Religion and Humanity in Mesopotamian Myth and Epic

Mesopotamian Literature
Although considered collectively here, the term “Mesopotamian myth and epic” refers to a 
diverse group of texts from several different cultures and many historical periods. Mesopotamia 
is generally placed geographically between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; the name 
“Mesopotamia” is of Greek origin, meaning “land between the rivers.”
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 Mesopotamia’s exact 
territorial extent is a subject of debate, but its area may be considered to correspond roughly with 
modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria, Iran, and Turkey. Mesopotamia was home to many 
of the world’s first great empires, including the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. This 
area is known as the “cradle of civilization” because of innovations in fields including 
agriculture, astronomy, and writing that occurred in this region at an early stage of history.
Mesopotamian literature is written in the cuneiform script, considered to be the world’s oldest 
form of writing (although there is some competition from Egyptian sources). Cuneiform 
characters are composed of wedge-shaped strokes and were written on clay tablets; the name 
“cuneiform” come from Latin, meaning “wedge-shaped.” The earliest known, readable 
cuneiform writings are in Sumerian, long believed a linguistic orphan with no relation to any 
known language.
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By the middle of the third millennium, the Sumerian language was beginning 
to be eclipsed by Akkadian, a Semitic language which is an early cognate of Hebrew and other 
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Semitic languages. While the Akkadian and Sumerian texts both utilize the cuneiform script, they 
are linguistically, and most likely chronologically, distinct, owing to the decline of spoken 
Sumerian as Akkadian became the common idiom. The two main dialects of Akkadian were 
Assyrian (from northern Mesopotamia) and Babylonian (from southern Mesopotamia), but 
literary texts were written in an artificial literary dialect, which differs from that found in 
everyday texts such as letters, and presumably from spoken dialects. This means there is virtually 
no possibility of dating Akkadian literature on linguistic grounds. Modern knowledge of Sumerian 
is insufficient for certain dating on the basis of language used, and most Sumerian literature that 
has survived to the present day is in the form of copies from the Old Babylonian period.
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Further, while Akkadian and Sumerian were separate languages, they exerted influence on one 
another. Sumerian influences are present in the style, content, format, and vocabulary of 
Akkadian literature, and Sumerian literature composed after the end of the third millennium 
BCE 
was likely written by authors from an Akkadian-speaking background.
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The ordering of the 
selected literary compositions here is based on thematic content rather than following a 
chronological order.
In considering different “genres” of Mesopotamian literature, we must first acknowledge that 
the division of Mesopotamian literary works is something of an artificial process, more 
representative of modern literary theory and scholarship than being a reflection of any ancient 
ordering of texts.
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 Even the two genres examined here, myth and epic, are often indistinct
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 and 
overlap with each other in terms of narrative content; a myth, or set of myths, can provide the 
background for an epic.
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 An example of the interrelatedness of the two groups of literature can be 
found in Tablet VI the 
Epic of Gilgamesh
, where the hero of the epic recounts to the goddess Ishtar 
the unhappy fate of her husband, Dumuzi.
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 While Gilgamesh’s account is brief, this divine 
relationship, with its tragic end, is featured in a number of Mesopotamian myths such as 
Inanna’s 
Descent to the Netherworld
.
The term “literature” here is used to broadly delineate the more narrative-focused written 
works, with an emphasis on story, from legal and economic documents, historical records, omen 
texts, royal inscriptions, funerary dedications, magico-medical texts, and prophecy. Religious 
and literary texts survive in great abundance, with myth and epic comprising just a small 
percentage (estimates are often around 1 percent) of the extant written material from 
Mesopotamia. Although the evidence is plentiful, it is often fragmented, which has created 
difficulties for its study in the modern day.
The importance of story in the religions of the ancient world is a developing area of study.
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Through the use of plot, characterization, literary themes and techniques, and also structure, 
stories transmit religious ideas and beliefs, as well as informing on cultural identity, values, and 
meaning. The focus here on the “genres” of myth and epic is intended to provide a concentrated 
foundation for considering religion and humanity in Mesopotamian narrative. In both oral and 
written transmission, storytelling is a powerful medium for exploring ancient theology, although 
it is the written sources that will be considered here. This is not to say, however, that historical 
records, inscriptions, and other documents are of lesser value to the study of ancient religion; 
temple inventories and economic records, for example, can transmit much significant 
information about religious activities and values, and omen texts illuminate how some natural 
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