Eden's Pre-biblical Prototypes: Eridu and Nippur in Sumer (Part Two) Please click here for Part One
26 Nov 2005 (Revisions & Updates through 27 May 2008)
Professor Batto (1992) on the Hebrews recasting of earlier Mesopotamian myths and motifs in the Hebrew Bible:
"...I want to emphasize that this new mythmaking process is a conscious, reflected application of older myths and myhic elements to new situations...In so far as one admits the presence of myth in ancient Babylonian and Canaanite culture, then one must also admit the presence of myth in the Bible...This book, then, is a series of case studies of mythmaking in ancient Israel, or to be more exact, in the biblical tradition." (pp. 13-14. "Introduction." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"Now the Yahwist's primeval narrative is itself a marvelous example of mythmaking based upon prior Mesopotamian myths, notably Atrahasis and Gilgamesh. Interestingly, the reappropriation of mythic traditions and intertextual borrowing posited for biblical writers was already present within ancient Babylonia, and illustrates that biblical writers must be understood within the larger ancient Near Eastern literary and theological tradition." (p. 14. "Introduction." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"The theme of this volume...is, of myth and mythmaking speculation within the Hebrew Bible...biblical writers employed much the same techniques and even the same mythic motifs as their ancient Near Eastern neighbors...Israel...drew heavily upon the Babylonian myth of Atrahasis, supplementing with motifs from Gilgamesh and other traditional myths, to create a specifically Israelite primeval myth...Like their ancient Near Eastern counterparts, Israel's theologians were concerned with the place of humankind -and particularly of their own people- within the realm of being." (pp. 168-169. "Conclusion." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"The focus of this volume has been the various ways in which biblical writers throughout the history of the composition of the Hebrew Bible have used and reused myth...to undergird their religious and/or sociopolitical agenda. My purpose...has been only to show through representative examples how biblical authors actually went about using mythic motifs in their writing and how they consciously manipulated these to serve their specific purposes." (pp. 171-172. "Conclusion." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
It is most likely that man came to clothe himself NOT because he was "embarrassed" about being "naked," but because he needed to protect himself from the elements, a sun that could give him severe sunburn, brambles and thorns that could tear his flesh as he accidently brushed against them in pursuit of food; and to ward off the cold of the night in the desert, when hot daytime temperatures could plummet leaving him freezing.
As earlier stated, it is my conviction that Sumer's priests WRONGLY ascribed man's acquistion of civilization to the gods' bestowing this knowledge on him, denying him the glory of self-discovery and self-improvement and SELF-EVOLUTION from naked beast to a civilized clothes-wearing city dweller.
Clifford noted that Sumerian myths understood "civilization" was not of man's doing, it was of the gods' doing:
"...the human race was originally created animal-like, with no cities and culture, and only subsequently was it given the arts making life humane and bearable." (p. 44. "Rulers of Lagash." Richard J. Clifford. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington D.C. The Catholic Biblical Association of America. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 26. 1994. ISBN 0-915170-25-6 paperback)
"The text begins with An on the hill of heaven and earth generating the gods, who are divided into the great divinities and the lesser gods. The gods are without the sustenance provided by grain and flocks. There were human beings at that time but they were like animals, living without clothing and without the sustenance provided by grain and flocks. The gods discover the advantages of agriculture and animal hubandry for themselves but their human servants, without those means, could not satisfy them. Enki, wishing to increase human efficiency for the ultimate benefit of the gods, persuades Enlil to communicate to the human race the secrets of farming and animal husbandry." (p. 46. "Ewe and Wheat." Richard J. Clifford. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington D.C. The Catholic Biblical Association of America. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 26. 1994. ISBN 0-915170-25-6 paperback)
"Upon the Hill of Heaven and Earth
When An had spawned the divine Godlings,
...wheat...and Ewe...
Were unknown...
there was NO CLOTH to wear...
The people of those distant days,
They knew not BREAD to eat;
They knew not cloth to wear;
They went about with NAKED limbs in the Land,
And like sheep they ate grass with their mouth,
Drinking water from the ditches."
(p. 45. "Ewe and Wheat." Richard J. Clifford. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington D.C. The Catholic Biblical Association of America. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 26. 1994. ISBN 0-915170-25-6 paperback)
Grain's/Wheat's (personified) refuting Sheep's/Ewe's (personified) claim as to who benefits man more:
"Your shepherd on the high plain eyes my produce enviously; when I am standing in the furrow in the field, my farmer chases away your herdsman with his cudgel. Even when they look out for you, from the open country to the hidden places, your fears are not removed from you: fanged (?) snakes and bandits, the creatures of the desert, want your life on the high plain."
sipad-zu nij2-ju10-ce3 an-edin-na igi-bi im-ci-jal2
124 isin-na a-cag4-ga jal2-la-ju10-ce3
125 engar-ju10 na-gada-zu jictukul-ta mu-un-sar-re
126 ki-ta ki sig9-ga-ac u3-mu-e-re-kij2
127 za-e-ra ni2-zu nu-mu-un-ta-ed3-de3
128 muc jiri2 lu2 la-ga nij2 edin-na-ke4
129 zi-zu an-edin-na ku-kur ba-ni-ib-be2
The Sumerian an edin-na (an = high + edin-na =plain) is rendered variously as a "high" desert, steppe, wilderness or plain where shepherds graze their sheep and goats; Note that this edin is characterized as being a place of danger, inhabitated by snakes and other predatory creatures of the desert (leopards, lions, and hyenas) which seek the "sheep's life," but this can apply to man just as well. Edin is not a pleasant, idyllic place of tranquility where sheep and man have no fear its wild animals. The Mesopotamians understood man had been created to care for the gods' city-gardens and present them their produce for their sustenance. These gardens which produced grain for bread and beer, fruit-trees, and assorted vegetables were surrounded by uncultivated steppeland called the edin where shepherds grazed their flocks (the gardens themselves were never called edin). As noted in these verses, the farmer was vigilant to keep out of his garden-fields of grain, the shepherd of edin and his foraging flocks. Foraging wild animals would be just as unwelcome in the gods' city-gardens. I understand that the Hebrews are denying, challenging and refuting the Mesopotamian notions about the relationship between man, wild animals and the gods' gardens by recasting all of the above as a series of inversions or reversals of Mesopotamian concepts. For the Hebrews there is no danger for man from wild animals in Eden, all are free to feed off the plants in God's garden, which is not a city-garden, but in the midst of a region called Eden.
Leick on the an edin being a place of "abundant forage" for wild and domesticated animals, rather like the Garden in Eden. Note: This notion appears to _contradict_ the edin being always a semi-arid, desolate location (Emphasis mine):
"Shakan/Shakkan, Sumerian god...The etmology is doubtful, but the name seems to denote some four-legged animal...he is...the hero who is the crown of the high plain...in charge of an.edin, the high plain, a 'good place complete with grass, herbs and abundance,' teeming with cattle and the 'wild rams of the pasture'."
