History Myth / MesopotamianMythology

Studying Mesopotamian mythology, in general, is a little bit easier than studying most Indo-European mythologies because the Mesopotamians were literate. Even so, there's a lot of conflicting information. The most likely reason is an evolution of their religion over time as the names of gods and places changed, ([[OrwellianRetcon or rewritten]]) over time.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[UrExample Ur-Gods]]]]

* BoringButPractical: Sumerians and their Akkadian descendants used clay tablets rather than expensive paper or papyrus to write as many others did. On top of being cheap and easy to make, the hardness of the inscribed clay survived to the present day in much better shape than any form of writing that came after until the invention of computers.

* Anything mentioning Adonis; originally, the tale of Venus and Adonis (which English-speakers know primarily from the NarrativePoem by Creator/{{Shakespeare}}) was a Semitic tale about a young shepherd named Tammuz/Dumuzi, also called "Adon", ("Adonis" is derived from this term, meaning "Lord"; cf. "Adonai", "The LORD" in Jewish usage) and the goddess Ishtar. The Greeks liked the story enough to run off with it.

* The ''Franchise/FateSeries'' makes fairly heavy use of it[[note]]"older" figures tend to be more powerful in its system for summoning heroic figures, and as folks like Gilgamesh are arguably humanity's oldest heroes, this gives them ''inordinate'' amounts of power[[/note]]; ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'''s [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/FateGrandOrderAbsoluteDemonicFrontBabylonia seventh chapter]], in particular, draws heavily on all three extant major myths for story themes, plots beats, and characters, and the third Christmas event (it's a long story) is a character study for Ereshkigal and mentions a good deal of the material found in "Literature/NergalAndEreshkigal".

* The ''Franchise/FateSeries'' makes fairly heavy use of it[[note]]"older" figures tend to be more powerful in its system for summoning heroic figures, and as folks like Gilgamesh are arguably humanity's oldest heroes, this gives them ''inordinate'' amounts of power[[/note]]; ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'''s seventh chapter, in particular, draws heavily on all three extant major myths for story themes, plots beats, and characters, and the third Christmas event (it's a long story) is a character study for Ereshkigal and mentions a good deal of the material found in "Literature/NergalAndEreshkigal".

* AntiVillain: UrExample in Tiamat. She pleaded with her husband Apsu to not murder their children, and afterwards she goes to war with the gods partly out of grief and partly because they falt out stated they would execute her anyways.

The term "Mesopotamian mythology" covers the ancient religions of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylon. Obviously, Mesopotamia figures heavily in the Bible; Abraham and his kin were, mostly likely, natives of the Sumerian city of Ur. Several passages and illusions, including the TheGreatFlood myths are strikingly similar to descriptions in the Bible.

Sumer, as you might have learned in your World History classes, is 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 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 writers take this a step further and argue that the Sumerians were either [[AncientAstronauts assisted by aliens]] or were aliens themselves.

0The term "Mesopotamian mythology" covers the ancient religions of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylon. Obviously, Mesopotamia figures heavily in the Bible; Abraham and his kin were, mostly likely, natives of the Sumerian city of Ur. Several passages and illusions, including the TheGreatFlood myths are strikingly similar to descriptions in the Bible.

The term "Mesopotamian mythology" covers the ancient religions of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylon. Obviously, Mesopotamia figures heavily in the Bible; Abraham and his kin were, mostly likely, natives of the Sumerian city of Ur. Several passages and illusions, including the TheGreatFlood myths are strikingly similar to descriptions in the Bible.

As mentioned, Sumer was largely comprised of various cities and settlements typically fighting among themselves. Thus, rather than a unified nation, in reality, Sumer was more akin to a collection of states that spoke a common language and worshiped largely the same pantheon.

Names and nation aside, the Babylonians never forgot their roots. The pantheon largely stayed the same, The method of writing from clay tablets was kept, and their mother tongue was preserved in literature among the priests and noble casts (and as a spoken language), to some degree. It's in this period that the majority of our knowledge from Sumer is derived. Babylonians, if nothing else, were excellent record keepers, maintaining and adding to the Sumerian corpus; preserving their ancestors' more notable myths and stories...Until they were all conquered in 539 BCE by the Persians, [[ShaggyDogStory which rendered the whole thing pretty moot]].

