The Epic of Gilgamesh
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- KayDay
- LindaC_02
- saucyjack
- LindaC_02
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» KayDay - article on Gilmagesh
Hi, Linda,I've visited your site many times and always come away enlightened. What a neat piece on Gilmagesh!
I came here to thank you for my birthday greetings, and ended up staying to read awhile.
Well worth it. I'm also linking your site to mine at the new Bella Online site.
Take care, and thanks again. I'll be back soon.
-- posted by KayDay
» LindaC_02 - Thank you
Thanks! Glad you enjoy your visit to my site. Sorry it took a while to get back here - My sister had her first child on Friday (first grandchild in our family!) so it's been a busy weekend. I'm so happy that I am finally an aunt! Both new mom and baby Scott are doing well. Sorry, I'm just so happy that I love telling everyone!Take care!
-- posted by LindaC_02
» saucyjack - Floods
Just found this area--love it!I think an important thing to bear in mind when looking at flood myths from ancient societies is how inextricably linked survival was with the rivers at hand. All of the three earliest civilizations depended on the whim of the rivers, and the Sumerians doubly so.
The argument has been made, and I feel is quite worthy of consideration, that the religions which developed correllate directly to the relationship the people had with the rivers upon which their societies depended (no surplus of food=no civilization). The Tigris and Euphrates, being erratic in their flooding, led to a religious belief system composed of capricious gods and was, by our standards, overwhelmingly negative. The relatively stable flooding of the Nile and the Yellow rivers led to more benevolent, or at least distanced, beliefs in the 'personality' of the supernatural.
While I wouldn't dare place a label of 'true' or 'false' to the Biblical flood, I would say that it is very easy to understand that a catastrophic flood would be inestimably more damaging to ancient peoples than modern, and thus be of note to them in a way we can't quite place in reality. Perhaps it would be similar to nuclear accidents, now, in the popular, local reaction.
-- posted by saucyjack
» LindaC_02 - re: Floods
Hi Butch,Thank you for your comments.
Indeed the rivers were extremely important to such ancient civilizations, both to their survival and to their cosmology. The flooding of these rivers would certainly be a catastophic event in the lives of the ancients leaving a deep cultural impact on them and on their belief systems.
-- posted by LindaC_02
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