Bull of Heaven

Last updated

Ancient Mesopotamian terracotta relief (c. 2250 - 1900 BC) showing Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, an episode described in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh O.1054 color.jpg
Ancient Mesopotamian terracotta relief (c. 2250 – 1900 BC) showing Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, an episode described in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh

In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the Bull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the hero Gilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven is known from two different versions: one recorded in an earlier Sumerian poem and a later episode in the Standard Babylonian (a literary dialect of Akkadian) Epic of Gilgamesh . In the Sumerian poem, the Bull is sent to attack Gilgamesh by the goddess Inanna for reasons that are unclear.

Contents

The more complete Akkadian account comes from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh refuses the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, the East Semitic equivalent of Inanna, leading the enraged Ishtar to demand the Bull of Heaven from her father Anu, so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh in Uruk. Anu gives her the Bull and she sends it to attack Gilgamesh and his companion, the hero Enkidu, who slay the Bull together.

After defeating the Bull, Enkidu hurls the Bull's right thigh at Ishtar, taunting her. The slaying of the Bull results in the gods condemning Enkidu to death, an event which catalyzes Gilgamesh's fear for his own death, which drives the remaining portion of the epic. The Bull was identified with the constellation Taurus and the myth of its slaying may have held astronomical significance to the ancient Mesopotamians. Aspects of the story have been compared to later tales from the ancient Near East, including legends from Ugarit, the tale of Joseph in the Book of Genesis, and parts of the ancient Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey .

Mythology

Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven

In the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull of Heaven, who has been sent to attack them by the goddess Inanna, the Sumerian equivalent of Ishtar. [4] [5] [6] The plot of this poem differs substantially from the corresponding scene in the later Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. [7] In the Sumerian poem, Inanna does not seem to ask Gilgamesh to become her consort as she does in the later Akkadian epic. [5] Furthermore, while she is coercing her father An to give her the Bull of Heaven, rather than threatening to raise the dead to eat the living as she does in the later epic, she merely threatens to let out a "cry" that will reach the earth. [7]

Epic of Gilgamesh

In Tablet VI of the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, after Gilgamesh repudiates her sexual advances, Ishtar goes to Heaven, where she complains to her mother Antu and her father Anu. [8] She demands that Anu give her the Bull of Heaven [9] [10] and threatens that, if he refuses, she will smash the gates of the Underworld and raise the dead to eat the living. [11] Anu at first objects to Ishtar's demand, insisting that the Bull of Heaven is so destructive that its release would result in seven years of famine. [11] [10] Ishtar declares that she has stored up enough grain for all people and all animals for the next seven years. [11] [10] Eventually, Anu reluctantly agrees to give it to Ishtar, whereupon she unleashes it on the world, causing mass destruction. [9] [11]

The Bull's first breath blows a hole in the ground that one hundred men fall into and its second breath creates another hole, trapping two hundred more. [11] Gilgamesh and Enkidu work together to slay the Bull; [9] [11] [10] Enkidu goes behind the Bull and pulls its tail [11] while Gilgamesh thrusts his sword into the Bull's neck, killing it. [11] Gilgamesh and Enkidu offer the Bull's heart to the sun-god Shamash. [12] [13] While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls of Uruk and curses Gilgamesh. [12] [14] [15] Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it at Ishtar's face. [12] [14] [15] [10]

Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots" [12] and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven. [12] [14] Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull of Heaven's defeat. [16] [14] Tablet VII begins with Enkidu recounting a dream in which he saw Anu, Ea, and Shamash declare that either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die as punishment for having slain the Bull of Heaven. [2] They choose Enkidu, who soon grows sick, [2] and dies after having a dream of the Underworld. [2] Tablet VIII describes Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief over his friend's death [2] [17] and the details of Enkidu's funeral. [2] Enkidu's death becomes the catalyst for Gilgamesh's fear of his own death, which is the focus of the remaining portion of the epic. [18]

Symbolism and representation

The Bull of Heaven was identified with the constellation Taurus. TaurusCC.jpg
The Bull of Heaven was identified with the constellation Taurus.

