Influence on the Classical World

[us4-he2-gal2]

Thread Orientation: On this thread we consider instances of cross cultural borrowing from the Mesopotamians to the Greeks

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Mesopotamian Influence

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**For a discussion of the general influence of Near Eastern religion on the Greek, readers may want to first consult our Greek Religion and the ANE thread (drawn from S. Noegel).***

As I've mentioned elsewhere on enenuru, taking a short course on Greek religion this summer has led me to modify my earlier position on comparative studies - I used to think that the effort of learning another culture would ultimately subtract from my concentration and overall grasp of Mesopotamian culture, which is my main interest.. and this line of thinking may be correct in some extent, however, in recognizing the extent to which many Classicists have modified their original disdain for the notion of Near East influence on Greek religion, and have come to explicitly stress this same influence, I come to see Greek religion as potentially forming if not an exact parallel with Mesopotamian religion, than at least a distant echo. At times this seems to reinforce ones insights into similar Mesopotamian practices. There stands some possibility therefore that consideration of Greek religion may enable a Near East researcher to discuss the further influence of ANE culture, while taking part in what may become an increasing collaboration with Classicists.


For this thread I am chiefly reviewing Stephan L. Harris and Gloria Platzner's "Classical Mythology: Images and Insights" 5th edition. This was the textbook used in the Greek course I took this summer - it is a very large and well written book focusing largely on Greek mythology with a bit of Roman religion toward the end. The authors are not technically Classicists, but English professors, although them seem especially well read on the subject matter.
I personally would hold suspect the underlying and reoccurring feminist interpretations that the authors weave into their narrative with considerable frequency - this having to do with the idea that the Greek theological world, while being essentially patriarchal, still demonstrates various ways that myths implicitly testify to the folly of unbalanced gender roles (Personally, I find that hard to reconcile with the seemingly honest sexism of the Greek poets themselves.)

Myth served some role in public religion in Greece, sometimes helping to explain for example why this or that sanctuary was sacred to a deity; it also served as the connector between the hero's and their deities. More directly to the point, Harris and Platzner state that an identifiable Greek culture did not begin to emerge in Greece until the arrival of the Indo-Europeans in about 2100 B.C.; further, they state that "Greek culture of the historical period, including its mythology, is a synthesis of many older influences, including that of the ancient Near Eastern civilizations of Mesopotamia."



In following H&P and their insight on this particular sort of influence, I've divided material up into 5 sorts of comparison:

1. Greek & Mesopotamian Cosmos

2. Mythical Localities

3. Mythical Events

4. Dying/Vegetation Gods

5. Heroic Modes

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Still to come... Five types of comparison

[us4-he2-gal2]

1. Greek & Mesopotamian Cosmos

- Greek Cosmos: fundamentally indebted to the Near East? -

Harris and Platzner take the position that Hesiod, an important early thinker whose work was formative for Greek cosmology, was in some large part indebted to earlier Near Eastern cosmological models. Hesiod's Theogony, of course, was a work which is held to be the "earliest and most influential" Greek creation account. That this work demonstrates influence from the east is something that the authors express less in terms of direct borrowing on the part of Hesiod, than an indirect (though still strong) influence. They make general statements to the effect of "Greek poets such as Hesiod (c. 675 BC) promoted a mythic conception of the universe, based partly on ancient Near Eastern models and partly on commonsensical observations of their physical environment."

Among these physical observations are those equally held by both cultures - that the earth was circular and that this circular disk was capped by a dome shaped sky; this the authors say, is the observation anyone might make when observing the world from atop a high hill and looking in a 360 degree circle. Further, both cultures held that the earth disc was surrounded by water. In Mesopotamia, this was the primeval sea that begat Heaven/Earth united, in ancient Greece the surrounding water was the River of Ocean (an immeasurable river coiled around the central landmass).
H&P explicitly link these two cosmological concepts: "Following ancient traditions from the Near East, Greek Mythographers conceived of the earth as a massive disc surrounded by...the circular River of Ocean."


It should be noted that the similarity between the Mesopotamian cosmos and the Greek is more effectively made if one refers to the Babylonian rather than the Sumerian model. The Sumerians certainly influenced the later Mesopotamian model of course, however, we know that their earlier concepts posited a rectangular earth, a "field" with four corners (for insight into this early world view, see further the 4 winds thread). Additionally, some of Dina Katz careful work on early netherworld concepts has revealed that the Sumerians thought of the Netherworld as being on a "horizontal axis" - that is, over the mountains, not under the earth. The Babylonian and Greek models were fairly similar however, consisting of that "three tiered" universe one see's in many books on Ancient Relgion - Heaven, earth and underworld - think of a ball with a disc sitting flat in the center, up is heaven, down the underworld. In addition, The Greeks added Tartarus which lay underneath the underworld and contained the defeated Titans - and Olympus, home of the gods, lay above the vault of Heaven.


