case of the mother goddess, with the disunity of the Sumerian communities and with the very metaphor "life - death - life" , all the time 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 of Enlil and Ninlil, the role of the dying (leaving) and resurrecting (returning) deity is the patron of the Nippur community, the lord of the air Enlil, who seized Ninlil by force, expelled by the gods to the underworld for this, but managed to leave it, leaving instead of himself, his wife and son "deputies". In form, the demand “for the head - the head” looks like a legal trick, an attempt to circumvent the law, unshakable for anyone who entered the “country of no return”. But it also sounds the idea of ​​a certain 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 the plague, this idea is formulated more clearly: Ishtar before the gates of the "country without return" threatens if she is not let in, "let her out the dead eating the living,” and then “the dead will multiply more than the living,” and the threat works. Myths related to the cult of fertility provide information about the ideas of the Sumerians about the underworld. There is no clear idea about the location of the underworld (Sumer. Kur, Kigal, Eden, Irigal, Arali, the secondary name is kur-nugi, “country without return”; Akkadian parallels to these terms - ercetu, tseru) there is no clear idea. They not only descend there, but also “fall through”; the border of the underworld is the underground river, through which the carrier ferries. Those who enter the underworld pass through the seven gates of the underworld, where they are met by the chief gatekeeper, Neti. The fate of the dead underground is hard. Their bread is bitter (sometimes it is sewage), salty water (slops can also serve as a drink). The underworld is dark, full of dust, its inhabitants, "like birds, are dressed in clothes 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 behavior in life and by the rules of morality. A tolerable life (clean drinking water, peace) is awarded to the souls for whom the funeral rite was performed and sacrifices were made, as well as those who fell in battle and those with many children. The judges of the underworld, the Anunnaki, sitting before Ereshkigal, the mistress of the underworld, pass only death sentences. The names of the dead are entered in the table by a female scribe of the underground kingdom of Geshtinanna (among the Akkadians - Beletzeri). Among the ancestors - inhabitants of the underworld - many legendary heroes and historical figures, such as 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 trouble, the buried are crossed over 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 carrier of the underworld Ur-Shanabi or the demon Humut-Tabal. Actually cosmogonic Sumerian myths are unknown. The text "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld" says that certain events took place at the time "when the heavens separated from the earth, when an took the sky for himself, and Enlil took the earth, when Ereshkigal was given to Kur." The myth of the hoe and ax says that Enlil separated the earth from heaven, the myth of Lahar and. Ashnan, the goddesses of cattle and grain, also describes the merged state of earth and heaven (“mountain of heaven and earth”), which, apparently, was in charge of an. The myth "Enki and Ninhursag" tells of the island of Tilmun as a pristine 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 the gods," in the process of creation. The purpose of the creation of man is to work for the gods: cultivate the land, graze cattle, collect fruits, feed the gods with their victims. When a person is made, the gods determine his fate and arrange a feast on this occasion. At the feast, drunken Enki and Ninmah begin to sculpt people again, but they end up with freaks: a woman unable to give birth, a creature devoid of sex, etc. In the myth of the goddesses of cattle and grain, the need to create a person is explained by the fact that the gods who appeared before him The Anunnaki don't know how to run a household. The idea repeatedly slips that earlier people grew underground, like grass. In the myth of the hoe, Enlil makes a hole in the ground with a hoe and people come out from there. The same motive sounds in the introduction to the hymn to the city of Ered. Many myths are devoted to the creation and birth of the gods. Cultural heroes are widely represented in Sumerian mythology. The creators-demiurges are mainly Enlil and Enki. According to various texts, the goddess Ninkasi is the initiator of brewing, the goddess Uttu is the weaving craft, Enlil is the creator of the wheel, grain; gardening is an invention of the gardener Shukalitudda. A certain archaic king Enmeduranki is declared to be the inventor of various forms of predicting the future, including predictions with the help of an outpouring 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 writing. The eschatological line is reflected in the myths about the flood and the wrath of Inanna. In Sumerian mythology, very few stories have been preserved about the struggle of the 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 about the struggle of the goddess Inanna with the monster Ebih). Such battles are in most cases the lot of a heroic personality, a deified king, while most of the deeds of the gods are associated with their role as deities of fertility (the most archaic moment) and bearers of culture (the latest moment). The functional ambivalence of the image corresponds to the external characteristics of the characters: these omnipotent, omnipotent gods, the creators of all life on earth, are evil, rude, cruel, their decisions are often explained by whims, drunkenness, promiscuity, everyday unattractive features can be emphasized in their appearance (dirt under the nails, dyed red, Enki has Ereshkigal's disheveled hair, etc.). The degree of activity and passivity of each deity is also varied. So, the most alive are Inanna, Enki, Ninhursag, Dumuzi, some minor deities. The most passive god is the "father of the gods" An. The images of Enki, Inaina and, to some extent, Enlil are comparable to the images of the demiurge gods, “bearers of culture”, whose characteristics emphasize the elements of comedy, the gods of primitive cults living on earth, among people, whose cult supplants the cult of the “higher being”. But at the same time, no traces of "theomachy" - the struggle of old and new generations of gods - were found in Sumerian mythology. One canonical text of the Old Babylonian period begins with a list of 50 pairs of gods that preceded Anu: their names are formed according to the scheme: "the lord (mistress) of so-and-so." Among them is named one of the oldest, judging by some sources, the gods Enmesharra ("master of all me"). From a source even later (a Neo-Assyrian incantation of the 1st millennium BC), we learn that Enmesharra is "the one who gave Anu and Enlil the scepter and dominion." In Sumerian mythology, this deity is chthonic, but there is no evidence that Enmesharra was forcibly cast into the underworld. Of the heroic tales, only the tales of the Uruk cycle have come down to us. The heroes of the legends are three kings of Uruk who ruled successively: Enmerkar, son of Meskingasher, the legendary founder of the I dynasty of Uruk (27-26 centuries BC; according to legend, the dynasty originated from the sun god Utu, whose son Meskingasher was considered); Lugalbanda, the fourth ruler of the dynasty, the father (and possibly the ancestral god) of Gilgamesh, the most popular hero of Sumerian and Akkadian literature. A single external line for the works of the Uruk cycle is the theme of the connections of Uruk with the outside world and the motive of the wandering (journey) of the heroes. The theme of the hero's journey to a foreign country and the test of his moral and physical strength, combined with the motifs of magical gifts and a magical helper, not only shows the degree of mythologization of the work, compiled as a heroic-historical monument, but also allows you to reveal the stage-early motifs associated with initiation rites. The connection of these motifs in the works, the sequence of a purely mythological level of presentation, brings the Sumerian monuments closer to fairy tale . In the early lists of gods from Farah, the heroes Lugalband and Gilgamesh are attributed to the gods; in later texts they appear as gods of the underworld. Meanwhile, in the epos 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 appear in the so-called. "royal list", compiled during the III dynasty of Ur (apparently, c. the mythical number of years of reign: Meskingasher, the founder of the Uruk dynasty, "the 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 non-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 the “patron god of Akkad” during his lifetime was the Akkadian king of the 23rd century. BC e. Naram-Suen; in the period of the III dynasty of Ur, the cult veneration of the ruler reached its climax. 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) also looks like the motif of a god’s journey to another, higher, deity for a blessing, often found in Sumerian mythological texts (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 have come down, is the period of the 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, gravitating towards Nippur as a traditional place of the Sumerian cult. A “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 god is a deification of the Sumerian name of 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 - the idea of ​​the evolution of mankind from savagery to civilization (which is reflected - already on Akkadian material - in the history of the "wild man" Enkidu in the Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh) show 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.