(p. 147. "Shakan/Shakkan." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998)
Moran on man being "a savage or beast" in the beginning according to Mesopotamian thought (brackets [ ] are mine):
"...Enkidu. As created by the gods, he is a savage, hairy wild man who lives on the steppe with the animals and acts as their friend...Enkidu is modeled on a concept of antiprimitivism found elsewhere in Sumerian, Babylonian and classical sources. According to this notion, the beginning of human existence was neither a golden age nor a period of pristine simplicity. On the contrary, life was savage, and man differed little, if at all, from other animals. Primal man was a beast, and the Babylonian Enkidu was primal man redivivus [brought back to life again], a figure who introduced into the epic a sharp nature-culture contrast that became a recurrent theme.
The humanization of Enkidu begins with seven days of uninterrupted lovemaking with a harlot sent into the steppe to seduce him."
(p. 173. William Moran. "The Gilgamesh Epic: A Masterpiece." Benjamin R. Foster. The Epic of Gilgamesh. [A Norton Critical Edition]. New York & London. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. paperback. ISBN 0-393-97516-9)
In the below myth Enlil makes man of clay at Nippur where he resides. The poem honors the hoe which makes possible irrigation channels for gardens. It also digs up clay that man is made from. The Atrahasis Flood myth declares man is made of clay ( titti ). Perhaps the poet is being 'playful" in claiming man "sprouts up from the clay" or earth at Nippur when hoed by Enlil ? The hoe digs up clay to make bricks for cities and temples. In another myth, Enlil, at Nippur, is facing a rebellion of the junior gods called the Igigi, who object to the non-stop work of the past 40 years in his garden, dredging irrigation canals for it. Enki is summoned from Eridu and he decides to make man of clay mixed with the blood of one of the rebelling Igigi gods. Man will replace the junior gods as agriculturalists. Now the Igigi will enjoy for eternity the rest from toil enjoyed previously only by the elder Anuna (Annunaki) gods like Enlil and Enki. Man's creation at Nippur in the below poem is confusing, some verses speak of him "sprouting up from the earth" when the hoe breaks up the clay, other verses suggested that the clay which has been hoed up is placed in a brickmold, man being envisioned as being "molded"? In either event, Man's creation is associated with Enlil and Nippur. In other myths Enlil decides man must be destroyed by a flood for disturbing his sleep by night and rest by day. Enki of Eridu, however warns Ziusudra (Atrahasis) of Shuruppak of the flood, telling him to build a boat and save self, familes and animals, which he does. After the flood Enlil is enraged that there are human survivors. Enki intervenes and pleads with Enlil to never send another flood against mankind. Enlil agrees and then "blesses" the flood survivors Ziusudra and wife. I understand that Enlil who separated heaven from earth and who had man made to work in his garden at Nippur, who sent a flood to destroy man, then blesses its survivors, has been merged with Enki to become Yahweh-Elohim in the garden of Eden.
"-Enlil who will make the seed of mankind rise from the earth-
not only did he hasten to separate heaven from earth,
(....) and earth from heaven,
but, in order to make it possible for humans to
grow "where the flesh sprouts,"
he first affixed the axis of the world in Duranki...
Here "where the flesh sprouts," he set this very hoe to work:
he had it place the first model of mankind in the
brickmold.
And according to this model his people started
to break through the soil towards Enlil,
and he looked approvingly at his blackheaded people."
Now the Anuna-gods stepped up to him: (....)
they wanted to demand the "blackheaded people"
from him.
The lady who (once upon a time) had given birth to the ruler, who had given birth to the king,
Ninmena now set the human reproduction going...
The hoe makes (everything) prosper, the hoe
makes (everything) grow lush,
the hoe (means) good barley...
The hoe (has to do with) the brickmold, the hoe
has made mankind appear...
The hoe and the basket are the tools for building cities."
(pp. 511-513. Gertrud Farber. "The Song of the Hoe." William W. Hallo. Editor. The Context of Scripture, Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World. Leiden, New York, Koln. Brill. 1997. ISBN 90-04-10618-9. Vol. 1.)
Professor Hallo has proposed that some of Genesis' motifs may have been inspired by earlier Mesopotamian "creation of man compositions," such as the so-called "Eridu Genesis myth," I concur (Emphasis mine):
"The fragment here translated was written at some time around 1600 BC...The story, which has a structure much like that of the biblical stories in Genesis, dealt with the creation of men and animals, the antediluvian cities and their rulers, and finally the Deluge, paralleling in order the creation, the ante-diluvian patriarchs, and the story of the Deluge in the Bible. IT MAY HAVE SERVED AS MODEL OR INSPIRATION FOR THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT."
(p. 513. Thorkild Jacobsen. "The Eridu Genesis (1.158)." William W. Hallo. Editor. The Context of Scripture, Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World. Vol. 1. Leiden, New York, Koln. Brill. 1997. ISBN 90-04-10618-9)
Below, the editors of The Epic of Man observation about the "agricultural revolution and domestication of animals" being man's greatest achievement (emphasis mine in CAPITALS):
"The AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION brought about by early Neolithic men and women stands as the MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. Until cereal plants and animals were domesticated around 10,000 years ago, civilization was impossible; afterward the growth of society was inevitable. It follows that no field of inquiry is more absorbing to many archaeologists than the agricultural revolution."
(p. 64. "Uncovering the Neolithic." Courtland Canby. Editor. The Epic of Man. New York. Time-Life. 1961)
The editors identify Sumer as one of the first great civilizations:
"Some 5,000 years ago, in a desert plain scorched by the sun and nourished by two great rivers, the long progression described in the previous chapters brought man at last to the stage of development we call civilization. The huge span of time called pre-history had ended. History now began.
What is history and what is civilization? The essential element in history is writing, from which the thoughts and events of the past may be read rather than merely deduced from the archaeological relics. Civilization is much harder to define...IT EVOLVED NATURALLY and gradually from life, means and skills of the settled communities described in the previous chapter. Among the components of a civilized society are: the pursuit of knowledge and the arts, a high level of political organization, a complex social and economic order, true specialization in crafts and skills and submission of the individual to the impersonal requirements of the state...Most if not all of these elements depend on the margin of security and leisure that comes only with the evolution of the village into the town and the town into the city...Man's creative fever first struck in the area loosely known as the Middle East. Here, without question, the spark of civilization was kindled. Within the thousand years between 3500 and 2500 BC, the first true cities on earth grew along and near the fertile banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers...A formative period, from 4500 to 2900 BC, witnessed the great transition from simpler societies to civilization. Then came the full flowering of Sumer's civilization during the Early Dynastic period, down to 2400 BC...From the standpoint of science and invention, the formative period was one of the most fruitful phases of human history prior to the age of Galileo and Newton. Out of it came the wheel, the first use of metal in quantity and the world's first known writing. From this followed arithmetic and geometery, the idea of money, an unprecedented abundance of representational art and a monumental architecture."
