History Myth / MesopotamianMythology

* HumanMomNonHumanDad: Gilgamesh was the son of the goddess Ninsun and Lugalbanda, who was either a human deified after death or a demi-god himself (in which case he himself is an example, as those myths depict him as the son of the sun god Shamash and a human woman).

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 "writers" take this a step further and argue that the Sumerians were either [[AncientAstronauts assisted by aliens]] or were aliens themselves.

* Pazuzu was more of a demon than a god, bringing various misfortunes, but nonetheless has to be treated with respect.

As mentioned, Sumer was largely composed of various cities and settlements typically given to 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; compare UsefulNotes/AncientGreece.

* In ''Manga/AnatoliaStory'', after demonstrating good skills at war and "mystical knowledge" (which is stuff that's [[ScienceMarchesOn basic in modern times]]), Yuri is believed to be either a gift from or an incarnation of Ishtar. Eventually, almost everyone takes to calling her "Yuri Ishtar" or simply "Ishtar".

* 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 Anime/FateGrandOrderAbsoluteDemonicFrontBabylonia, 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''.

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 as the names of gods and places changed ([[OrwellianRetcon or were rewritten]]) over time. As Mesopotamian mythology was largely forgotten until serious archaeology got underway in the 19th century, is very ancient, and can generate some massive ValuesDissonance for modern readers, it can seem quite strange and uncanny to modern eyes; when a creature from this mythos appears in modern fiction, it thus tends to be as a MesopotamianMonstrosity.

As mentioned, Sumer was largely composed of various cities and settlements typically given to 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; compare AncientGreece.

As mentioned, Sumer was largely composed of various cities and settlements typically given to 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.

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.[[note]]So this article may include some Ur examples Of [[UrExample Ur-Examples]].[[/note]] Several passages and allusions, including TheGreatFlood myths, are strikingly similar to descriptions in the Bible.

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 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.

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 as the names of gods and places changed ([[OrwellianRetcon or were rewritten]]) over time. As Mesopotamian mythology was largely forgotten until serious archeology got underway in the 19th century, is very ancient, and can generate some massive ValuesDissonance for modern readers, it can seem quite strange and uncanny to modern eyes; when a creature from this mythos appears in modern fiction, it thus tends to be as a MesopotamianMonstrosity.

* Marduk, water, vegetation, judgment, and magic; son of Enki and Damkina. As the patron deity of Babylon who was created to justify the Babylonians' dominance, you could call him an UrExample of a MartyStu.

* In ''Literature/GenerationP'' Mesopotamian deities, Ishtar in particular, are in fact supreme beings. They help TheIlliminati, which were initially a Chaldean guild in Babylon, rule the world. Specifically in TheNineties world they rule through television.

* In ''Literature/GenerationP'' Mesopotamian deities, Ishtar in particular, are in fact supreme beings. They help TheIllimunati, which were initially a Chaldean guild in Babylon, rule the world. Specifically in TheNineties world they rule through television.

* In ''Literature/GenerationP'' Mesopotamian deities, Ishtar in particular, are in fact supreme beings. They help TheIllimunari, which were initiully a Chaldean guild in Babylon, rule the world. Specifically in TheNineties world they rule through television.

* CrapsackWorld: Humans were created to be slaves to the gods and when they died, they all went to the same gloomy underworld. Any wonder why their scribes wrote stuff like this:

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 castes (and as a spoken language), to some degree. It's in this period that the majority of our knowledge from Sumer is derived. The Babylonians, if nothing else, were excellent record keepers, maintaining and adding to the Sumerian corpus and 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]].

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

* A supplement to Literature/TheDresdenFiles RPG includes a cult of Ishtar fighting human trafficking in Las Vegas.

* VideoGame/CliveBarkersJericho, in which you battle Ninlil, Ki, Inanna, Enlil, Nanna and Utu.

* 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 Anime/FateGrandOrderAbsoluteDemonicFrontBabylonia, 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".

* WebVideo/CarmillaTheSeries- a character is revealed to come from ancient Sumer.

* 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 mid to late 3rd millennium BCE, the Sumerian creation myth is the “[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_between_sheep_and_grain Myth of cattle and grain]]”.

!!Works that reference and/or derive from Mesopotamian mythology

* The Franchise/CthulhuMythos (sort of).
* 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 [[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".
* Creator/StormConstantine's Grigori Trilogy
* ''Literature/SnowCrash''
* ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}''
* VideoGame/CliveBarkersJericho, in which you battle Ninlil, Ki, Inanna, Enlil, Nanna and Utu
* 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 Romans liked the story enough to run off with it.
* ''VisualNovel/InputOutput'' has many characters take online handles from Mesopotamian mythology, usually calling it ''Babylonian'' mythology (which make sense, given that a decent lot of story is focused on an in-story MMORPG called Babylon.) There are plenty of references to the actual mythology as well.
* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' (set in a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' RPGMechanicsVerse) Babylonian deities are one of the three pantheons of gods who created the world, their worshippers mostly found on the Western Continent. Tiamat is a five-headed dragon and Queen of the Underworld, Nergal a lion-headed god of "death and destruction". Ereshkhagal, Ishtar, and Marduk have also been mentioned in passing.
* A supplement to Literature/TheDresdenFiles RPG includes a cult of Ishtar fighting human trafficking in Las Vegas.