* The ''Film/ScorpionKing'' movies that serve as a prequel to ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'' take place during some vague ancient Mesopotamic time of myths whose main protagonist is the [[LastOfHisKind last member of the Akkadian people]], wandering the world as a [[HiredGuns sellsword]]. There are many references to the myths such as the goddess Astarte in the second movie and Enkidu in the fifth one.

The term "Mesopotamian mythology" covers the ancient religions of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylon. Obviously, Mesopotamia figures heavily in the Bible; Abraham and his kin were, mostly likely, natives of the Sumerian city of Ur. Several passages and illusions, including the TheGreatFlood myths are strikingly similar to descriptions in the Bible.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and its wider franchise; ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'''s seventh chapter, in particular, draws heavily on all three extant major myths for story themes, plots beats, and characters, and the third Christmas event (it's a long story) is a character study for Ereshkigal and mentions a good deal of the material found in "Literature/NergalAndEreshkigal".

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and its wider franchise; ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'''s seventh chapter, in particular, draws heavily on all three extant major myths for story themes, plots beats, and characters.

** Inanna has a pretty badass one that she says in versions of the story of her descent to the underworld and in Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh.

-->I shall smash the door[[note:to the underworld]] and shatter the bolt, \\

-->I shall smash the door [to the underworld] and shatter the bolt, \\

** Inanna has a pretty badass one that she says in versions of the story of her descent to the underworld and in the Literature/EpicOfGilgamesh.

* Enki (Ea) The god of water and wisdom. Enki was much more fond of humanity than most other gods and was generally a pretty groovy guy. Often identified with Mercury.

* BadassBoast: Several, both among gods and kings. Unusually, this boast of Anzud]is an invitation rather than a threat that qualifies, nevertheless.

* BelligerentSexualTension: The courtship of Ereshkigal and Nergal. Ironically, when they finally liberate their tension, it only complicates things.

* BigGood: Enki is the main benevolent deity.

* {{Chickification}}: Can be observed from looking at the oldest Sumerian myths to its later derivatives.
** One example is Nammu, who went from the sole creator goddess in Sumerian myths to her more well-known Babylonian version Tiamat, a co-creator who after the death of her husband became a tyrant who is probably the UrExample of GodSaveUsFromTheQueen.

* DragonsPreferPrincesses: In one myth, a dragon named Kur kidnaps the beautiful goddess Ereshkigal and takes her to the Netherworld, forcing her to become the queen of the plane for eternity. In a twist, although the dragon is defeated by Enki and she later gains some heroic development with Nergal, she is technically never rescued from her prison.

** Ereshkigal herself appears to be an underworld expy of her twin, Inanna (and some believe they may have even been the same goddess at one point!)

* TheGreatFlood: Possibly the TropeMaker. Somewhat amusing to note that in contrast to the stories of depravity and sin in later versions, Enlil brought down the flood because those pesky humans were crowding the Earth and making too much noise.

* HeroAntagonist: The monsters slain by Ninurta in his travels receive the interesting collective name of the Slain Heroes. It's unknown why they are supposed to receive this epithet.

* ImAManICantHelpIt: In his forced travel to the underworld, Nergal is warned by Enki not to eat, drink, wash or have sex there, as he would cause unspecified troubles by doing so. He resists successfully except the last, as he succumbs when he sees Ereshkigal naked while taking a bath (in other versions, she was a bit naughtier and actually allowed him to see her knowing he would fall for it). They end up sharing a bed for six days.

* 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 some danger, it's very probable that Enki made them that way in order to prevent them from [[IncrediblyLamePun screwing]] things further.

* LovableSexManiac: Enki had the rather disturbing habit of seducing his own ([[ParentalIncest grand]])daughters, but was usually one of the friendlier, wiser and more good-natured gods. The same could be said of Inana in the sex department at least.
* LoveRedeems: Ereshkigal is first portrayed as a quite callous goddess (possibly due to having been put in the Underworld against her will), but she notably warms up after meeting Nergal and falling in love with him, to the point she breaks down when he escapes from her kingdom after their six-day idyll. It goes in the other direction as well, as Nergal is at first willing to dethrone her to prevent the troubles she threatened to cause if the gods didn't send Nergal to her again, but at the end, he accepts their love and marries her.