Akkadian (Babylonian-Assyrian) mythology

Since ancient times, the Eastern Semites - Akkadians, who occupied the northern part of the lower Mesopotamia, were neighbors of the Sumerians and were under strong Sumerian influence. In the 2nd half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Akkadians are also established in the south of Mesopotamia, which was facilitated by the unification of Mesopotamia by the ruler of the city of Akkad Sargon the Ancient into the "kingdom of Sumer and Akkad" (later, with the rise of Babylon, this territory became known as Babylonia). History of Mesopotamia in the 2nd millennium BC e. - this is the history of the Semitic peoples. However, the merger of the Sumerian and Akkadian peoples occurred gradually, the displacement of the Sumerian language by Akkadian (Babylonian-Assyrian) did not mean the complete destruction of the Sumerian culture and its replacement with a new, Semitic one. Not a single early purely Semitic cult has yet been found on the territory of Mesopotamia. All the Akkadian gods known to us are of Sumerian origin or have long been identified with Sumerian ones. So, the Akkadian sun god Shamash was identified with the Sumerian Utu, the goddess Ishtar - with Inanna and a number of other Sumerian goddesses, the storm god Adad - with Ishkur, etc. God Enlil receives the Semitic epithet Bel (Baal), "lord". With the rise of Babylon, the main god of this city Marduk begins to play an increasingly important role, but this name is also Sumerian in origin. The Akkadian mythological texts of the Old Babylonian period are much less known than the Sumerian ones; none of the text is complete. All the main sources on Akkadian mythology date back to the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e., that is, by the time after the Old Babylonian period. If very fragmentary information has been preserved about Sumerian cosmogony and theogony, then the Babylonian cosmogonic teaching is represented by the large cosmogonic epic poem "Enuma Elish" (according to the first words of the poem - "When above"; the earliest version dates from the beginning of the 10th century BC) . The poem allocates the main role in the creation of the world to Marduk, who gradually occupies the main place in the pantheon of the 2nd millennium, and by the end of the Old Babylonian period, he receives universal recognition outside Babylon (for an exposition of the cosmogonic myth, see the articles Abzu and Marduk). In comparison with the Sumerian ideas about the universe, what is new in the cosmogonic part of the poem is the idea of ​​successive generations of gods, each of which surpasses the previous one, of theomachy - the battle of old and new gods and the unification of many divine images of the creators into one. The idea of ​​the poem is to justify the exaltation of Marduk, the purpose of its creation is to prove and show that Marduk is the direct and rightful heir of the ancient mighty forces, incl. hours and Sumerian deities. The "original" Sumerian gods are then the young heirs of the older forces that they crush. He receives power not only on the basis of legitimate succession, but also on the basis of the right of the strongest, therefore the theme of the struggle and the violent overthrow of the ancient forces is the leitmotif of the legend. Features of Enki - Eya, like other gods, are transferred to Marduk, but Eya becomes the father of the "lord of the gods" and his adviser. In the Ashur version of the poem (end of the 2nd millennium BC), Marduk is replaced by Ashur, the chief god of the city of Ashur and the central deity of the Assyrian pantheon. This became a manifestation of a general tendency towards monotheism, expressed in the desire to single out the main god and rooted not only in the ideological, but also in the socio-political situation of the 1st millennium BC. e. A number of cosmological motifs of the Enuma Elish have come down to us in Greek transcriptions by a Babylonian priest of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e. Berossus (through Polyhistor and Eusebius), as well as a Greek writer of the 6th century. n. e. Damascus. Damascus has a number of generations of gods: Taut and Apason and their son Mumiye (Tiamat, Apsu, Mummu), as well as Lahe and Lahos, Kissar and Assoros (Lahmu and Lahamu, Anshar and Kishar), their children Anos, Illinos, Aos (Anu , Enlil, Eya). Aos and Dauke (i.e. the goddess Damkina) create the demiurge god Bel (Marduk). In Berossus, the mistress corresponding to Tiamat is a certain Omorka (“sea”), who rules over darkness and waters and whose description resembles that of the evil Babylonian demons. God Bel cuts it, creates heaven and earth, organizes the world order and orders to cut off the head of one of the gods in order to create people and animals from his blood and earth. Myths about the creation of the world and the human race in Babylonian literature and mythography are associated with tales of human disasters, death of people, and even the destruction of the universe. As in the Sumerian monuments, in the Babylonian legends it is emphasized that the cause of disasters is the malice of the gods, their desire to reduce the number of the ever-growing and bothering the gods with their noise of the human race. Calamities are perceived not as a legitimate retribution for human sins, but as an evil whim of a deity. The myth of the flood, which, according to all sources, was based on the Sumerian legend of Ziusudra, came down in the form of the myth of Atrahasis and the story of the flood inserted into the epic of Gilgamesh (and differing little from the first), and was also preserved in the Greek transmission of Beros. The myth of the plague god Erra, who fraudulently takes away power from Marduk, also tells about the punishment of people. This text sheds light on the Babylonian theological concept of some kind of physical and spiritual balance of the world, dependent on the presence of a rightful owner in its place (cf. Sumero-Akkadian motif of balance between the world of the living and the dead). Traditional for Mesopotamia (since the Sumerian period) is the idea of ​​the connection of a deity with his statue: leaving the country and the statue, the god thereby changes his place of residence. This is done by Marduk, and the country is damaged, and the universe is threatened with death. It is characteristic that in all epics about the destruction of mankind, the main disaster - the flood, is caused not by a flood from the sea, but by a rain storm. The significant role of the gods of storms and hurricanes in the cosmogony of Mesopotamia, especially the northern one, is also connected with this. In addition to the special gods of the wind and thunderstorms, storms (the main Akkadian god is Adad), the winds were the sphere of activity of various gods and demons. So, according to tradition, he was probably the supreme Sumerian god Enlil (the literal meaning of the name is “breath of the wind”, or “lord-wind”), although he is basically the god of air in the broad sense of the word. But still, Enlil owned destructive storms, with which he destroyed enemies and hated cities. Enlil's sons, Ninurta and Ningirsu, are also associated with the storm. As deities, in any case, as personified higher powers, the winds of the four directions were perceived. The Babylonian legend about the creation of the world, the plot of which was built around the personality of a powerful deity, the epic development of episodes telling about the battle of the god-hero with the monster - the personification of the elements, gave rise to the theme of the god-hero in the Babylonian epic-mythological literature (and not the mortal hero, as in Sumerian literature). According to Akkadian concepts, the tables of fate determined the movement of the world and world events. Possession of them ensured world domination (cf. "Enuma Elish", where they were initially owned by Tiamat, then by Kingu, and finally by Marduk). The Scribe of the Tables of Fates - the god of scribal art and the son of Marduk Nabu - was also sometimes perceived as their owner. Tablets were also written in the underworld (the scribe was the goddess Beletzeri); apparently, it was a fixation of death sentences, as well as the names of the dead. If the number of god-heroes in Babylonian mythological literature prevails compared to Sumerian literature, then about mortal heroes, in addition to the epic about Atrahasis, only a legend (obviously of Sumerian origin) about Etana, a hero who tried to fly to heaven on an eagle, and a relatively late story are known about Adapa, a wise man who dared to “break his wings” to the wind and provoke the wrath of the sky god An, but missed the opportunity to get immortality, and the famous epic about Gilgamesh is not a simple repetition of the Sumerian legends about the hero, but a work that reflected the complex worldview evolution that, together with the Babylonian society was done by the heroes of Sumerian works. The leitmotif of the epic works of Babylonian literature is the failure of man to achieve the fate of the gods, despite all his aspirations, the futility of human efforts in an attempt to obtain immortality. The monarchical-state, and not communal (as in Sumerian mythology) nature of the official Babylonian religion, as well as the suppression of the public life of the population, leads to the fact that the features of archaic religious and magical practice are gradually suppressed. Over time, "personal" gods begin to play an increasingly important role. The idea of ​​a personal god of each person, who facilitates his access to the great gods and introduces him to them, arises (or, in any case, spreads) from the time of the III dynasty of Ur and in the old Babylonian period. On the reliefs and seals of this time, there are frequent scenes depicting how the patron deity leads a person to the supreme god to determine his fate and receive blessings. In the period of the III dynasty of Ur, when the king was considered as the protector-guardian of his country, he took on some of the functions of the god-protector (especially the deified king). It was believed that with the loss of his protector god, a person became defenseless against the evil self-will of the great gods, and could easily be attacked by evil demons. In addition to a personal god, who was primarily supposed to bring good luck to his patron, and a personal goddess, personifying his life “share”, each person also had his own shedu (cf. Sumer, alad) - anthropomorphized or zoomorphized vitality. In addition to these defenders, the inhabitant of Babylonia in the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e. his own personal guardian appears - lamassu, the bearer of his personality, possibly associated with the cult of the placenta. The "name" of a person or his "glory" (noise) was also considered as a material substance, without which his existence is unthinkable and which was passed on to his heirs. On the contrary, the “soul” (napishtu) is something impersonal, it was identified either with breath or with blood. Personal guardian gods resisted evil and were, as it were, antipodes of the evil forces surrounding a person. Among them is the lion-headed Lamashtu, rising from the underworld and leading all sorts of diseases, evil spirits diseases, ghosts, embittered shadows of the dead who do not receive victims, various kinds of service spirits of the underworld (utukki, asakki, etimme, galle, galle lemnuti - “evil devils”, etc.), god-fate Namtar, coming to a person at the hour of his death, night spirits-incubi lilu visiting women, succubi lilit (lilitu) taking possession of men, etc. fine arts. The general structure of the pantheon, the addition of which dates back to the III dynasty of Ur, basically remains unchanged throughout the entire era of antiquity. The whole world is officially headed by the triad of Anu, Enlil and Eya, surrounded by a council of seven or twelve "great gods" who determine the "shares" (shimatu) of everything in the world. All gods are thought to be divided into two generic groups - the Igigi and the Anunnaki, the gods of the earth and the underworld, as a rule, are among the latter, although there are also Anunnaki gods among the heavenly gods. In the underworld, however, it is no longer Ereshkigal who rules as much as her husband Nergal, who subjugated his spouse, which corresponds to the general decrease in the role of female deities in Babylonian mythology, relegated, as a rule, almost exclusively to the position of impersonal spouses of their divine husbands (essentially, a special only the goddess of healing Gula and Ishtar retain their significance, although, judging by the epic of Gilgamesh, her position is also under threat). But steps towards monotheism, manifested in the strengthening of the cult of Marduk, which monopolized to the end. 2nd millennium, almost all areas of divine activity and power continue to occur. Enlil and Marduk merge into a single image of the "lord" - Bela (Baal) (in Assyria - Enlil and Ashur). In the 1st millennium BC. e. Marduk in a number of centers is gradually being replaced by his son, the god of scribal art Nabu, who tends to become a single Babylonian deity. The properties of one god are endowed with other deities, and the qualities of one god are determined by the qualities of other gods. This is another way to create the image of a single omnipotent and omnipotent deity in a purely abstract way. Monuments (mainly of the 1st millennium) make it possible to reconstruct the general system of cosmogonic views of the Babylonian theologians, although there is no complete certainty that such a unification was carried out by the Babylonians themselves. The microcosm appears to be a reflection of the macrocosm - "bottom" (earth) - as if a reflection of the "top" (heaven). The whole universe, as it were, floats in the world ocean, the earth is likened to a large inverted round boat, and the sky is like a solid semi-arch (dome) covering the world. The entire celestial space is divided into several parts: the “upper sky of Anu”, the “middle sky”, belonging to the Igigi, in the center of which was the lapis lazuli cella of Marduk, and the “lower sky”, already visible to people on which the stars are located. All heavens are made of different types of stone, for example, the “lower sky” is made of blue jasper; above these three heavens there are four more heavens. The sky, like a building, rests on a foundation attached to the heavenly ocean with pegs and, like an earthly palace, protected from water by a rampart. The highest part of the heavenly vault is called the "middle of heaven." The outer side of the dome (the "inside of heaven") radiates light; this is the space where the moon hides - Sin during his three-day absence and where the sun - Shamash spends the night. In the east is the "mountain of sunrise", in the west - the "mountain of sunset", which are locked. Every morning, Shamash opens the “mountain of sunrise”, sets off on a journey through the sky, and in the evening through the “mountain of sunset” hides in the “inside of heaven”. The stars in the firmament are "images" or "writings", and each of them has a fixed place, so that not one "strays from its path." Earthly geography corresponds to heavenly geography. The prototypes of all things: countries, rivers, cities, temples - exist in the sky in the form of stars, earthly objects are only reflections of heavenly ones, but both substances each have their own dimensions. Thus, the heavenly temple is about twice as large as the earthly one. The plan of Nineveh was originally drawn in heaven and existed from ancient times. In one constellation is the celestial Tigris, in the other - the celestial Euphrates. Each city corresponds to a certain constellation: Sippar - the constellation of Cancer, Babylon, Nippur - others whose names are not identified with modern ones. Both the sun and the month are divided into countries: on the right side of the month - Akkad, on the left - Elam, the upper part of the month - Amurru (Amorites), the lower part - the country of Subartu. Under the vault of heaven lies (like an inverted boat) "ki" - the earth, which is also divided into several tiers. People live in the upper part, in the middle part - the possessions of the god Ey (the ocean of fresh water or underground waters), in the lower part - the possessions of the gods of the earth, the Anunnaki, and the underworld. According to other views, seven earths correspond to the seven heavens, but nothing is known about their exact division and location. To strengthen the earth, they tied it to the sky with ropes and secured it with pegs. These ropes are Milky Way. The upper land is known to belong to the god Enlil. His Ekur temple ("house of the mountain") and one of its central parts - Duranki ("connection of heaven and earth") symbolize the structure of the world. Thus, a certain evolution is outlined in the religious and mythological views of the peoples of Mesopotamia. If the Sumerian religious-mythological system can be defined as based primarily on communal cults, then the Babylonian system shows a clear desire for monolatry and for more individual communication with the deity. From very archaic ideas, a transition is planned to a developed religious and mythological system, and through it to the field of religious and ethical views, in whatever rudimentary form they may be expressed.