* Many songs by Music/{{Melechesh}}.
* VideoGame/{{Abzu}}, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as implied by the title]].
* WebVideo/CarmillaTheSeries
* The ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' series borrows several names from Sumerian mythology for its ancient cities, ruins, and so on. Particularly ''VideoGame/YsVITheArkOfNapishtim'', as is obvious with the title.

* PrimordialChaos: Ammut and Tiamat are the first beings in existence according to the myths, and represent fresh and saltwater.

* BiTheWay:
** Some versions of the story of Inana's journey to the Underworld state that Inana and her servant/companion Ninshubur were lovers. In addition, some texts imply she wasn't averse to taking females to her bed either.
** Gilgamesh and Enkidu were very close companions, to the extent that certain variations of the story state outright that Gilgamesh loved him as a woman would a man. On the other hand, Enkidu was made to begin with when Gilgamesh terrorized his people such as forcibly taking husband's wives, and occasionally husbands themselves.

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.[[note]]So this article may include some Ur examples Of {{Ur-Example}}s.[[/note]]Several passages and allusions, including 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 allusions, including TheGreatFlood myths, are strikingly similar to descriptions in the Bible.

As mentioned, Sumer was largely composed 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.

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 were rewritten]]) over time. As Mesopotamian mythology was largely forgotten until serious archeology got underway in the 19th century, is very ancient, and can generate some massive ValuesDissonance for modern readers, it can seem quite strange and uncanny to modern eyes; when a creature from this mythos appears in modern fiction, it thus tends to be as a MesopotamianMonstrosity.

* Literature/EnumaElish
* Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh
* Literature/InannasDescentToTheNetherworld
* Literature/NergalAndEreshkigal

* BadassBoast: Several, both among gods and kings. Unusually, this boast of Anzud is an invitation rather than a threat that qualifies, nevertheless.
-->"I am the prince who decides the destiny of rolling rivers. I keep on the straight and narrow path the righteous who follow Enlil’s counsel. My father Enlil brought me here. He let me bar the entrance to the mountains as if with a great door. If I fix a fate, who shall alter it? If I but say the word, who shall change it? Whoever has done this to my nest, if you are a god, I will speak with you, indeed I will befriend you. If you are a man, I will fix your fate. I shall not let you have any opponents in the mountains. You shall be Hero-fortified-by-Anzud."

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

* BilingualDialogue: Since a large portion of Sumerian texts were found on tablets of scribes and apprentice scribes, much of it was translated from their native Akkadian as writing exercises. This proved invaluable to modern archeologists in deciphering the language.

* LovableSexManiac: Enki had the rather disturbing habit of seducing his own ([[ParentalIncest grand]])daughters, but was usually one of the friendlier, wiser and better-natured gods. The same could be said of Inana in the sex department at least.

* MakingASplash: Enki, god of rivers and lakes, uses the ability to control water more than once. Also his daughter, Nanshe.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: A mermaid called Kulianna is believed to have fought and been slayed by Ninurta. Given that we don't know what the ancient Sumerians exactly meant with the term mermaid, it is unknown how different she was or even if she was different at all to the classic archetype.

* Franchise/CthulhuMythos (sort of)

* In ''Manga/AnatoliaStory'', after proving good skills at war and "mystical knowledge" (which is stuff that's [[ScienceMarchesOn basic stuff in modern times]]), Yuri is believed to be either a gift from or an incarnation of Ishtar. Eventually, almost everyone takes to calling her "Yuri Ishtar" or simply "Ishtar".

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 were rewritten]]) over time. As Mesopotamian mythology was largely forgotten until serious archeology got underway in the 19th century, and is very ancient, it can seem quite strange and uncanny to modern eyes; when a creature from this mythos appears in modern fiction, it thus tends to be as a MesopotamianMonstrosity.

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 castes (and as a spoken language), to some degree. It's in this period that the majority of our knowledge from Sumer is derived. The Babylonians, if nothing else, were excellent record keepers, maintaining and adding to the Sumerian corpus and 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]].

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.

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 castes (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]].

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 were rewritten]]) over time. As Mesopotamian mythology was largely forgotten until serious archeology got underway in the 19th century, and is very ancient, it can seem quite strange and weird to modern eyes; when a creature from this mythos appears in modern fiction, it thus tends to be as a MesopotamianMonstrosity.

!!Works on the wiki that constitute Mesopotamian Mythology:

* 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 mid to late 3rd millennium BCE, Sumerian creation myth, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_between_sheep_and_grain Myth of cattle and grain]].

* 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 flat out stated they would execute her anyways.