(p. 67. "The Coming of Civilization." Courtland Canby. Editor. The Epic of Man. New York. Time-Life. 1961)
The editors, from an Anthropological viewpoint, on "how" man came to be an agriculturalist and domesticator of animals:
"The transition from Mesolithic food-collecting to Neolithic husbandry was the longest step toward a stable society mankind had ever taken. It beginnings are not recorded in history, for man had not yet learned to write. But there is reason to believe that the two decisive developments -the cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals- occurred first in the Old World, somewhere among the low, sun-drenched hills that stretch eastward from Asia Minor through northern Iraq and Iran toward the steppes of southern Asia. The best evidence suggests that man began farming between 6000 and 7000 BC, and efforts to determine a more exact date are now being made by the carbon 14 process.
It was certainly no coincidence that man first converted his sweat into BREAD in the same general region, which, it is said, sheltered the Biblical Garden of Eden. As yet unravaged by man, it rolled toward the mountains and seas, an open, fertile parkland studded with trees and natural meadows of wild wheat and barley. Here was an ideal amphitheater for the agricultural revolution. The basic crops were present in the wild state, and so were the basic animals -sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. There were no dense woods to clear away. The rainfall was adequate for grain.
The actual methods by which plants and animals were deliberately made to serve human needs can be stated only in terms of conjecture. It seems likely that woman was the real pioneer. Among hunting peoples today, womenfolk gather the foods -fruits, nuts, roots and seeds- which supplement their diet of game...Into these man-made meadows wandered herds of grazing animals, accustomed for centuries to foraging there. From time to time an infant lamb or kid was captured and brought to the village as a playmate for children. Certain zoologists believe that the keeping of pets was the initial stage in domesticating sociable animals like sheep and goats, and that women, with their maternal instincts, protected the first tiny prisoners and probably nursed them to maturity...After man had mastered the basic secret of agriculture, it spread swiftly. Its most famous ancient testing ground was the region known as the Fertile Crescent, bending north from Egypt through Palestine and Syria and turning again through he valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. Much of this is desert today, buts its virgin Neolithic soil was wonderfully productive. Here man tended his first orchards of dates, figs and olives. Here he probably began to cultivate the grape for wine and brew beer from grains. The selective breeding of plants and seeds, and their transformation into better varieties also began in this period. No people has ever flourished mightily without abundant sources of grain. "Civilization," says historian Morris de Camp Crawford. "is, as it were, a second flowering of barley, WHEAT, rice and corn."
(p. 54. "Man The Planter And Reaper Of Grain." Courtland Canby. Editor. The Epic of Man. New York. Time-Life. 1961)
Of interest _to me_ is a passage from The Epic of Gilgamesh speaking of "a garden of the plain," as plain is "edin" in Sumerian, perhaps we what we have here is the earliest or "_first_" mention of a "garden of edin" ? Also of interest is the presence of trees in this "garden of edin," the biblical garden of Eden being famous for its trees.
Kramer (emphasis mine):
"To the...GARDEN OF THE PLAIN he [Gilgamesh] directed his step,
The...-tree, the willow, the apple-tree, the box-tree, the
...-tree he felled there."
(p. 178. "Slaying of the Dragon [Huwawa or Humbaba], the First St. George." Samuel Noah Kramer. History Begins At Sumer, Twenty-seven "Firsts" In Man's Recorded History. Garden City, New York. Doubleday Anchor Books. 1959. paperback)
Professor Kramer noted that the Sumerians thought that Civilization was the doing of the gods, a "full-blown creation bestowed on man by the gods," not a product a long painful evolution by man in the course of the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods as understood by modern Anthropologists and Archaeologists:
"Now that we have clarified, at least to some extent, the method and procedures by which the modern archaeologist and scholar has resurrected the long dead Sumerians and reconstructed their long forgotten culture, we need to turn to the history of Sumer...Let us start with the dark, negative, and unpromising side of the picture -the fact that the Sumerians themselves wrote no history in the generally accepted sense of that word, that is, in terms of unfolding processes and underlying principles. The Sumerian academicians and men of letters possessed neither the essential intellectual tools of definition and generalization nor the evolutionary approach fundamental to historical evaluation and interpretation. Limited by the world view current in their day and accepted as axiomatic truth -that cultural phenomena, and historical events came ready-made, "full grown...fullblown," on the world scene, since they were planned and brought about by the all-powerful gods- it never occurred to even the most thoughtful and learned of the Sumerian sages that Sumer had once been a desolate marshland with but few scattered settlements and had only gradually come to be a bustling, thriving, and complex community after many generations of struggle and toil in which human will and determination, man-laid plans and experiments, and man-made discoveries and inventions played a dominant role. Intellectually immobilized by this sterile and static attitude to the history of man, the Sumerian man of letters could at best be an archivist rather than a historian, a chronicler and analyst rather than an interpreter and expositor of historical truths."
(pp. 33-34. "History: Heroes, Kings, and Ensi's." Samuel Noah Kramer. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. 1963, 1972 reprint. ISBN 0-226-45238-7 paperback)
The editors on man's creation of gods in his image:
"To the Sumerians the will of the gods was exhibited throughout the universe. They believed that the world had been created and was governed by an assembly of gods with human forms and faces. Religion had thus become anthropomorphic -man saw the gods in his image."
(p. 75. "In All Things, Gods." Courtland Canby. Editor. The Epic of Man. New York. Time-Life. 1961)
Kamer on the Sumerian notion that the god Enki (in Eridu) made man in "the image of the gods" (delegating the task to others):
"Enki gives the matter thought, leads forth the host of "good and princely fashioners,: and says to his mother, Nammu, the primeval sea:
"O my mother, the creature whose name you uttered, it exists,
Bind upon it the image (?) of the gods;
Mix the heart of the clay that is over the abyss,
The good and princely fashioners will thicken the clay,
You, do you bring the limbs into existence;
Ninmah (the earth-mother goddess) will work above you,
The goddess (of birth)...will stand by you at your
fashioning;
O my mother, decree its (the newborn's) fate,
Ninmah will bind upon it the image (?) of the gods,
It is man..."
