Mesopotamian Myths Retold as Children's Literature

Introduction: The Origins of Mythological Storytelling

The oral tradition of storytelling has existed perhaps since the times when human beings began to gather in groups around fires, long before the dawn of what we would now call civilization. Eventually these stories became the mythology of their cultures and were written down, in one form or another, for posterity. One of the earliest renditions of this literature can be found in the clay tablets from the Mesopotamian civilization retelling the tale of Gilgamesh.

The first known and recorded epic would appear to be the legend of Gilgamesh, sung to the harp by Sumerians and recorded in clay some 3,000 years before Christ. It exalts the wondrous exploits of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and celebrates his friendship with Enkidu. It probes the mysteries of life and whatever lies beyond it. (Saxby 2004:254)

While it is true that in many cases parts of the clay tablets are still lost and the full text of much of the myth is not directly known, it has been pieced together from other sources. We know, for instance, that Gilgamesh was the "semi-legendary King of Uruk and hero of the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, which was based on myths that had existed for centuries in Sumer." (Cotterell 1986:27)

In the edubba ("tablehouse"), or school, the ancient works — epics, omen literature, prayers, and the wisdom corpus — were copied diligently by scribes who were themselves organized in a kind of guild system and deeply imbued with the idea of tradition. The schools were associated with temple and palace and served the purposes of those institutions. (Murphy 1981:10) These clay tablets were produced by Sumerian and Babylonian scribes.

The ancient land of Mesopotamia was situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and was the site of many different cultures, such as the Assyrian Empire in the north and the Babylonian kingdom in the south. The two most well-known capitals of these were Nineveh, belonging to the former, and Babylon, belonging to the latter. Both have been the subject of myth, fact, and fiction over the succeeding centuries. (Thomas 2008:899)

Mesopotamia was an area where many different ethnic groups and cultures mingled. This original melting pot blended and re-imagined many traditions while a subconscious force also shaped these divergent cultures into a "common mold:"

…in a kind of ever-renewing synthesis, into which was absorbed, to a large extent, the heritage of more ancient cultures, at once assimilated and modified. Thus we may speak of Sumerian, Amorite, Babylonian, or Assyrian historiographies. Furthermore, wherever a temple or palace was built, intellectual activity flourished; schools grew up in all cities where the literate strove to cultivate their particular skills. (Glassner 2005:3)

Many scholars believe that the influence of Mesopotamian mythology is predominant in Western culture and has shaped not only that mythology but the parables of many religions as well. Perhaps, as Jung might say, these stories represent archetypal allegories that resonate with all cultures, and it is natural to adopt them as meaningful interpretations of deeper philosophical significance.

Jung, whose theory has been criticized for demanding a vast knowledge of myth, did not perceive the unconscious as an instinctual and libidinal battleground, although he posited a "primitive psyche" in the child that functions in dreams and fantasies comparable to the physical evolution of mankind in the embryo. (Bosmajian 1999:103)

Consider the simple Mesopotamian proverb: "The tallest man cannot reach heaven; the widest man cannot cover the mountain (or earth)." This single sentence espouses themes found throughout many mythological literatures that express the limitations of human existence. (Greenspahn 1994:33) The Tower of Babel comes to mind — a structure reaching toward heaven that was ultimately unsuccessful, reflecting the limitations of corporeal existence as compared to that of God.

For the Bible, the line between the human and the divine may not be breached — at least not by humans, who must stay in their place and wait for God to make His presence known. Presented in poetry and in prose, this concept was often communicated using the language of an ancient Mesopotamian proverb, which provided the imagery with which Biblical authors expressed this profound conviction of Israelite theology. (Greenspahn 1994:41)

No less significant are the tales of human creation and destruction presented in the various forms of the Great Flood mythology, which appears in almost all cultural mythologies in one form or another with strikingly similar narrative. For instance, "Hunab, or Hunab Ku, 'the single god,' the remote creator deity in Maya belief, renewed the world after the three deluges which poured from the mouth of the sky serpent." (Cotterell 1986:212) There are also the Aztec Creation Legends, which tell that the "first earth" with its inhabitants was destroyed by a great flood caused by Atonatiuh, the water sun. (Sykes 1993:23) Furthermore, Nu'u — the Hawaiian Noah — escaped a great flood in a large vessel with a house on top. "Having landed at the summit of a mountain on Hawaii and sacrificed kava, pig, and coconuts to heaven, the god Kane descended on a rainbow." (Cotterell 1986:285)

There is also a tendency in many cultures to posit several cycles of creation, not just one, as in the example of the "first earth" in the Aztec legend cited above. This has several effects: it creates an impression of order springing from chaos, suggests that everything in creation proceeds in a preordained way, and makes it possible to locate the present moment within that order. This periodization can be a source of comfort — knowing where one stands in the scheme of things. (Collins 1998:64)

The tale of the Great Flood has also been a favorite in children's literature, perhaps because of the many animals featured in the story and the heroic effort to save them. This will be discussed in further detail later in this paper, as the example story presented here is the tale of the Great Flood as retold from the versions that have survived from ancient Iraq, written in both Sumerian and Akkadian (see Appendix I).

While these Mesopotamian myths and tales have been transferred into Western culture through transliterations into other stories, the original — and perhaps even more poetic — narratives have largely been lost. It is the concern of this paper that this should no longer be the case, and that these wonderful stories and allegories find their way back into the twenty-first century through children's literature. While Greek and Roman mythology still holds a foothold in this genre, Mesopotamian parables do not. Even Beowulf has conquered a new generation of moviegoers, but Gilgamesh remains more alien to most. It should be noted, however, that a Mesopotamian deity did make an appearance in a quite popular book turned film, The Exorcist: "The demon, identified in the novel as Pazuzu, was a genuine character in Mesopotamian mythology: a demon associated with the wind." (Cull 2000:46)