# Mesopotamian Mythology Canonical URL: https://shipslides.com/d/mythology-mesopotamian-mythology Raw viewer URL: https://content.shipslides.com/d/mythology-mesopotamian-mythology/raw Category: Mythology Slides: 30 Updated: 2026-05-17T20:51:25.102Z Tags: mythology, mesopotamian ## Summary The Gods of the First Civilization Key sections include: Mesopotamian Mythology; The Land Between the Rivers; The Primordial Waters; Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation; The Creation of Humanity; The Pantheon: The Great Gods; Inanna/Ishtar: Queen of Heaven; Inanna's Descent to the Underworld; Gilgamesh: The First Epic Hero; Gilgamesh: The Quest for Glory. ## Slide Outline 1. Mesopotamian Mythology 2. The Land Between the Rivers 3. The Primordial Waters 4. Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation 5. The Creation of Humanity 6. The Pantheon: The Great Gods 7. Inanna/Ishtar: Queen of Heaven 8. Inanna's Descent to the Underworld 9. Gilgamesh: The First Epic Hero 10. Gilgamesh: The Quest for Glory 11. Gilgamesh: The Search for Immortality 12. The Great Flood 13. Ereshkigal and the Underworld 14. Enki: The Wise Trickster 15. Enlil: Lord of the Command 16. Marduk: King of Babylon 17. The Anunnaki 18. Dumuzi and the Dying God 19. Demons and Monsters 20. The Tablet of Destinies 21. Shamash: God of Justice 22. Sin/Nanna: The Moon God 23. Adapa: The Man Who Lost Immortality 24. Etana: The King Who Flew to Heaven 25. The Sacred Marriage 26. Mesopotamian Magic and Exorcism 27. Divination: Reading the Gods' Will 28. The Tower of Babel 29. The Legacy 30. Rediscovery ## Slide Transcript ### Slide 1: Mesopotamian Mythology - 𒀀𒀸𒂠𒄀 - The Gods of the First Civilization - From the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers emerged humanity's earliest written mythology. Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian traditions spanning over three thousand years--the stories that shaped all subsequent Western religion and literature. ### Slide 2: The Land Between the Rivers - Mesopotamia ("between rivers" in Greek) encompasses modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria and Turkey. Here, beginning around 3500 BCE, the Sumerians developed writing, cities, and the first recorded mythology. - Subsequent civilizations--Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian--inherited, adapted, and expanded these myths over millennia. The same gods appear under different names: Sumerian Inanna becomes Akkadian Ishtar, Sumerian Enki becomes Akkadian Ea. - These are the oldest written stories in human history. The Epic of Gilgamesh predates Homer by over a thousand years. The Sumerian flood story predates the Biblical Noah by at least 1,500 years. Understanding Mesopotamian mythology means understanding the root of Western narrative tradition. ### Slide 3: The Primordial Waters - Before creation, there existed only two vast bodies of water: Apsu (sweet/fresh water, male) and Tiamat (salt/sea water, female). Their mingling produced the first gods. - From their union came Lahmu and Lahamu (silt, the first sediment), then Anshar and Kishar (the horizons of heaven and earth), and finally Anu (sky) and the younger generation of active, noisy gods. - Apsu - The primordial sweet water. Disturbed by the noise of younger gods, he plotted to destroy them. Ea/Enki defeated him through magic and built his temple upon Apsu's body--the Abzu. - Tiamat - The primordial salt sea, depicted as a dragon or sea serpent. Patient at first, she was eventually roused to war against the gods who killed her consort. Her body became the material of creation. ### Slide 4: Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation - The Enuma Elish ("When on High") is the Babylonian creation epic, recited annually during the New Year Festival (Akitu). It tells how Marduk, patron god of Babylon, became king of the gods by defeating Tiamat. - When Tiamat raised an army of monsters to avenge Apsu, the older gods trembled. Only young Marduk volunteered to fight--on the condition that he be made supreme ruler if victorious. - Armed with winds, a net, and his thunderbolt, Marduk confronted Tiamat. He drove the evil wind into her mouth so she could not close it, then shot an arrow through her belly, splitting her heart. From her corpse he created the world: - Her upper half became the sky (dome to hold back the celestial waters) - Her lower half became the earth - Her eyes became the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates - Her tail became the Milky Way - Her liver became the constellations ### Slide 5: The Creation of Humanity - In Mesopotamian tradition, humans were created to serve the gods--specifically, to perform the manual labor that the gods found tedious. This is a strikingly different purpose than the Biblical