Mythology. Encyclopedia, - M.: Belfax, 2002
S. Fingaret "Myths and legends of the Ancient East", -M.: Norint, 2002
S. Kramer "Mythology of Sumer and Akkad", -M.: Enlightenment, 1977
Reader on the history of the Ancient East, parts 1-2, -M., 1980

Mesopotamia as a whole, recorded in the sources in the specified language. It included the oldest (including pre-Sumerian?) layer of beliefs of the inhabitants of Lower Mesopotamia, the mythology of the southern "nomes" of the early dynastic time, the mythology of the Sumerian population of the Akkadian kingdom and the Power of the III dynasty Ur. The unity of Sumerian mythology is conditional: each city-state had its own pantheon, its own genealogy of the most important gods and local variants of myths.

Akkadian mythology- mythical representations of the Akkadians until the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. generally. Its origins are in the most ancient Semitic beliefs; however, relatively early these ideas were strongly influenced by the Sumerian culture; for this reason, Akkadian mythology proper is difficult to reconstruct. In a broad sense, this term refers to the mythology of the entire Akkadian-speaking population of Ancient Mesopotamia, including the Babylonians and the ancient Assyrians.

Babylonian mythology- mythical representations of the Akkadian-speaking population of the Babylonian kingdom as a whole, and over time - the entire region of Lower Mesopotamia, known in ancient sources under the name "Babylonia".

Assyrian mythology- mythical representations of the Akkadian-speaking population of Northern Mesopotamia as a whole, primarily the inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Tigris, where the historical region of Assyria was located.

Mythology of individual city-states- mythological traditions of individual city-states.

Comparison of Sumerian and Akkadian names of mythical characters, terms, locations

Sumerian name (transcription)	In Russian-language literature	Akkadian name (transcription)	In Russian-language literature	Notes
Abzu	Abzu	Apsu	Apsu	the embodiment of the underground ocean of fresh waters
An	An	Anu(m)	Anu, Anum	sky god
Enlil	Enlil	Ellil	Ellil	god of wind, air; supreme deity
Gibil	Gibil	Girra, Girru	Girra	God of fire
Iskur	Ishkur	Adad, Adda, Addu	Adad	god of precipitation, storms
Martu	March	Amurru	Amurru	patron god of the steppes and the population living there (Amorites)

Mythological picture of the world

As in most traditional cultures, the universe had a spherical image and a tripartite structure. The following levels were distinguished.

• overworld- heaven; home of the higher gods.
• Middle world- Earth; dwelling of people.
• Inferior or chthonic world- underworld; the abode of the dead, demons, chthonic gods.

Pantheon

The unified Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon is the result of the syncretization of numerous local traditions that took place as a result of certain political events: the priests of the major powers of Mesopotamia, primarily the Babylonian kingdom and the Power of the III dynasty of Ur, worked to build a single mythological scheme. There was a group of important deities, probably universally revered, but their names and position in the divine hierarchy were not always the same.

The most important common Mesopotamian gods

The most important gods were revered in the vast majority of cities; their cults are rooted in ancient stages Mesopotamian history.

