Pastor Rick
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Origins
This topic is for the discussion of the different Origins theories and mythologies. I put this in place so we have a spot for such things
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8/29/2008, 9:42 am
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Morwen Oronor
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Location: South Africa
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Re: Origins
Thanks Rick - here we go with my first story:
The Sumerians: Enki and Ninmah:
Sumerian myths are known from cuneiform tablets dating to the beginning of the second millennium BCE, were discovered among the remains of temple archives, and featured the myths of the deities worshipped in each particular temple. The tablets are often fragmentary and linguistic knowledge of the language is still developing so they are at best subjective.
Enki and Ninmah: were the two foremost original gods of Sumer. Enki being the son and Nammu the mother, he complained that he needed help with his labour in the creation, so she tells him to create man. He delegates the work to Nammu instructing her to take some fertile clay and shape it. She is helped by another goddess Ninmah who imposes the fate of hard work on mankind.
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8/29/2008, 10:06 am
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Petal Alderin
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Re: Origins
Where is Sumer? ie which mythology is this Mo?
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8/29/2008, 10:17 am
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Morwen Oronor
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Re: Origins
Sumer and Akkad were the original cities before Babylon and generally regarded as the first civilizations i.e. the first groups of people to arrange themselves in civic arrangements.
I am summarising long texts from an encyclopedia of mythology edited by Arthur Cotterell.
Babylon came after Sumer and Akkad, here is a summary of their origin of man mythology:
Babylonian creation existing in several editions from the 12th to 7th centuries BCE, was recited at a festival. It goes like this:
In the beginning, before heaven and earth were named, the primeval waters were mingled from which 3 generations of gods emerged. The young gods are are restless and disturb the peace, so Apsu their ancestor tries to destroy them but is thwarted by the young gods. One of the young gods, Damkina, the wife of Ea (the Sumerian Enki) gives birth to Marduk who raises a storm and splits open the unformed earth and sky. The upper part forms the sky with the stars and planets and the lower part forms the earth. Another god, Kingu who is blamed for causing the revolt of the gods, is executed and man is created from his body and the clay thus freeing the gods from their labour.
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8/29/2008, 10:21 am
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Morwen Oronor
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Location: South Africa
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Re: Origins
I haven't noticed any responses to the above two mini-stories of creation. Do you want me to post more of these or are you not interested to read them? They really are all the same basic story. Gods emerge from nowhere (not many of them actually have a theory about where the gods came from) and then they create people to do the work of caring for the earth they create.
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8/29/2008, 11:08 pm
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Pastor Rick
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Re: Origins
With my new hours it may take me a couple of days to respond to any post except in a short one or two liner Mo. This doesn't mean I am not interested, just that I am way overworked trying to keep things afloat financially till the first of the year and praying things improve somewhat so I can get my life back...
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8/30/2008, 12:55 am
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Origins
Rick, it's a good thing I know you and know about your predicament, otherwise I might think that's an excuse. I do know (as much as I can know without actually knowing, if you know what I mean) that you're working awfully long hours and trying to keep people from losing their jobs, and I commend you for all of that.
Mo, I find these origin myths fascinating, but I am also curious to know Rick's thoughts about the ones that are older than, but similar to, the OT myth. While we're waiting for that, maybe I'll do a little more research into the Egyptian god Atum, unless you already have a good understanding of that and can post your own summary.
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8/30/2008, 2:12 am
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Morwen Oronor
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Re: Origins
I'll consult my Mythology book about him in particular and their theories of origin in general. I'll come back later.
I find this mythology so very interesting. If you look at the League of Nations I did a summary of the mythology of each area under each heading. I didn't specifically look at the origin theories there just the mythology in general, you might want to look at some of those. /bnations.
I'll come back with more while my Giv watches footie this afternoon.
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8/30/2008, 2:43 am
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Origins
I browsed around the Greek section there recently and found it interesting, but haven't gotten around to reading more yet. Hopefully I will this weekend, though.
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8/30/2008, 2:47 am
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Morwen Oronor
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Re: Origins
Great thanks Lesa. I hoped somebody would find it interesting. As I said, I really simply summarised what I thought were the more important points. It is a huge book and a lot of information to reproduce - I really could just refer to excerpts from the website but I find it easier to assimilate information if I write or type it out - I read too fast to be able to absorb what I'm reading the first time around, so I prefer to type it out to force myself to concentrate. (Hyperactive - not on Ritalin).
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8/30/2008, 2:52 am
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