Mark’s Reviews > Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others > Status Update

Etana: A serpent mistrusts an eagle. The eagle swears an oath upon Shamash with the serpent. The two go hunting in the mountains to provide for each other’s young. The eagle eats the serpent’s young. Shamash tells the serpent to hide in an ox and attack the eagle. He does so and throws the eagle in a pit. Etana revives the eagle and he flies Etana to heaven to ask Ishtar for a child

Nergal and Ereshkigal: Ereshkigal sends Namtar to a feast in heaven because she cannot go herself. The gods bow in his presence, except for Nergal. Nergal fashions a throne for Ereshkigal and goes into the netherworld. He sleeps for 6 days with Ereshkigal and then leaves. Ea disfigures him to hide him from Namtar. Namtar searches for Nergal but can’t find him. Finally Nergal returns and marries her

Descent of Ishtar: Ishtar goes to the underworld. She has to pass through seven gates where at each one she removes one piece of jewelry. Ereshkigal asks Namtar to curse Ishtar with 60 diseases. No animals or humans reproduced while she was gone. Ea creates “Good-looks” as ransom. Ereshkigal hears this and curses him. She releases Ishtar. Dumuzi comes and goes which causes the seasons like Persephone

I find the connections between the extant OBV Gilgamesh tablets and Ecclesiastes to be a bit dubious but interesting nonetheless. I’ll have to do more research on their connection

It’s interesting how the story of Gilgamesh fighting the lions after Enkidu’s death may actually be a retelling of a similar scene from earlier in the epic that occurs while they journey to the forest of cedar. Also I find the footnotes about lines from the epic that relate to lines from Homeric epics cool

The ending line of Gilgamesh I is more fragmentary than I thought. ARG interpreted it as Enkidu and Shamhat making love once again. But here the translation yields Shamhat saying “the dreams mean that you will love one another” (Enkidu and Gilgamesh). This is a wildly different interpretation. Also in the preface Dalley mentions the connections between Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, and Arabian Nights which is cool

Atrahasis III: Enki instructs Atrahasis to build an ark. He loads animals on it. The gods weep because they are famished. Mami especially is upset, as she created man. Atrahasis makes a sacrifice to the gods and they feast. Ellil confronts Enki about the survivors. Enki admits that he saved them. The gods hold council and decide that men should be mortal and create stillborn children and chaste priestesses as well

Atrahasis II: Ellil orders Adad to stop the rain and bring a famine upon mankind. Atrahasis tells the people to make offerings to Adad to bring back the rain and he does so. Ellil is enraged and reminds Ea that he created man and his job was to control the population by controlling the waters from Apsu. Ellil gets other gods to use their powers to create a flood to wipe out mankind

Atrahasis I: the Igigi build canals but are tired of their work. They protest outside Ellil’s home. He, Anu, and Enki petition the Anunnaki to let Mami create man. The Anunnaki sacrifice a god and his blood is mixed with clay to create man. Ellil complains of man’s noise. He sends disease to wipe them out. Enki tells Atrahasis to make offerings to Namtara, god in the netherworld, to end the plague