• An(noise. "sky" ), Anu(m)(akkad.) - god of the sky; his cult was of particular importance in Uruk. An acts as the highest essence in the divine hierarchy, the embodiment of supreme power, the cosmic builder, the supreme judge, the patron of royalty, the "father of the gods." With the increase in the cult significance of the city of Nippur, many of these functions passed to the "firstborn of An" - the god Enlil; the differences between the functions of the two gods were blurred, but in general, An was regarded as a passive supreme deity, the embodiment of supreme justice. In the tripartite structure of the world, An is the lord of the “upper”, heavenly world; he is in charge of the stars and the weather.
• Enlil(noise. "Lord of the breath (that is, air)" ), Ellil(Akkad.) - the supreme active deity; like other important gods, he could initially be the patron of a separate territorial community, grouped around the city of Nippur. Enlil's functions are close to those of An: he is the "father of the gods", who determines fate, the supreme lord, the lord of the wind; but unlike his father, he accepts Active participation in the lives of gods and men. In the tripartite structure of the world, Enlil is the lord of the "middle world", the world of people. In relation to humanity, it manifests itself in two ways: on the one hand, he is responsible for fertility, is the giver of the harvest and a prosperous, peaceful life, on the other hand, he is a fierce and warlike god of the storm, bringing natural disasters to people. With the rise of Babylon, most of the functions of Ellil, as well as the epithet "bel" (Akkad. "Lord") gradually passed to Marduk; In the Assyrian pantheon, Ashur acted as the supreme god
• Enki(noise. "Lord of the Earth(?)", "Lord of the Subsoil(?)" ), Ea(Akkad. " Aya) - God groundwater, fertility, wisdom, magical art; creator and cosmologist. Initially could be a patron ancient city Eredu, where the characteristic fish-sacrifice cult can be traced back to prehistoric times. Enki is in charge of the "lower" chthonic world, or rather that part of it that is connected with water; his abode is the Abzu palace in the underground ocean of fresh waters; attitude towards people is favorable. In the genealogical scheme, this god is usually the son of An; his wife is Damkina, one of the children is Amarutu  (Marduk)
• Inanna(noise.), Ishtar(Akkadian) - the main female deity of the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon; revered everywhere, including as a single hypostasis of various female deities responsible for fertility (cf. "Mother Goddess"); the most important center is Uruk. Early sources do not give clear information about the functions of this deity; in the subsequent time, Inanna merged with Ishtar - the Akkadian version of the Semitic warrior goddess Astar, adopting some of her properties. The complex basis on which the image of the goddess has developed determines the complexity of her functions. In various sources, Inanna appears as the "mistress of heaven", "the mistress of all me" (the title of the highest gods), "heavenly cow" (that is, the giver of life and daily blessings), "woman" (semantics of female deities), "heavenly harlot" (projection of erotic functions on the scale of the universe), "multiplying people and countries like sheep "(reproductive force of nature). At the same time, Inanna-Ishtar also embodies destructive forces; this is a great warrior, crushing cities and countries, unsurpassed in battles. The cult of this goddess was also associated with the concept of “Sacred marriage” and the practice of cult prostitution. Indications of the position of Ishtar in the divine genealogy are contradictory. The astronomical incarnation was the planet Venus. With the rise of Babylon, part of the functions of Ishtar coincided with the functions of Tsarpanit, the divine wife of Marduk.
• Marduk(akkad.), Amarutu(noise. "Taurus Utu?" ) - originally the patron god of the community centered in the city of Babylon, one of the younger gods (igigs). With the rise of Babylon at the beginning of the II millennium BC. e. the importance of Marduk also grows. In the process of evolution, his image absorbed the features of other important cults, primarily Ellil, Ea, Shamash, and others; as a result, the image of Marduk is complex. In the sources, he is described as the “lord of the gods” (head of the pantheon), cosmic builder, divine warrior, hero responsible for fertility, “father of the human race”, god of wisdom, healing, magical art, patron of irrigation, giver of peace and prosperity. Unlike many early deities, the image of Marduk does not have pronounced features of ambivalence: Marduk is favorable to people, and wars and disasters are usually interpreted as a consequence of the existence of other forces acting in his absence. In the Neo-Babylonian time, the cult of this god reached its apogee: there were no characters equal to him in the pantheon, he was perceived as the ruler of the Universe. At the same time, the gradual assimilation of other cults led to attempts at a monotheistic interpretation of the image of Marduk, according to which all other gods were his hypostases. The astronomical aspect is the planet Jupiter.
• Ashur(Akkad.?) - originally the patron god of the community with a center in the city of the same name; with the expansion of the Assyrian kingdom - the main god of the pantheon of this country. The evolution of the image of Assur is similar to the evolution of Marduk; here there was a perception of the properties of the most important Mesopotamian deities - Enlil, Ea, Shamash, etc. In fact, he was a local version of the Babylonian god: in the Assyrian version of the epic Enuma Elish, the name of Marduk was replaced by the name of Ashur. The cult of this god had a special ideological significance: Assyrian king considered the high priest of Assur. After the destruction of the Assyrian state, the cult of Ashur continued to persist for some time; references to "Asshurism" of local residents are found in sources up to the 3rd century BC. n. e. .
• Nanna(r)(noise.), Zuen(noise. "master of knowledge" ), Syn(akkad.) - moon god, especially revered in Ur. His cult had an important ideological significance in the Sumero-Akkadian kingdom, the high priestess of Nanna was the daughter of the king. In divine genealogy, he is usually seen as "Enlil's firstborn"; his mother is Ninlil, his wife is Ningal, his son is Utu  (Shamash). In the sources, Nanna is called "radiant", "Caurus of Enlil" (meaning the "hornedness" of the month), "boat" (another reference to the shape of the luminary). Like other patron deities of communities, Nanna was responsible for the fertility and well-being of nature and people. The function of fertility was sometimes associated with the menstrual cycle (due to the connection of the moon with the monthly period of time), as well as with a special favor for cattle (cf. the "horns" of the month). In addition, Nanna's responsibility also included determining the fate of the living (in this role he acted as Enlil's adviser), and the dead (during the new moon, when he descended into the underworld). Differences in the names of the god were due to the change of the phases of the moon: Nanna- it's a full moon Zuen- half moon Ashimbabbar- young crescent of the moon. In Akkadian, the name Zuen ( suen) as a result of contraction has received the form Syn. In the Babylonian and Assyrian tradition, Sin was also seen as a healer and soothsayer god. After the loss of political independence by ancient Mesopotamia, the cult of Sin continued to exist among the locals for some time, until it was supplanted by other religious traditions.
• "Goddess Mother"- a symbol for a number of female deities (mainly the Sumerian pantheon) with similar functions, but revered under different names in different cities. Among them: Ninhursag(noise. "Mistress of the Wooded Mountain" ), Ninmah(noise. "Great Lady" ), Dingirmakh(noise. "Great Goddess" ), Key(noise. "Earth"), etc. The nature of these goddesses goes back to the most ancient beliefs of the population of the Middle East. Subsequently, most of them came to be seen as various forms of Ishtar.
• Shamash(Akkad. "sun"), Utu(noise. "Sun") - the god of the sun, the embodiment of the beneficial forces of sunlight. Sumerian Utu is the son of Nanna, which reflects the idea that day is a product of night; its cult center is Larsa. The Akkadian Shamash may originally have been a female deity; its most important cult center was at Sippar. The role of this god in the early stages of Mesopotamian history was less significant than that of the deities mentioned above; however, over time, Shamash began to be regarded as one of the great gods, "the god of heaven and earth", the embodiment of justice, the judge of the living (at noon, at the zenith) and the dead (at night, when he descends into the underworld), a warrior who casts out evil demons, a giver well-being and longevity.
• Adad(akkad.), Ishkur(noise) - the god of thunder and strong wind. The Sumerian Ishkur was the main god of the city of Karkara (location unclear), who was responsible for the fertility of this area; in myths, he acts as a minor deity, the son of Enlil (or An), a warrior god, "riding a storm", "a roaring wind", and also as a caretaker of channels. Akkadian Adad gained great importance in Assyria, where it was associated with royal power, as well as with the art of divination.
• Dumuzi(noise. "True Son" ), the Hebrew or Aramaic form of this name is often used Tammuz. Deity of dying and resurrecting nature (change of seasons); its cult centers were Kullab (one of the districts of Uruk) and Bad-tibira. The functions were close to those of similar Middle Eastern deities such as Adon (is), Telepin, partly Osiris, etc.).
• Chthonic deities- the lords of the “lower”, underworld, inhabited by demons and the souls of dead people. Information about this group of deities is fragmentary, contradictory and, as a rule, depends on the peculiarities of the local tradition. At the head of the "Country of no return" was a deity with the epithet ne-eri-gal; in different traditions this role was played by: Ereshkigal(evil sister of Inanna), Ninazu(son of Ereshkigal) Girra(God of fire), Erra(god of plague) Meslamta-ea etc. In the Akkadian tradition, the title ne-eri-gal evolved into the name of god Nergala- the lord of the underworld, a warrior god who sends epidemics, but also an astral deity, the personification of the planet Mars and, at the same time, the god of fertility. On boundary stones kudurru, where the symbols of deities were carved, in the area intended for the lower world, sometimes a god was depicted Ningishzida, more precisely, its symbol is a horned snake; chthonic features were present in the image Tiamat(the embodiment of primary chaos), Ishkhara(the personification of the constellation Scorpio), etc. In general, the gods of this group had ambivalent functions: the semantics of the earth was associated with both death and fertility.
• Warrior gods- a group of deities fighting against numerous enemies or monsters. The most famous: Ninurta- (originally the patron god Dilbat (?); was especially revered in Assyria), Ningirsu(originally the patron god Girsu; revered in the state of Lagash), Zababa(patron god of Kish), Tishpak(patron of Eshnunna, slayer of the monster Labbu), Pabilsag(the hypostasis of Ninurta; the incarnation of the constellation Sagittarius), etc. The traits of a warrior were often inherent in the most important gods: Enlil, Marduk, Ashur, Ishtar, Shamash, etc.

Patron gods of individual communities

Patrons of individual communities- originally represented local supreme deities responsible for the fertility of the land and the general well-being of local residents. Later their functions were specialized.

The patron gods of some cities of ancient Mesopotamia

City	patron deity	main temple	Notes
Ashur	Ashur	E-Ashur/Ehursaggalkurkurra
bad tibira	Dumuzi	Emushkalamma	Over time, Dumuzi was replaced by Lulal
Borsippa	Naboo	ezida	Deity of West Semitic origin; son of Marduk, patron of scribal art
Babylon	Marduk	Esagila
Der	Ishtaran	Edimgalkalama	God healer, divine judge
Dilbat	Urash	Eimbianu	Goddess (hypostasis Ki) or god; later Ninurta was considered the supreme patron
Isin	Ning-I(n)sina	Eugira	One of the incarnations of the goddess of healing Gula
Cash	Ninhursag	Urshabba
Kish	Zababa	Edub
Kutu	Meslamta-ea	Emeslam	Chthonic god; from the end of the III millennium BC. e. identified with Nergal
Larsa	Utu	Ebabbar
Marad	Lugalmarada	Eigikalama
Nippur	Enlil	Ekur
sippar	Shamash	Ebabbar
Grater	Dagan	Ekisiga	Semitic god of precipitation; known in the West Semitic world under the name "Dagon"
Umma	Shara	emah	Warrior god, son of Inanna
Ur	Nanna	Ekishnugal/Egishnugal
Uruk: Kullab	An	E-An (?), "White Temple" (?)
Uruk: Eanna	Inanna	E-Inanna
Eredu	Enki	Eabzu/Eengurra/Eunir
Eshnunna	Ninazu	Esikil	God of healing and warrior; since the Akkadian time, the warrior god Tishpak was considered the patron of Eshnunna

The most important myths

Myths about the creation and arrangement of the world

Enki and Ninhursag

In gratitude for deliverance from hard labor, the Anunnaki presented Marduk with a gift of a majestic sanctuary, Babylon, where they erected Esagila, the Etemenanki ziggurat, as well as temples in their honor. After that, the gods began to feast and determine fate. The remainder of the text is an exposition and explanation of the "Fifty Names of Marduk".

