DEEP:APSU Flood/Panel Art for design

[ninanki]

The basic story goes just about the same as the biblical story. The early Hebrews got it from us.

The gods are upset by all the noise of the humans and decide to wipe everything out by flooding the place. Enki, the champion of humans, argued but was ordered to do it anyway and he wasn't allowed to warn the humans. He found a loophole in that clause and whispered to our early Noah, whose name starts with a Z but I can't recall at this particular moment, in a dream, through a hole in the wall. The boat was built, etc.

When the gods were calmer, they realized their mistake and the waters receeded. I think the Gilgamesh tablet 11 says that An is the one who tossed jewels out and created a rainbow, I'm too tired to dig out a book and look it up. I've seen one story that says Inanna toosed the jewels out, which would make more sense. Haven't been able to find that particular translation again, though, so I can't give you a quote.

The floods, though, were from the Twin Rivers flooding each year during the rains. They would wash over the fields, flooding them, and taking all the dead topsoil back into the rivers when they receded, while leaving behind nutrient rich silt which fertilized the fields. This was later attributed to Enki, giving him the role of engenderer.

If you want to take it back further, the Twin Rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, were created by glaciers.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Ninanki:

The segment about the jewels you mention, unless I am reviewing the wrong section, is most likely an outdated translation. In referring to Andrew George 1999 treatment of Tablet XI, the lines 165-170 (referring to just after the boat lands after the flood) read:

---

Then at once Belet-ili arrived,
she lifted the flies of lapis lazuli that Anu had made for their courtship:
"O gods, let these great beads in this necklace of mine
make me remember these days, and never forget them!"

"All the gods shall come to the incense,
but to the incense let Enlil not come,
because he lacked counsel and brought on the Deluge,
and delivered my people into destruction."

---

Its possible the 'beads Anu cast' is a mis-translation of the above lines (beads Anu made for their courtship.) The lapis lazuli beads, incidentally, are mentioned in Black and Green's entry under heading 'flies'. They represent one of the very rare times in which archeology has uncovered actually objects (physical string of lapis lazuli flies) which demonstrably correspond to Mesopotamian myth.

Naomi:

As we see in the above quote, the earliest flood 'villan' if you will, or the one who orders the flood in early myth, is Enlil - ostensibly because the noise of man was disturbed the sleep of the gods (for this we refer to the story Atra-hasis.) Tiamat does not occur until a later Babylonian work entitled the Enuma Elish.

About the dating of the flood, you may have read something about a Persian gulf flood in 12,000 B.C. I'm not sure. This is possible. But as for a Mesopotamian flood, while there were regular floods as Ninanki mentions these were regular and part a vital part of the ecology - spring floods were seen as beneficent and made the land fertile. The flood however was a singular event and set the civilization back.

If you follow my Sumerian King list: Secondary Sources thread, we note there that the Sumerian King List does in fact record the event of the flood - immediately following this entry, the kingship is in Kish, a northern city. The flood so devastated the Sumerian lands of the south, that kingship would rest for generations in the hands of their northern Semitic neighbors - the Kishites. As for the date of this event, current scholarship leans on archaeological findings of large clay deposits in the southern city of Shuruppak (Fara) - the home of the Mesopotamian flood hero, Ziudsura / Uta-napishtim. These clay deposits are evidence of an actual flood that took place here, in about 2900 BC.

[ninanki]

There is definitely a set of gods that are older, but we don't know who they are/were. There is a statement by Inanna about pleasing the old gods. I'll look it up and post it as soon as I find it. She could have been referring to Nammu, An and Ki, but I got the feeling that it went to a pantheon that we know nothing about.

May 24, 2008 9:03:33 GMT -5 Naomi said:

I'm thinking they may have to diverge earlier on to allow for evolutionary distortions - I am going so far as mermaids, you know. So 12,000 B.C. would work better for a set of alternate gods opposed to the above ground pantheons to set up this utopia.