(p. 109. "The First Moral Ideals." Samuel Noah Kramer. History Begins At Sumer: Twenty-sven "Firsts In Man's Recorded History. Garden City, New York. Doubleday Anchor Books. 1959 reprint of 1956 edition by Falcon's Wing Press)
The editors of Sumer: The Cities of Eden, noted that for the Sumerians the world began with a city called Eridu, while for the Hebrews it was a garden in Eden; however, it is quite clear from the Mesopotamian myths that THE GODS' GARDENS WERE INTEGRAL ASPECTS OF THE CITY THEY DWELT IN, so the Hebrews in "recasting" the ancient Mesopotamian myths have merely OMITTED the fact that a god's garden was _always_ an aspect of a city:
"Sumerians viewed their own genesis in simple terms: In the beginning was Eridu. Here, in what was once a marshy landscape in southern Mesopotamia, where the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam locate humankind's first home -the primeval paradise of Eden- the Sumerian epic describes a far different kind of dwelling place. When the Sumerians looked back to the start of time, THEY SAW NOT A GARDEN BUT A CITY. Tales of the birth of the world appear on clay tablets dating from approximately 2000 BC: "A reed had not come forth. A tree had not been created. A house had not been made. A city had not been made. All the lands were sea. Then Eridu was made. The ruins of Eridu still linger in the desolate landscape west of the Euphrates, 12 miles to the southwest of Ur."
(p. 45. "Milestones on the road to Civilization." Thomas H. Flaherty. Sumer: Cities of Eden. Alexandria, Virginia. Time-Life Books. 1993. ISBN 0-8094-9887-1)
The VERY BEGINNING OF The Epic of Gilgamesh praises the city of Uruk where Gilgamesh dwells AND ITS GARDENS (emphasis mine):
"He [Gilgamesh] built the walls of ramparted Uruk...
One square mile of city, ONE SQUARE MILE OF GARDENS,
One square mile of clay pits, a half square mile of Ishtar's
dwelling,
Three and a half square miles is the measure of Uruk !"
(p. 3. "Tablet I." Benjamin R. Foster. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York & London. W. W. Norton & Company. [A Norton Critical Edition]. 2001. ISBN 0-393-97516-9. paperback)
The VERY ENDING of The Epic of Gilgamesh praises Uruk's walls AND GARDENS. Note this literary device is called a "Ring-Composition" whereby the beginning foreshadows the end and the end recalls the beginning (emphasis mine):
"When they arrived in ramparted Uruk,
Gilgamesh said to him, to Ur-Shanabi the boatman:
Go up, Ur-Shanabi, pace out the walls of Uruk.
Study the foundation terrace and examine the brickwork.
Is not its masonry of kiln-fired brick ?
And did not seven masters lay its foundations ?
One square mile of city, ONE SQUARE MILE OF GARDENS,
One square mile of clay pits, a half square mile of Ishtar's
dwelling,
Three and a half square miles is the measure of Uruk !"
(p. 95. "Tablet XI." Benjamin R. Foster. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York & London. W. W. Norton & Company. [A Norton Critical Edition]. 2001. ISBN 0-393-97516-9. paperback)
Campbell noted that the Hebrews, apparently _employing inversions_, are reversing or inverting motifs by _180 degrees_ borrowed from the earlier Mesopotamian culture. He notes that Abraham through Jacob are portrayed as wandering shepherds, _not_ settled urbanites, planting orchards and harvesting the fruit. He suggests the Hebrew shepherds wanting to magnify themselves, took earlier Mesopotamian themes praising city life and applied these motifs to themselves, portraying the urban life as depraved and not in God's favor (After the expulsion from the Garden of Eden Cain the agriculturalist and murderer appears and builds the world's first city). Campbell may be right. This would explain how a Mesopotamian city garden which man is created to toil in, relieving the Igigi gods, becomes a lush garden planted by a God before man's creation (Adam) in the midst of a wilderness called Eden. The uncultivated desert or steppe land in which wandered wild animals and shepherds was called in Sumerian edin. That is to say, the Hebrews may have reversed or inverted the Mesopotamian "creation of man" myths. Instead of man being created to work in a city garden, he is placed in God's garden in the midst of a wilderness called Eden (edin?). Campbell also notes the motif of man TILLING the city gardens of Sumer and Adam's TILLING the Garden in Eden.
Campbell on the Garden of Eden's Trees having been originally a myth of a settled peoples who plant trees and gardens instead of desert-wandering shepherds and herdsmen like the Hebrews (Emphasis mine):
"...And Yahweh took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it...We recognize the old Sumerian garden, but with two trees now instead of one, which the man is appointed to guard and tend...it is to be remarked that one of the chief characteristics of Levantine mythology here represented is that of man created to be God's slave or servant. In a late Sumerian myth retold in Oriental Mythology it is declared that men were created to relieve the gods of the onerous task of tilling their fields. Men were to do that work for them and provide them food through sacrifice...The ultimate source of the biblical Eden, therefore, cannot have been a mythology of the desert -that is to say, a primitive Hebrew myth- but was the old planting mythology of the peoples of the soil. However, in the biblical retelling, its whole argument has been turned, so to say, one hundred and eighty degrees...One milllennium later, the patriarchal desert nomads arrived, and all judgements were reversed in heaven, as on earth."
(pp.103, 105-106. "Gods and Heroes of the Levant." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. Arkana. A Division of Penguin Books. 1964. 1991 reprint)
The editors noted that archaeologists were able to date Eridu's origins to ca. 5900 BC (However, Leick prefers 4900 B.C., cf. below):
"...Safar and Lloyd had gone from the culminating phase of the Ubaid period to its bare beginnings, in about 5900 B.C. Truly, Eridu was old, and the shaft that penetrated its heart demonstrated a sequence of occupation spanning a period of more than 2000 years."
(p. 49. "Milestones on the road to Civilization." Thomas H. Flaherty. Sumer: Cities of Eden. Alexandria, Virginia. Time-Life Books. 1993. ISBN 0-8094-9887-1)
The editors (1961) noted that archaeologists wanted to find a site showing the transition of man from a hunter-gatherer to a beginning agriculturalist and domesticator of animals. Today (2007) archaeologists understand that communities in northern Iraq, and in the foothills of the Zagros mountains, pre-date Eridu, and show evidence of a transition from hunting-gathering to irrigation and cereals production (for details cf. Charles Keith Maisels. The Emergence of Civilization: From Hunting and gathering to agriculture, cities, and the state in the Near East. London & New York. Routledge. 1990, reprint 1999. ISBN 0-415-096596 paperback). Thus the below observation that the Sumerians were apparently WRONG in their creation myths that "the world began" at Eridu:
"Braidwood argued that farming had originated much earlier than most scholars believed, and probably not on the alluvial plain of the south but in the rolling hills of northeastern Iraq where wild sheep and cattle, wild wheats and barly could be found. He sought to identify and excavate the earliest settled villages, always with an eye to this region. Only by finding a transitional site could he pinpoint the pivotal moment in time when nomads had ceased their wanderings and started to cultivate the soil..."