Myths related to the annual cycle

Inanna's descent into the nether world

"Inanna's descent into the lower world" (noise. an.gal.ta ki.gal.še- From the Great Heavens to the Great Bowels [Inanna turned her thoughts]) - a lengthy text in the Sumerian language, telling about Inanna's attempt to extend her power to the lower (chthonic) world, as well as the fate of Dumuzi, the bridegroom of the goddess.

At the beginning of the story, Inanna leaves heaven and earth, leaves the temples of Sumer dedicated to her, takes away those belonging to her me and in solemn attire with regalia goes into the "earthly interior". Fearing not to return, before leaving, Inanna punishes her messenger Ninshubur: after three days and nights, go around all the temples in mourning and in Ekur beg Enlil not to let her die; if Enlil refuses, go to Ur, to Ekishnugal to Nanna, if he refuses, to the wise Enki in Ered. Inanna arrives at the gates of the Ganzir Palace - the abode of the gods of the lower world, where she is met by the guard Neti. Inanna tells the surprised guard that she has come to participate in the ritual for the deceased Gugalanna, husband of Ereshkigal, the mistress of the underworld and Inanna's sister. Neti reports to the frightened Ereshkigal about the arrival of Inanna, after which she lets the goddess into the "Land without return". But the laws of the lower world are not subject to the power of Inanna; passing through the seven gates of the palace of Ganzir, the goddess is deprived of each of her seven powers and appears naked before Ereshkigal. Inanna's attempt to seize her sister's throne is unsuccessful and seven Anunnaki - judges of the underworld doom the goddess to death; Ereshkigal turns Inanna into a corpse and hangs her on a hook. After three days and nights, Ninshubur does everything as his mistress punished him; Enlil and Nanna refuse the envoy, believing that Inanna wanted too much power and therefore she herself is to blame for what happened, that the laws of the underworld are omnipotent and that no one will stand up for the goddess; and only Enki is willing to help. From the earth from under his nails, Enki creates two characters - mound(noise. kur.gar.ra) And galatura(noise. gala.tur.ra), gives them the "grass of life" and "water of life" and sends them to the gates of the underground country. The characters see Ereshkigal, who is tormented by labor pains and, having an “echo” with her, “bargain” the body of Inanna. After that, with the help of "water" and "grass of life" they revive the goddess. However, the Anunnaki grab the goddess and say that she will be able to leave the "Land of No Return" only if she finds a replacement for herself. Surrounded by hordes of demons galla Inanna exits through the seven gates of the underworld, returning her vestments and insignia along the way. The first to appear on their way is Ninshubur dressed in rags, whom the demons are already ready to seize, but Inanna prevents them; the same happens in Umma with the saddened local god Shara and in Bad-tibir with the mourning Ulul. Finally, the procession reaches Kullab (the district of Uruk), where they meet Dumuzi, who, instead of mourning, sits in luxurious clothes on a resplendent throne. In anger, Inanna orders the demons to seize him, but Dumuzi calls out to the sunny Utu, Inanna's brother, saying that she went to the underworld of her own free will, and now wants to send Dumuzi there instead of herself. Utu heeds the request of the hero and turns him into a lizard, which allows the latter to escape from the demons, but they continue to chase Dumuzi. Further, the text is damaged and partially restored by another source - "Dumuzi's Dream": in this place, perhaps, there is a description of other attempts of the hero to hide from the demons, for which he takes on other guises, hides with his sister Geshtinanna; the demons torture Geshtinanna and find Dumuzi; Geshtinanna is ready to go to the lower world instead of her brother. The text of the original poem continues. Inanna is sad about Dumuzi's departure and decides that her lover will spend only half of the year in the lower world, and Geshtinanna will be there instead of him the other half.

The text ends with the praise of "bright Inanna" and "bright Ereshkigal".

The myth of the hero Etana

The main characters of the epic are Gilgamesh and Enkidu, about whom individual songs in the Sumerian language also came down, some of them were created at the end of the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The heroes had the same enemy -

The Legend of Paradise

A convincing example of such parallels is the well-known Sumerian myth "Enki and Ninhursag", dedicated to the paradise for the gods - Dilmun.

“Modern man,” writes M. Belitsky, “has a very definite idea of ​​paradise. The Bible, painting, literature draw before us a beautiful garden where the first man Adam walks, accompanied by Eve, created by God from his rib; there is also a serpent-tempter who persuaded Eve to taste the forbidden fruit.

Let's try to forget all this for a while and turn to the clay tablets of the Sumerians, in which they talk about their paradise - the "garden of the gods." According to legend, the Sumerian paradise was located in the country of Dilmun. Some researchers believe that it was Bahrain, others - Southwestern Iran, others -

India. In the same country of Dilmun, the Babylonian sages later placed their "land of the living" - the land of immortality, borrowing for this all the main elements of the ancient Sumerian myth. In any case, Dilmun must have been somewhere east or southeast from Mesopotamia. There are a number of indications that the biblical paradise was also located in the east from Palestine, in Eden - where the four greatest rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, originate. “It looks like,” says S.N. Kramer - that it was still the same paradise of the Sumerians, the country of Dilmun.

The Sumerian paradise was not meant for humans. It was a place where only the gods could dwell. From the first phrases of the poem, we learn that the country of Dilmun is sacred, “the country of Dilmun is pure”, that the god Enki lives here with his wife, because this country is “pure”, “bright”, “immaculate”.

The Sumerian poet paints with bright colors a country that does not know sorrow and death, cruelty and despair, where the lamb is not afraid of the wolf and the ittidu bird, the herald of death, does not utter its mournful cry. Beautiful, full of wonders paradise country, where

the dove does not hide its head,

There is no one who would say: "My eyes hurt"

There is no one who would say: "My head hurts"

There is no old woman who would say: "I am old"

There is no old man who would say: "I am old."

In the country of Dilmun there is neither old age nor disease, people live here forever and no one crosses the river of death, and therefore

priests do not walk around him weeping,

The singer does not complain

At the walls of the city, he does not complain and does not cry.

One bad thing: there is not enough fresh water in Dilmun. When the goddess brought this to the attention of Enki, he orders Utu, the god of the Sun, to deliver water from the earth to Dilmun.

Utu carried out Enki's order: "from the mouth of the earth" a spring of fresh water clogged, and everything was as the god wished. Now there's nothing to stop happy life in the country of Dilmun, where the trees blossomed, the meadows turned green, the ears of bread filled with grain. And contented Enki strolled through the paradise country.

And then, apparently bored, he decides to have fun in these wonderful paradises and alternately takes possession of his wife, the goddess Ninhursag, then his two daughters. A remarkable fact is that all these women give birth quickly and without pain. Further, the restless Enki eats eight magical plants carefully cultivated by Ninhursag, falls ill and miraculously escapes death. This is the Sumerian myth, part of which was outlined in the previous chapter.

Readers may ask the question: what is there in common between our ideas of paradise, which have developed on the basis of biblical tradition, and the Sumerian myth of immoral gods? Let's try, relying on the findings of various researchers, to answer this question as fully as possible.

Let's start with the very concept of paradise. Since there is no written evidence that any of the cultures that developed simultaneously with the Sumerian (for example, Egyptian) knew this concept, the Sumerians are considered to be the creators of the legend of the "Garden of Eden". The Sumerian idea of ​​paradise as a country where there is no death corresponds to the biblical one. Its location also speaks for borrowing from the Sumerians of the biblical idea of ​​\u200b\u200ba divine paradise.

ill. 86. Image and location of the paradise earth according to A. Kircher ("Noah's Ark")

When dwelling on the Sumerian origin of the legend of paradise, one should pay attention to the rivers that flowed in the biblical paradise. The Bible directly indicates the Euphrates, that is, the region of Mesopotamia. Let us note that, both in the Sumerian paradise and in the biblical one, the problem of fresh water played a paramount role.

There is another point that is emphasized in the Sumerian myth: painless childbirth. Indeed, in the Bible, only because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, a curse was sent to them: “in sorrow you will bear children” (Gen. 3:16).

It is also interesting to compare the "crime" of Enki and the "sin" of the first people. Desiring to know the "heart" of plants, Enki eats them. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, even though God said, “From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, do not eat from it” (Gen. 2:17). So, the desire for knowledge was the reason that among the Sumerians, at the behest of Ninhursag, Enki fell ill, and in the Bible, by order of God, Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise.