The question is, what gods to use that go back that far? I was thinking Ninazu, Ningishzidda's father...

Ninanki mentioned earlier Tiamat was not invented until Babylon. Is the same true of her consort, Apsu? Or is Apsu merely a word invented to refer to sweet water.

Like I Said I don't know...but I did keep your IM from the other day that described the mythology of the fly necklace so I can make one.

It's unfortunate there's no photographs...who keeps all of these art treasures anyways?

[ninanki]

Sumer was a city-state, which means that there were small cities, independent, but forming a cohesive union together. Eridu and Uruk were cities within that union.

Sumerian was a name given by archaeologists to the people who moved into the area. In their language, Sumer is Kalam. No one knows where they originally came from. Lots of speculation but no proof. Their language doesn't match any other tribe. The earliest people there was about 35,000BC in the Upper Paleolithic period. After the glaciers receded, the sea levels began to rise around 12,000BC and the people discovered farming. The oldest on record is in the Levant and Palestine. Jericho is the oldest settlement.

Around 4300BC, villages became towns and cities. Eridu is considered the oldest of the settlements in southern Mesopotamia.

Not sure about Egypt but their late predynastic art, before 2920BC, shows Mesopotamian influence.

Apsu/Abzu is the name for the deep waters. It wasn't an actual being until they were personified by the Babylonians as the consort of Tiamat. Before the Babylonians, the earliest creator was Nammu, the Sumerian creator. All by herself, within the deep of the abzu. It wasn't until much later that this was taken away from her and given to male creators. It went from Nammu by herself to Enki ordering Mami to create humans from clay, to Enki stealing seed from Ninhursaga whereupon she smacked his hand, to Enki and Ninmah having a contest to see who could create the most useful being (Enki won), to the Babylonians with Tiamat and Apsu together, and then Marduk creating humans from a mixture of clay and the blood of a slain god.

Enki, being the son of Nammu, makes his home in the abzu.

Remember that the Sumerian pantheon and the Babylonian pantheon are about 2000 years apart. Sumer is older. When King Sargon invaded Sumer around 2000BC and took over, creating Babylon, most of the Sumerian pantheon got mixed in with the Babylonian pantheon. Most of the Babylonian pantheon are Sumerians under a new name. Nammu is Tiamat, Inanna is Ishtar, Dumuzi is Tammuz, Utu is Shamash, An is Anu. etc. Enki, Ningishzida, and Nanna were among the few that kept their names, although their roles were greatly diminished in the promotion of the Babylonian gods.

I don't think the forum quote is for Ningishzida. The Sumero-Babylonians never got as far as Botswana. The Ng prefix is common for some parts of Africa. If this is what you were looking at.

[xuchilpaba]

So you're Japanese?

[ninanki]

Love the thought of Ningishzida as the DNA helix; I didn't think of that one. It fits. And I have a caduseus on my necklace to represent him.

I couldn't find the Inanna comment that I was looking for; I know I highlighted it, so the elves are probably playing. I did find one for Enlil, though, in Mark Cohen's Cultic Calendars:

On pages 106 and 107, discussing the Nippur month of du-ku. This is the 7th month, named for the Sacred Mounds and the festival to them. The Sacred Mound is described as the place where Enlil's ancestors dwelt. "There laments were like laments which Enlil's ancestors perform in the awe-inspiring duku, the holy lap of Enlil. The god pair, Endukuga and Nindukuga, "Lord of the Sacred Mound" and "Lady of the Sacred Mound" are listed among the ancestors of Enlil throughout the canonical lamentations and in the god-list AN = Anum, demonstrating the primordial nature of the Sacred Mound, even predating the great god Enlil, himself. A tradition still echoed in the first Millennium BC considers the 7th month as the "month of Enlil's ancestors."

There are also Sacred Mounds mentioned for Enki and Inanna.