(pp. 71-72. "Milestones on the road to Civilization." Thomas H. Flaherty. Sumer: Cities of Eden. Alexandria, Virginia. Time-Life Books. 1993. ISBN 0-8094-9887-1)
"Lingering, like dust in the desert air, is the thought that the city of Eridu was not, after all, so very old -nor, perhaps, was the myth surrounding the Garden of Eden. Each of these ancient locales, however, has served as a metaphorical touchstone for the great civilizations that followed them: Eden as the birthplace of humankind in Western culture and Eridu as the prelude for the glorious achievements of the Sumerians."
(p. 74. "Milestones on the road to Civilization." Thomas H. Flaherty. Sumer: Cities of Eden. Alexandria, Virginia. Time-Life Books. 1993. ISBN 0-8094-9887-1)
Please click here for a map showing the pre-Ubaidian settlements in northern Mesopotamia.
Radau noted that cuneiform texts at Nippur mentioned an id-edin "river of edin," (p. 25 & 26 note 3) and a an-edin "high steppe/plain", ki-edin "low steppe/plain" and arali-edin "underworld" (pp. 2, 17, 29. Radau), he rendering Sumerian edin/edin-na as "desert" (the uncultivated desert-like steppe or plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where shepherds grazed their flocks). Inanna has been translated to mean "lady of heaven," and she is also called nin-edin "lady of edin" (p. 42. Note 6. Radau), perhaps she is the lady of all three edins as she dwelt in heaven as 'the lady of heaven", married Dumuzi the shepherd of the earthly edin and was a prisoner of the underworld (arali-edin) until Dumuzi as her surrogate effected her release? (cf. Hugo Radau. Sumerian Hymns and Prayers to the god Dumu-zi or Babylonian Lenten Songs from the Temple Library of Nippur. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania. 1913)
From the above texts it appears that Inanna, who ate of Cedar trees (eating their PINE NUTS) to acquire knowledge about love-making to perform her duties as Dumuzi's bride, was also associated with an earthly Eden, a desert-plain/steppe (Sumerian edin, edinnu, edin-na). To the degree that Eve eats of a tree in Genesis, in a garden _located_in_ Eden, and Inanna bears the epithet or title "Inanna of edin" or "nin (lady) of edin" as a wife of the "lord of edin" (mulu edin) Dumuzi, could these Mesopotamian concepts have been "recast" as a Adam and Eve, a man and wife in Eden? That is to say Inanna, the "lady of edin," is a possible prototype of the biblical Eve, a lady in Eden, both having eaten of a tree inorder to acquire knowledge.
One "evil act" of mankind is defined as eating or drinking that which is forbidden. Such Sumerian notions may explain why Adam and Eve's eating of forbidden food caused God to say later of mankind "Their hearts are evil from their youth" (Ge 8:21).
"...Nanshe...judging mankind...The evil human types who suffer her displeasure are described as follows:
(People) who walking in transgression reached out with high hand,
Who transgress the established norms...
Who said "I would eat that which is forbidden."
Who said "I would drink that which is forbidden."
(p. 106. "The First Moral Ideas." Samuel Noah Kramer. History Begins At Sumer, Twenty-seven "Firsts" in Man's Recorded History. Garden City, New York. Doubleday Anchor Books. 1959. First published 1956 by The Falcon's Wing Press)
Ashurbanipal's 7th century BC prayer of forgiveness (he is apparently afflicted with some unknown disease) for unknown trespasses against his god, including the eating of forbidden food:
"In ignorance I have eaten that forbidden of my god;
In ignorance I have set foot on that forbidden by my goddess.
O Lord, my transgressions are many; great are my sins.
The transgression I have committed, indeed I do not know;
The sin I have done, indeed I do not know.
The forbidden thing which I have eaten, indeed I do not know...
The god in the rage of his heart confronted me...oppressed me...
Mankind, everyone that exists -what does he know?
Whether he is committing sin or doing good, he does not even know."
(p. 241. "Summary and Conclusions." John H. Walton. Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context, A Survey of Parrallels Between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan. 1989, revised edion 1990)
From the above passages it would appear that the Assyrians shared with the Hebrews the notion that one's god could become outraged over a man's eating a forbidden food item, regarding said act as a grievous sin against the deity, causing the deity to strike man down with diseases which would ulitmately cause his death.
Today I obtained a very important book for _my_ "Garden of Eden is Eridu" research. It filled in a few "gaps" and puzzles for me on some motifs appearing in Genesis' mythical garden.
As I noted above, earlier, it is my understanding that Enki's Apsu dwelling in the abyss is the source of Genesis' ed rendered "flood" or "fountain" (Ge 2:6) by some commenators, from which Eden's river emerges and becomes eventually four rivers. What puzzled me was a reason why Enki would be envisioned as dwelling in an abyss or Apsu house in the depths of the freshwater ocean under the earth at Eridu of all places! I am pleased to report that Gwendolyn Leick had the answer in her article on Eridu! She noted that M. Green ( Eridu in Sumerian Literature. Chicago. 1975) had observed that Eridu was built on a hillock in a depression which was 20 feet below the level of the surrounding land. This depression, at times of highwater fills up with groundwater from the watertable. Apparently this phenomenon came to be regarded with awe by primitive man, for them this was their god, En-Ki "Lord-Earth" sending up from the abyss -from time to time- fresh sweet water! So the building of a temple on the hillock in the midst of this depression was to honor Enki. It is called his "sea house" perhaps because, according to some hymns, in the beginning there is only sea, then a fountain of freshwater erupts from the salty sea, land forms about this fountain, and Enki builds the city of Eridu with its shrine.
Leick does _not_ take note of Enki making man to replace the toiling Igigi gods, who worked in the gardens of the gods in the cities of Sumer. Her interest is tracing the development of the city in Lower Mesopotamia from an anthropological viewpoint, but also noting the Mesopotamian beliefs regarding the origins of cities, which they ascribed to their gods.
Also bewildering for me, was, if Eridu is an Eden prototype, is there a possible connection between man and woman being naked and a serpent? Again Leick has provided a "possible" connection. Archaeologists found clay figurines of naked men and women as well as serpents at Eridu.
Adam was portrayed earning his bread by the sweat of his brow, and the teeth of some Eridu inhabitants exhibited extreme wear associated with the eating of stone ground wheat, that is to say when the bread is eaten it had bits of ground-up rock in it which hastens the wearing away of the tooth enamel. So the early inhabitants ate bread just like Adam and family. The Eridu myths do mention a bread oven for the temple and Adapa is a fisherman and baker for Enki at Eridu.
Leick noted that for the Mesopotamians the world begins in a watery location, a freshwater stream erupts to the ocean's surface, land forms and Enki builds Eridu for himself and the gods to dwell in. Although Leick does mention the gods making man later to be their servant, she does _not_ make the connection that man was made to work in Enki's Fruit-tree garden at Eridu as I have noted earlier above.
