Mesopotamian Mythology - The Creation and Beyond Quiz

Answer: True

Much as in Egyptian mythology, different towns and cities identified different gods as their patron. In times of arrogance, one city may claim that their god is the "god of gods", leading to similar assertions by rival cities in response. The prominence of different gods therefore correlated with the success of the city with which they were associated.

This, combined with the fragmented accounts of Mesopotamian myth, means that there is often inconsistency between different stories.

Answer: Salt water and fresh water

The idea of a vastness of water pre-existing anything else was, again, a notion commonly held in the ancient myths of Egypt. Another similarity with Egyptian mythology is that the first mating (which in Mesopotamian mythology occurred when the salt waters of Tiamat mingled with the fresh waters of Apsu) resulted in several deities which came as pairs. Where the similarity falls apart is in the vicious behaviour of the primordial water gods of Mesopotamian mythology. One version of the story tells of how Apsu was so sick of the noise created by his offspring that he killed them all.

Answer: The Cattle God

After the creation of the first gods by the union of Tiamat and Apsu, the Earth was created and life began to flourish there. Before such life could flourish, however, there was a constant cycle of birth and patricide. The Cattle God killed his father (the Plough) and mated with his sister (the Sea).

The son of this union then killed his father and mated with his mother (or sister). It is believed that this process of replacement of old life with new was used by the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians to explain the seasons.

Answer: Marduk

This story is similar to one of Norse mythology, when the brothers Odin, Vili, and Ve kill the frost giant Ymir and use his carcass to create the Earth. Marduk kills the evil Tiamat, who had terrorised the other gods, and used her body to form the heaven and the Earth. Her skin was supposedly stretched above the sky as a barrier, which explained the droughts of Mesopotamia.

The story of Marduk's role in the creation of Earth is described in the Enuma Elish, but an alternative version of the myth credits the Earth's creation to his father, Enki. Enki is one of the most ancient Mesopotamian gods, and some believed him to have adorned the Earth with crops, mountains and metals. It is also believed that he created the two rivers which give Mesopotamia its name (literally "between two rivers") using his sperm. These rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Answer: His blood

Kingu was sometimes depicted as a dragon and was said to have fathered several monstrous children with Tiamat. Kingu, though ferocious looking, in some accounts is said to have fled when he saw Marduk approaching, leaving his wife Tiamat to battle him alone. After Tiamat was defeated by Marduk, Kingu was captured. Instead of being killed outright, Kingu's blood was used to make humankind.

The old god Enki seems to have again been overlooked in the account given above. An alternative myth tells of how Enki, as the premier among the gods, created man out of clay so that the task of ploughing the Earth/carrying water did not have to be performed by the gods themselves. The humans were therefore seen as a slave race. It was believed that disability (e.g. missing limbs or blindness) was the result of Enki being drunk when he moulded those particular people.

Answer: Anu

Anu was, with Enlil (a representation of wind) and Enki (the representation of water) part of a triad of gods who were held by some as being superior to other gods.

Despite these grand beginnings, the popularity of Anu seemed to fall and one account tells of how he was killed by Marduk after trying to take over the universe.

Answer: Ishtar

As the goddess of sex and love, Ishtar/Inana can be seen as the equivalent of Aphrodite in Greek mythology and Venus in Roman mythology.

The most well-known story concerning Ishtar involves her journey to the underworld, where she was held captive by Queen Ereshkigal. During her captivity, all sexual activity on Earth stopped.

In Sumerian legend, Inana complained to Enki, who was in charge of appointing deities the domains over which they would rule. Inana complained that she had no domain. Enki reminded her that she presided over music, war, sex, marriage, love, and fertility, before asking "what more could you want?"

Answer: Son

Yes, the Sun is the son of the Moon. The Moon is therefore the father of the Sun, despite being called Nanna.

Both Nanna and Utu are male deities. These names were used by the Sumerians, whereas the Akkadians called the Sun god Shamash. Additionally, Nanna is alternatively known as Sin in both ancient cultures.

Though important, the Sun does not assume the same level of power as it does in Egyptian mythology. One story in Hittite mythology tells of how the Sun god was dragged down to the sea by the Sea god after an argument. Without the Sun, life withered and died. The Sun was eventually returned to the sky by Telipinu, son of the god of Storms.

Answer: A turtle

Ninurta is attached to various different tales by different cities in Mesopotamia. One such story tells of how Ninurta saves the Tablets of Destiny from the bird-monster Anzu. Enlil, to whom the tablets belonged, praised his son for this, but Ninurta wanted more than just praise - he wanted the world. Feeling his son was dangerously proud and ambitious, Enlil enlisted a turtle to dig a deep hole in the mud.

In his attempt to gain power, Ninurta charged at his father, but the turtle jumped out and dragged him into the hole, from which he could not get out.

Answer: The god of death

Mot, as well as being the god of death, was also considered the god of drought, and so had a long-running rivalry with the fertility god, Baal.

The story tells us that Baal originally refused to allow a window to be built into his palace so that his daughters could not escape, but apparently changed his mind (perhaps because of the benefits it offered to the crops on Earth). It was widely held in Mesopotamian mythology that death could only enter a home through the window, so Mot gained access to the house of his enemy after the window was built. The progression/conclusion of this rivalry is not known.