Transcript Sumerian Mythsx

Birthplace of Civilization
Oldest Writing on Earth
Civilization
 Authorities do not all agree about the definition of civilization.
Most accept the view that "a civilization is a culture which has
attained a degree of complexity usually characterized by urban
life."
 In other words, a civilization is a culture capable of sustaining
a substantial number of specialists to cope with the economic,
social, political, and religious needs of a populous society.
 Other characteristics usually present in a civilization include a
system of writing to keep records, monumental architecture in
place of simple buildings, and an art that is no longer merely
decorative, like that on Neolithic pottery, but representative of
people and their activities.
 All these characteristics of civilization first appeared in
Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia

 Sumer was the
southernmost region of
Mesopotamia (modernday Iraq and Kuwait).
 By 3600 BCE they had
invented the wheel,
writing, the sail boat,
irrigation, and the
concept of the city.

Great Firsts
 Government practices
 Astronomy
 Calendar and Leap Year
 Agricultural practices
 Irrigation and the Plow
 Raised sheep and cows
 Potter’s Wheel and
Jewelry
 Mathematics
 Units of 60 (we still use
this for time!)
 Metal-working
 Architecture
 Extensive Trade
 Wheel and Sail Boats

 Social Structures
 Upper, Middle, and
Lower classes
The First Writing

 They invented writing,
first in pictographs and
then developing into
cuneiform. and used it to
keep track of trade and to
create the world's first
known literature.
 The world's oldest book is
The Epic of Gilgamesh, a
collection of stories about
a Sumerian hero.
Importance of Writing

 Writing allows you to record and
pass down knowledge.
 It is far more reliable than wordof-mouth.
 Ever played Telephone?
 Writing systems allow a
community to ACCUMULATE
KNOWLEDGE.
 Even today, it is how you access
and record knowledge, whether
it is digital or physical.
Your Turn

 Research the Sumerians. Find THREE fascinating
facts.
 Copy them into your notes. Cite your source!
 Author. Title. Website.
 We are going to share these next week on our next
Myth of the Week.
 Whoever finds the most surprising information,
wins!
The Basics
 The Sumerians organized a
complex mythology based
on the relationships among
the various local gods of the
temple towns.
 In Sumerian religion, the
most important gods were
seen as human forms of
natural forces--sky, sun,
earth, water, and storm.
 These gods, each originally
associated with a particular
city, were worshiped not
only in the great temples
but also in small shrines in
family homes.

Basics
 The Sumerians thought that a great
domed roof contained the sky, the
stars, the moon, and the sun which
lighted the cities beneath it; they also
believed that below the earth swirled
the dim netherworld, a fearsome
abode of demons and the kingdom of
the dead.
 Enlil and Enki are credited with
creating the cattle, sheep, plants, the
yoke and the plow to provide
sustenance for themselves and less
important deities, but these minor
gods lacked the resolution to make
use of this bounty.

 So man was fashioned from clay and
given breath so he might tend the
sheep and cultivate the fields for the
gods.
 The gods of Sumer, much like mortal
men, suffered the vicissitudes of fate
and many legends tell of their often
ineffective exploits.
Beliefs
 Watch:
 http://www.bigmyth.com/full
version/password033/myths/e
nglish/2_sumerian_full.htm

 Read: “Sumerian Creation
Myth”
 Summarize: In your composition
notebook
Creation
The Flood

 The gods were angry at mankind so
they sent a flood to destroy him.
The god Ea, warned Utnapishtim
and instructed him to build an
enormous boat to save himself, his
family, and "the seed of all living
things.“
 He does so, and the gods brought
rain which caused the water to rise
for many days.
 When the rains subsided, the boat
landed on a mountain, and
Utnapishtim set loose first a dove,
then a swallow, and finally a raven,
which found land.
 The god Ishtar, created the rainbow
and placed it in the sky, as a
reminder to the gods and a pledge
to mankind that there would be no
more floods.

