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SUMERIAN
 Approximately
six thousand years ago, an enigmatic people emerged from the
cloak of prehistoric anonymity, and began to build
marvellous cities in the fertile plain between the mighty
Tigris and Euphrates rivers (a region roughly equivalent to modern-day
Iraq). These cities – Eridu, Ur, Lagash, Uruk, Shuruppak,
Nippur, Kish and Sippar – were the cities of the Sumerians,
and the entire region was known as Sumer, or in later days
by the Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning ‘(the land)
between the rivers’.
The
Sumerians instigated a technological revolution in fields such
as agriculture, commerce, mathematics,
architecture
and metallurgy.
From the mid-4th millennium BC, this remarkable people began
to develop sophisticated forms of government and established
the earliest
known social institutions, such as schools and courts of law.
Most significantly, the Sumerians invented writing c. 3300
BC, initially
in a pictographic form, but later in a style known as cuneiform – a
curious system of wedge-shaped signs, which were impressed
into clay tablets using a stylus.
These
clay tablets relate an amazing story – of gods who
created the heavens and the Earth, and physically descended
to the Earth at the beginning of time, in order to lay the
foundations
of the Sumerian cities. In those days, the gods alone had
occupied the great land of Sumer, but soon they grew weary of
their
work and set about creating mankind to release themselves
from the burden
of their toil. The result was the Sumerian ‘people’,
known by the enigmatic title ‘the black-headed ones’.
The
first Sumerian ‘people’ lived in the underworld
(compare the Greek myth of Prometheus) which was conceived
as the ‘garden
of the gods’. All good things in this garden had
been sent down by the gods from Heaven to Earth – cattle
and grain, trees and vegetation, the vine, the date-tree,
and, of course,
the seed of mankind itself. Man worked up an abundance
for the gods in this garden, and eventually, after he had
proved
himself
worthy, the gods granted him the insignia and regalia of
kingship, along with the various gifts of civilisation,
all of which they
lowered from Heaven. At this point, it would seem, mankind
was elevated from the underworld to the surface of the
Earth. It is
intriguing to note that in ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’ the
mythical subterranean garden is described as ‘the
plain of E.DIN’ – a forerunner to the Garden
of Eden in the Hebrew Book of Genesis. The Sumerian term
E.DIN meant ‘the
abode of the gods’.
Circa 2400
BC, the Sumerians began to lose control of their territory to
the Akkadians, a
Semitic-speaking group of
peoples, who soon
dominated the region of Sumer. But they, in turn, yielded
to the Gutians c. 2200 BC. Then, after a brief Sumerian
revival (c. 2100-2000
BC), the entire region was conquered by the Amorites
c. 2000 BC.
The
new millennium brought more chaos, with first the Babylonians,
then the Kassites, and finally the Assyrians
rising to
power. But, amazingly, throughout all of these turbulent
centuries,
the religion
of the Sumerians survived virtually intact. By and
large, the same gods were worshipped, the same temples and ziggurats
were
repaired
or rebuilt, and the same myths were copied and translated
piously, with only minor adaptations or alterations.
The ideas and ideals
of the Sumerians thus became the basic creed and dogma
of much of the ancient Near East, being passed from
one
generation
to another over the course of some three thousand years.
The
reason for such constancy was an unprecedented obsession with
religion, which was summed up by the
Assyriologist
Georges Roux
as follows:
...
for more than three thousand years the religious ideas promoted
by the Sumerians played an extraordinary
part
in the public and private life of the Mesopotamians,
modelling their institutions, colouring their works of art
and literature, pervading every form of activity...
In no other antique
society did religion occupy such
a prominent position, because in no other antique society
did man feel himself so utterly dependent upon the will of
the gods...
the religious motives should
never be forgotten or minimised.
What
was the nature of this enduring religion?
At
the heart of it was the Creator-God and the myth of creation.
In each of the
key cities, a Great God and a Great Goddess
personified the powers
which had
brought the Universe into existence. In Eridu, the
God was called Enki
(or Ea); in Ur, the God was called Nannar (or Sin)
and the Goddess was called
Ningal;
in Lagash, the God was called Ninurta (or Ningirsu);
in Uruk, the God was called An (or Anu) and the Goddess was
called Inanna
(or
Ishtar);
in Nippur,
the God
was called Enlil and the Goddess was called Ninlil;
and in Sippar the God was called Utu (or Shamash).
Originally,
each of these Gods would have been the Creator in his own right.
But in later times they formed a
pantheon, headed
by
Anu, in
which each
deity became specialised: Enki as the god of the
subterranean sea (Apsu), Nannar
as the Moon-god, Inanna as Venus, Enlil as the sky-god,
and Utu as the Sun-god. There were numerous other
Gods too, such as Nergal
and
Erra
who became gods
of
the underworld, and a multiplicity of Goddesses who
were generally identified with Mother Earth.
The
Sumerian myth of creation begins with a cataclysm in the sky.
The God
or the Goddess, portrayed as
a Great Mountain,
explodes
into fragments
and rains
down upon the primeval Earth. As a result, the
Mountain of Heaven, personified by the God, impregnates the
Mountain of Earth, personified
by the Goddess,
with his seed.