Numerous depictions of the slaying of the Bull of Heaven occur in extant works of ancient Mesopotamian art. [10] Representations are especially common on cylinder seals of the Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 – 2154 BC). [10] These show that the Bull was clearly envisioned as a bull of abnormally large size and ferocity. It is unclear exactly what the Bull of Heaven represents, however. Assyriologists Jeremy Black and Anthony Green observe that the Bull of Heaven is identified with the constellation Taurus [9] and argue that the reason why Enkidu hurls the bull's thigh at Ishtar in the Epic of Gilgamesh after defeating it may be an effort to explain why the constellation seems to be missing its hind quarters. [9]

Gordon and Rendsburg note that the notion of flinging a bull's leg at someone "as a terrible insult" is attested across a wide geographic area of the ancient Near East [10] and that it recurs in the Odyssey , an ancient Greek epic poem. [10] Some scholars consider the Bull of Heaven to be the same figure as Gugalanna, the husband of Ereshkigal mentioned by Inanna in Inanna's Descent into the Underworld . [19]

Influence on later stories

Ishtar's storing up of seven years' worth of grain has similarities to the account of Joseph found in Biblical and Koranic accounts. Joseph working 02.gif
Ishtar's storing up of seven years' worth of grain has similarities to the account of Joseph found in Biblical and Koranic accounts.

Cyrus H. Gordon and Gary A. Rendsburg note that the Near Eastern motif of seven years of famine following the death of a hero is attested in the Ugaritic myth of the death of Aqhat [10] and that the theme of someone predicting seven years of famine in advance and storing up supplies is also found in the Hebrew story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis, [10] and in verses 47-48 of Surah Yusuf in the Quran. [20]

According to the German classical scholar Walter Burkert, the scene in which Ishtar comes before Anu to demand the Bull of Heaven after being rejected by Gilgamesh is directly paralleled by a scene from Book V of the Iliad . [8] In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar complains to her mother Antu, but is mildly rebuked by Anu. [8] In the scene from the Iliad, Aphrodite, the later Greek development of Ishtar, is wounded by the Greek hero Diomedes while trying to save her son Aeneas. [21] She flees to Mount Olympus, where she cries to her mother Dione, is mocked by her sister Athena, and is mildly rebuked by her father Zeus. [21] Not only is the narrative parallel significant, [21] but so is the fact that Dione's name is a feminization of Zeus's own, just as Antu is a feminine form of Anu. [21] Dione does not appear throughout the rest of the Iliad, in which Zeus's consort is instead the goddess Hera. [21] Burkert therefore concludes that Dione is a calque of Antu. [21]

British classical scholar Graham Anderson notes that, in the Odyssey, Odysseus's men kill the sacred cattle of Helios and are condemned to death by the gods for this reason, much like Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh. [22] M. L. West states that the similarities run deeper than the mere fact that, in both cases, the creatures slain are bovines exempt from natural death. [23] In both cases, the person or persons condemned to die are companions of the hero, whose death or deaths force the hero to continue his journey alone. [23] He also notes that, in both cases, the epic describes a discussion among the gods over whether or not the guilty party must die [23] and that Helios's threat to Zeus if he does not avenge the slaughter of his cattle in the Odyssey is very similar to Ishtar's threat to Anu when she is demanding the Bull in the Epic of Gilgamesh. [23]

Bruce Louden compares Enkidu's taunting of Ishtar immediately after slaying the Bull of Heaven to Odysseus's taunt of the giant Polyphemus in Book IX of the Odyssey. [24] In both cases, the hero's own hubris after an apparent victory leads a deity to curse him. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilgamesh</span> Sumerian ruler and protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously deified. His rule probably would have taken place sometime in the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period, c. 2900 – 2350 BC, though he became a major figure in Sumerian legend during the Third Dynasty of Ur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inanna</span> Ancient Mesopotamian goddess

Inanna is the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine law, and political power. Originally worshiped in Sumer, she was known by the Akkadian Empire, Babylonians, and Assyrians as Ishtar. Her primary title was "the Queen of Heaven".