creation "in God's image." - In the Enuma Elish, Marduk mixed the blood of the defeated rebel god Qingu with clay to form the first humans. The divine blood gave humans life and intelligence; the clay gave them mortality and flesh. - In the older Sumerian text Atrahasis, the gods created humans because the lesser gods (Igigi) went on strike, refusing to continue digging canals. Ea/Enki proposed creating humans as replacement laborers. He killed the god Geshtu-e ("ear"--representing intelligence) and mixed his blood with clay. - This origin--born from divine blood yet made of clay, created as servants yet possessing divine intelligence--gives Mesopotamian humanity a permanently ambiguous status between god and earth. ### Slide 6: The Pantheon: The Great Gods - Anu (An) - Sky-father, king of the gods in the earliest period. Remote and rarely intervening directly, he was the source of divine authority. His city was Uruk. He personified the sky dome itself. - Enlil - Lord of wind, air, and storms. The most powerful active deity, whose word was absolute law. He ordered the Great Flood. His city was Nippur. King of gods in the Sumerian period. - Enki (Ea) - God of wisdom, fresh water, magic, and crafts. The cleverest god, humanity's advocate who warned of the flood. His domain was the Abzu (underground freshwater ocean). His city was Eridu. - Ninhursag (Ki) - Mother Earth goddess, Lady of the Mountains. She helped create humanity and nursed the gods. One of the oldest deities, she was gradually displaced by male gods in later periods. ### Slide 7: Inanna/Ishtar: Queen of Heaven - Inanna (Sumerian) / Ishtar (Akkadian) is the most complex and fascinating deity of the ancient world. She is goddess of love, sex, war, justice, and political power--domains that seem contradictory by modern standards but were unified in Mesopotamian thought. - She was not a nurturing mother goddess but a fierce, sexually autonomous young woman who took what she wanted. She seduced the god Enki to steal the me (divine powers of civilization) and brought them to her city Uruk. - Her symbol was the eight-pointed star (Venus, the morning and evening star). Her temples employed sacred prostitutes (naditu). Her cult included gender-fluid priests (gala, kurgarru) whose existence challenged the binary. She herself was described as having the power to "turn men into women and women into men." ### Slide 8: Inanna's Descent to the Underworld - The oldest written narrative of the journey to the land of the dead. Inanna decided to visit her sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, "to witness the funeral rites" (perhaps to conquer death itself). - At each of the seven gates, a gatekeeper stripped away one piece of her regalia--her crown, her lapis necklace, her breastplate, her gold ring, her measuring rod, her garment--until she arrived naked and powerless before Ereshkigal's throne. - Ereshkigal killed Inanna with the "eye of death" and hung her corpse on a hook. The world above withered--no sex, no growth, no desire. After three days, Inanna was resurrected through Enki's cleverness, but the Underworld demanded a substitute. - Inanna chose her husband Dumuzi (Tammuz) as her replacement, furious that he had not mourned her death. He was dragged to the Underworld by demons, though his sister Geshtinanna volunteered to share his fate--each spending half the year below. This explains the seasons: when Dumuzi is in the Underworld, the land is barren. ### Slide 9: Gilgamesh: The First Epic Hero - The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest major work of literature in human history, composed around 2100 BCE in Sumerian and later expanded into the Standard Babylonian version (c. 1200 BCE). - Gilgamesh was king of Uruk, two-thirds god and one-third human. He was powerful but tyrannical--forcing labor on his people and exercising ius primae noctis. The gods created Enkidu, a wild man, as his equal and rival. - Enkidu - Born wild, living among animals. A temple prostitute named Shamhat civilized him over seven days of sex, after which the animals no longer accepted him. He went to Uruk to challenge Gilgamesh. - The Friendship - After wrestling to a standstill, Gilgamesh and Enkidu became inseparable friends. Their bond is one of the earliest explorations of male love in literature--the intensity debated by scholars for over a century. ### Slide 10: Gilgamesh: The Quest for Glory - Together, Gilgamesh and Enkidu sought eternal fame by slaying Humbaba, the terrifying guardian of the Cedar Forest (possibly Lebanon). Despite Enkidu's nightmares warning of disaster, they persevered. - They defeated Humbaba and cut down the sacred cedars. Then Gilgamesh rejected the sexual advances of Ishtar, who sent the Bull of Heaven to destroy Uruk in revenge. The friends