Legends of a flood can be found in the folklore of
such diverse places as the Middle East, India,
China, Australia, southern Asia, the islands of the
Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. But the bestknown flood legend--that on which the story of
Noah is based--had its origins among the peoples of
ancient Mesopotamia in the Tigris-Euphrates river
valley.
The Oldest Book in the World
Epic Poem
Epic Poem

 Epic of Gilgamesh
(2000 BC)
 The Illiad and The
Odyssey (800 BCGreece)
 The Mahabharata
(350 BC- India)
 The Aenid (19 BCRome)
 Metamorphoses (8
AD)
 The Shahnameh (11th
century Persia)
 Beowulf (8th-11th
century- Norse)
 The Divine Comedy
(1300s)
 Paradise Lost (1600s
England)
 The Rape of the Lock
(1700s England)
Characteristics of an Epic
 Epic poetry–or heroic poetry, as some of the medieval poets have
called it–follows a certain time-tested formula to portray such
grand representations of heroes and their followers.
 Here are a few recurring patterns to keep in mind when
considering these texts:

 The invocation of a muse. These poets plea to the gods at the very
beginning to grant them the power to tell these stories with a certain
forcefulness, though some admittedly pretend to do so to claim they
are divinely empowered.
 Many of these begin in medias res, in the middle of the story, and may
digress into the past later on in the poem.
 There are many journeys into the underworld.
 There are grand battle-scenes punctuated by extended similes,
ambitious analogies that stretch the imagination but strive for literary
glory.
 Many will feature the might of armies in long digressions featuring
weaponry and war games.
Gilgamesh

 He was King of Uruk,
who was two-thirds god
and one-third man.
 He built magnificent
ziggurats, or temple
towers, surrounded his
city with high walls, and
laid out its orchards and
fields.
 He was physically
beautiful, immensely
strong, and very wise.
A Cruel King
 Although Gilgamesh was
godlike in body and mind,
he began his kingship as a
cruel despot.
 He lorded over his
subjects, raping any
woman who struck his
fancy, whether she was the
wife of one of his warriors
or the daughter of a
nobleman.
 He accomplished his
building projects with
forced labor, and his
exhausted subjects groaned
under his oppression.

 The gods heard his subjects’
pleas and decided to keep
Gilgamesh in check by
creating a wild man named
Enkidu, who was as
magnificent as Gilgamesh.
 Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s
great friend and they go on
many adventures together,
killing monsters. Gilgamesh’s
heart was shattered when
Enkidu died of an illness
inflicted by the gods.
 Gilgamesh then traveled to
the edge of the world and
learned about the days before
the deluge and other secrets
of the gods, and he recorded
them on stone tablets.

The Gods
Step In
Hunting for
Answers
 Gilgamesh can’t stop
grieving for Enkidu, and
he can’t stop brooding
about the prospect of his
own death.
 Exchanging his kingly
garments for animal skins
as a way of mourning
Enkidu, he sets off into the
wilderness, determined to
find Utnapishtim, the
Mesopotamian Noah.
 After the flood, the gods
had granted Utnapishtim
eternal life, and Gilgamesh
hopes that Utnapishtim
can tell him how he might
avoid death too.

Utnapishtim
Tests the King

 When Gilgamesh insists that he
be allowed to live forever,
Utnapishtim gives him a test. If
you think you can stay alive for
eternity, he says, surely you can
stay awake for a week.
 Gilgamesh tries and immediately
fails. So Utnapishtim orders him
to clean himself up, put on his
royal garments again, and return
to Uruk where he belongs.
A Parting Gift

 Just as Gilgamesh is
departing, however,
Utnapishtim’s wife
convinces him to tell
Gilgamesh about a
miraculous plant that
restores youth.
 Gilgamesh finds the plant
and takes it with him,
planning to share it with
the elders of Uruk.
 But a snake steals the
plant one night while they
are camping. As the
serpent slithers away, it
sheds its skin and
becomes young again.
The Hero Returns Home

 When Gilgamesh returns to
Uruk, he is empty-handed
but reconciled at last to his
mortality. He knows that he
can’t live forever but that
humankind will.
 Now he sees that the city he
had repudiated (rejected) in
his grief and terror is a
magnificent, enduring
achievement—the closest
thing to immortality to
which a mortal can aspire.
Analysis

What is one of the themes of The Epic of
Gilgamesh?
Write a well-developed paragraph explaining
what this myth taught ancient people and
why this is an important message to
remember.
Works Cited

 “The Sumerians.” historywiz.com. History Whiz,
2008. Web. 9 August 2015.
 http://www.historywiz.com/exhibits/sumerians.htm
l
 “The Epic of Gilgamesh: Plot Overview”.
SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC, n.d. Web.
 Giusepi, Robert A. “Ancient Sumer.” historyworld.org. World International, n.d. Web.
 http://history-world.org/sumeria.htm