<i>Epic of Gilgamesh</i> Epic poem from Mesopotamia

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, some of which may date back to the Third Dynasty of Ur. These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates back to the 18th century BC and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī. Only a few tablets of it have survived. The later Standard Babylonian version compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni dates to somewhere between the 13th to the 10th centuries BC and bears the incipit Sha naqba īmuru. Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sin (mythology)</span> Mesopotamian lunar god

Sin or Suen (Akkadian: 𒀭𒂗𒍪, dEN.ZU) also known as Nanna (Sumerian: 𒀭𒋀𒆠DŠEŠ.KI, DNANNA) was the Mesopotamian god representing the moon. While these two names originate in two different languages, respectively Akkadian and Sumerian, they were already used interchangeably to refer to one deity in the Early Dynastic period. They were sometimes combined into the double name Nanna-Suen. A third well attested name is Dilimbabbar (𒀭𒀸𒁽𒌓). Additionally, the moon god could be represented by logograms reflecting his lunar character, such as d30 (𒀭𒌍), referring to days in the lunar month or dU4.SAKAR (𒀭𒌓𒊬), derived from a term referring to the crescent. In addition to his astral role, Sin was also closely associated with cattle herding. Furthermore, there is some evidence that he could serve as a judge of the dead in the underworld. A distinct tradition in which he was regarded either as a god of equal status as the usual heads of the Mesopotamian pantheon, Enlil and Anu, or as a king of the gods in his own right, is also attested, though it only had limited recognition. In Mesopotamian art, his symbol was the crescent. When depicted anthropomorphically, he typically either wore headwear decorated with it or held a staff topped with it, though on kudurru the crescent alone served as a representation of him. He was also associated with boats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shamash</span> Mesopotamian sun god

Shamash was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god, earlier known as Utu. He was believed to see everything that happened in the world every day, and was therefore responsible for justice and protection of travelers. As a divine judge, he could be associated with the underworld. Additionally, he could serve as the god of divination, typically alongside the weather god Adad. While he was universally regarded as one of the primary gods, he was particularly venerated in Sippar and Larsa.The moon god Nanna (Sin) and his wife Ningal were regarded as his parents, while his twin sister was Inanna (Ishtar). Occasionally other goddesses, such as Manzat and Pinikir, could be regarded as his sisters too. The dawn goddess Aya (Sherida) was his wife, and multiple texts describe their daily reunions taking place on a mountain where the sun was believed to set. Among their children were Kittum, the personification of truth, dream deities such as Mamu, as well as the god Ishum. Utu's name could be used to write the names of many foreign solar deities logographically. The connection between him and the Hurrian solar god Shimige is particularly well attested, and the latter could be associated with Aya as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiamat</span> Primordial goddess of ancient Babylon religion

In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the gods in the Babylonian epic Enuma elish, which translates as "When on High." She is referred to as a woman, and has, at various points in the epic, both anthropomorphic and theriomorphic features including breasts and a tail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ereshkigal</span> Ancient Mesopotamian goddess of death and the underworld

In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal was the goddess of Kur, the land of the dead or underworld in Sumerian mythology. In later myths, she was said to rule Irkalla alongside her husband Nergal. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla, similar to the way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler, and sometimes it is given as Ninkigal, lit. "Lady of the Great Earth".

