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Sumeria
World Literature I
Presentation by:
Ralph Monday
Sumerian Myth
• The Sumerians developed one of
the earliest civilizations on earth
(3500-1750 B.C.E.)
• However, their lost civilization was
not rediscovered until the 19th
century.
• The world of the Babylonians was
well known.
• The ancient Egyptians, Hebrews,
and Greeks had all had contact and
written about this civilization.
• No one knew that the Sumerians
had come before the Babylonians,
• And had adapted and modified
their writing, religious, and
agricultural systems.
• British, German, and French
archeologists in the early 19th
century began to excavate the
• Earthen mounds that are the
remains of cities that existed
thousands of years ago in the
• Tigris and Euphrates river valleys.
The region was called Mesopotamia
(between the rivers).
The Gods
• The attributing of
human shape or
characteristics to
gods, objects,
animals, etc.
• Ki in the
Sumerian. Gaia
(earth mother)
in the Greek.
There is a
Modern day
Biological
Theory
(Gaia hypothesis)
That examines
This ancient idea
From a present
Day scientific
Perspective.
Gilgamesh: Major Gods and
Goddesses
• Adad
•Antum
• Anunnaki
•Aya
• Anu •Ea/Enki
• Aruru •Enlil
• Ishtar/Inanna •Lugulbanda
• Ninurta •Ninsun
• Nisaba •Samuqan
•Shamash
• Like the Greek gods and many
other cultures, the Sumerian gods
• Comprise a pantheon, the gods
• Of a people taken collectively,
• Or a treatise on them.
ADAD