In
the Sumerian poem ‘Dispute
between Summer and Winter’, we read:
Enlil,
the king of all the lands, set his mind.
He thrust his penis into the Great Mountain
(HAR.SAG)...
Summer and Winter, the fecundating overflow
of the land, he poured into the womb.
Wheresoever Enlil would thrust his penis, he
roared like a wild bull.
There, HAR.SAG spent the day, rested happily
at night,
Delivered herself of Summer and Winter like
rich cream...
Similarly,
in another poem, the Sacred Marriage is described as follows:
Smooth,
big Earth made herself resplendent, beautified her body
joyously.
Wide Earth bedecked her body with precious
metal and lapis lazuli,
Adorned herself with diorite, chalcedony,
and shiny carnelian.
Heaven arrayed himself in a wig of
verdure, stood up in princeship.
Holy Earth, the virgin, beautified
herself for Holy Heaven.
Heaven, the lofty god, planted his
knees on Wide Earth,
Poured the semen of the heroes Tree
and Reed into her womb.
Sweet Earth, the fecund cow, was
impregnated with the rich semen
of Heaven.
Joyfully did Earth tend to the giving
birth of the plants of life,
Luxuriantly she brought forth rich
produce, and gave birth to wine
and honey.
Other
myths describe the God descending from Heaven to take up
residence in the underworld,
or the
Goddess descending
from Heaven
to take
over the mantle of
the Earth.
The
descent of the God or Goddess from Heaven to Earth is often
portrayed as
a Deluge – the forerunner
of the Hebrew myth of the
Great Flood. In some myths,
the descending God ejaculates
a great flood of water
from his body, thus
filling up the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. In other
myths, the descending God
brings a great flood of
stone, which he piles up
in ‘heaps
and mounds’ upon
the face of the Earth.
When
the God or Goddess disintegrates in the heavens,
the result
is the emanation of gods – with
a small ‘g’.
This multiplicity of
gods, who collectively
make up
the former body of the
God, personify the Deluge
of waters
and meteoritic material.
Upon falling to the Earth,
they become denizens
of the underworld – the
faceless and anonymous
Anunnaki.
The
Earth is thus reshaped, but the
final act of
creation is yet to
come. It is
called ‘the separation
of the heavens from
the Earth’. In
this final drama, the
Great
God seemingly creates
the Sun, the Moon,
and the stars by separating
them (or rather their
material) from the
Earth.
The Sumerian
myths are extremely
vague on this point,
but it
seems to happen in
parallel with the
resurrection, or spiritualisation,
of the God and the
gods, who are translated
back
to the sky after their
fall to the Earth.
This mysterious transformation
seems to re-create,
in
a metaphysical sense,
the original Mountain
of Heaven,
and perhaps at the
same time the Sun,
the Moon,
and the stars are created.
A significant point
here, is that the final
act
of creation is geocentric,
and
results in a geocentric
Universe (compare Egypt
and Greece where this
idea is made more explicit).
As
for the creation
of man, the Sumerian
myths
are diverse
but consistent.
In one myth, man
is created
when Enlil
uses his ‘pickaxe’ to
hack open a hole
in the Earth. In
another
myth, man is created
from the flesh and
blood
of sacrificed sky-gods
(he is thus created
in their image; compare
the Book of Genesis).
Whilst in other myths,
man is created in
the Womb of the Earth
from
a clay that has been
flung down from Heaven.
A bizarre feature
of the Sumerian
myths is the idea
that man first existed
as
a subterranean race
who was enslaved
by the Anunnaki gods
in
the underworld. It
was only at a later
juncture – possibly
when kingship was
lowered from Heaven – that
man was elevated
to the surface of
the
Earth.
As
the Sumerians used to say, “Let
the wise teach
the mystery to the wise.”
Conclusion
Sumerian
religion was a ‘cult of creation’. The Great God
and Great Goddess personified the cataclysm of creation and
the formative Universe.
Reading
List
A.F.
Alford, ‘When The Gods Came Down’, Hodder and
Stoughton, 2000.
S.
Dalley, ‘Myths from Mesopotamia’,
Oxford University Press, 1998 edition.
H.
Frankfort et al, ‘The
Intellectual
Adventure
of
Ancient Man’,
University
of
Chicago Press,
1977
edition.
A.
Heidel, ‘The
Babylonian
Genesis’,
University
of
Chicago
Press,
2nd
ed.,
1951.
A.
Heidel, ‘The
Gilgamesh Epic
and Old
Testament Parallels’,
University of
Chicago Press,
1963 edition.
T.
Jacobsen, ‘The Treasures of Darkness’,
Yale University Press,
1976.
S.N.
Kramer, ‘The Sumerians’,
University of Chicago
Press, 1963.
S.N.
Kramer, ‘History Begins at Sumer’,
University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1956.
J.B.
Pritchard, ed., ‘ANET’ (‘Ancient
Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament’),
Princeton University
Press, 3rd edition,
1969.
G.
Roux, ‘Ancient Iraq’,
Penguin Books,
1992 edition. |
