Patriarchal Gods: An Analysis of the Importance of Anthropocentric Originations in Genesis and in Mesopotamian Mythology
This mythological study will define the anthropocentric originations of the world through the compare and contrast of gender roles orientation in Genesis and in Mesopotamian mythology. In Genesis, the creation of the world is defined through the power of a man-god image, which defines the separation of differing elements/celestial bodies, such as light, air and water, to define the anthropocentric creationist story. This is also true of the human-like God called Marduk that split Tiamat (a goddess) in half to form the heaven and earth in Mesopotamian mythos. Contrastingly, Marduk is a primarily misogynistic god when he kills Tiamat, as opposed to the male god of early
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The male God of Genesis defines the formation of the world through the power of separation, especially in the case of light, water, and air in the Judaic tradition. In a similar manner, the Mesopotamian god Marduk was also a male that formed the world through his powers, yet with the contrastingly misogynistic killing of the goddess Tiamat as part of the formation of Heaven and Earth. These examples of creationism reveal the human-centered formation of the world through male gods, yet with differing examples of cruelty towards women/goddesses as part of a gender divide in the godly realms. Overall, these two creation myths define the anthropocentric formation of the world, which provides a sense of faith-based comfort in knowing that the world was made through the supernatural powers of a human-like being. These are the important aspects of Judaic and Mesopotamian creation myths that define the patriarchal, elemental, and divisive methods of the formation of the world through an anthropocentric point of
“The Ground That Opened Its Mouth: The Ground’s Response to Human Violence in Genesis 4”, written by Duke University’s Mari Jorstad, is a scholarly article that covers the idea that the ground and the early humans did indeed have a connection. Furthermore, Dr. Jorstad’s thesis appears to be that the ground is responsive to God’s will, and thus opposes human rebellion and brutality. In other words, the ground reflects God’s will and this often times clashes with humans and their behavior. Dr. Jorstad, in her article, discusses examples that exemplify her point from the Book of Genesis, specifically in relation to Cain, Adam and Noah. To start, Dr. Jorstad establishes that herself, as well as many other scholars, have interpreted the ground as its own being when talking about early Genesis stories.
Between “The Babylonian Creation Epic” and “Theogony” there are many similarities and differences that can be found. One similarity between these two is the idea of two beings, Tiamat and Apsu (fresh and salt water) and Gaia and Ouranos (earth and sky) who couple together and give birth to the first gods. In Gaia and Ouranos’s case, these ‘gods’ are called Titans. In the Babylonian story Marduk, a son of the gods, kills Tiamat and creates humankind from the blood of one of the gods who stood on her side. Whereas in “Theogony” Ouranos is hated by all of his children and ends up castrated by his son Kronos.
In the Egyptian version, Shu lifted Nut, the goddess of the sky, above Geb, the earth, to form a canopy over the earth. Similar to this, in Enuma Elish, Tiamat gives birth to Anshar and Kishar who became the gods who represented the boundary between the earth and the sky (The Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Myth). All of the creation stories also contain a power struggle between gods. In the Egyptian creation story, Set wanted to be the ruler of the earth so he killed his brother Osiris. After Osiris went to the underworld, Horus battled Set in order to regain his father’s throne.
First Name, Last Name: Course Title: Professor/Tutor: Date of Submission: Development of the Greek gods Introduction The Greek mythology was utilized as a platform to explain and clarify the environment in which the humans lived, natural phenomena mankind witnessed and passing of time through days, months and the seasons. These myths were intricately connected to religious aspects in the Greek world.
It is noteworthy that this story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the foundation of the religion with the largest number of followers worldwide. Why does it continue to resonate with so many people even today? The reason is that this utopia contains archetypes that reflect the collective unconscious that is found across all cultures. This is the result of universal themes in this story about humanity’s needs and desires that we still see occurring in our society today. The story of Genesis contains three archetypal characteristics that illustrate these patterns that still demonstrate humanity’s needs.
In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the creation myths of Brahma, the Hindu Creator God, and The Ennead of Heliopolis of Ancient Egypt. I will be highlighting the following; how, according to these cultures, did the world begin, how did humans originate, are there any thematic similarities between the creation myths of these two cultures, what are the most striking differences and do they have any beliefs about how the world will end, or do they believe in some kind of cyclical renewal of creation. Brahma is the Hindu Creator god:
There were also gods of lesser things such as love and scribal arts. Looking at Mesopotamia’s geography, you can see how it might have served as inspiration for deities. The Euphrates and Tigris rivers surrounding Babylon could’ve been inspirations for the many water gods like Apsu, Enki, and Tiamat, as could the Persian Gulf located nearby. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods are depicted as harsh and wrathful because they decide to wipe out the human race with a flood just because they make too much noise (Ward p.20). The gods’ destructive nature is likely based off the chaos caused by flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates.
