Mesopotamia (lecture 2)

Question 1

History

Answer 1

• starts around 6000 BC
• myth in Mesopotamia from the cuneiform documents
• these documents were written in clay, by the impressions made from reed pen

Question 2

Myths

Answer 2

Myths are influenced by the earliest people who built cities on the southern ends of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Sumerians. Cuneiform documents survive from as early as 4000 - 3000 BC.

Question 3

Akkadians

Answer 3

By 3000 - 2000 BC the Akkadians, a Semitic group, invade establishing rule north along the Tigris and Euphrates from their city Akkad. They wrote in Akkadian and Sumerian, which took on the status of a classical language to them

Question 4

Amorites

Answer 4

The Amorites, another Semitic group, arrived a few centuries later, taking Babylon, adopting Akkadian for writing, and at their height in the 18th century BC, under Hammurabi, ruling Samaria and Akkadia

Question 5

Assyrians

Answer 5

Assyrians controlled the region from around 1400 to 612 BC. They wrote in Accadian as well. Sumerian myths were preserved and adapted at each phase with Semitic variants closest to each others versions

Question 6

Victory of the Olympians

Answer 6

1. Ouranos hates his children and hides them away in Gaia
2. Gaia produces adamantine, which is made into a sickle, and looks for a champion among her children
3. Cronos, the youngest, agrees to help
4. Arms himself with the sickle hides in wait of Ouranos for when he returns to sleep with Gaia
5. Cuts off Ouranos genitals and throws them into the sea
6. Ouranos curses his children, calling them “Titans”, literally “over - reachers” and predicts the downfall of Cronos at the hands of his children

• from the blood of the genitals of Ouranos that falls on the earth, arise furies, giants, nymphs

Question 7

Victory of the Olympians 2

Answer 7

• Rhea consults with Gaia and Ouranos
• Zeus is taken away when born to Crete
• Cronos is given a stone to swallow which causes him to vomit out the other children
• war ensued between the titan gods and the children of Cronos and Rhea
• The children used Mount Olympus as a base and they and their allies are named Olympians

Question 8

Zeus

Answer 8

• Zeus would not have won but he made allies
• Titan- gods: both Prometheus and Epimetheus joined the Olympians
• Cyclopes: these craftsmen forged Zeus’ lighting bolts and the weapons and armour of the Olympians
• Hundred- handers: incredibly powerful warriors

Question 9

Victory of the Olympians 3

Answer 9

The Olympians are victorious and Zeus and Hera become the third couple to rule the cosmos
(The titan-gods are imprisoned in Tartarus and the hundred- handed giants are the prison guards)
But Gaia and Zeus have a falling out
A) Gaia encourages the giants to rebel against the Olympians (this overlaps into the period of mortals)
B) Gaia gives birth to Typhoeos, a hybrid chaotic monster