Influence of Near East on Greek Myth Hye-Yoon Hwang CLS /16/05 -Oral Presentation-

MESOPOTAMIA  Geography It was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These rivers flow into the Persian Gulf. The word Mesopotamia means "The land between the rivers".

RELIGION  In Mesopotamia, each town and city was believed to be protected by its own, unique deity or god. The temple, as the center of worship, was also the center of every city.  Around the year 2000 B.C., temple towers began to be built to link heaven and earth.  The towers, called ziggurats, were very large, pyramid-shaped structures on top of which the temple was built. The ziggurats were built of mud bricks with 3 to 7 terraced levels.

ZIGGURAT

GODS AND GODDESSES  The people of Mesopotamia had very many gods, called dingir in Sumerian.  Their gods and goddesses looked and acted just like people. They had feasts, marriages, children, and wars. They could be jealous, angry, joyful, or kind. The gods and goddesses had supernatural powers.

FOUR-FACED GOD AND GODDESS  Iraq  Old Babylonian Period, 18th-17th century B.C.  Bronze  17.3 cm H  Purchased in Baghdad,1930

ACHIEVEMENTS  Cuneiform The Beginnings of Writing  Tokens Clay tokens came in different shapes and sizes. These represented different objects.

CUNEIFORM TABLETS AND CLAY TOKENS

SUMERIAN MYTH  Sumerian lived close to the Persian Gulf near the estuary of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers ; irrigation agriculture greatly increased the food supply, but demand social cooperation  The ruling elite’s most powerful tool was cuneiform writing (c.3400 B.C.)

CONTRIBUTION  The earliest myths on earth are recorded in cuneiform writing We can find similar characters between Sumerian myth and Greek myth Sumerian myths are divine myth, stories of the doing of superhuman beings Themes range from the creation of the universe and underworld to the creation of mankind These story patterns influenced to Greek myth

AKKADIANS / BABYLONIANS MYTH  Semites,(2000 B.C.) seminomadic peoples who in habited the steppe at the fringe of the Arabian desert  Akkadian,(c.2340 B.C) Semitic, named after their capital, Akkad, took over the southern Sumerian cities and adopted Sumerian culture  Semitic Babylonian (1750 B.C) under their leader Hammurabi.  From babylon comes one of our most important pre-Greek myths,the epic poem of creation The poem recounts a divine myth, the making of the world and its present arrangement

NEAR EASTERN GOD AND GODDESS COMPARED TO GREEK Sumerian namesAkkadian/ Babylonian names Greek namesConcerns AnAnuUranusSky god InannaishtarAproditeGoddes of sexual love, war EnlilEllil,MardukZeusStorm god EnkiEaHermesGod,wisdom,m agic Ninhursan,ki__DemeterGoddess of earth Ereshkigal__persephoneGoddes of death UtushamashApolloSun god

HEBREWS  Best known of Semitic peoples, traced their ancestry back to Abraham  Moses monotheistic vision prevailed but many stories the Hebrew told about ancestors were adapted from Mesopotamian myth  The writing system used by the Hebrews is called the Phoenician Alphabet  The Phoenician system of syllabic writing was of great importance in the history of writing Greek invented alphabet on the basis of the earlier Phoenician writing Modern Arabic script is slightly modified form of it

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