The comparison between the specifically Babylonian cosmos and the later Greek is also complimented by similarities in the mythology of the Enuma Elish and of Hesiod's Theogony, which tell of triumphant ruling gods who must first defeat agents of chaos in the form of an older generation of gods.






Divine Hierarchies/





From a consideration of the basic cosmos we may move on to a comparison on the divine pantheon itself, which in both theologies sprang from the primordial elements. I refer to Martin West in his CANE I article entitled Ancient Near Eastern Myth in Classical Greek Religious Thought. The author discusses this exact topic:


West: "The Homeric and Hesiodic picture of the god's organization, and of the past struggles by which they achieved it, has so much in common with the picture present in Babylonian and Ugaritic poetry that it must have been formed under eastern influence. First, the gods are conceived as a corporation that regularly assembles on Mount Olympus, feasts, and discusses human affairs. They have a chief, Zeus, to whom they make representations, and he makes decisions, gives permissions, sends messengers, and tries to control events. But the other gods are willful.." West explains that this concept of the gods was more familiar to the Greek poets then to the Greek commoner themselves, who had less notion of gods acting in an assembly of any sort - however he adds pointedly that "it would not have seemed strange to Semitic poets of the second millennium. The Babylonian gods are frequently found in assembly, debating how to react to some new situation in heaven or on earth."



West on Division of Power among the Gods/



The author relates that Atrahasis and the Greek Homeric mythologies have a common theme for power allotment - In Atrahasis the division of power between the gods was "the result of a division by lot, which was the method used in Mesopotamia for dividing a father's estate among his sons. According to the lots cast, Anu went up to the sky.. , Ellil took the earth, Enki got the sea and the gods of Apsu went below. The same motif occurs in the [Homeric] Illiad (15.187-193), where it is stated that in a division by lot among there brothers Zeus got the sky, Poseidon the sea, Hades the underworld, while earth was common to them all."



Separating Heaven and Earth/

In the Hesiodic tradition, Gaea (earth) and Uranus (sky) are united - they give birth to a race of 12 Titans, but Gaea is oppressed as Uranus' constant love making gives her no relief - she enlists a Titan, her son Cronus, to take a sickle and castrate Uranus - this he does and in doing so achieves the separation of Earth and Sky. Cronus in turn becomes a Tyrant and systematically devours his own children in order to avoid any chance of usurpation, until he is tricked and over thrown by his final son Zeus, a weather god. The Grandson of Heaven/Earth becomes ruler.

This situation seems familiar to Mesopotamian models in which the world begins with Anki, heaven and earth united. Here Heaven is also separated from earth by that pairs son, in this case, Enli,l the sky god, who also is responsible for rain and weather. The son of Heaven/Earth becomes ruler.

It is to Zeus' defeat of Cronus and the Titans and other enemies and to Marduk's defeat of Tiamat and her vanguard that Harris and Platzner refer to when they say "Hesiod follows a tradition in the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation account, in which the chief sky god came to power only after battling and defeating older generations of gods. In the Enuma Elish (c. 1300 B.C.), the Babylonian deity Marduk earns his cosmic supremacy after overthrowing Tiamat, a personification of the sterile salt sea who is also the primordial dragon of precreation chaos... similarly, in Hesiod's Theogony, Zeus - whom the Greeks identified with Marduk - battle the monster Typhoeus, like Tiamat a reptilian embodiment of chaotic violence. Only after eliminating such threats to cosmic order can Marduk and Zeus begin their successful reigns."

[ninurta2008]

Alot of mesopotamian influences came through Anatolia, Like kybele (Kubaba), Prometheus (seemingly to me to be influenced by Ea/Enki, but thats my opinion), and a few others.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Ninurta2008: I would tend to agree about the westward moving influence from Anatolia and Ionia, as for Prometheus the comparison to Enki, this seems limited - the later for example never was subjected to any sort of torture by a senior god.

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2. Mythic Localities

The Netherworld/




The Mythical locality with the most in common, according to the Greek and Mesopotamian imagination, would appear to be the Netherworld and Harris and Platzner state that the Homeric epics provide the earliest and most influential vision of Hades realm. According to these accounts, existence in the Netherworld is "imprisonment in a dark world utterly devoid of joy, purpose and hope" as the authors put it. One 6th century Greek lyricist, Anacreon, wrote of his fear of death: "for the lightness chasm of death is dreadful... and the descent appalling: once cast down into [Hades], there is no return." In similar terms, life in the Sumerian netherworld is devoid of sustenance, food and water (which must be supplied by relatives) and the Greek vision would seem to have
particular commonality with the Akkadian/Semitic concept of a Netherworld dark and damp like the grave. (Katz, 1999, pg. 236).