And finally, the most popular biblical story: the creation of Eve from Adam's rib. What are its origins? The Sumerian myth says that Ninhursag, wanting to save Enki from pain in the rib, ordered the birth of the goddess Nin-ti (this name in Sumerian literally means "lady of the rib"). But since the Sumerian ti also means "life", the name of this goddess can be translated as "the lady [giving] life." From this play on words, which the Sumerian poet used, the biblical one was born: “And the Lord God rebuilt the rib that He took from a man for a wife ...” (Genesis 2:22). Obviously, the play on words was forgotten. The Hebrew scribes seem to have remembered only one meaning of the Sumerian ti -"edge". Hence the well-known idea of ​​the creation of a woman from the rib of a man was born. We owe this most interesting solution to the riddle of the biblical text to S.N. Kramer. Of course, the Sumerian and Biblical paradises reflect completely different ethical concepts coming from different premises. How convincing was the picture of paradise drawn by the Sumerians if, having existed for millennia, it captivated the imagination of philosophers and clergy - the authors of the Bible.

In the view of the Sumerian theologians, paradise was intended not for mortal people, but for the immortal gods. However, one mortal - but only one! - according to the Sumerian storytellers, he was nevertheless admitted to this paradise of the gods. We are talking about the Sumerian "Noah". Here we come to the flood myth, the closest and most striking parallel to the biblical text in all cuneiform literature.

This text is an introductory piece.

Sumerian myths

The myth of Dumuzi and Inanna

The first of these myths has long been known as the myth of how Ishtar descended into the underworld, and existed in the form of separate fragments; however, thanks to the efforts of Professor Cramer, this myth is now known in its full form as the myth of Dumuzi and Inanna. Dumuzi is the Sumerian analogue of more famous name Tammuz; and Inanna is the Sumerian analogue of the heroine of the Semitic myths Ishtar, the goddess of heaven. Dumuzi is the prototype of all the gods of vegetation, who die in the autumn and are reborn again in the spring along with the awakening of all plants. In the version of the myth that became the basis of the cult of Tammuz, the central plot is the imprisonment of the god in the underworld. It is also the main reason for Inanna's descent into the underworld. However, in the earliest version of this myth, which is given by Kramer in "Ancient texts of the Near East relating to the Old Testament", the reason for the goddess's journey to the underworld remains unclear. The variant of the myth given below corresponds to Kramer's version.

For some unknown reason, the goddess of heaven, Inanna, decides to descend into the underworld, "from where there is no return," where her sister, the goddess Ereshkigal, rules. Kramer suggests that she could be guided solely by her ambitions, the desire to subjugate the underworld to her power. To protect herself from all possible troubles, Inanna gave her vizier Ninshubur the most detailed instructions: if she does not return in three days, he will have to perform a funeral rite, visit the three highest gods in turn - Enlil from Nippur, Nannu, the god of the moon of the city of Ur, and Enki, the Babylonian god of wisdom, and beg them to do everything so that Inanna would not be killed in the underworld. After that, Inanna put on her royal clothes and jewelry and approached the gates of the underworld. There she was met by Neti, the guardian of the seven gates. By order of Ereshkigal and in accordance with the laws of the underworld, at each gate, Inanna takes off one piece of clothing. Finally, she appears before Ereshkigal and the Anunnaki, the seven judges of the underworld. They turn their "eyes of death" on her, and she turns into a corpse, after which she is hung on a pole. After three days, since Inanna does not return, Ninshubur does what Inanna ordered him to do. Enlil and Nanna refuse to interfere in this matter, but Enki performs some magical actions by which Inanna is brought back to life. From the dirt from under the nails, he creates two strange figures - kurgarra and calaturra (the meaning of these words remains unclear). He sends them to the underworld with living food and living water. They must sprinkle the corpse of Inanna sixty times with the food of life and sprinkle it with living water sixty times. They do so and the goddess is reborn. According to the laws of the underworld, no one can leave from there without finding a replacement. Therefore, the myth further tells about the return of Inanna to the world of the living, accompanied by demons, who must take a replacement for Inanna to the underworld. The demons take turns choosing Ninshubur, Shar (the god Umma) and Latarak (the god Badtibir) as replacements, but they are all saved by Inanna. At this point, the text cited by Cramer breaks off, but in a footnote he mentions a recent discovery. It turns out that Inanna and the demons accompanying her come to her city of Uruk and find her husband Dumuzi there. He does not bow his head before her, as the above-mentioned three did, and as a punishment she hands him over to the hands of the demons to drag him to the underworld. Dumuzi begs Utu, the sun god, to save him, then the text breaks off again. Therefore, we do not know whether in the original Sumerian version of the myth he was nevertheless carried away by demons to the underworld or not.

This is the first of the three main myths in its Sumerian version. It is possible that the Sumerians brought this myth with them when they began to inhabit the river delta, and that this is precisely its oldest version. In this version, Inanna descends into the underworld not at all in order to save her husband Dumuzi (Tammuz) from death. On the contrary, in complete contradiction to later versions of the myth, it is Inanna who allows the demons to carry Dumuzi to the underworld in her place, although the reasons why she herself descended there remain unclear. However, the rituals in honor of the cult of Tammuz, which belong to the Sumerian period, already give a later version of the myth. They describe the chaos and desolation that engulfed the earth as Tammuz descended into the underworld; they speak of Ishtar's complaints and her journey to the underworld to rescue Tammuz; they end with a description of Tammuz's triumphant return to the world of the living. Obviously, these rituals are part of the seasonal rite, so this myth can be rightfully considered ritual. The explanation for the changes that took place in this myth can be found in the fact that the Sumerians, having come to the delta, switched from a primitive economy to an agrarian one. In prayers, Tammuz and Ishtar are often depicted as male and female conifers, and conifers do not grow in the Tigris and Euphrates Delta. They grow only in the mountains, where the Sumerians came from. Moreover, the fact that "ziggurats" were part of the Sumerian temple architecture also points to this. The original version of the myth most likely arose under the influence of living conditions that were extremely different from the lifestyle to which the Sumerians had to adapt while living in the delta. There is evidence that Semites and Sumerians lived together in the delta long before the Amorite invasion and the subsequent conquest of the Sumerians by the Semites. We know that the Semites adopted the cuneiform script from the Sumerians, as well as a significant part of their religion and mythology. This can be taken as an explanation for the changes in the Tammuz-Ishtar myth that took place during the Assyrian-Babylonian period. Further we will find out what changes this myth has undergone, passing from country to country.

creation myth

The second fundamental myth that we find in the Sumerian version is the myth of creation. It should be noted that in none of the ancient creation myths do we find the idea of ​​creating the world "out of nothing". That is, in all these myths, the creation of the world is the establishment of order in the existing chaos. When we look at the Assyrian-Babylonian myths, we will see that the cosmogonic myth existed there in one basic version, the famous Enuma Elish, or Creation Epic, as it is now called. However, in the Sumerian version it has no analogue. Professor Cramer showed that the Sumerian cosmogony should literally be pieced together from various myths about the origin of the world. The following retelling of these myths is based precisely on the research of Professor Kramer. However, he does not forget to warn us that there are many gaps in our knowledge about the Sumerians and that many of the tablets on which, in fact, these myths were written, turned out to be broken. Therefore, at the current level of our knowledge of the Sumerians, it is simply impossible to give an absolutely coherent retelling of Sumerian mythology.

Sumerian creation myths can be divided into three subgroups: the origin of the universe; the structure of the universe; the creation of man.

Origin of the Universe

On a tablet listing the Sumerian gods, the goddess Nammu, whose name is depicted with an ideogram meaning "sea", is described as "the mother who gave life to heaven and earth." From other myths, it becomes clear that heaven and earth were originally a mountain, the base of which was the earth, and the top was the sky. The sky was personified by the god An (Anu), the earth by the goddess Ki. From their union, the air god Enlil was born, who separated heaven from earth and created the universe in the form of heaven and earth separated by air. Sumerian mythology does not give any explanation for the appearance of the ancient sea.

The device of the universe

This aspect of the creation of the world is touched upon in a number of myths that tell how divine creatures and other elements of the Sumerian civilization arose. The first of these myths describes the birth of the moon god Nanna, or Sin. The details of this event are unclear, and it is quite possible that someday our knowledge will be replenished with new information. However, the essence of the matter is this: Enlil, the supreme god in the Sumerian pantheon of gods, whose temple was in Nippur, fell in love with the goddess Ninlil and took possession of her by force when she sailed in a boat on Nunbird. For this dishonorable act, Enlil was cast into the underworld. However, Ninlil, who was carrying a child under her heart, refused to remain on earth without him and followed him. Since this meant that Nanna, the god of the moon, would be born in the darkness of the underworld and would not illuminate the sky at night, Enlil developed a cunning plan: Ninlil became the mother of three deities of the underworld, replacing Nanna there, who was then able to ascend to heaven. Obviously, this curious and long forgotten myth provides the key to understanding the transformation of the myth of Tammuz and Ishtar, which we have already spoken about. From the texts associated with the cult of Tammuz, we know that his second name is Enlil, and Ninlil is the second name of Ishtar, so Ishtar's journey to the underworld, the reasons for which remained unclear in the oldest version of the Sumerian myth of Inanna, finds its explanation in this myth about the birth of Nanna, the god of the moon.

