Re: [tied] Re: Religion

John Croft wrote:

> Enki-Ea (The House of the Waters) was not god of the Sea. The waters
> referred to were always fresh. His temple in Eridu, the Abzu, (from
> which we get the Greek Abyss) was centred on a fresh water spring.
> In this way Enki was paired with a female Akkadian goddess of the
> salt waters (Taimat = "The Deeps"). Taimat and Abzu were originally
> paired as the primary element of creation (the Universal waters),
> sweet and salt water mingled. The first act of creation was the
> separation of these two, through their offspring, Anu (Sky) and Ki
> (Earth). Hence the major Sumerian divinities were referred to as
> Anunaki. At Nippur, their son, "Lord Air" (Enlil) was the divinity
> who separated his parents - the Sky (Anu) from the Earth (Ki).

The parallels with the Egyptian deities Shu, Nut and Geb are striking
here. I am not well acquainted with Sumerian mythology proper so this
is new to me.

> The impact of these beliefs upon IE religion can hardly be assessed.
> I suspect that prior to their coming IE religion was largely
> shamanistic, and divinities were not clearly anthropomorphic, but
> were rather aniconic (i.e. called Thunder, Fire, Wind, Water etc),
> not even having a gender affiliation (either masculine or feminine).
> I suspect that Dumezil's three fold split occurred at the time that
> the Sumerian influences were impacting on the PIE mythos.

The problem I have with this is that, if IE tripartition was a product
of Sumerian contacts, should we not expect to see some explicit social
tripartition in Sumeria as well? Is there such evidence? Also, if
Sumeria was able to influence the PIE culture that deeply I'd expect a
lot more linguistic and cultural signs with accompanying material
artifacts, not the least of which would be the formation of cities. In
the absence thereof I would be inclined to keep tripartition as an
inherent PIE system.

-- John

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‘Nothing on the face of this earth -- and I do mean nothing -- is half
so dangerous as a children’s story that happens to be real, and you and
I are wandering blindfolded through a myth devised by a maniac.’
-- Master Li Kao (T’ang Dynasty)
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