I'm going to put my head on the chopping block by speculating that the names of the mound gods have been corrupted by the Semetic languages at some point, because the Sumerians didn't use gender prefixes and suffixes. This was told to me by a professor off Etana. I'll come up with his name at some point, it's been a few years. I have the email from him around here somewhere.

As for my favorite gods, I tend to lean toward Enki. I'm more magician than priest. Ningishzida, Inanna, Nanna, Utu, Ereshkigal, Ninhursaga, Ninurta and Nammu are my main peeps. I also like Erra, who was originally a separate deity from Nergal; I appreciate a consort who does battle for his queen. Girra is another of the warriors that I look to; his fire belongs in the realm of transformation which is a magical thing. I don't like Nergal, I think he's a usurper and a rapist, and the growing patriarchy put him in charge of the underworld because a female couldn't possibly have that much power. (scratching at the litter box.....)

[ninanki]

Erra is one of the underworld demons. He's a big high honcho, consort to the queen, Ereshkigal. Close to the Babylonian times, his role was changed. Nergal was given the underworld after he raped Ereskigal and suddenly she was completely enthralled by him. I mean really! The queen of the underworld, who can see into any soul and knows Truth, who is capable of tearing the world apart with just a thought, can force even the gods to remain in the underworld, and suddenly she has no power over a minor demon? Gender bias in a highly male dominated world!

So after Nergal took over the underworld as its king, Erra became another aspect of Nergal. Typical of the invading tribes, taking over local deities with their own.

The primordial serpents, the dragons, are the ancient chaos of agrarian societies. The early societies that had no governing councils. Nature ruled. So when governments were formed, they declared the dragons goddesses to be evil. The Enuma Elish is a prime example of this; the war between Tiamat and Marduk. Tiamat wasn't evil, she was avenging the assassination of her consort, Apsu. She told him to leave the kids alone, let them play, but no, he had to go and plot their destruction. When they found out, all hell broke loose, Apsu was killed, and Tiamat went on a rampage. When Marduk was created, he was told to kill her. He didn't question, he obeyed orders; the perfect example of an orderly society, governed by order and law instead of by nature.

[xuchilpaba]

I believe the story of Marduk slaying Tiamet is Babylonian.
" He supplants the other Babylonian
deities to become the central figure of their pantheon. He is a "King
of the Igigi" He often works with and asks questions of his father. He
has fifty names many of which are those of other deities whose
attributes he usurped. He was of proud form and piercing stare, born
mature, powerful, and perfect and superior. He has four eyes, four
ears, and emits fire from his mouth when he speaks. He is also gifted
in magic.
Anu gave him the four winds to play with. When Anu's peace mission to
Tiamat fails, Ea urges him into action. "


" The clamor of the younger gods
disturbed her, but she continued to indulge them. When Apsu and Mummu
suggested that they kill the younger gods, she grew furious, calmed down
and rejected the plan. Her restless subservient gods goaded her into
action after Apsu is slain. They prepared to wage war against the other
gods. As Mother Hubur, the underworld river, who fashions all things,
she bore giant snakes with venom for blood, and cloaked dragons with a
godlike radiance yet with a terrible visage, for the war. She rallied a
horned serpent, a mushussu-dragon, a lahmu-hero, a ugallu-demon, a rabid
dog, a scorpion-man, umu-demons, a fish-man, a bull-man, and eleven
others underneath her champion, Qingu. She gave Qingu the Tablet of
Destinies to facilitate his command and attack.
Marduk came with his host to attack her. Quingu's strategy initially
confuses him, and Tiamat tried to enspell him, hurling jibes at him.
She was rebuffed and incited into single combat with Marduk. She
continued to cast her spell and Marduk netted her, and threw a wind at
her. She tried to swallow it and was undone - distended, shot, sliced
in two and cut in the heart. Her crushed skull heralded her death, and
half of her skin was used to roof up the sky. Her eyes became the
sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers."

www.faqs.org/faqs/mythology/assyrbabyl-faq/

[xuchilpaba]

Well, many modern pagans take this story as demonization of "the goddess" or male dominance. But given Marduk's prominant role in Babylonian religion where he replaced many gods such as Anu (whose the Sumer An and was originally the top god) I doubt that the feminist slant is the true connanation of the story.