The following excerpts are from Leick's article on Eridu, I have concentrated on "bits and pieces" that for me were "relevant" to my proposal that Eridu is _one of several prototypes_ of Genesis' Garden of Eden.
Leick (emphasis mine):
"ERIDU IS THE MESOPOTAMIAN EDEN, THE PLACE OF CREATION...Amid a primeval sea, THE FIRST CITY, ERIDU...Just like the marsh dwellers of southern Iraq, who still build their huts on floating islands of reed, the god [Marduk] spreads mud upon a reed frame to fashion a platform. From this primordial, rather flimsy basis, the cities and their temples take their beginning. Henceforth the gods take up residence on the earth and live in cities. And because the gods have the dwelling of 'their heart's delight' in cities, Mesopotamian cities are always sacred.
THUS THE MESOPOTAMIAN EDEN IS NOT A GARDEN BUT A CITY, formed from a piece of dry land surrounded by the waters. The first building is a temple. THEN MANKIND IS CREATED TO RENDER SERVICE TO GOD and temple. This is how Mesopotamian tradition presented the evolution and function of cities, and Eridu provides the mythical paradigm. Contrary to the biblical Eden, from which man was banished for ever after the Fall, Eridu remained a real place, imbued with sacredness but always accessible."
(pp. 1-2. "Eridu." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001. Paperback)
Leick's identification of the abzu/apsu with a depression that periodically fills with subterranean groundwater to become a lagoon or lake:
"Eridu...It is one of the most southerly sites, at the very edge of the alluvial river plain and close to the marshes: the transitional zone between sea and land, with its shifting water courses, islands and deep reed thickets. At the same time the western desert, stretching for many hundreds of miles...is close enough to threaten the site and engulf it with sand. This placement meant that ancient Eridu had immediate access to the three widely different physical systems: the alluvium, the desert, and the marshes. and hence to the different modes of subsistence: farming, nomadic pastoralism, and fishing. Most importantly, however, the city commanded its own ecosystem, since it was built upon a hillock within a depression about twenty feet below the level of the surrounding land, which allowed the subterranean waters to collect together. This swampy place can still become a sizable lake in the months of highwater. The earliest Mesopotamian texts, from the early third millennium, underline the importance of this lagoon. In Sumerian this was known as the abzu ( in Akkadian apsu). In the almost rainless southern regions, the most obvious and crucial manifestation of water was the abzu. At Eridu, so the texts say, it surrounded the relgious centre and became synonymous with it...Eridu was the centre of the cult for the god and goddess of sweet water." (pp. 2-3. "Eridu.")
Leick, again, on the underground watertable that fills the apsu depression Eridu lies in:
"...Mesopotamian tradition identified Eridu as the most ancient of cities, as a holy place, the very site of creation...Eridu's importance was mainly symbolic. It stood for Mesopotamia's link with the beginning of the world, proof of the astounding longevity of its civilization. It was also very holy. At Eridu the features of the landscape -especially the large body of sweet water, a sort of lagoon at the edge of the desert- were seen as manifestations of divinity... Just as the Apsu, the most potent symbol of Eridu sanctity, could be present in any temple of the land, in analogy to the ever-present though hidden underground water-table..." (p. 29)
Thompson, at Eridu (1918), describes a "winter lagoon" on the eastside of the mound:
"Eastwards, not far from the mound, the grass has sprung up, marking the dry site of the winter lagoon which lies between you and the sandstone ridge..."
(p. 131. Charles Keith Maisels. The Emergence of Civilization: From Hunting and gathering to agriculture, cities, and the state in the Near East. London & New York. Routledge. 1990, reprint 1999. ISBN 0-415-096596 paperback.)
Professor Speiser on the _ed_ or subterranean groundflow in Eden which was the source of Eden's four rivers, possibly preserving the Sumerian a.de.a or Akkadian edu "ground-flow":
"The biblical text itself contains two semantic trailmarkers that point unambiguously to the land and lore of Sumer. One is the geographic term Eden, which hardly can be separated from Sumerian edin "plain." The other is the `ed of Genesis 2:6, the term for the groundwater that first irrigated the land. Whether one derives the word, with W. F. Albright, from id "river," or from Sumerian a.de.a (Akkadian edu) "groundflow," as I have recently advocated, its origin would be Sumerian in any case."
(p. 179. E. A. Speiser. "The Rivers of Paradise." pp. 175-182. Richard S. Hess & David Toshio Tsumura. Editors. "I studied inscriptions from before the Flood." Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1-11. Winona Lake, Indiana. Eisenbrauns. 1994; citing an article from 1958)
If my "hunch" is correct, the depression at Eridu called the abzu/apsu, was a type of a.de.a or edu, a "groundflow", regarded as the source of all the world's rivers, was transformed by the Hebrews into the _ed_, the groundwater source of the four rivers of Eden, the Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates.
What Leick is referring to (above) as "present in every temple of the land," is a symbolic apsu basin in stone or metal, the fountain of freshwater which in the beginning emerged from the depths of the ocean and around which land formed. Some scholars have suggested that the famed bronze basin at Solomon's temple may be a descendant of the Sumerian apsu basins of Lower Mesopotamia. When Enki made man of the clay from over his apsu in Eridu, he ordered all the gods to first take three ablution baths on the 1st, 7th and 15th of the month, to absolve them of "blood-guilt" in the slaying of an Igigi god, whose flesh and blood was mixed into the clay animating mankind. So Solomon's brazen bath may recall this momentous event.
Leick noted that Eridu, modern Tell Abu Shahrein, is about 24 kilometers south of Ur, and that archaeologists understand it was settled circa 4900 BCE (cf. pp. 4 & 6) Note: 10 kilometers equals about 6 miles, and on a good clear day a man standing atop the Ur ziggurat can see Eridu's ziggurat.
Several snake-like clay coils were found buried beneath an altar:
"Buried beneath the pavement of the nave, directly below the 'altar', were a number of curious snake-like coils some 30 to 40 centimeters long. These may have had something to do with an underworld cult."
(p. 7. "Digging up Eridu." Gwendoyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001. Paperback)
Naked male and female figurines were found at Eridu:
"Few objects of value were recovered: Some clay figurines of naked male and female humans, small animal figures, a model snake decorated to look like one of the serpents still common around Abu Shahrein and the buried clay snake coils mentioned above."
(p. 8. "Eridu."Gwendoyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001. Paperback)
"Figurative terracottas were also found among the 'temple' debris, including fragmentary (female ?) figurines, with the lower body covered with some sort of dress whose patterns are painted with wavy stripes in black...Other anthropomorph statues from the Ubaid cemetery levels are all nude."
