Oldest literature in the world

[Brasil]

Sumerian literature is the oldest literature in the world. The Sumerians invented the first writing system.

Let's talk and learn more about:

- The Epic of Gilgamesh

- Enûma Eliš


... and any kind of ancient or classic literature (Assyro-Babylonian, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc).

[Brasil]

... we can dicourse about the similarities between The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish (Enûma Eliš) and the Holy Bible.
;)


The hero Gilgamesh:
http://www.livius.org/a/1/mesopotamia/gilgamesh_louvre.JPG

[Dark Muse]

I personally really love the Decent of Inanna

http://home.tiscali.nl/gibbon/inanna.jpg

[Lokasenna]

Interestingly, if you break the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh down into basic plot elements, then it bears a remarkable similarity to Dr No.

The world's finest hero (Gilgamesh/James Bond) is told by his government of a distant evil (Humbaba/Dr No) on the other side of the world. They arm him with powerful weaponry (Magician/Q Branch). He travels to the distant evil, they converse, then fight, and then just as it seems that the hero will fall, he miraculously overcomes, and returns in triumph!

I really do by into the theory that their are only seven basic plots.

[crystalmoonshin]

I've read that the famous flood in Genesis was also present in the Enuma Elish...

[LitNetIsGreat]

I really do by into the theory that their are only seven basic plots.

Yes, quite possibly so.


I've read that the famous flood in Genesis was also present in the Enuma Elish...

Histories of great floods occur as legends in nearly all societies and cultures of the world. Even small isolated Amazonian tribes have legends of great floods. I've not read the epic of Gilgamesh though I am aware of it. It is also classed as one of the first utopian texts too, seems there has always been dreamers...love the art posted by the way.

[semi-fly]

I'll bite what and/or where is this from: Enûma Eliš

[Drkshadow03]

Sumerian literature is the oldest literature in the world. The Sumerians invented the first writing system.

Let's talk and learn more about:

- The Epic of Gilgamesh

- Enûma Eliš


... and any kind of ancient or classic literature (Assyro-Babylonian, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc).

Isn't the Enuma Elis actually Babylonian? Although, most of the Babylonian myths are adaptations of Sumerian mythology, that particular Creation myth known by the title you used is especially about Marduk's (a specifically Babylonian deity) rise to power and overcoming the sea-monster Tiamut. Part of the story has Marduk rising above the deities of Sumeria (particularly the ones featured as the primary deities in the Sumerian creation myth; they actually have the same names), making it an "imperialist" myth about Babylon's rise to power over the previous cultural powers of the region just as much as a Creation myth in and of itself.

The Creation myth of Sumeria is different; if I remember correctly, unlike the Babylonian Enuma Elish, and the Greek Creation stories as presented by Hesiod, it doesn't contain a full-fledged war between the deities and generations of deities struggling for power.

[Brasil]

Almost all societies tell legends about the great flood. Even in Greece you will find it. The Greeks tell that Helen (the godness, not the Helen of Troy) repopulate the Earth after a great flood and they are descendants of Helen, that's why the Greek culture is called Hellenic.
But the oldest version of the flood myth is in the Enûma Eliš (Enuma Elish), a Babylonian-Sumerian book of myths. The Bible came later.


There are a lot of similarities between Enuma Elish and the Bible, not just the flood. For example, the creation of the world:
The Hebrew word for ocean has the same root of Tiamat, a sumerian goddess that represents Ocean.


Probably the jews had contact with the sumerian myths of creation when they were captives in Babylon. On that same way, they had contact with the legend of Lilith, the rebel, which was the first woman before Eve.
For the Sumerians, Lilith was a godness. For the jews, the godness of their enemies became a devil (see the Talmud and Midrash).

Lilith also apears in Isaiah 34-14, for example.
But the new editions of the Bible have cut the name Lilith.

[manolia]

Almost all societies tell legends about the great flood. Even in Greece you will find it. The Greeks tell that Helen (the godness, not the Helen of Troy) repopulate the Earth after a great flood and they are descendants of Helen, that's why the Greek culture is called Hellenic.


A few inconsistencies here, i hope you don't mind my correcting them :)
Hellen was a man, not a godess. He wasn't a god (but his father Deukalion was son of Prometheus, if i am not mistaken wich make him part god :lol:).

The legend goes like this: Helen's parents (Deukalion and Pyrha) were told by Zeus to throw stones on the ground and people came to being. Hellen had 3 sons (or 4) don't remember and each of them gave his name to one of the primary greek tribes.

There is debate concerning what hellen means (which is as you said how we call ourselves and not greeks - which is derived by a minor hellenic tribe) the most prevalent is that it means "our people" if you view the word as a compound one and you trace its origins..there are a few other interpretations as well..don't remember them right now, i guess i'll have to check.

[Brasil]

Manolia,

Thanks, but the myths came from oral tradition and there are a lot of versions for the same myth.

One version tells that the God Helen decided to repopulate the Earth with his children Doro and Eolo; and his Grandchildren Ion and Aqueu. They gave origin to the four tribes: Eolis, Dorios, Jonios and Aqueus.

Other Greek legend tells that Deucalion and his wife Pirra were the only survivors of the flood. Deucalion made an ark and introduced a couple of each animal inside.

A third version is a mix of the two myths.

Other versions of the Great Flood you will find in:
- Aboriginal Australian myths,
- Inca (South America),
- Aztec (Mexico),
- India (Southern Asia), etc...

[manolia]

Yeah perhaps you're right..i have read so much mythology and i don't remember the one you mention..but anyway here's the genealogy as i know it (found it conveniently on line and since i don't have my books at hand :))

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellen

Hehe big family :)

[Brasil]

Very good!

[JoeLopp]

Is anyone familiar w/ the works of Zecharia Sitchin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecharia_Sitchin), and his contention that the Sumerian Myths/Epics/Cosmology are actually based on real events?

[PeterL]

Is anyone familiar w/ the works of Zecharia Sitchin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecharia_Sitchin), and his contention that the Sumerian Myths/Epics/Cosmology are actually based on real events?

I am not specifically familiar with that person's works, but many people are of the opinion that the ancient myths were based on actual events. I agree with that opinion, and I think that some of the stories have their origins in events that may have happened as much as 20,000 years ago. Even Fairy Tales may be base on the interactions among the several varieties of humans that lived before the last great Ice Age.

[Brasil]

"the ancient myths were based on actual events".

I agree.

The Great Flood, the Troy War and others may be based uppon real facts without the mythological events.

What is more funny to me is the fact of the Mesopotamian literature being the oldest. The Holy Bible, in Genesis, tells that the location of Eden Garden (Adam and Eve's home) is between Tigre river and Euphrates river. This location was called Meso-potamia (between-rivers) by the Greeks, and nowadays we call it Iraq.

Changing the focus of the topic for a while:
Did anyone here read the book Zabibah and the King or the book The Fortified Castle? Both written by Saddam Hussein.

Now, back to the main focus:
The same way the Bible maybe was based uppon Enuma Elish and other stories, I have reasons to belive many Greek myths was based uppon Phoenician stories. And the Phoenician stories has origin in Mesopotamian and Persian stories.

What is original in art?