The Egyptians, far from fearing their gods, worshipped out of gratitude for their blessings. The peoples of Mesopotamia paid homage to their deities out of dread. Both cultures believed that duty to the state superseded desires or needs of the family or the individual. Everyone doing their part pleased the gods, even in Egypt, you were required to honor your responsibilities by taking care of your land, produce, and family. Greek religion was similar to that of Mesopotamia, as Greek gods seemed to have little concern for their people.
The Parallel Stories Whether God is real or not, there’ve been many stories in ancient times concerning god. Especially stories about floods. For example “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, and “Noah and the Flood”. The Epic of Gilgamesh, is one of the oldest epics ever to be created. The sumerian story was composed before 2000 B.C.
Thesis Statement: Mesopotamians and Hebrews are depicted as very different when it comes to religious beliefs, but actually seem to have many similarities in many ways and has led to many of their laws and social stratification correlating. Topic Sentence 1: Since the ancient Hebrews were Monotheistic and the Mesopotamians were Polytheistic, they are naturally assumed to be completely unlike each other; that is simply not the case with these specific civilizations. Topic Sentence 2: The Gods or God in both the Polytheistic and Monotheistic religions have similar traits, but the beliefs of the civilians in both cultures can be viewed as different.
Theogony was a myth that addressed the connection between human beings to the Gods and the universe. Giving that Hesiod lived during the Iron age ( 750-650 B.C.) alongside Homer, it is not extraordinary that the two shared similar religious views. Keeping that in mind, he was able to offer his interpretation of how the world came into existence in his epic poem the Theogony. While creating Prometheus’ myth, he focused on the ominous interactions between Zeus and Prometheus that lead to abhorrent events such as the creation of Pandora. On the contrary, Aeschylus lived in the sixth Century B.C. amid a time of great stir and movement in matters of religion and speculation.
There are hundreds of motifs scattered throughout the world about many vastly different creation myths. There are some myths linked with only a few motifs, and they originated from the same continent. Then there are also myths which originated from the other side of the world and share so many motifs one would think they were just a hundred miles away. With so many different motifs, it remains unclear and unproven as to how so many different cultures can share the same theory about how Earth and humans were created. Although there are so many fascinating motifs about the creation of the world and everything on it, I believe these three are the most common motifs shared by creation myths: nothingness (chaos) in the beginning of time, humans
The two stories of creation, written by two Priestly and Yahwist creators, recount the tale of how the world was made. These stories talk about three truths spoken by God's word and how they are explained to pass on the significance of God and his relationship with humankind, humankind’s relationship with humankind and their relationship with the Earth as good people. The record of the world's creation tends to how the land and ocean, night and day, and all the living things like people became and how they are always motivated in there everyday life. God as the creator, uncovers the connection amongst mankind and all things and portrays his desires of humanity going about as agents of Earth. God’s relationship is very significant with humankind,
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception (Carl Sargon)”. According to The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis, unprecedented floods occurred in both stories. The exception fell on the kind men, Utnapishtim and Noah: they survived the powerful event of destruction. However, in the same theme of the stories, there are sources of similarity and differences.
However, we did also see that their identities differed-- the gods being more powerful than the mortals, of course. In any case, the indirect and direct interactions between the gods and the mortals in both epics
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.
Even though both stories do end up with the creation of earth the way they got there is a bit different. In Genesis it is stated that only one God created all of life but in Enuma Elish it was said that there were multiple gods whom have worked with individual jobs. In the Cosmogony, the first part of Enuma Elish that described the creation of the universe, Apsu and Tiamat were the only two gods who existed in the beginning of the story but were only set of water. The gods begin to form and create the earth but made a disturbance while doing so which had upset Apsu, so he tried to destroy them but later is stoped by
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.
The judeo-Christian story is very well known creation story. The Christian religion is very familiar to this story. The other story is called Iroquois creation this is a Native American story of how the Earth came to a beginning. There is many similarities and differences in this story. One of the differences is that in the Christian story the Earth was made by God.
The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible have a few similar events and historians think that they may refer to the same event. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible share a similar event, the flood, and a similar character, the serpent. Though there are still several distinctions between the two stories. The Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh both contain a serpent as one of the less significant characters.
The Egyptian Middle Kingdom and Babylonia had many similarities related in geography. Despite this they also had numerous distinct differences. Fundamental similarities manifested as care for the people by the rulers which had recently developed in both societies. As the rulers were no longer concerned with only themselves, but the citizens as well. Both societies had military protection although Babylon organized and conquered the Fertile Crescent and later Egypt.
My philosophy professor Dr. Fitzpatrick made a statement about ideas and inventions that has been resonating in my thought. He specified that, “Inventions are not created in a vacuum, they are imported”. This claim has deep implications on the way I listen to music, view art, and scroll through my Facebook feed.