(p. 11. "Eridu." Gwendoyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001. Paperback)
Leick on the spread of Ubaid ware in the Ancient Near East:
"Anthropologists have argued that the emergence of prestige goods and precious tableware is connected to early forms of hierarchy -in which one group has secured access to territory and goods and is responsible for distribution. The culture of the Chalcolithic (or Copper Age) in the Ancient Near East, of which the Ubaid is the southern manifestation, was characterized by increasing sedentarism, horticulture and exchange. Painted pottery from the latest phase (c. 4000-3500) can be found all over Mesopotamia, Syria, western and southern Iran, Anatolia, and along the Persian Gulf. This points to a lively network of exchange throughout the region, which was to become even more intensified and organized during the subsequent age known as the Uruk period. At Eridu the earliest settlement levels, built directly on virgin sand, already have the Chalcolithic pottery typical of the southern Ubaid culture." (p. 10. Leick)
Leick remarked about the badly worn teeth and the grit in bread from milling of some of the dead found in Eridu's cemetery (p. 12). Querns for processing wheat into bread were found, as well as an oven near the earliest shrine for Enki. In myths Adapa bakes BREAD and fishes for his god.
The Bible portrays Adam as earning his _BREAD_ with hard toil, because God has cursed the earth (Ge 3:19). This statement reveals that Adam grows, harvests and processes wheat inorder to eat BREAD. Archaeologically, Eridu begins in the Ubaid period (ca. 4900 BCE, Leick. p. 6. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City), possessing an OVEN for bread for Enki's shrine. The "earliest" evidence for irrigation and wheat production, with bread ovens, however is not at Eridu in edin-the-flood-plain, but in the rain-fed foothills of the Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges bordering the Mesopotamian plain. These settlements show a marked transition from hunting-gathering to a principal reliance of grain crops occurring circa 5,400 to 5,100 BCE at Chogha Mami and Choga Sefid, 5200-5000 BCE in the western mountains of Iran near the Mesopotamian plain; mention is also made of flints for processing hides diminishing with spindle whorls appearing suggesting weaving from flax and of wool. God makes clothes for Adam of skins, and the evidence of man's transition from clothing made of skins to plant fibers is interesting (for details cf. pp. 102-107. C. K. Maisels. The Emergence of Civilization. 1990). Quite clearly, the archaeological evidence reveals that Adam's association with _BREAD_ cannot be earlier than the period in which this crop appears in edin-the-plain, the 5th millennium BCE at Ubaidian Eridu. Of interest, here, is Bishop Ussher's dating of Eden and Adam and Eve to this _same millennium_ via Genesis' genealogies!
Leick on Eridu's watery environment (some scolars, like Umbert Cassuto argue eden means "watery"):
"In Eridu, the resources of the marshes and lagoons were prominent and the abundance of water made it suitable for the breeding of cattle and pigs. The favorite food consumed in the 'temple' was fish, a preference perhaps influenced by association with the Apsu." (p. 16. Leick)
I note that Adapa is portrayed as setting Enki's food table with bread and fish.
"As far as the spiritual achievement of this elusive, preliterate period is concerned, Charvat surmises that nothing less than 'the formation of the first universal relgion' was at stake here, with Eridu playing a significant part, s perhaps the 'southern representative' remembered by later tradition, where Eridu was seen as a source of all wisdom and the seat of the god of knowledge." (p. 16. Leick)
Leick notes that Eridu was important for religious reasons, not economic. It was abandoned several times, and various Sumerian monarchs at Ur in Dynasties 1-3, rebuilt Enki's temple and conducted services there. The last rebuilding was by Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, shortly after, it was reclaimed again by the desert sands (cf. pp.17-19. Leick).
Langdon noted that the plain about Eridu was called edin (edin-na), so in Sumerian texts Eridu is specifically identified with edin, understood by some scholars to be Genesis' Eden _in_ which a God's garden exists:
"...edin-na ? -a erida (ki)-ta In the ...plain of Eridu..." (p. 299. Line 31. Stephen H. Langdon. Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms. Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Publications of the Babylonian Section. Vol X. 4. 1919 (Philadelphia, 1911--).
Of importance here, is Leick's observation that the monarchs of Ur held Eridu in great reverence, and while no inscribed tablets have ever been found at Eridu, the Ur archives do provide us with information about Enki and Eridu. In the Bible we are told that once upon a time lived a man called Terah and his son Abraham in a city called Ur of the Chaldees. I suspect that the Ur archives and its citizenry kept alive the memory of the Edenic Eridu and its wonderous apsu which became Genesis' ed or "flood/fountain" that fed the rivers of Eden.
I understand that Genesis' notion that wisdom and knowledge is somehow associated with a god's garden in Eden is a recast of Eridu in Sumerian myths. Eridu is the first city in Sumerian myth and it is the world's first city-garden that man will be made to care for. The god of Eridu, Sumerian Enki (Akkadian Ea) is credited with thinking up the creation of man to be a servant the gods (delegating the task of creation from Eridu's clay to a goddess), he is the god of "wisdom and knowledge," he is a jealous god and unwilling to allow man to obtain immortality via the eating of a food, 'the bread of life' that would confer this boon upon mankind (cf. Adapa and the Southwind Myth, Enki being called Ea in this myth). I understand Eve's desire for wisdom is recalling Inanna of Uruk, who succeeds in obtaining the jealously guarded 'me' at Eridu from Enki/Ea. The 'me' represent to to some degree the totality of knowledge necessary for mankind to enjoy a civilized life. In acquiring these from Enki, against his wishes, she bestows a boon on mankind. I understand the Hebrews recast this as Eve acquiring forbidden knowledge or "wisdom" (the knowledge of good and evil upon which decisions and judgements are made) and passing it on to mankind in the form of Adam. Inanna obtained the 'me' while Enki was in a state of drunkeness: he gave, she willing accepted. When he awoke from his drunken stupor and learned what he had done he attempted unsuccessfully to get them back from her. Inanna, who bore at ancient Nippur the Sumerian epithet nin edin-na "the lady of edin," had succeeded in wresting away from a jealous god (Enki/Ea) the "totality of knowledge" needed to benefit mankind.
Leick:
"The Mesopotamians also made a connection between water and intelligence, or wisdom...Enki's wisdom is of a practical as well as an esoteric nature...He was the patron deity of...gardeners...Eridu as the primary manifestation of the Apsu was also regarded the place of knowledge, the fount of wisdom, and under Enki's control. Several narratives elaborate on this concept. Eridu as the storehouse of divine decrees is described in a Sumerian narrative called 'Enki and Inanna.' Enki, ensconced in the Apsu, is in possession of all the me, a Sumerian term which refers to all those institutions, forms of social behavior, emotions, signs of office, which in their totality were seen as indespensible for the smooth operation of the world. These me belonged to Eridu and to Enki. However, Inanna, city goddess of Uruk, desires to obtain the me for herself and take them to Uruk...Having liberated the me...Inanna could not only enhance her own powers but also implement the decrees among mankind...through Inanna's interference, they became immanent in the world. She liberated them from Enki's keeping at Eridu, where he presumeably kept them locked away."
