ipl-logo

Gilgamesh Creation Story Essay

1341 Words6 Pages

Creation stories have profound effects on humans. Mesopotamia’s “The Gilgamesh Epic”, Egypt’s “Hymn to the Nile-Documents”, and Mesoamerica’s Mayan and Aztec creation stories demonstrate significant relationships within society, whether that is between humans and nature or humans and the “god(s).”
Mesopotamia was the first primordial, and an influential cradle of civilization with prominent relationships between humans and nature and humans and their gods. Discovered near the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers around the time of the Lower Paleolithic period (3,500-1,500 B.C.E.), Mesopotamia was one of the most developed civilization of its time. However, how does “The Gilgamesh Epic” relate and impact Mesopotamian society between humans and nature and …show more content…

Most importantly, the story exemplifies the fearful relationship the Aztecs’ had between nature and their gods, and how they associated nature with their gods. The story begins with the dual gods, Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl. Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl was both male/female, evil/good, and chaos/order. This dual deity was able to have children, and its children represented the four directions: Xipe Totec (north), Huizilopochtli (south), Tezcatlipoca (west), and Quetzalcoatl (east) – general knowledge of direction. They created Cipactli, but then tore apart their creation. “They used chunks of its body to create various elements of our world — mountains, forests, plains and rivers.” ("Home." Austin Briggs.), thus, the universe was created. To support this newly created universe, five suns had to be created along with it. A new sun is created when one of the gods is offered as a sacrifice when the world is destroyed (five different worlds and five suns have existed since the beginning/hence: belief in rebirth). The fifth and final sun is the sun that supports the world we now live in. The Aztecs’ applied their knowledge of the four seasons with the four suns that were created and destroyed (represents the calandar, life is finite, fearfulness towards nature and deities, and association that nature is multiple gods). The Aztecs’ knowledge of finite life and the destructive natural forces of the world made the Aztecs’ believe that the natural balance of the world relied upon their shoulders – keep nature happy, you keep the gods happy. Another civilization living nearby and roughly within the same time period with the belief that nature is

Show More
Related

  • Tezcatlipoc More Than One Sun In Aztec Religion

    430 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Aztec religion there was not only one sun. There also was many more sun gods over the ages. It is kind of like looking at mexican presidents some were more complicated than others were. To make this seem more confusing the empire was actually a mosaic of many cultures so that means it was a combination of more than one religions. In Aztec religion there were 5 ages or “5 suns”.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Nahua Myth Of The Suns

    914 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Aztec calendar has images of the different Sun Gods. Also what I was reading was interesting because it talked about the strong wisdom of the Nahua race, it shows what they truly represent. Which was closely referred by it on every occasion civil or religious. The Aztec Creation myth is explained through the way the world was created and the Aztec culture believed in the myth as the legend of the Fifth Sun. The myth was told in many different forms due to the fact that is was told and passed down to generations by oral tradition which changed the way the Gods were represented depending on which tribe your family was from.

    Read More

  • Why Was The Navajo Legend Called The Chief Star

    1388 Words  | 6 Pages

    According to the legend, the first people of the Fifth World were given four lights but were dissatisfied with the amount of light they had on Earth. After many endeavors to slake the people, the First Woman engendered the sun to bring warmth and light to the land, and the moon to provide coolness and moisture. These were crafted from quartz, and, when there were bits of quartz that were left behind by the carving, they were tossed into the firmament to make stars. Like the Navajo, the Hopi believe there were worlds afore this one. The modern era is believed to be the Fourth World, and each world that came afore this one ended with the appearance of “the blue star.”

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Sioux Creation Story Of 1910

    630 Words  | 3 Pages

    Afterwards, the Creating Power brought out all the animals and plants from his pipe bag and used the earth to form humans. He brought all the creatures and humans to life and assigned them to their tribes. After he finished with his creation of the current world, the Creating Power explained to the humans that this is not the first world he created, but the third. Further, he explained that the people in the first world misbehaved inappropriately, so he decided to scorch the world.

    Read More

  • Sacrifice And The Sun: The Aztec Sun Stone

    1406 Words  | 6 Pages

    According to this book the sun stone's design reflects the Aztecs circular and cyclical understanding of time, with each rectangle that surrounds the central figure in the stone representing a different era or more commonly referred to as suns representing sections of time of creation and destruction. One can look at this understanding and these eras or suns are in this cycle of death and rebirth. Simply looking at the central images found in the sun stone even one with little knowledge can hypothesize that the middle image or even the stone as a whole represents the fight sun. As explained in the chapter “Fifth Sun Rising '' the intricate and detailed carvings peel back the curtain of how the Aztecs cycle view time and “suns”. The Stone also provides us with an understanding of how their religious beliefs were a part of their whole culture.

