tradition
Mesopotamian tradition
The religions and literatures of ancient Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria, known from cuneiform tablets.
Also known as Babylonian · Sumerian
Meetings with this tradition
Mesopotamian tradition is connected to Death.
Gilgamesh’s poem is preoccupied with death after Enkidu. Mesopotamian tradition here meets death as an epic problem, not an Egyptian weighing.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
connected to · sourced · documented
Mesopotamian tradition is connected to Fate.
Enuma Elish assigns lots and offices after combat. Allotment here is a Babylonian cosmogonic politics, not a natal chart.
from Enuma Elish, standard version often dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE
connected to · partially sourced · documented
Eclipse appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
Eclipse omens are a known Mesopotamian genre. They sit beside, not inside, the Gilgamesh flood story.
appears in · interpretive · culturally specific
Underworld appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s underworld material is a Mesopotamian below. It is not Xibalba’s ballcourt of trials.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
appears in · sourced · documented
Flood appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
Utnapishtim’s flood is told inside Gilgamesh. It is a Mesopotamian survival story with a boat and a later hush.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
appears in · sourced · documented
Omen appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
Eclipse and other celestial omens are a known Mesopotamian genre. They sit beside Gilgamesh, not inside it.
appears in · interpretive · culturally specific
Descent appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
Gilgamesh’s journeys include waters and a far-away of the dead. The descent is a Mesopotamian epic problem.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
appears in · sourced · documented
MUL.APIN belongs to Mesopotamian tradition.
The series is a Babylonian astronomical compendium. Hunger and Pingree edit tablets, not myths of seven sisters.
from Hermann Hunger and David Pingree · MUL.APIN, 1989 (this edition); tablets earlier
belongs to · sourced · documented
Dream appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
Gilgamesh’s epic treats dreams as narrative foreknowledge: Gilgamesh’s meteor-and-axe dreams are read as signs of Enkidu, and Enkidu’s dream carries knowledge of the dead. That is Mesopotamian epic material, not Artemidorus’s Greek handbook.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
appears in · sourced · documented
Tablet of Destinies appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
Enuma Elish has the Tablet of Destinies held and then taken in the combat that allots offices. A Babylonian named tablet of that cosmogony, not Hebrew luchot and not the already-stored mesopotamian→fate walk.
from Enuma Elish, standard version often dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE
appears in · sourced · documented
Cedar appears in Mesopotamian tradition.
The Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh epic sends Gilgamesh and Enkidu to the Cedar Forest to cut timber and face Humbaba. A named cedar-expedition in that poem, not Dioscorides’ kedros and not Yggdrasil.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
appears in · sourced · documented
Meetings in this tradition's context
Water is associated with Flood.
The Gilgamesh flood is water as world-covering disaster, survived by Utnapishtim. It is not baptism and not Daoist softness.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
associated with · sourced · documented
Water is associated with Underworld.
Gilgamesh’s journeys include waters that bound the world of the dead and the far-away. Mesopotamian waters of the dead are not the Styx by another name until later readers say so.
from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)
associated with · partially sourced · documented
Eclipse is associated with Prophecy.
Mesopotamian omen series treat lunar and solar eclipses as signs that can be read for king and land. That is a cuneiform technical literature, not Ptolemy’s natal craft.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Mesopotamian omen literature treats some celestial appearances as signs for king and land. That is a cuneiform technical genre, not Ptolemy’s natal chart.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Eclipse is associated with Omen.
Where an eclipse is treated as a sign, it is an omen. Mesopotamian series and later handbooks disagree on what it signs.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Flood is associated with Rebirth.
Enuma Elish is a cosmogony of order from conflict, not a flood-survival tale. Keep Gilgamesh’s flood and creation-combat as related Mesopotamian files, not one plot.
from Enuma Elish, standard version often dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
MUL.APIN lists the cluster among Mesopotamian star-names (MUL.MUL and related entries). A cuneiform list, not a Greek catasterism.
from Hermann Hunger and David Pingree · MUL.APIN, 1989 (this edition); tablets earlier
appears in · sourced · documented
MUL.APIN is associated with Star.
The series lists stars and paths. Cuneiform astronomy, not Greek catasterism.
from Hermann Hunger and David Pingree · MUL.APIN, 1989 (this edition); tablets earlier
associated with · sourced · documented
MUL.APIN is associated with Calendar.
The compendium is used for calendrical and stellar order. A Mesopotamian sky-book.
from Hermann Hunger and David Pingree · MUL.APIN, 1989 (this edition); tablets earlier
associated with · sourced · documented
Hunger and Pingree’s MUL.APIN attests the Arrow Star (MUL.KAK.SI.SÁ) among Mesopotamian star-names, identified with Sirius. Cuneiform list-work, not Ptolemy’s judicial dog-star and not generic star.
from Hermann Hunger and David Pingree · MUL.APIN, 1989 (this edition); tablets earlier
appears in · sourced · documented
Hunger and Pingree’s MUL.APIN attests the True Shepherd of Anu (MUL.SIPA.ZI.AN.NA) among Mesopotamian star-names, identified with Orion. Cuneiform list-work, not Ptolemy’s constellation handbook and not a minted hunter-hero.
from Hermann Hunger and David Pingree · MUL.APIN, 1989 (this edition); tablets earlier
appears in · sourced · documented
sources
- Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh, Standard Babylonian version (flood tablet; underworld material).
- Enuma Elish
Enuma Elish (Babylonian creation epic).
- MUL.APIN · Hermann Hunger and David Pingree
Hermann Hunger and David Pingree, MUL.APIN.