killed the bull too. - But the gods decreed that one of them must die for killing Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. Enkidu fell ill and died over twelve days. His death speeches are devastating: - "I shall not die like a man fallen in battle; I feared battle and died in humiliation. Happy is the man who falls in the battle, for I must die in shame... My friend, the swift mule, fleet wild ass of the mountain, panther of the wilderness, Enkidu my friend--we who conquered the mountain, seized the Bull of Heaven and killed it... my friend whom I love dearly, who underwent all hardships with me, Enkidu whom I love dearly, the fate of mankind has overtaken him." ### Slide 11: Gilgamesh: The Search for Immortality - Shattered by grief and terrified by his own mortality, Gilgamesh abandoned his kingdom to seek eternal life. He journeyed to the end of the world, through the Mountains of Mashu where scorpion-people guard the sun's path, and across the Waters of Death. - He found Utnapishtim, the one mortal who had achieved immortality (by surviving the Great Flood). The old man told him that death cannot be escaped: - "The life that you seek you will never find. When the gods created man, they allotted death to mankind but kept life for themselves." - As a consolation, Utnapishtim revealed a plant at the bottom of the sea that could restore youth. Gilgamesh dove and retrieved it--but a serpent stole it while he bathed, shedding its skin in renewed youth. Gilgamesh wept and returned to Uruk empty-handed. - The epic ends with Gilgamesh showing the boatman the walls of Uruk--his true legacy. The message: immortality lies not in escaping death but in what we build, create, and leave behind for others. ### Slide 12: The Great Flood - The Mesopotamian flood narrative predates the Biblical version by over a millennium. In the Atrahasis epic and Tablet XI of Gilgamesh, the story follows a familiar pattern: - Enlil, disturbed by human noise (overpopulation), decided to destroy humanity through flood. Ea/Enki, bound by oath not to reveal the plan directly, spoke to a reed wall behind which Utnapishtim/Atrahasis sat: - "Reed wall, reed wall! Wall, wall! Hear, O reed wall! Man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu, tear down the house, build a boat. Abandon wealth, seek life. Spurn property, save life. Board the boat with the seed of all living things." - Utnapishtim built a cube-shaped boat, loaded it with animals and craftsmen, and survived seven days of flood. He released a dove, a swallow, and a raven. When the raven did not return, he knew land had appeared. He made a sacrifice; the gods gathered like flies over the offering, starving without human worshippers to feed them. ### Slide 13: Ereshkigal and the Underworld - The Mesopotamian underworld (Kur, Irkalla, or "the Land of No Return") is a grim, dusty, dark realm beneath the earth. It is not a place of punishment but simply where all dead go--kings and slaves alike. - Ereshkigal - Queen of the Dead, Inanna's older sister. She rules with absolute power--even the other gods cannot force her to release the dead. She is depicted mourning eternally, grieving for her own loneliness. - Nergal - Originally a celestial god who was banished to the Underworld. He forced/seduced Ereshkigal into marriage and became co-ruler. Their union story is alternately violent and passionate. - Conditions of the Dead - All are clothed in feathers like birds - They eat clay and drink dust - Darkness is their only light - Those with proper burial fare better - Those with many children are more comfortable (children provide offerings) - Those unburied are worst off--restless and tormented ### Slide 14: Enki: The Wise Trickster - Enki (Sumerian) / Ea (Akkadian) is the god of wisdom, magic, freshwater, and crafts. Unlike the remote Anu or the harsh Enlil, Enki is humanity's advocate--clever, compassionate, and sometimes mischievous. - He dwells in the Abzu, the underground freshwater ocean beneath the earth. His temple in Eridu (the oldest city in the world, according to the Sumerians) was called E-abzu. - Enki and the ME - The me are the divine powers/cultural norms that enable civilization: kingship, truth, descent to the underworld, sex, music, crafts, writing. Enki held them all until Inanna got him drunk and stole them for Uruk. - Enki and Ninhursag - A complex myth in which Enki eats forbidden plants in the paradise of Dilmun, is cursed by Ninhursag with eight diseases, and is healed when she creates eight healing deities from his body. ### Slide 15: Enlil: Lord of the Command - Enlil is the most feared of the great gods--the one whose mere word reshapes reality. He is the wind that brings both life-giving rain and devastating storms. His decisions are absolute and often terrible. - He