Not only do these shared themes point to an innate psychology present in all people in every culture, but perhaps even to a direct influence of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” on these holy texts. In the book of Genesis, the creation story of The Old Testament, God creates all things, the earth and the Heavens. He makes the animals and then finally mankind to watch over it all, as God says, “Let us make a human in our image...to hold sway over the fish...and all the crawling things that crawl upon this earth” (2. 1-4). Depending on the variation of the story, God either creates both Adam and Eve from soil, or Adam from soil and then Eve from his rib to be his companion.
Sarkhan Nabiyev Thought Paper One 1/25/16 Word Count: 793 words Question: What is the character and functions of deity in Genesis 1-2 and Enuma Elish? That is, what is God/are the gods like?
Each every creation myth is unique in its own way. Of course, creation myths have their similarities, but each of them has at least one detail that separates them from every other myth. The question is how those similarities came about, considering for some of these groups that didn’t even know that each other existed. It would have nearly impossible and extremely unlikely for them to communicate with each other let alone, share their stories with each other. Yet, despite this there are some extremely common themes and events throughout these myths.
Hesiod’s account of creation, as outlined in the Theogony offers one of the most detailed and accepted theories of creation in the Greek culture. On the other hand, the Biblical account of creation, regarded as a Hebrew culture creation account, is to date one of the most widely acknowledged and accepted versions across various cultures seeking explanations for the origin of life and the earth. However, even though these creation accounts originate from two different cultures, they share some thought-provoking parallels in terms of their content and intentions, as well as some contrasts that make each of the creation accounts unique. Both Hesiod’s and the biblical creation accounts are similar in that they argue that prior to the beginning of creation events, the earth was merely a void that had no shape or form and this void was filled with darkness.
Floating about in all types of literature, there are many legends as to how the earth was created; these legends are known as creation myths. A creation myth offers answers to questions that ask how the earth was created, and explains the social customs of today as well as the workings of the natural world by telling an elaborate story. The Cherokee Indians have spread their beliefs on this topic throughout generations through oral tradition. Recent authors have taken these myths to paper to preserve history and to spread them even further around the world. “How the World Was Made” is a creation myth that not only offers an abundance of information regarding the origin of earth, but also supports the social traditions of today’s society and attempts to explain the intangible, natural workings of the world.
In the following readings, Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh, women are perceived as subjects towards men. For example, in Genesis the first woman to be created by God is Eve and in The Epic of Gilgamesh the harlot Shamhat. Both characters are subjected to obey men in a point of their stories because it is the norm of the society of which these texts are written in. Even though both texts were written in the same part of the world, modern middle east, Genesis is the creation story of earth that was written in modern day middle east during Babylonian Exile of the 6th century BC, while The Epic of Gilgamesh was, however written in a different time, dating back to c. 2000 BC. Genesis was written before The Epic of Gilgamesh, which means that the norm of women being submissive towards men originated from Genesis to The Epic of Gilgamesh.
In the epic poem The Odyssey, Homer portrays Greek gods and goddesses as possessing human qualities and faults. Through their actions and emotions, Homer emphasizes the detrimental effects of lust, envy, wrath, and greed in ancient Grecian society. He also never fails to remind readers of the importance of respect for holy figures because of their powerful abilities to create chaos and wonder". Homer wants to prove that gods and humans share a variety of traits, and the only difference is that god don’t allow these flaws negatively to impact their society. To help further his argument, we can compare Greek gods and goddesses to that of Christianity.
The appearance of stability of the Greek patriarchy is seen to be much greater than that of the Biblical nature because the jobs of the classes and sexes are clearly defined within Greek life where the variance in the lives Biblical tribes, due to their nomadic nature, sometimes masks the patriarchy within their society. The realistic depiction of the Greek daily life, while still far removed, is contrasted against the Old testament stories, which lack the peace of daily life. The final comparison between the two texts is how their styles represent the two basic types of ancient epics with the Homeric style being fully externalized, “displaying unmistakable meanings” (23), while the Old Testament has sayings with many meanings that require interpretation. The text finishes by stating that since the Homeric and Old Testament styles are starting points for the analysis, we cannot consider anything that pertains to their