(pp. 22-23. "Eridu Stories." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, the Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001, 2002)
Wolkstein and Kramer on Inanna's obtaining for her people the 'me,' the scene opens with her in "the steppe," which in Sumerian would be rendered as edin, leaning against an apple tree in the edin (Note: I have _not_ followed Wolkstein's poetic format. Emphasis mine).
Wolkstein and Kramer:
"Inanna placed the shugurra, the crown of the steppe, on her head. She went to the sheepfold, to the shepherd. She leaned against the apple tree. When she leaned against the apple tree, her vulva was wonderous to behold. Rejoicing at her wonderous vulva, the young woman applauded herself. She said: "I, the Queen of Heaven, shall visit the God of Wisdom. I shall go to the Abzu, the sacred place in Eridu. I shall honor Enki"...When Inanna entered the Abzu he gave her butter cake to eat...cold water to drink...beer...Enki and Inanna drank beer together...Enki, swaying with drink, toasted Inanna: "In the name of my power! In the name of my holy shrine! To my daughter Inanna I shall give...THE GIVING OF JUDGEMENTS!...THE MAKING OF DECISIONS!" Inanna replied: "I take them!"...Then Inanna, standing before her father, acknowleged the me Enki had given her: "My father has given me the ...me of treachery...straightfwardness...the giving of judgements...the making of decisions..."
(pp. 12-18. "Inanna and the God of Wisdom." Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth, Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York. Harper & Row. 1983)
Adapa received the warning _not to eat or he would die _ON THE EARTH_ at Eridu from Ea, but the forbidden food was _OFFERED IN HEAVEN_ by Ningishzida and Dumuzi on Anu's behalf. Christianity's notions about Paradise being ON THE EARTH (Genesis 2:8) and IN HEAVEN (Luke 23:43) remarkably preserves the two locations in which the Mesopotamian story unfolded regarding man's (Adapa's) lost chance to obtain immortality, Ea's fruit-tree garden ON THE EARTH in Eridu and Anu's abode IN HEAVEN. However, the Mesopotamians understood that man's lot after death was an eternity in the underworld. There was no resurrection from the underworld to look forward to. No one was going to a heavenly paradise or an earthly god's garden somewhere on the earth's surface. That is to say, in Mesopotamian belief man did not "really die" he lived for all eternity as a disembodied 'shade' or 'specter' in the underworld, his food was clay and his drink was muddy water, just like his former life upon the earth, he still needed to "eat and drink" to sustain life even in the underworld!
Leick also noted that Berossus, a Babylonian priest, had written in Greek a history of Babylonia for his Greek overlords in the 3rd century BCE. He noted that beings came forth from the sea, half-man, half-fish to teach the arts of civilization to mankind. He called one of these being Oannes in Greek, which Leick notes resembles Adapa's name in Sumerian U-an (cf. p. 26). In myths Adapa was a servant of Enki, he fished in the lagoons and "sea" (modern Hawr al Hammar?) daily and prepared fish and bread as a baker to set before his lord. I suspect Adapa the fisherman over time may have evolved in a fish-man. Adapa was famed for his wisdom acquired from the god of knowledge, Enki. But as the myths noted Enki did not give Adapa eternal life. I understand with other scholars that Enki is one of several prototypes behind Genesis' God; Adapa is but one of several prototypes behind Adam; and that Eridu is one of several prototypes behind the Garden of Eden.
Leick on Ur, and its long history as a repository of written accounts of the myths of Lower Mesopotamia, which I understand Terah and Abraham were exposed to, and reworked and transformed while residing there (Genesis 11:31); I also understand that Israel's observance of New Moons as a type of Sabbath are because Terah and Abraham dwelt at two cities, Ur and Haran, that were centers of the Mesopotamian Moon-god cult:
"Ur, modern Tell Muqqayir, in southern Iraq (originally by the ancient coast of the Arabian Sea); ancient Sumerian city which spans the whole of Mesopotamian history. Ur was the city of the Moon-god; it was also the seat of several dynasties and one of the most important Mesopotamian sites, and a large number of Sumerian and Babylonian texts have been found there, dating from all levels of the city's occupation."
(p. 174. "Ur." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London & New York. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1997. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk)
"What we define here as Babylonian myths are a number of texts which were written Akkadian during the second millennium B.C...Most of these compositions, however, are preserved on tablets that were found in the great Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian archives, notably those of Nineveh, Uruk, _Ur_ and Babylon. We know from colophon entries and other reports that the majority of the texts were copies of older material...The oldest editions of some texts date from the Old Babylonian period...The Babylonians inherited the culture and religious structures of the Sumerians. The scribes of the Old Babylonian period copied and translated a number of Sumerian mythological texts...But there is also much that owes more to Syrian and Amorite concepts than Sumerian tradition."
(pp. 23-24. "Babylonian Mythology." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London & New York. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1997. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk)
Leick's above observation about some of the mythological material's indebtedness to Syrian (Called "Amorite") influences, recalls to mind for me the statement in the Bible that Israel's father was "a wandering Syrian, ready to perish," (De 26:5) alluding perhaps to Abraham's second "homeland" of Haran in North Syria. Were Terah and Abraham "Syrians" who ancestors had earlier settled at Ur of the Chaldees, and who, from a Syrian point-of-view, objected to the portrayal of the relationship between gods and man in the myths? Thus they reworked these myths into what was later the Genesis story via a series of "inversions"?
Leick also noted a shrine honoring Enki existed at Ur:
"Enki...one of the major Mesopotamian gods...Enki was considered to be the most approachable among the 'great gods'...His main cult-centre was the lagoon-based Eridu...but as one of Mesopotamia's most prominent dieties he also had numerous temples elsewhere...Babylon...Ur, Uruk, etc..."
(p. 40. "Enki." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London & New York. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1997. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk)
Leick on Eridu and its god of Wisdom, Enki, being honored, revered and preserved at Ur (emphasis mine):
"All these narratives about Enki and Eridu emphasize the connection between the locality, especially the apsu, creation and fertility. Eridu is both primorial and immanent, the place where the world first became inhabitable, where brick and the city were invented...Fuad Safar had hoped that, in the excavation of the ruins of Eridu, 'being the most ancient and important shrine of Ea-Enki, as well as the seat of an important oracle, we should expect to find a Sumerian temple library, or at least, groups of tablets, connected with a centre of theological learning.' No such library was discovered. Except for a few inscribed bricks, no written records were found...As early as the Uruk period Eridu was tied to Ur. Some cities operated like twin cities, one as the symbolic religious centre, the other as the administrative and residential quarters...During the Ur III empire, the revitalization of ancient cult centres became a priority to further legitimacy of the great gods of Sumer. Enki's shrine was not onl