ordered the Great Flood to exterminate humanity. He assigned the destinies of nations and kings. Temples to Enlil at Nippur were the religious center of Sumer for two millennia. - Yet Enlil himself was once punished. In one myth, he raped the young goddess Ninlil. The other gods banished him to the Underworld. Ninlil followed him--not from love but to ensure her unborn child (the moon god Nanna/Sin) would be born in the upper world. Through a series of sexual encounters in disguise, three more gods were conceived in the Underworld to serve as Nanna's substitutes. ### Slide 16: Marduk: King of Babylon - Marduk rose from a minor deity to supreme king of the gods as Babylon rose to political dominance. The Enuma Elish is essentially theological propaganda justifying Babylon's supremacy over older Sumerian cities. - His fifty names, recited at the end of the Enuma Elish, absorb the powers and identities of all older gods--he becomes everything: creator, judge, healer, warrior, shepherd. - Attributes - Four eyes, four ears (seeing and hearing everything). Red-gold skin. Clothed in the radiance of ten gods. His weapon is the thunderbolt (imhullu). His beast is the mushussu dragon. - Esagila - Marduk's temple in Babylon, possibly the Tower of Babel of Biblical tradition. It contained the golden statue of Marduk that was "taken by the hand" during the New Year festival by the king. ### Slide 17: The Anunnaki - The Anunnaki are the great gods collectively--the judges of the dead and the powers that decreed destiny. Their exact number and composition varied over time, but they generally represent the divine assembly that governs cosmic order. - In Sumerian Tradition - The Anunnaki were the children of Anu, the sky god. Seven supreme judges of the Underworld. They decreed the fates of all beings at the turning of the year. - In Later Tradition - The Anunnaki were distinguished from the Igigi (lesser/celestial gods). After the creation of humans, the Anunnaki became primarily associated with the earth and underworld, while the Igigi remained in heaven. - Modern conspiracy theories about the Anunnaki as ancient aliens have no basis in actual Mesopotamian texts. The actual mythology is far more interesting: a complex theological system of divine governance that mirrored and legitimized human political structures. ### Slide 18: Dumuzi and the Dying God - Dumuzi (Sumerian) / Tammuz (Akkadian) is the shepherd-king and consort of Inanna/Ishtar. His annual death and resurrection embody the cycle of seasons in an agricultural civilization. - Chosen by Inanna as her substitute in the Underworld (for his failure to mourn her), Dumuzi is dragged below by the galla-demons. His sister Geshtinanna agrees to alternate with him--each spending half the year in death. - "The wild bull who has lain down, lives no more. The wild bull who has lain down, lives no more. Dumuzi, the wild bull, who has lain down, lives no more." - The annual wailing for Tammuz (mentioned in the Bible, Ezekiel 8:14) was one of the most widespread rituals across Mesopotamia. Women would mourn his death in midsummer when vegetation withered, and celebrate his return in spring. ### Slide 19: Demons and Monsters - Mesopotamian cosmology was populated by numerous dangerous beings that threatened human welfare: - Lamashtu - A monstrous goddess who preyed on pregnant women and infants. Lion-headed, donkey-toothed, with bird talons. She caused miscarriage, killed newborns, and spread disease. Amulets of the demon Pazuzu were worn to repel her. - Pazuzu - King of wind demons, with a dog face, eagle talons, scorpion tail, and four wings. Paradoxically, his image was used as protection against Lamashtu--fighting demon with demon. - The Udug/Utukku - Evil spirits that lurked in deserts and wastelands. Neither alive nor dead, they crept into houses through cracks and caused disease, madness, and death. The Udug Hul incantations were used against them. - Humbaba - Guardian of the Cedar Forest, appointed by Enlil. His face was a single coiled intestine; his voice was the flood weapon; his breath was death. Gilgamesh and Enkidu slew him. ### Slide 20: The Tablet of Destinies - The Tablet of Destinies (Dup Shimati) is a clay tablet inscribed with the fates of all things. Whoever possesses it holds supreme power over the universe. Several myths revolve around its theft and recovery. - Anzu (Imdugud) - A lion-headed eagle who stole the Tablet from Enlil while he bathed. With it, he became invincible. The war-god Ninurta defeated Anzu through cunning and arrows, restoring the Tablet to its rightful holder. - Tiamat and Qingu - When Tiamat raised her army against the gods, she gave the Tablet of Destinies to her general Qingu, making him supreme. After Marduk's victory, he took the Tablet and fastened