CC 303/352: Lecture Outline, September 11, 2001

I. The Theogony and Near Eastern Myth

A. Babylon: Enuma Elish ("When on High")

• Apsu (Male Fresh Water) and Tiamat (Female Salt Water)
• Lahmu and Lahamu (mud)
• Anshar (heaven?) and Kishar (earth?)
• Anu
• Ea
• New gods dance insude Tiamat, disturb Apsu
• Ea overcomes Apsu and his officer Mummu
• Ea and consort produce Marduk
• Tiamat creates monsters to fight gods; Anu and Ea flee
• Marduk defeats and kills Tiamat and her consort Kingu
• Marduk makes humans

B. Hittites: Kingship in Heaven and Song of Ullikummi

• Alalush is king
• Anush defeats Alalush
• Kumarbi bites off Anush's genitals
• Kumarbi eats something given him by Aya
• Kumarbi gives birth to storm god
• Kumarbi has intercourse with rock and produces Ullikummi and plants him on top of Ubelluri
• storm god (Teshub) aided by Aya defeats Ullikummi

C. Hebrew Bible

• Formless mass at beginning
• separation into sky, wind, land, and water

II. Myths of Early Humans

A. Prometheus creates humans from mud

• Ovid (43 B.C.-17 A.D.): Metamorphoses
• Sumerian parallels: Enki and Ki

B. Myths of progress: Prometheus as benefactor

• Aeschylus (c. 525-456 BC), Prometheus Bound
• Shelley (1792-1822 AD), Prometheus Unbound

C. Myths of decline

1. Pandora

• Woman as the source of evil: cf. Eve
• Women as containers
• Why does hope stay in the jar?

2. 5 races of humans

• Near Eastern parallels
• History?: Bronze Age (c. 2000-1100 BC), Iron Age (starts c. 1100 BC)
• Age of Heroes: Greek addition

3. Flood (told in Ovid's Metamorphoses)

• Near Eastern parallels: reflect flooding in Mesopotamia?

1. Sumerian: Ziusudra
2. Akkadian: Atrahasis: too many humans
3. Hebrew: Noah: humans punished

• Lycaon
• Deucalian and Pyrrha
• Creation of New Humans

D. Plato (c. 429-347): Symposium: story of the roly-poly people

back to CC 303/352 homepage