In the Sumerian pantheon of gods, Nanna, or Sin, was the main astral deity, and the sun god Utu was considered the son of Nanna and his wife Ningal. In later Jewish cosmogony, they were reversed, and the sun became the main luminary, and the moon received a goddess as patrons, as in classical mythology. The Sumerians imagined Nanna riding through the night sky in a round boat - such as the Sumerians themselves sailed along the Euphrates - accompanied by stars and planets, the origin of which is not given any explanation.

After Enlil separated the sky from the earth, and the heavens began to be illuminated by Nanna, Utu, as well as the stars and planets, it was necessary to complete the organization of life on earth. Various myths are devoted to the elements of the earthly order. It is worth noting some illogical ideas that the cities and temples of the gods existed even before the creation of man, which occurred at the very end of the divine activity to create the earthly order. Enlil is considered the creator of all vegetation, livestock, tools Agriculture and objects of civilization, although he acted indirectly - through the creation of less significant gods who perform his tasks. To give the earth cattle and grain, at the suggestion of the god of wisdom Enki (among the Babylonians - Ea), Enlil created two lesser deities - Lahar, the god of cattle, and Ashnan, the goddess of grain, to give the gods food and clothing. The myth describes the abundance created by the gods on earth. However, they drink wine, get drunk, quarrel, forget about their duties and simply cannot get what they need. Man was created precisely to correct this situation. The following passage from Kramer's translations is part of the myth of Lahar and Ashnan:

In those days, in the dwelling,
Where the gods made
Born in Dulkug
There were Lahar and Ashnan.
And their creation Anunnaki
Everything eats and eats, get enough
Can not.
From the purest pastures
Milk... and more
Other
All the Anunnaki drinks -
Can't get enough.
To have milk and more
And so that in the pastures
Walked healthy cattle -
Man was created.

In addition to the myths that tell about the creation of food and clothing, there are a wide variety of myths that talk about the emergence of other elements of civilization and the structure of the universe. A long poem, most of which has yet to be deciphered, describes Enlil's creation of the ax and how he donated this valuable tool to the "black-headed people" so that they could build houses and cities. Another myth describes the activities of the gods to provide the Sumerians with the most necessary elements of civilization. It says how Enki, having first visited the Sumerians, traveled all over the world, distributing "tablets of fate." With this term, the Sumerians denoted the creative activity of the gods to restore order in the universe. Enki travels first to Ur, then to Meluhha (which probably meant Egypt), then to the Tigris and Euphrates, which he fills with fish, and finally to the Persian Gulf. At the head of each of these places he puts a god or goddess. An excerpt from Cramer's translation of this interesting myth will illustrate the nature of Enki's creative activity:

He (Enki) commanded to create a plow
And a hoe
He made the bull...
He called for the harvests;
On the barren fields
Growing grain;
Lord, Jewel and
Plain decoration;
… farmer of Enlil
Enkimdu, lord of canals and ditches;
Enki ordered to rule them;
The lord called to the fields
And commanded them to bring forth grain;
Enki ordered to create small
And big beans...
... grain, which he put in storage;
Enki created many
vaults;
Together with Enlil he created
Abundance on earth;
The one whose head... and whose face...
The tower that is the power of the earth,
The support of the "black-headed people",
This is Ashnan, the support of all things,
Which Enlil set
At the head of everything.

Enki then appoints Kabta, god of stone, as lord of the ax and trowel. He creates the foundation and builds houses, and makes Mushdamma, "the great builder of Enlil", the god of construction. He fills the plain with plant and animal life, and at the head of this life he puts Sumukan, "king of the mountains." Finally, Enki builds stables and sheepfolds, and puts the shepherd god Dumuzi in charge of all livestock.

The last myth concerning the structure of the universe is associated with the activities of the goddess Inanna (or Ishtar).

We have already mentioned the "Tables of Destiny", and we will see again when we talk about the Babylonian myths that these same "Tables of Destiny" play a very important role in several myths. Possession of them was one of the privileges and attribute of the deity. Often myths say that these tablets were stolen or taken from the gods by force. The fact is that the god, who possesses the "tables of fate", received power over the world order. In the myth we are now talking about, Inanna wishes to extend the benefits of civilization to her city of Uruk. To do this, she must receive "me" - this Sumerian word, apparently, means the same power and authority that is contained in the Akkadian "tablets of fate." "Me" is in the hands of Enki, the god of wisdom. Inanna goes to Eridu, where Enki lives in his house, Apsu, at the source of sweet water. Enki hospitably hosts his daughter Inanna and arranges a grand feast in her honor. Drunk with wine, he promises her all sorts of gifts, including "me", or divine mandates, which, according to Kramer, "are the basis of the Sumerian civilization." The myth lists more than a hundred elements that make up this very civilization. Inanna gladly receives these gifts, loads her boat with them and sails away to Uruk. Finding it missing, Enki sends his servant Isimud to retrieve the sacred "Tables of Destiny". He tries to do this as many as seven times, but each time he is prevented by Ninshubur, the vizier of Inanna, whom we have already spoken about. Thus, the goddess brings the blessings of civilization to Uruk. It should be noted that the theme of rivalry between the Sumerian city-states is somehow visible in many myths. The first in the lists of "me" that Inanna brought to Uruk are the symbols of power: the crown, the throne and the scepter. From this we can conclude that the struggle for supremacy in the Sumerian state was one of the main motives of myths dedicated to the arrangement of the world order.

Creation of man

We have already noted that the myth of Lahar and Ashnan ended with the creation of a man who was supposed to serve the gods. Another myth, the text of which is fragmented and difficult for a general understanding, describes the process of the creation of man. Although the content of the Sumerian myths differs significantly from the Babylonian Creation Epic, they are united by the same understanding of the purpose for which man was created. Man was created to serve the gods, cultivate the land and free the gods from the need to create everything necessary for life themselves. In Sumerian myth, the gods complain that they cannot get food for themselves. Enki, the god of wisdom, whom the gods always turn to for help, is sleeping. However, Nammu, the prehistoric ocean, the mother of all gods, awakens him from his sleep. At the command of Nammu and Ninmah, the goddess of birth, with the help of other deities, whom Kramer describes in his retelling of the myth as "kind-hearted and noble performers", clay taken from a source of sweet water is mixed and man is created. The text written on the clay tablet is then interrupted as the tablet is broken. However, some interesting details emerge. Enki arranges a dinner for the gods in honor of the creation of man. Enki and Ninmah drink a lot of wine and get drunk quickly. Ninmah takes some clay and makes six different human creatures whose origins are shrouded in mystery. Something is known only about the last two: a barren woman and a eunuch. Enki announces the fate of the eunuch: he must always be near or even in front of the king. The myth goes on to describe the next step that Enki takes. He creates a person weak in soul and body and asks Ninmah to somehow improve this unfortunate creature. However, Ninmah is unable to do anything and scolds Enki for creating such a being. In Hebrew there are several words meaning "man", "man". One of them is "enoch", the root of which has the meaning "weak" or "sick". This quality of a person is very often mentioned and emphasized in Hebrew poetry. Perhaps it is this element of Sumerian mythology that underlies the Jewish idea of ​​man as a being unable to rise to that place in the universe that was intended for him by divine providence. Later we will see that the Babylonian creation myth has very important differences that influenced the Jewish creation myths.

The myth of the flood

The third major myth is the flood myth. In his work, Kramer showed that the myth of the destruction of mankind by a flood in one form or another is found in all parts of the world. The main idea of ​​the myth is that the gods decide to destroy humanity; the means by which they decided to do this is of secondary importance - we will see later that the gods resorted to more than just the flood. It has long been known that the biblical story of the flood is based on the Babylonian myth, which we will meet in the next chapter of our study. However, until 1914, when the American Arno Poebl published a fragment of the text of one of the clay tablets, no one suggested that the Babylonian version of the myth, in turn, was based on an even earlier Sumerian myth. No other flood-related tablets have yet been found. Here summary Sumerian version of the flood myth. The story begins with one of the gods announcing his intention to save humanity from destruction, against the decision of the gods. The reasons for this decision are unknown. It is Enki who takes action to save humanity from destruction. He orders the pious king Sippar Ziusudra to stand near the wall, through which he will reveal to him the intention of the gods and tell him what must be done to save himself from the flood. Part of the text where the construction of the ark is supposed to be described is missing, but it is clear from the following passage that it existed:

All the storms of the world
Strike with one might
And at this time the waves
Overwhelmed all the sacred places;
Streams of water rushed
On the ground
Week: seven nights and
Seven anxious days -
The ship is huge
It swayed through the waves like a piece of wood.
And here comes Utu that
Sheds light on heaven and earth.
Ziusudra opened the window
In the closet of the ship
And Utu stretched out the rays,
Like strong ropes.
And here is the king Ziusudra
Prostrate to Utu
And brought him as a gift
Bull and sheep.

King Ziusudra
Spread out before Anu
And Enki.
Both Anu and Enki bestowed
He has mercy
And this mercy is life,
like gods;
And eternal, and easy breathing.
And here is the king Ziusudra the keeper of the name and seed
human race;
Came to the blessed land
named Dilmun.
There the sun shines brightly, and there it was
Ordered to live.