Antu or Antum was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the feminine counterpart and spouse of the sky god, Anu. She was sometimes identified with the earth rather than the sky, though such references are not common. While already attested in the third millennium BCE, she was only a minor goddess, and only came to be worshiped commonly in Uruk in the Achaemenid and Seleucid periods due to religious reforms which elevated her and Anu to the position of tutelary deities of the city. At some point Antu was also incorporated into Hurrian religion, in which she was understood as a primeval deity. In the so-called "Standard Babylonian" edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh Antu is addressed as the mother of Ishtar, but this tradition was not commonly adhered to.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enkidu</span> Character from the Epic of Gilgamesh

Enkidu (Sumerian: 𒂗𒆠𒄭EN.KI.DU10) was a legendary figure in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, wartime comrade and friend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Their exploits were composed in Sumerian poems and in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, written during the 2nd millennium BC. He is the oldest literary representation of the wild man, a recurrent motif in artistic representations in Mesopotamia and in Ancient Near East literature. The apparition of Enkidu as a primitive man seems to be a potential parallel of the Old Babylonian version (1300–1000 BC), in which he was depicted as a servant-warrior in the Sumerian poems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ninsun</span> Mesopotamian goddess, mother of Gilgamesh

Ninsun was a Mesopotamian goddess. She is best known as the mother of the hero Gilgamesh and wife of deified legendary king Lugalbanda, and appears in this role in most versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh. She was associated with Uruk, where she lives in this composition, but she was also worshiped in other cities of ancient Mesopotamia, such as Nippur and Ur, and her main cult center was the settlement KI.KALki.

Siduri, or more accurately Šiduri, is a character in the Epic of Gilgamesh. She is described as an alewife. The oldest preserved version of the composition to contain the episode involving her leaves her nameless, and in the later standard edition compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni her name only appears in a single line. She is named Naḫmazulel or Naḫmizulen in the preserved fragments of Hurrian and Hittite translations. It has been proposed that her name in the standard edition is derived from an epithet applied to her by the Hurrian translator, šiduri, "young woman." An alternate proposal instead connects it with the Akkadian personal name Šī-dūrī, "she is my protection." In all versions of the myth in which she appears, she offers advice to the hero, but the exact contents of the passage vary. Possible existence of Biblical and Greek reflections of the Šiduri passage is a subject of scholarly debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedar Forest</span> Mythological realm

The Cedar Forest is the glorious realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology. It is guarded by the demigod Humbaba and was once entered by the hero Gilgamesh who dared cut down trees from its virgin stands during his quest for fame. The Cedar Forest is described in Tablets 4–6 of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Earlier descriptions come from the Ur III poem Gilgamesh and Huwawa.

In Sumerian religion, Gugalanna is the first husband of Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld. His name probably originally meant "canal inspector of An" and he may be merely an alternative name for Ennugi. The son of Ereshkigal and Gugalanna is Ninazu. In Inanna's Descent into the Underworld, Inanna, the goddess of love, beauty, sex, and war, tells the gatekeeper Neti that she is descending to the Underworld to attend the funeral of "Gugalanna, the husband of my elder sister Ereshkigal". Some scholars consider Gugalanna to be the same figure as the Bull of Heaven, slain by Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ninshubur</span> Mesopotamian messenger deity

Ninshubur, also spelled Ninšubura, was a Mesopotamian goddess whose primary role was that of the sukkal of the goddess Inanna. While it is agreed that in this context Ninshubur was regarded as female, in other cases the deity was considered male, possibly due to syncretism with other divine messengers, such as Ilabrat. No certain information about her genealogy is present in any known sources, and she was typically regarded as unmarried. As a sukkal, she functioned both as a messenger deity and as an intercessor between other members of the pantheon and human petitioners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumerian literature</span> 18th–17th century BCE writings

Sumerian literature constitutes the earliest known corpus of recorded literature, including the religious writings and other traditional stories maintained by the Sumerian civilization and largely preserved by the later Akkadian and Babylonian empires. These records were written in the Sumerian language in the 18th and 17th centuries BC during the Middle Bronze Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dumuzid</span> Sumerian god

