Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods.
The Tablet of Nippur: Discovering the Ancient Sumerian Texts
As one of the earliest known written creation stories, the Sumerian creation legend holds significant importance offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.
The Sumerian creation myth can be found on a tablet in Nippur, an ancient Mesopotamian city founded in approximately 5000 BC. The creation of Earth (Enuma Elish) according to the Sumerian tablets begins like this:
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being,
And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;
Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven,
Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being...The texts mention that at some point the gods mutinied against their labor.
When the gods like men
Bore the work and suffered the toll
The toil of the gods was great,
The work was heavy, the distress was much.
The figures can be identified as gods by their pointed hats with multiple horns. The figure with streams of water and fish flowing from his shoulders is Ea (Sumerian Enki), god of subterranean waters and of wisdom. Behind him stands Usimu, his two-faced vizier (chief minister). At the centre of the scene is the sun-god, Shamash (Sumerian Utu), with rays rising from his shoulders. He is cutting his way through the mountains in order to rise at dawn. To his left is a winged goddess, Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna). The weapons rising from her shoulders symbolise her warlike characteristics. (Public Domain)
The Unity of God and Man: How the First Human Came into Existence
Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too great. His son Enki, or Ea, proposed to create man to bear the labour, and so, with the help of his half-sister Ninki, he did. A god was put to death, and his body and blood was mixed with clay. From that material the first human being was created, in likeness to the gods.
You have slaughtered a god together
With his personality
I have removed your heavy work
I have imposed your toil on man.
…
In the clay, god and man
Shall be bound,
To a unity brought together;
So that to the end of days
The Flesh and the Soul
Which in a god have ripened –
That soul in a blood-kinship be bound.
This first man was created in Eden, a Sumerian word which means ‘flat terrain’. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Eden is mentioned as the garden of the gods and is located somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Adapa, the first human being in ancient Sumerian Texts failed to answer the question of “the bread and water of life” Anu. (AAref/Adobe Stock)
Initially human beings were unable to reproduce on their own, but were later modified with the help of Enki and Ninki. Thus, Adapa was created as a fully functional and independent human being. This ‘modification’ was done without the approval of Enki’s brother, Enlil, and a conflict between the gods began. Enlil became the adversary of man, and the Sumerian tablet mentions that men served gods and went through much hardship and suffering.
- Garden of Eden Depicted in Ancient Greek Religious Art
- Divine, Forbidden and Dangerous? Magic Apples in Ancient Mythology
Adapa, with the help of Enki, ascended to Anu where he failed to answer a question about ‘the bread and water of life’.
Opinions vary on the similarities between this creation story and the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Eden. While Adapa was granted great wisdom and knowledge by Enki, he unknowingly rejected the gift of immortality when offered the "bread and water of life. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and instructed not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, they were tempted by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, leading to their expulsion from paradise.
Overall, the Sumerian creation myth holds significant importance as one of the earliest known written creation stories, offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.
Top image: Sumerian chaos monster and sun god. Source: Public Domain
Note: Ancient Sumerian translations were taken from William Bramley’s book, The Gods of Eden.
By John Black
References
Sumerian creation myth. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_creation_myth
1902. Enuma Elish - The Epic of Creation. Available at: https://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/enuma.htm
Sumerian Myths of Origins. Available at: https://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/sum07.htm
Sumerian Deities. Available at: http://www.sarissa.org/sumer/sumer_g.php
Comments
Where can I find texts
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I am trying to find texts/translations of the Sumerian tablets that are being referred to here. Could you please point me to some colleges/universities that have documented translations. Please don't point me to individuals that have published their own information. I would like good educational analysis. Thank you.
"Gods"
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None of this has anything to do with the actual origin of creation. It is fascinating that these created beings arrived from some other planet, but they are simply created phenomena and not the origin of the universe.
CO2 & H2O production.
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In reply to my little piece of this is by Bloop (not verified)
There is a 40,000 mile long chain of undersea volcanoes constantly producing both fresh water, H2O, & Carbon Dioxide, CO2.
If you’re interested in climate science, I can recommend geology Prof. Ian Plimer’s great book
Heaven and Earth Global Warming: The missing science.
Hefty: 500+ pages, 2,000+ referenced, indexed & a History chapter.
Top stuff.
JD.
I misspoke about Enlil, above
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In reply to my little piece of this is by Bloop (not verified)
I misspoke about Enlil, above. It was not Enlil, as everyone will know. Apologies but I do not find an "Edit" button. "Nin" can be translated as the royal term "Lady", and "Ki" can be translated as "Earth" or "level" or even "here". NinKi, who was the female half of the rogue team that altered early "man" via genetic tinkering, is NinMa. It is from the NinMa of the Anunna/Nommo that we get the phrase so familiar to humanity, the simple utterance that every child learns - "Ma" and form which we make Mom and Mommy, those magical words.
my little piece of this is
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my little piece of this is this: one of the perennial questions about the flood is "where did the water come from?"
the answer has two parts, as far as my reading informs me (and I read a LOT).
1) the atmosphere has not always been the way it is now. long ago, pre-flood, it did not rain, for example. rather, the atmosphere, which now is often clear with the familiar bright blue sky, was misty. all of the water was in the air. it did not condense into clouds, which not only form the white, puffy things we see but also the clear air around them. think about it: condensation forms clouds by gathering-together water vapor. this forms clouds as well as clear air. also, it seems the mist would rise and fall with the day/night cycle. the morning dew is what watered the plants. atmospheric water, heavy vapor that kept the sky misty and hazy, also shielded the surface from solar radiation which may help explain ancient stories of long lives. water is an excellent radiation shield. if you look at "normal" human aging alongside the effects of radiation exposure, they look identical.
2) star-water. atmospheric oxygen gets bombarded by solar hydrogen, the solar wind, and under certain circumstances water simply forms in the atmosphere. we have seen this in dramatic action over the last few years in the great floods that are occurring in the US and elsewhere. satellites with time-lapse video allow us to see the points at which water simply forms in the air and falls onto the ground. atmospheric science is being re-written constantly now. during the flooding of the last couple of years the question keeps coming up: "where is all the water coming from?" because the current models do not allow for the amount of water that is falling to have been generated by the processes that science has in place.
The Enuma Elish and other stories are valuable to us in that they show us that our biblically focused history is not what we are told. But we have to be careful in our interpretation. they did not think like we think. their assumptions were different. their truth was different. they were different animals than we are.
Did Oannes and Dagon and others of the Nommo from Sirius actually land in celestial eggs and then walk out of the sea each evening to teach humanity about agriculture, math, astronomy, and law? maybe. Were the Nommo the Anunna? Maybe. It certainly appears that way in a fair reading of comparative cultural/historical literature. The Dogon of Africa say so, and they knew of Sirius B eons ago. The Popes hat says so.
But what does that mean for us? It is a historical arc for the human animal but are we that?
To my mind the human animal is a vehicle, a vessel of evolution that the "real" entity inside of each of us inhabits. It is one among many. And so the history of this place, of the species in which we participate is interesting, but it is not defining.
Enki and Enlil (who is NinMa) raised a ruckus when they helped to shape the thinking man from the pre-Adamite ape-man who was that hairy black dude in "2001 A Space Odyssey". They gave to that creature the spark of divinity, the intellectual potential that made us such a good critter to live in and through for our own purposes. But we are not that. We are that which is More than that. As they say "Taht vam Asi", Atman is Brahman.