The authors also attempt to draw parallels between the location and Geography of Hades' Realm and the Mesopotamian:


"In Homer's account, Odysseus reaches Hades vault by sailing northward across the River of Ocean, earth's far boundary where the sky's vault touches the ground and the sun sinks into darkness. Odysseus's journey to the land of the dead, across a foggy, desolate waste, roughly parallels that of Gilgamesh to the faraway island retreat of the Sumerian king's immortal ancestor, Utnapishtim. The Homeric concept of the afterlife, in fact, strikingly resembles older Mesopotamian beliefs about the Underworld: the ghost of Enkidu informs his friend Gilgamesh that departed souls mourn forever in a mildew- and worm-infested dungeon."


A more focused comparison, I believe, would find perhaps little in common with these hero's driving motivation for their respective quest - Odysseus seeks access to Hades in order to speak with a seer, a famous blind prophet who had previous expired, Tiresias of Thebes; the seer would instruct him on safe passage home (securing his mortality). Gilgamesh, on the other hand, seeks the island of Dilmun and an audience with Utnapishtim for the purposes of securing his own immortality. This is a notable difference, and additionally, Dilmun is hardly synonymous with the Netherworld.. however, H&P make a more sound statement when they say that resembles occur in Homeric and Mesopotamian ideas of the Netherworld..


When Circe tells Odysseus that he must travel to the netherworld, his spirit is broken on hearing that to "Tiresias alone intelligence is granted after his death, the rest of the dead are flitting shadows." In a similar sentiment from a Gilgamesh tale, when Enkidu's ghost is brought back, Enkidu states that if he were to discuss the conditions of the netherworld it would cause him to "sit down and weep."

When Odysseus reaches a rock between a branch of the River Styx, he is to perform a ritual prescribed by Circe in order to bring forth the spirits. While Katz suggests that the raising of Enkidu "points to Necromancy" (possibly involving dream incubation due the apparent involvement of Sisig the dream god), H&P describe Odysseus raising of the spirits, to include that of Tiresias, as "an elaborate chthonic ritual to summon the dead and briefly establish communication with them." Although the process involves sacrificing animals and spilling blood in a common to Greek offerings, the object of the ritual seems decidedly Necromantic in nature, as with the raising of Enkidu.

The conversations of Gilgamesh and the ghost of Enkidu and of Odysseus and the ghost of Achilles (who appears before Tiresias) are sometimes held to be comparable - Achilles is in dismay over life in Hades, saying when Odysseus attempts to comfort him: "Don't try to sell me on death, Odysseus. I'd rather be a hired hand back on earth... than lord over all these withered dead." It is only when Odysseus tells him of the the exploits and successes of his son, that Achilles drifts off, content, knowing that his son excels. In like manner, the discussion between Gilgamesh and Enkidu reveals that the man who has 1 son eats deteriorating food, while he who has 7 sons lives well and contentedly in the netherworld. In both cases, the narrative suggests that a man's offspring is what sustains him in the afterlife, firmly suggesting the need to live productively.






Dilmun and the Elysium/





About Elysium or the Elysian fields, H&P relate:


"In the Odyssey, Homer briefly refers to Elysium, garden islands of earthly delights located far to the west at the extreme edge of the world, an Eden to which Zeus sends a very few of his favorites. Homer cites Menelaus as one of the isles' future inhabitants, not because Agamemnon's brother is virtuous, but because he is married to Helen, the beautiful daughter of Zeus.... This mythical paradise, which was later also known as the Elysian Fields, echoes the Mesopotamian myth of Dilmun, an Edenic island where some heroic souls could posthumously continue to enjoy life's sensual pleasures."


The Sumerian's Dilmun, as is much accepted in current scholarship, is the modern island of Bahrain off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The complexities of Sumerian trade with the Indus Civilization, and others, hinge on this island which is also of prime interest due to it's occurences in Sumerian myth - in the Flood narrative it is described as "the mountain of crossing..the place where the sun rises." While Mesopotamian myths such as those involving the flood hero, as in the epic of Gilgamesh, suggest that only Utnapishtim and his wife were granted immortality by the gods for their role in a singular event, scholars are puzzled upon initiating archeological digs on the island - they found that during a span corresponding to the Mesopotamian Early Dynastic period, an estimated 150,000 tomb structures were constructed in Dilmun. The local population could not possibly have required this sort of expenditure. This has lead some scholars such as C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky (JCS 1981) to speculate that the island said to bring "life like a god" and "breath eternal" may have inspired foreigners, perhaps even Sumerians to seek, and indeed, achieve, their burial there. Unfortunately, remains are not substantial enough to confirm this hypothesis.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Ninurta2008: In regards eastern influence on Greece, I forgot to suggest also our thread Greek Religion and the ANE, found here.

[ninurta2008]

Thanks!