May 29, 2008 1:42:30 GMT -5 Naomi said:

Native American actually, culturally in fact, and by blood, Lakota I have a lot of other genetic lines in me, but I'm mostly taught native american culture and then i picked up some Jewish traits from my mother who was raised Jewish even though she is *very* native looking...It's tough being a native broad in Beverly Hills of the 50's I imagine...even so, I'm not sure it wasn't a great character builder for her.

But I do study Japanese history and art when I get a chance. I was really into it for a few years in fact, so I can tell you more about the history of the ninja or the lineage of the Chinese emperors than I can about Sumer...

Sorry I meant to anwer this sooner. i love Japanese culture in general. So just about anything from Japan that you can offer is awesome to me. (Maybe you saw my Death Note avatar?)

which is greater samurais or ninjas?
I came to the conclusion it was ninjas.

Anyway I also love Chinese culture. I take Wah Lum Kung Fu and have to learn the daunting task of speaking some Cantonese, which is hard if you mostly know Japanese.

The thing about Shintoism is or well japanese culture is not excepting of foriegners and the religion is not really practiced by any foriegers realy because of that. However, if you're female they will be more benevolent and excepting of you.

[xuchilpaba]

Thats interesting.

Oh yeah I edited me post when you were posting that, lol

[xuchilpaba]

May 30, 2008 9:19:14 GMT -5 Naomi said:

odd fact: there was such a thing as NINJA PIRATES, they were hired by Ieyasu at some point...I've got the story somewhere, but they were basically ninjas on a boat...hired for some attack...

If you know the old ninja vs pirate thing, it's pretty funny. But pirates were pretty great fighters and "ninja" in their own right...(enduring men)

I got kind of bored with the ninja thing and my ex is a friggin Bujinkan freak so I'm out of sorts with it atm...

If you had Livejournal, you'd known I just posted a topic about that, just yesterday.

So there were pirate ninjas... See, I love Japanese stuff and I live in Tampa (founded by Pirates) and I was very confused.

May 30, 2008 9:16:21 GMT -5 Naomi said:

Well, in actuality, many ninjas WERE samurai. They were the ones who refused to kill themselves after their army lost. Some ninja were good friends with the shogunate, like Ieyasu, others, like Nobunaga wanted to kill all the ninja. It's very complicated. It's retold all over the world, with the zapatistas, geronimo, etc. So any kind of rebellion reflects the guerilla tactics of the ninja, only, the ninja were Japanese, so in actuality they were probably elite because of that factor alone. The Japanese are conclusively one of the greatest fighting nations in existence, I think they truly brought warrior craftsmanship and elite techniques to the next level. China was good, too, and China had a good grasp of the mystical enough to realize fighting isn't everything...something which lead to the downfall of Japan via the atomic blast that decimated their cities.

I agree. I noticed how good the Japanese were. They had a thing on NatGeo on modern samurai where the samurai had his daughter shoot a arrow at him, in which he destroyed with his sword. So they are execellent warriors.

As for China they were one of the most advanced civs, and they had great milltary too. But its hard to keep up with all the military styles, martial arts, and weapons.

As far as warriors go I'm interested in Assyria and Akkadia, and Nergal, for instance...some of the war aspects of Mesopotamia culture are quite exciting fo r me to discover

Ok so enough of that...but the Japanese are very racist, in that case i don't take them that seriously anymore, I'm a citizen of the universe and I get what I can from all cultures.

Assryia is what I get the feeling were into war alot.

As for the rasism, not every jap is like that and I have seen things out of their culture that adress the issue and is against it. I'm pretty sure tho, Japan is not the only country with values like that.