it to his own breast. - The Tablet represents the fundamental Mesopotamian belief that fate is fixed--written in advance by divine authority. Even the gods are bound by what is decreed, though they may influence which decrees are issued. ### Slide 21: Shamash: God of Justice - Shamash (Sumerian: Utu) is the sun god who sees everything from his daily journey across the sky. As the all-seeing eye, he naturally became the god of justice, truth, and law. - Hammurabi's famous law code shows the king receiving the laws from Shamash himself. But Shamash's justice extended beyond formal law--he was the protector of travelers, merchants, and all who operated far from home where local law might not protect them. - Each morning, Shamash exits through the Eastern Gate of Heaven, cut through the mountains by the scorpion-people. He crosses the sky in his chariot, then enters the Western Gate at dusk. At night, he travels through the Underworld, judging the dead by his light, before rising again at dawn. - The cycle of Shamash represents the most fundamental Mesopotamian truth: order (the day) always returns after chaos (the night), but the cycle is eternal and neither force permanently triumphs. ### Slide 22: Sin/Nanna: The Moon God - The moon god Sin (Nanna in Sumerian) was among the most widely worshipped deities. His temple at Ur (the great ziggurat still partially standing) was one of the largest in Mesopotamia. His daughter was Inanna/Ishtar (Venus). - The moon was considered superior to the sun because it illuminated the dangerous night. Sin controlled the calendar (months), measured time, and governed the tides of fertility in humans and animals. - The Moon's Journey - Each month, Sin traveled from a thin crescent (a boat sailing the sky) to full brilliance and back. The dark of the moon was his journey through the Underworld, from which he always returned. - Sin's Beard - The full moon was called Sin's "shining beard"--a lapis lazuli beard that illuminated the night sky. Eclipses occurred when demons attacked him, and rituals were performed to drive them away. ### Slide 23: Adapa: The Man Who Lost Immortality - Adapa, sage and priest of Ea in Eridu, was granted perfect wisdom but not eternal life. While fishing, the South Wind capsized his boat. In anger, Adapa broke the South Wind's wing, stopping all winds. - Summoned to heaven by Anu to explain himself, Ea coached Adapa to refuse any food or drink offered (fearing poison). But Anu, impressed by Adapa's wisdom, offered him the bread and water of eternal life. - Following Ea's advice, Adapa refused--and lost humanity's chance at immortality forever. Was Ea protecting Adapa, or deliberately keeping humans mortal? The text is ambiguous, and this ambiguity represents a central tension in Mesopotamian theology: even the god who loves humanity may not want humans to become like gods. - Adapa's story, predating the Garden of Eden narrative by centuries, presents the same theme: wisdom gained, immortality lost, through an act of eating (or not eating). ### Slide 24: Etana: The King Who Flew to Heaven - Etana was an early king of Kish who had no heir. Desperate for the "plant of birth," he befriended an eagle who had been rescued from a pit (where a serpent had trapped it after the eagle ate the serpent's young). - The grateful eagle carried Etana higher and higher into the sky, toward Anu's heaven where the birth-plant grew. Etana looked down and saw the earth shrinking--the sea like a sheepfold, the land like a garden. - "The land had become like a garden plot; the wide sea was the size of a bread basket." - Whether Etana succeeded or fell is lost in fragmentary tablets. But cylinder seals from 2400 BCE onward depict a man riding an eagle upward--making this perhaps the oldest surviving depiction of human flight in art. ### Slide 25: The Sacred Marriage - The hieros gamos (sacred marriage) was a ritual in which the king of a Sumerian city-state ritually mated with a priestess representing Inanna, ensuring fertility for the land, animals, and people. - The poetry composed for these rituals is among the most beautiful in Sumerian literature--frankly erotic love poetry celebrating physical union as a divine act: - "My vulva, the horn, the Boat of Heaven, is full of eagerness like the young moon. My untilled land lies fallow. As for me, Inanna, who will plow my vulva? Who will plow my high field? Who will plow my wet ground?" - The king responds: "I, Dumuzi the King, will plow your vulva." This is sacred text--inscribed on temple walls--demonstrating how radically different Mesopotamian attitudes toward sex and the divine were from later Abrahamic traditions. ### Slide 26: Mesopotamian Magic and Exorcism - Incantations comprise the largest genre of Mesopotamian literature. The ashipu (exorcist) and