Babylonian+Introduction

=Babylonian Mythology=

The main concept of Babylonian Mythology is the Babylonian dieties, heroes, and mythological creatures. Babylonian mythology is focused on the workings of civilization. These stories served many social, political, ceremonial purposes, and at times tried to explain natural phenomena. The first myths that were written in cuneiform on clay tablets were greatly influenced by the Sumerians. The myths were usually either written in Sumerian or Akkadian, an extinct Semetic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. Some texts were translated to Akkadian from the Sumerian language which resulted in the names of some dieties being lost and or changed.

Many of the Gods and Goddesses of Babylonian mythology are unique to that mythology. For example, Murdak, one of the main Babylonian Gods, replaced Enlil as the head of the pantheon when the Sumerian myths were translated to the Akkadian language. The //Enûma Eliš// is the main creation myth and is comparable to the Adam and Eve stories of Christian culture.

Joey Hockin and Tyler Helinski

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t641/T641679A.jpg&imgrefurl=http://moooonriver.spaces.live.com