[xuchilpaba]

xuchil-paba.livejournal.com/

If you were ever on Tablet of Destin, which is a group for scholarly pagans, we have a fair amount on LJ now.

[xuchilpaba]

Np. I know what Tengu are. (The Jap word for angel is similar using 'ten' [heaven] in it; tenshi) One of my fav folklore characters are kitsune and I love the god/dess Inari. Yuki Onna's are pretty weird too.

If you browse me LJ yo'll probaly find the blog about Chinese weaponary if you're interested in that sort of thing.

TOD is not a Mesopotamian strictly site, its a site for anything scholarly from ancient religions. (They have Sumerian, Aztec, Celtic, Egyptian recons etc.) Its a yahoo group though. Unfortunaley I don't post there anymore for personal reasons, but you might gain some knowledge there and looking through old threads.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Naomi:

Regarding your tale above I think it would make a nice accompaniment to the art your planning at concept art.com , though its very likely keep in mind, that no art enthusiast will have any idea what your talking about when referring to Sumerian deities. I suppose thats okay as long as it compliments the art and inspires the imagination/

I can see where you take some cues from Sumerian myth with the general story, but also some very large departures and kind of interweave the whole thing with a borderless fictional conspiracy/plot. No one person could sort out where the religious/imaginative parts start or finish I dont think and I still dont understand the attraction to 12,000 B.C. But - thinking very big for an accompanyment to the art ;]


Xuch: Nice linking o_0

[xuchilpaba]

Why can't there be multiple floods? Floods were common in Mesopotamia and the Gilgamesh story about the great flood (that led to Noah's story in the bible) was just one instance of many. But in that case it was very great. Great enough to be written about.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Negative. I'm not sure the extent to which you want to iron out these kind of details in a fictional accompanyment to a concept-art piece. If you wanted to sort some history out, I'm sure if we had a good long IM session about it we could set plenty of things straight. Thus far though, on reflecting, we are pretty far from have a long IM session. And haven't even got to history!

[us4-he2-gal2]

"impossible? Well...yes and no..."


Nothing, nothing is impossible. Much more then any obscure information or literal resource, this conviction is something I would more then anything like enenuru to supply. This conviction is virility itself to me. I love your quotation with etcsl links, if your going for the researcher mode, I did etcsl links for an entire phase of my self-initiation. ;]

P.S. I worked all day today, have tomorrow off. Maybe better timing with the MSN tomorrow in that case...

[ninanki]

The Marduk-Tiamat thing is Babylonian. It comes from the Enuma Elish, which is the Babylonian Creation Epic. I recommend King's Enuma Elish.

The Nergal-Ereshkigal comes from Ancient Near Eastern Texts by Pritchard, page 103-104 of the unabridged version:

"When the gods were preparing a banquet,
To their sister, Ereshkigal,
They sent a messenger:
"Whereas we can go down to thee,
Thou canst not come up to us.
Send up, therefore, that they take thy food-portion."
Hence Ereshkigal sent Namtar, her vizier.
Namtar went up to lofty heaven.
He entered the place where the gods were conversing.
They [.... and greeted] Namtar,
The messenger of their great sister.

(several lines mutilated or missing but it seems that Nergal, alone among the gods, failed to show proper respect to the envoy. Namtar reports back to Ereshkigal, and she sends him back.)

"Saying: "The god who did not rise before my messenger,
Bring him to me that I may kill him."
Namtar went forth to speak to the gods."

The story goes on, with Nergal complaining that he's going to be killed. Ea gives him instruction and special somethings which are missing in the lines of the story.

Finally,

"Nergal to his troops he gave this order: "The gates
Are wide open! Now let me race to you!"
Inside the house he took hold of Ereshkigal,
By her hair he brought her down from the throne
To the ground, to cut off her head.
"Kill me not, my brother! Let me speak a word
to thee!"
When Nergal heard her, his hands relaxed. She weeps, humbled:
"Be thou my husband and I will be thy wife. I will let thee hold
Dominion over the wide nether world. I will place the
tablet
Of wisdom in they hand. That shalt be master,
I will be mistress!" When Nergal heard this her speech,
He took hold of her and kissed her, wiping away her
tears:
"Whatever thou hast wished of me since months past,
So be it now!"