Dumuzid or Dumuzi or Tammuz, known to the Sumerians as Dumuzid the Shepherd and to the Canaanites as Adon, is an ancient Mesopotamian and Levantine deity associated with agriculture and shepherds, who was also the first and primary consort of the goddess Inanna. In Sumerian mythology, Dumuzid's sister was Geshtinanna, the goddess of agriculture, fertility, and dream interpretation. In the Sumerian King List, Dumuzid is listed as an antediluvian king of the city of Bad-tibira and also an early king of the city of Uruk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anu</span> Ancient Mesopotamian god of the sky; god of all gods

Anu or Anum, originally An, was the divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. He was regarded as a source of both divine and human kingship, and opens the enumerations of deities in many Mesopotamian texts. At the same time, his role was largely passive, and he was not commonly worshipped. It is sometimes proposed that the Eanna temple located in Uruk originally belonged to him, rather than Inanna, but while he is well attested as one of its divine inhabitants, there is no evidence that the main deity of the temple ever changed, and Inanna was already associated with it in the earliest sources. After it declined, a new theological system developed in the same city under Seleucid rule, resulting in Anu being redefined as an active deity. As a result he was actively worshipped by inhabitants of the city in the final centuries of the history of ancient Mesopotamia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumerian religion</span> First religion of Mesopotamia region which is tangible by writing

Sumerian religion was the religion practiced by the people of Sumer, the first literate civilization found in recorded history and based in ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians regarded their divinities as responsible for all matters pertaining to the natural and social orders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Mesopotamian underworld</span> Concept of the underworld in ancient Mesopotamian culture

The ancient Mesopotamian underworld, most often known in Sumerian as Kur, Irkalla, Kukku, Arali, or Kigal and in Akkadian as Erṣetu, although it had many names in both languages, was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue "a transpositional version of life on earth". The only food or drink was dry dust, but family members of the deceased would pour sacred mineral libations from the earth for them to drink. In the Sumerian underworld, it was initially believed that there was no final judgement of the deceased and the dead were neither punished nor rewarded for their deeds in life.

Tale of Gudam, also known as the Gudam Epic or Inanna and Gudam, is a Mesopotamian myth known from two Old Babylonian copies from Nippur. It tells the tale of Gudam, an otherwise unknown character, who goes on a rampage in Uruk. The minstrel Lugalgabagal criticizes his behavior, but his remarks only enrage him more. He is finally stopped by a fisherman of Inanna. The goddess herself subsequently decides to spare his life when he starts pleading, and sends him to live in a ditch near Zabalam. Many aspects of the story are a subject of debate in Assyriology, including the nature of Gudam and the identity of the fisherman. Possible connections between the Tale of Gudam and other texts have also been noted. In particular, Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven is considered a close parallel, with some authors outright considering the two texts to be variants of one narrative.

References

  1. ↑ Powell 2012, p. 342.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Black & Green 1992, p. 90.
  3. ↑ Powell 2012, pp. 341–343.
  4. ↑ Black & Green 1992, p. 89.
  5. 1 2 Tigay 2002, p. 24.
  6. ↑ ETCSL 1.8.1.2
  7. 1 2 Tigay 2002, pp. 24–25.
  8. 1 2 3 Burkert 2005, pp. 299–300.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Black & Green 1992, p. 49.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Gordon & Rendsburg 1997, p. 46.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Jacobsen 1976, p. 201.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Dalley 1989, p. 82.
  13. ↑ Fontenrose 1980, pp. 168–169.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Fontenrose 1980, p. 169.
  15. 1 2 Jacobsen 1976, p. 202.
  16. ↑ Dalley 1989, p. 82-83.
  17. ↑ Fontenrose 1980, p. 171.
  18. ↑ Gordon & Rendsburg 1997, pp. 46–47.
  19. ↑ Pryke 2017, p. 205.
  20. ↑ "Surah Yusuf - 47-48". Quran.com. Retrieved 2023-09-21.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Burkert 2005, p. 300.
  22. ↑ Anderson 2000, p. 127.
  23. 1 2 3 4 West 1997, p. 417.
  24. 1 2 Louden 2011, p. 194.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.