History Myth / MesopotamianMythology

Major characters of Mesopotamian Mythology include:

* In one story of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Morpheus (who frequently gets to deal with deities, who after all originate in his realm of dreams) has brief dealings with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who has been reduced to dancing in a modern strip club. Where else could a rather dark sex-goddess find mass worship? She doesn't appear to be a monstrosity -- she ''appears'' to be an exceptionally talented exotic dancer -- until she gets suicidally depressed, and chooses her own way to go.

* KungFuProofMook: Enki created two eunuchs or sexless beings out of clay and sent them to rescue Inanna from the Underworld. As the plane is ruled by a seductive goddess and apparently you cannot have sex there without causing danger and disgraces, it's very probable that Enki made them that way in order to prevent them from [[IncrediblyLamePun screwing]] things further.

* ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' has Ishtar appear among plenty of other mythical deities in the city of Orario, though her ethnicity and background are never revealed. However, she is hit with a huge dose of AdaptationalVillainy while she and her whole familia is dressed like Arabian belly dancers.

* DeathBySex: Commonly said to be the fate of all of Inanna's lovers eventually. This is why [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] turns her down.

* HotAsHell: Ereshkigal is invariably described as very attractive, just as much if not more so than her sister.

* AnAxeToGrind: Lugalbanda is one of the strongest mortals in the myths and wields an axe.

Sumer, as you might have learned in your World History classes, was probably the oldest human civilization. It flourished from the 5th to the 3rd millennia BCE. Sumer began and ended as a collection of city-states in what is now UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}. It's usually assumed that Sumerians were the first to invent (or at least were among the earliest known adopters of) year-round agriculture, writing, the wheel, irrigation, and beer. Since the Sumerian language has no known cognates, it's anyone's guess where they came from. Some "thinkers" take this a step further and argue that the Sumerians were either [[AncientAstronauts assisted by aliens]] or were aliens themselves.

* Likewise, plenty of bands are named after Mesopotamian figures such as deities.

* ''The 12th Planet'' (along with the whole ''Earth Chronicles'' series) by Azerbaijani-American fringe author Zecharia Sitchin is ''the'' book that definitively popularized both the idea that the Anunnaki were [[AncientAstronauts ancient aliens]] and that they had something to do with the founding of the actual ancient Sumer. Although his claims have been very thoroughly debunked by now[[note]]In large part because the Sumerian language is now understood far better than it was back when Sitchin wrote his books; most of his claims are based entirely upon his self-admittedly ameteur alternate translations of Sumerian mythological texts [[EitherWorldDominationOrSomethingAboutBananas that are, at best, a gigantic stretch from their original meaning]], such as the word ''dingir'' being "pure ones of the blazing rockets" rather than just "the gods" as the scholarly consensus universally agrees[[/note]], his ancient-Annunaki-astronaut theories have become a mainstay of UFO conspiracy culture and pop-culture at large since.

Sumer, as you might have learned in your World History classes, was probably the oldest human civilization. It flourished from the 5th to the 3rd millennia BCE. Sumer began and ended as a collection of city-states in what is now UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}. It's usually assumed that Sumerians were responsible for the invention of year-round agriculture, writing, the wheel, irrigation, and beer. Since the Sumerian language has no known cognates, it's anyone's guess where they came from. Some "thinkers" take this a step further and argue that the Sumerians were either [[AncientAstronauts assisted by aliens]] or were aliens themselves.

Mesopotamia figures heavily in Literature/TheBible. Abraham and his kin were, mostly likely, natives of the Sumerian city of Ur,[[note]]So this article may include some Ur examples Of [[UrExample Ur-Examples]].[[/note]] and the Assyrian and Babylonian conquest of the Middle East (including the Babylonian captivity) were defining events for the Jews as an ethnoreligious people.[[note]]Notably, while monotheism originated during the First Temple period, it only became a universal defining trait of the Israelites during and after the captivity. Basically, the captivity transformed the Israelites into Jews.[[/note]] Several passages and allusions, including TheGreatFlood myths, are strikingly similar to descriptions in the Bible.

* HornyDevils: Lilitu, Dimme, and Dimme-kur were sometimes portrayed this way.

** Numerous {{demon lords|AndArchdevils}} take their names from Mesopotamian Mythology, such as [[SeaMonster Dagon]], [[FeatheredFiend Pazuzu]], [[RiddlingSphinx Areshkagal]], [[MonsterProgenitor Lamashtu]], [[WarIsHell Nergal]] and [[TheArchmage Abraxas]].

* TheAlmightyDollar: The cattle-goddess, Lahar, and the grain goddess, Ashnan, are both examples of wealth goddesses in a culture which measured wealth in terms of fields of grain and herds of livestock. Written on clay tablets during the 3rd millennium BCE, the Sumerian creation myth is the “[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_between_sheep_and_grain Myth of cattle and grain]]”.

* ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'': Zasalamel is cursed to constantly reincarnate to the point his birthplace is unknown, however it's likely he may originally be Babylonian, judging by the names of his attacks being named after figures of Babylonian legends and myths. This also fits with him originally being a member of Algol's cult, who is himself inspired by the hero king Gilgamesh and therefore likely originates from the pre-Babylonian ''Sumerian'' civilization, which occupied the same region but is considered the oldest one in human history.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There were about six main gods and hundreds of minor, local deities.

* ''Anime/FateGrandOrderAbsoluteDemonicFrontBabylonia'' is based on the ''Franchise/FateSeries'''s seventh chapter.

* DovesMeanPeace: {{Inverted}}. They are usually associated with Ishtar, the goddess of war.