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Sebastian Martinez
E.J. Theodoracopoulos
Classic Mythology
The Beginning
Humans being questionably the smartest animal in nature to have ever existed in the
history earth, are capable of analyzing, and rationally think of solutions about their problems and
question. But what happens when the questions they have cannot be rationally answers, it is here
where myths, and religion are born. By analyzing stories in Hesiod Theogony, the translation of
Myths of Mesopotamia by Stephanie Dalley, and the book of Genesis in the bible, I will compare
then and see how similar or different they are from one another, and see how this myths came to
be back in the days.
Beginning with what is believe to be one of the oldest and the mother of many other
myths, the myths from Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is located between the Tigris and Euphrates
river system, in the territory that is now known as Iraq, Syria, Turkish, and Kuwait. This wide
region was rich not only in natural resources which was one of the main reasons why it was such
was successful civilization, but in tourism and enlighten as well. Being advance in both cultural
and technology for its it was the leader or its generation in advancement, but as you open the
doors of knowledge the more you notice that there so many things that cannot be explain. This is
where the creation of myths began. Stephanie first tale, of the many she has in her book with the
story of Atrahasis, a tablet that contains the story of the creation of men and the flood send by the
Gods to destroy human kind. Before we get to the creation of the earth it is good to know that
Mesopotamian’s believed that there where many Gods and Goddesses who resemble the humans.
The Gods and Goddesses lived together in the earth, Anu was the God of sky who ruled anything
above the earth, Enlil the God of wind who also ruled the earth, and Enki the god of water who
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ruled the oceans. The Gods had sub divinities who they controlled who took care of the labor on
earth, like farming, maintaining the rivers and canals, and did any of the labor the Gods did not
desire to do. After years of strenuous work the divinities decided they did not want to be the ones
that did all the hard labor, so they rebelled against the superior Gods. Enki who was one of the