[ninanki]

"Enuma Elish" is Babylonian for "When on high..." the first words in the epic. Untitled prose and poetry are still named for the first line.

[madness]

who is Ur-Namma?

The founder and first king of the Neo-Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur.


Is that the same Namma that equates to Tiamat?

It might be convenient to equate these two watery primordial mother goddesses, but can this be proven?


Tiamat, the absolute state of tâmtu, means "sea."

Kramer in his Sumerian Mythology happens to equate Namma with the sea (p. 39): In a tablet which gives a list of the Sumerian gods, the goddess Nammu, written with the ideogram for "sea," is described as "the mother, who gave birth to heaven and earth." Heaven and earth were therefore conceived by the Sumerians as the created products of the primeval sea.

Jacobsen in his 'Sumerian Mythology: A Review Article' in Toward the Image of Tammuz [originally published in JNES 5] rejects this (p. 116): Returning to Dr. Kramer's treatment of the speculations centering in the goddess Nammu, it must be pointed out that the sign with which her name is written does not - as Dr. Kramer avers - mean "sea." "Sea" is a-abba(k) in Sumerian; the sign with which Nammu's name is written denotes - if read engur - primarily the body of sweet water which the Mesopotamians believed lay below the earth, feeding rivers and wells but best observable in the watery deep of the marshes. Nammu is therefore the "watery deep" of the Mesopotamian marshes extending below the surface of the earth as the water-bearing strata. She is not the sea.


Apart from both goddesses being the the primordial mothers, and both being closely associated with the Apsu, the fact that they represent different bodies of water might be a deal breaker.

[ninanki]

Potatoe potahto. We're talking about a 2000 year difference. The Babylonians had a very bad habit of borrowing gods and then combining them. Both Nammu and Tiamat lay coiled at the bottom of a body of very deep water and both are in dragon form and both are from the same area of the Twin Rivers. If it walks like a duck....

[madness]

The way it is told there, and I am told by us4-he2-gal2 this is a reliable version - Ereshkigal comes across as horny and aggressive and Nergal is depicted more like a perpetrator of a one night stand who has gotten in over his head with the queen of the underworld

There are two versions of the story [looking at Stephanie Dalley's Myths from Mesopotamia]

The earlier short version, found at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt, dates from the fifteenth or fourteenth centuries BC. This earlier version makes no mention of sex between the two, however the abrupt ending of this version has led some scholars to conclude that there should be more to it.

Looking at this earlier version, and Ereshkigal's reason for summoning Nergal:

Bring him to me for his death (?), that I may kill him!

Dalley points out a pun here that sums up the queen's intention, mutu 'husband' and mūtu 'death'.


The longer version is known from Sultantepe of the seventh century BC and from Uruk in the Late Babylonian period.

Ea, wise in all matters, advises Nergal:

(When) she (Ereshkigal) has been to the bath
And dressed herself in a fine dress,
Allowing you to glimpse her body . . .
You must not [do that which] men and women [do].

Of course Nergal ignores this advice:

She went to the bath
And dressed herself in a fine dress
And allowed him to catch a glimpse of her body.
He [gave in to] his heart's [desire to do what men and women do].
The two embraced each other
And went passionately to bed.

[xuchilpaba]

> www.dazimua.com/images/CA/throneroom2.jpg

I love this. It looks like a great sci fi thing.

[madness]

It might be convenient to equate these two watery primordial mother goddesses, but can this be proven?