    Read More

  • Aztec Sacrifice

    432 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Aztecs’ main god was the sun or Huitzilopochtli. They believed that the sun needed constant replenishment so that it could move across the earth everyday and prevent the world from ending. However, the only way to keep this from happening, and provide mobility for the sun was to offer human sacrifices; he needed human flesh and blood. This accounts for the human sacrifices that the Aztecs had as well as the many festivals, which their ultimate goal to sacrifice humans for Huitzilopochtli and other gods as well. It is important to point that the Aztecs believed that they were living in the 5th and last era, but that they needed to keep the world from ending.

    Read More

  • Comparing Pima And Megan Wren's Mayan Creation Myth

    1858 Words  | 8 Pages

    Like snowflakes, no single creation myth is identical to another, “The Story of the Creation”, which highlights on the creation of the Akimel O’odham, more commonly known as the Pima, and Megan Wren’s “Mayan Creation Myth” are no exception; however, there are many similarities. Most creation myths, such as the “Mayan Creation Myth” and “The Story of Creation” follow the basic path that the majority of creation myths do, starting with the emptiness in the beginning, a void to be filled by a God-like figure, who would soon create vegetation, animals, and humans who he would then destroy and start anew: however, some do not, such as the “Creation of the World” and “How the World Was Made.” With most creation myths, there is a void, or an emptiness

    Read More

  • Aztec Art Research Paper

    219 Words  | 1 Pages

    Hands: Alot of the art had been religion related. The gods were portrayed as various kinds of animals. On top of that the drawings of gods were colorful and sharp. Alot of the art made by Aztecs were lifelike. It was said that the statues were very realistic.

    Read More

  • How Did The Aztecs Affect Society

    822 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Aztec lifestyle had changed drastically due to the significant rise in aztec slavery, which affected the social status, and changed their religion for the worse. The Aztec population was a very vast, well educated group of people who weren't custom to change. The large group was always very hostile when it came to battle, and would usually succeed and come out victorious because of the demand for blood shed for their gods. The Aztec people, a proud group, had been unwillingly crushed by the spanish warriors. Loosing their ways of life such as their right to religion, freedom and social status.

    Read More

  • How Did The Aztec Religion Interact

    1253 Words  | 6 Pages

    According to the Aztecs, we are currently in the Fifth Sun: The legend foretells that this era will end with earthquakes. Aztec legends play a prominent role in creation, and quarrels between gods determine the course of

    Read More

  • Iroquois And Judeo Christian Similarities

    492 Words  | 2 Pages

    Then he separated night and day and created the stars. One of the main differences between the stories is what they respect. In the

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Ancient Mesopotamia And Egypt

    1021 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt were two early human civilizations that lived during the bronze age in harsh desert environments located not far from each other. Both civilizations were built around rivers that they depended on for survival. There is evidence that these rivers had great influence on both the societies politics and culture. Egypt was built around the very strong and reliable Nile River. Ancient Mesopotamia was established in the fertile crescent between the less reliable Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

    Read More

  • Gilgamesh: Relevant Truth For Today's Society

    1067 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Epic of Gilgamesh: Relevant Truth for Today’s Society The Epic of Gilgamesh is set in Uruk, an ancient city of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer, now modern-day Iraq. The epic was said to be written by Sin-liqe-unninni, but it is based on five earlier Sumerian poems with no known author. The piece was difficult to translate, and there are two main version for the Epic of Gilgamesh. This is the result of the environment during the time the piece was being written.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Epic Of Gilgamesh

    991 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Epic of Gilgamesh is the first epic poem to be written in ancient West Asia. It was written around the third millennium BCE in Mesopotamia by Sumerian people (Spodek, 127). The epic is based on actual an historical figure, a Sumerian king who reigned the city-state of Uruk around third millennium BCE. Ashurbanipal, the last Neo-Assyrian king who was literate, built a great library in his capital and preserved 20,000 tablets including the earliest complete version of The Epic of Gilgamesh (Spodek, 128). Sumerian attitudes towards gods, friendship, and the story of the great flood are revealed throughout the epic.

    Read More

  • Culture And Themes In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

    2037 Words  | 9 Pages

    The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest story known to mankind, being written on Sumerian clay almost five thousand years ago (Garone). Since the story was originally known orally, the culture and themes from The Epic of Gilgamesh must have existed long before it was finally inscribed (Mark 4). Having known this, the cultures and themes can be compared to today’s society, discovering about how they have shifted and evolved, and also observe how they are similar. The ancient days of Gilgamesh has brought culture that has greatly influenced today’s society. Because Gilgamesh was set around the time of late Babylonian or early Sumerian society, the Babylonian and Sumerian cultures also play a role in shaping the world into what is is today (Mark).

    Read More

More about Gilgamesh Creation Story Essay

Open Document