asu (physician) were the primary healers, combining what we would separate into medicine and magic. - Maqlû ("Burning") - A massive series of incantations against witchcraft, performed through the night. Figurines of witches were burned while reciting 100+ incantations. The most extensive anti-witchcraft ritual known from antiquity. - Shurpu ("Burning") - Nine tablets of incantations for releasing a person from sins they may have committed unknowingly. Items were burned to symbolically destroy the sin's power. - Udug Hul ("Evil Demons") - 16 tablets of incantations specifically targeting demonic possession. The exorcist invokes Marduk, Ea, and Asalluhi to drive out evil spirits. - Namburbi - Rituals to avert bad omens. If a diviner predicted disaster, a namburbi ritual could potentially undo the threat before it manifested. ### Slide 27: Divination: Reading the Gods' Will - Mesopotamians believed the gods communicated their intentions through signs embedded in the natural world. Reading these signs was a science requiring years of training. - Extispicy -- Reading the liver and entrails of sacrificed sheep. The most prestigious form, used for royal decisions. Thousands of clay liver models with annotations survive. - Astrology -- Invented in Mesopotamia. Originally for kings and nations only. Celestial omens predicted war, flood, famine, and the fate of rulers. - Lecanomancy -- Reading patterns of oil dropped on water - Libanomancy -- Observing the shapes of incense smoke - Dream interpretation -- Elaborate dream-omen lists catalogued in libraries - Teratology -- Birth defects in humans and animals as omens - The assumption was not fatalistic--omens warned of what would happen unless action was taken. Divination was practical: a tool for informed decision-making. ### Slide 28: The Tower of Babel - While the Biblical Tower of Babel is the best-known version, it draws on actual Mesopotamian ziggurat-building traditions. The Etemenanki ("House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth") in Babylon was a seven-story ziggurat rising 91 meters. - Mesopotamian myths about towers reaching heaven focus not on God's punishment but on human ambition and the proper relationship between heaven and earth. Ziggurats were not attempts to reach heaven physically but ritual structures creating a meeting point between divine and human realms. - The Sumerian myth "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta" contains a passage describing a time when "the whole universe spoke one language" before Enki/Ea confused human speech. This predates the Biblical account by over a millennium and may represent its source tradition. ### Slide 29: The Legacy - Mesopotamian mythology's influence on subsequent traditions is immeasurable: - The Hebrew Bible - The Flood narrative, Tower of Babel, Garden of Eden (compare Dilmun), the serpent's role, the creation of man from clay--all have clear Mesopotamian antecedents. - Greek Mythology - The succession of gods (Ouranos/Kronos/Zeus mirrors Anu/Enlil/Marduk), Aphrodite's similarities to Ishtar, the descent of Persephone echoing Inanna's descent. - Monotheism's Origins - Marduk absorbing all divine powers into one figure may have influenced the development of monotheistic thought among the Israelites during the Babylonian Exile. - Modern Literature - The Epic of Gilgamesh's themes--friendship, mortality, the meaning of civilization--resonate in literature from Homer to Tolkien to contemporary fiction. ### Slide 30: Rediscovery - For nearly two thousand years, Mesopotamian mythology was completely lost--buried in the ruins of Nineveh, Babylon, and Ur. Its rediscovery in the 19th century revolutionized our understanding of human civilization. - In 1872, George Smith of the British Museum translated Tablet XI of Gilgamesh and recognized the Flood story's similarity to Genesis. He was so excited he reportedly began undressing in front of his colleagues. The finding made headlines worldwide and challenged the Bible's status as sole source of ancient tradition. - Today, hundreds of thousands of cuneiform tablets remain untranslated in museum storerooms worldwide. New myths, stories, and religious texts are still being pieced together from fragments. The rediscovery of Mesopotamian civilization--the world's first--is far from complete. - A presentation on Mesopotamian Mythology -- the gods and stories of humanity's first civilization, written in clay and preserved through millennia of sand. ## Related Decks - [African Mythology](https://shipslides.com/d/mythology-african-mythology) - [Arthurian Legends](https://shipslides.com/d/mythology-arthurian-legends) - [Celtic Mythology](https://shipslides.com/d/mythology-celtic-mythology) - [Chinese Mythology](https://shipslides.com/d/mythology-chinese-mythology)