Perhaps instead of looking for strict lexical equivalences, an answer could be found in Mesopotamian mythological speculation. The Akkadian Apsû, most commonly written with the sign ENGUR, happens to be equated with the sea in a first millennium Babylonian explanatory work, as shown in Livingstone's Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works p. 191:

Anu [is present] as himself.
Enlil is present as Lugaldukuga, (that is) Enmešarra. Enmešarra is Anu.
Ea is present as the Apsû. The Apsû is the sea(Tâmtu). The sea is Ereškigal.

Livingstone explains: Apsû and tâmtu(Tiāmat) are similar in that both are watery regions; as mythological figures they were husband and wife. Finally, Ereškigal is equated with Tiāmat, perhaps because both are underworld deities.

Jacobsen dismisses this and remains adamant that engur is wholly distinct from "sea," n. 21 to 'Sumerian Mythology: A Review Article': However, as anyone conversant with theological texts of the type of TC, VI, 47 will know, such associations are important rather for what they tell about Mesopotamian speculative thought than as precise contributions to lexicography.


One could join the dots and present a hypothetical link between Namma and Tiamat, but, as far as I am aware, a direct equation of the two does not exist.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Naomi:


This painting is sooooo cool! 0_0 It's absolutely beautiful. I love the colors, the depth, and the illumination points - I think I see what resembles the Ziggurat from Ur at top - below the walls there remind me of walls I've seen in an illustration of the ancient city of Uruk - And in the background wonderfully underlit Assyrian Lammu (plural).

I particularly like as well the touch of blue you've applied to the Ziggurat which gives that underwater feel - touchs like that are forever beyond my own artistic ability.

P.S. Have you go earth.google yet? If youget it we can surf to the Ziggurat at UR - and it may help also in more art projects.

Keep painting

[sheshki]

hey naomi,

looks like you were in a very creative drunk´n´party´out phase last days nice artworks, and slowly cuneiforms´r sneaking into your visuals...sweet

[sheshki]

naomi,

2 questions

1. you wrote: "...want to ride ng's cock tbqh"
-what does tbqh mean?

2. you wrote:"...good god 7 more days til deadline..."
-what god??? as a follower of ng you should get rid of those christian phrases you dont want to end up in their heaven dont you?

[us4-he2-gal2]

Some great finals Naomi! ;] I really like how this stuff turned out - the first painting with the priestess of Nergal is really great ;] The cuneiform is really dynamic looking and also the priestes hrself is very creepy 0_0 I like you Ninkasi , I guess she is what you call a catfish of sorts hehe. She's dressed in Sumerian themed garb and indeed has wine which is fitting to that deity. The combination of ancient architexture, futuristic techknowldgy (suggested by blue lights and thermo vents etc) together with different races and species of sentient beings, I'm sure with fit the defintion of 'concept art' quite well As for the scenes with the King and the troublemaker, these definitly have erotic overtones and one has to wonder what is in store for the damsel in distress. You must be getting pretty close to completion?

[us4-he2-gal2]

". I always will picture tammuz as a big purple and green titty monster with tentacles."



heh - 0_0 This sentence in itself is perhaps the ONLY thing that could come close to rivaling the sheer strangeness and macabre of the actual drawing of Tammuz as a big purple and green titty monster. Uhhh. I think I'm still trying to decide if I just saw that 0_0


You certainly have fabricated a unique and absolutly strange world here Naomi! Your Girim monster is very conceptual looking, though something I'd imagine fits in a ancient mythological ocean type scene - and you underwater mus-hussu is very well done! Snakes and scales must be a speciality
As for the weapon seems pretty unique and deadly, theres also something very suggestive about it, at least in my view.


As for the story line here, I believe the Kings initial assult on the 'damsel in distress' although it appears physical with the blue energy etc., seems less so in that it seems to serve to alter her perception or otherwise bring on the 'other plane' (I'll term it. ) He seems to exert an influence there and appears just by looks to be sinister or corruptive - but up to the point in the story, it hasn't been clarified if this is really so or if the king indeed is beneficient in some..strange strange way. ;]