From the Babylonian flood myth, it can be inferred that the Sumerian version contained much more detail about the cause of the flood and the construction of the ark; but we will leave them aside. The question of whether the flood myth can be considered a ritual myth is rather complicated. However, we can postpone its consideration until we become more familiar with it and evaluate its connection with the myth of Gilgamesh.

In addition to the three main myths described, there are still a great many Sumerian myths that should be included in our story about the most ancient mythology of the world (well, maybe with the exception of the Egyptian one). It should also be borne in mind that our knowledge of the Sumerians is far from complete and the meaning of many words in their language remains not completely clear. Moreover, the texts on the tablets are often fragmentary and fragmentary, and very difficult to read.

Therefore, although this exposition of the Sumerian myths is based on the research of the best scientists, further research and excavations are likely to add something new to it or to supplement it in the future.

The myth of Enki and Ninhursag

The myth of Enki and Ninhursag has no analogue in Akkadian mythology, but Kramer called it one of the most complete Sumerian myths that have come down to us. In the Ancient Texts of the Near East, this myth is described as the myth of paradise. Some of its elements formed the basis of Jewish myths about paradise.

The action of the myth takes place in Dilmun, which is spoken of both as a country and as a city. Modern scholars believe that this is Bahrain. The main characters of the myth are the god Enki (god of water) and the goddess Ninhursag (goddess of the earth). The story begins with a description of Dilmun as a very clean, bright and bright place where all animals live in peace with each other and where neither disease nor old age threatens anyone. The only thing that is not in Dilmun is clean water. At the request of Ninhursag, Enki gives water to this place.

The myth goes on to say that from the union of Enki and Ninhursag, Ninsar (or Ninmu), the goddess of plants, was born. The pregnancy of Ninhursag lasts nine days (one day for each of the nine months of an earthly woman's pregnancy). After that, Enki enters into a relationship with his daughter Ninsar, who gives birth to the goddess Nincurra, and she, in turn, again from Enki gives birth to Utta, the goddess of plants (not to be confused with the sun god Utu). Ninhursag then warns Utta of Enki's intentions and advises her on how to handle the situation. On the advice of Ninhursag, Uttu demands Enki to offer her cucumbers, apples and grapes as wedding gifts. Enki brings these gifts and Uttu welcomes him joyfully. Eight plants emerge from their union. However, before Ninhursag can name them and determine their properties, Enki eats them all. Enraged, Ninhursag scolds him terribly and leaves. The gods are in fear, and Enki feels pain in eight parts of his body. With the help of a cunning fox, the gods summon Ninhursag and force her to cure Enki. She does this by creating eight divine beings in turn, one for each part of Enki's body that is affected by the disease. It is noted that there is a direct connection between the name of each deity and a specific part of Enki's body. The final lines of the poem give reason to consider these eight deities the children of Enki, whose life and fate are determined by Ninhursag. This myth has no parallel in Middle Eastern mythology, except for the very idea of ​​a golden age, which was widely held, and the theme of incest between father and daughter. The same theme is reflected in Greek mythology- recall the relationship between Saturn and Vesta, as Milton speaks of them:

Red-haired Vesta
She burned with love for Saturn.
Even though she was his daughter
No one saw shame in that.

However, we do not have a clue to interpret the details of this myth. Professor Thorkild Jacobsen says that this myth tries to find a causal connection between disparate phenomena and events, but this connection is causal only in the poetic sense of the word. Although, if plants are considered as a product of soil and water, we can still trace this connection, albeit with some stretch. However, at the end of the story, it turns out that the deities born to cure Enki have no inner connection either with the earth that gives them life, or with water. The myth nevertheless shows that although the Babylonians borrowed much from Sumerian mythology, the mind of the Semites could not perceive many of its elements.

The myth of Dumuzi and Enkimdu

Of great interest is another Sumerian myth, which echoes like an echo in the story of Cain and Abel, only without its tragic end. This myth, in fact, concerns the centuries-old rivalry between the agricultural and pastoral lifestyles. It tells that Inanna (or Ishtar) must choose her husband. There are two applicants: the shepherd god Dumuzi (or Tammuz) and the peasant god Enkimdu. Inanna's brother Utu, the sun god, favors Dumuzi, but Inanna herself sympathizes with Enkimdu. Dumuzi is persistent and says he has everything Enkimdu has to offer and more. Enkimdu tries to appease Dumuzi and offers him all kinds of gifts, but Dumuzi is firm in his decision to win Inanna and apparently succeeds in his intention, as in other myths he appears as Inanna's husband. It makes sense to quote here the final lines of the myth in Kramer's retelling. Enkimdu says:

O shepherd, why do you have this quarrel?
O shepherd, why are you doing it?
Why are you comparing me to yourself?
Let your sheep eat grass
Let your sheep graze
In my meadows
Let them eat grass in the fields of Zabalam
And all your flocks drink
Water from my river Unun.
Dumuzi says:
I am a shepherd and you are a peasant
Don't interfere with my family life
Oh Enkimdu as a friend
I beg you.
Enkimdu answers him:
I'll bring you wheat and beans
I'll bring you beans.
And the maiden Inanna, who is so pleasing to you,
Maiden Inanna...
I will bring you.

When we consider the ancient Hebrew myths, we will see that the myth of Cain and Abel traces the features of more ancient myths, and it is quite possible that Dumuzi's refusal of all the gifts offered to him by the god-farmer is nothing more than the original version of Yahweh's refusal of those offered to him. Cain gifts.

Myths about Gilgamesh

An important figure in Akkadian mythology is the hero Gilgamesh, who, according to the Epic of Gilgamesh, is two-thirds god and one-third man. But it also belongs to Sumerian mythology. Three Sumerian myths included in Kramer's Ancient Texts of the Near East contain episodes involving Gilgamesh. It should be noted that in the list of Sumerian kings, Gilgamesh is the fifth king of the Uruk dynasty, the second dynasty that ruled after the Flood (according to Sumerian mythology). The first of these texts, entitled "Gilgamesh and Agga", reflects the struggle for supremacy that existed between the ancient Sumerian cities. It tells of the conflict between Gilgamesh of the Uruk dynasty and Agga, the last king of the Kish dynasty, the first dynasty to rule after the flood. Most of the poem has not come down to us, but, apparently, it contains a story about the demand of Agga to surrender Uruk to him, about the resistance of Gilgamesh, about the siege of Uruk by Agga and, finally, about the reconciliation of the two kings. The gods did not intervene in this conflict, therefore, strictly speaking, this text is not in pure form example of Sumerian mythology. It is included in the collection only because it indicates that the figure of Gilgamesh appeared in Sumerian sources. The second text, titled "Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living" clearly contains a mythological component that was used in the creation of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. Its main plot is the search for immortality, that is, a theme that runs through the entire Middle Eastern mythology. Depressed by the thought of the inevitability of death, Gilgamesh decides to go in search of the Land of the Living. His friend and servant Enkidu, whom we learn more about in the Akkadian epic, advises him to first talk about his intention with the sun god Utu.

Utu tells Gilgamesh about all the dangers, but then helps him cross the seven mountains and reach his goal, which turns out to be the mountain where the giant Huwawa lives. Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut off the giant's head. Here the table with the text ends. The significance of the text lies in the fact that it indicates how much thoughts of death occupied the Sumerians, it is also the source from which the Babylonians drew material to complete the story of Gilgamesh, which appeared in the Akkadian version of the myth.

The third text about Gilgamesh, "Death of Gilgamesh" develops the theme of death and the search for immortality. Apparently, Gilgamesh had a dream, interpreted to him by the god Enlil as follows: the gods denied people immortality, but they instead gave Gilgamesh fame, wealth and success on the battlefield. The second part of the poem describes a funeral rite that Kramer suggests may shed light on the significance of the tomb found by Sir Leonard Booley during the excavations of Ur. It is possible that the Sumerians, like the ancient Egyptians, killed the wives and servants of the deceased king; the text itself implies that the deceased king is Gilgamesh, and ends with a sacred chant in his honor.

We can now leave Sumerian mythology and move on to Akkadian, namely Assyrian-Babylonian mythology, much of which, as already noted, is based on Sumerian myths. It must be borne in mind that the Semitic conquerors adopted the cuneiform script from the Sumerians and adapted it to the Semitic (Akkadian) language, which is completely different from the language of the Sumerians. Therefore, many gods of the Sumerian pantheon appear in Akkadian mythology under Semitic names. Inanna becomes Ishtar, Utu becomes Shamash, the moon god Nanna becomes Sin. Nevertheless, many ritual and temple terms retain their Sumerian form. Many of the prayers and chants were still recited in Sumerian, which remained the language of religious rites and liturgies even after it ceased to exist in its colloquial form. In the same way, now Latin continues to be the language of the church, although in everyday life no one speaks it for a long time. Thus, the Akkadian versions of the Sumerian myths reflect both the changed political situation (the conquest of the Sumerians by the Semites) and the completely different mentality of the Semites.

Among the vast amount of material that we have at our disposal thanks to the dedicated work of Sumerologists, three myths stand out that are so widespread that they can be considered basic myths. It has now become clear that, although these basic myths occupy a significant place in Semitic mythology, their roots lie in the culture of the Sumerians, so we must begin our story of Sumerian mythology with them.