美索不达米亚苏美尔人阿卡德人巴比伦人的文学史

1、Mesopotamian/Sumerian/Akkadian/Babylonian UteratureWhen we discuss the literature of the Sumerians, we must first cover the land of Mesopotamia.“ Mesd' is Greek for :between “ potarisiGeek for rivers (think of how freshwater from a river is drinkable and, therefore,“ potable. " By the way,

2、“ hippo " is Greefor horse, so that a “ hippo potamus " is a) “ river horse. ”Therefore, Mesopotamia means, “ between rivers. ”The land was the oasis situated around the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. (Compare to the Garden of Eden, which Genesis states is the intersection of four rivers

3、, including theTigris and Euphrates. It is therefore likely thatthis land influenced the concept of EdenThe situation of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates is shown on the map below:Arabian PeninsutaSii '' i Paninsa 加Rif AreaI heTiens anc Euphrates rivers $ known 即£。话印1口Mei4nV cd

4、MUfnt EMartian GulfModern MsotlmvFigure 1: Map of Mesopotamia, Showing Relationship to Mesopotamia andTigris.Of course, it was easy for migrants to settle there and found an agricultural society. The water source enriched the soil and allowed for fertile farming. The green area on the above map refe

5、rs to this "Fertile Crescent“where crops could be easily sustained. Whatever hunter-gatherer society had previously existed for these people faded away into a settled civilization, really the first Western civilization.Sumer was an important, capitol city in southern Mesopotamia. The citizens o

6、f this city developed cuneiform, a system of wedge-and-line-shaped writing characters. It is pictographic , not alphabetic:Pictographic writing represents images through a system of writing, rather than letters.So, in the image below, we see lines and wedges representing images. That is, one of thos

7、e means king, another sun, and so on. However, it is not as if they are spelled out. There are no symbols that spell K-I-N-G, rather there is just an image that means the concept of king:Figure 2: Example of CuneiformLater, after the fall of Sumer, the Akkadians (early Babylonians) write down and ca

8、nonize old Mesopotamian myths using this Sumerian system of writing. Once the Akkadians adopt it, however, the language is known as Assyrian.Enuma ElishThe Babylonian (Akkadian) Epic of Creation, known as theEnuma Elish , was written in cuneiform, and is based in Sumerian Mythology. Here, the mother

9、 of all creationTiamat , bears some unruly children. When they are nearly killed by their father, the children preemptively kill their homicidal father. This enrages Tiamat, who transforms into a terrible dragon. One of the children,Marduk slays her, tearing her in two, placing half of her body in t

10、he sky, and half on the earthThis seems to represent the splitting of waters into the oceans and the sky. Also, it seems to represent the establishment oforder over the chaos symbolized by Tiamat. Marduk becomes king of the gods and orders the rest of creation. While this story is earlier than the B

11、iblical Account of Creation in The Book of Genesis, it does have some parallels that we will discuss later.Its genre (or type of literature) is creation epic:Creation Epic: A lengthy, narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to

12、 a culture or nation.Date: Circa 1800 BCE perhaps earlierAlso it is a Chaoskampf:The motif (repeated cultural element in literature) of Chaoskampf (German for "struggle against chaos") is ubiquitous in myth and legend, depicting a battle of a culture hero deity with a chaos monster <htt

13、p://wiki/Chaoskampf - Chaoskampf>:Figure 3: Marduk vs. TiamatSo, in this battle in theEnuma Elish, we see themes of order vs. chaos, kingship, succession, familial strife and so on, that we will see in other works we study.The Epic of GilgameshThe Epic of Gilgameshis a heroic epic

14、 from about 1800 BCE. Gilgamesh was likely a real person, and the historical King Gilgamesh probably ruled in about 2700 BCE. The work is a heroic epic:o Heroic Epic: a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serioussubject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a cultu

15、re or nation.o The later half of the epic deals with adeluge myth a myth concerning the events of a worldwide flood. In addition to this portion of the text that relates the flood secondhand, Babylonian cultureas the oldest deluge myth, the Atra-Hasis , </wiki/Atra-Hasis >

16、;.o In short, the gods become upset at humans and attempt to wipe them out through a worldwide flood. This occurrence predates the action of Gilgamesh.The primary theme (universal concept explored in a work) of Gilgamesh ismortality the fear of death as well as the acceptance of it.Other themes incl

17、ude:? Love-often homoerotic? Inward Growth? Journey, and life as an inevitable journey toward deathHebrew Scriptures (The Torah or Old Testament)/ Genesis andJobTorah? Date: Babylonian Captivity (Circa 589 BCE)? Language: Hebrew? Genre: National Epic? The Torah , called the Pentateuch in the Christi

18、an tradition, is the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, attributed to Moses.? In 589 BCE, the Hebrews were conquered and brought into Babylonian captivity.? While many of sacred Hebrew stories existed prior to Babylonian captivity, the books of the Tanakh -what Christians refer to as the Old

19、 Testament-were canonized at this time.? Many students ask,“Well, if the Hebrews were in captivity, how did they havetime to make a sacred work? The answer is that this captivity was not hard, literal enslavement for all Hebrews. Some captives led relatively free lives in Babylon. Thus, some of them

20、 had time to codify a sacred text.? The close proximity to the Babylonians at the time might partially explain some of the similarities between the Old Testament and the Babylonian/Sumerian myths.GenesisDate: As the Torah, Circa 589 BCE Genre: Primeval HistoryLet me just hit some high points here:?

21、God creates the world from a verbal command, called afiat” (Latin for, “letthere be " as in, “let there be light. ”o This is a much less violent creation than in other culture' s religions andmyths. Most creation myths include aChaoskampf of the creator fighting a monster of chaos.o Some sc

22、holars believe that some violence existed in a previous, orally transmitted, version of the Biblical creation, but that later Hebrew writers left it out. Why leave out some conflict with a dragon; wouldn' t the storhave been more interesting with the draconic conflict left in?o Other texts in th

23、e scriptures make passing references toleviathan " and“ Rahab, " which may have been some “chaos being " Yahweh had to confront during creation. That is, before the whole conflicted got edited out of Genesis </wiki/Leviathan >.o Below is an engraving of thi

24、s theoretical conflict by artist Gustav Dore:Figure 4: The Destruction of the LeviathanTransition to the creation of humans, as I mentioned before, Eden is located at the intersection of the Tigris and Euphrates, inside the“ Fertile Crescent.The serpent of the garden is not clearly identified as Sat

25、an. That identification comes later. For the development of the character of Satan, see Job.Cain andAbel are, of course, Adam and Eve ' s first children. Is their conflict an allegory for agriculturalists v. herdsmen? Hopefully, we have time to discuss this.Most scholars think that the Tower of

26、Babel story recollects a time whenhumanity was all culturally unified, and thus spoke a similar language, like ProtoIndo-European.Most scholars think that the sacrifice of Isaac is an anti-human-sacrifice story.Other modern readers have difficulty with it. Hopefully, we have time to discuss it.JobAt

27、 the outset of the story of Job, there is a court held in Heaven. Satan, whose name is Hebrew for " Adversary “ arrives to- shoot "troubleanity in a sense. He claims that Yahweh ' s righteous champion, Job, merely needs to be tested to expose the shallowness of his faith.o So rather th