NationStates Jolt Archive

First and foremost. I'm going to ignore all flamers and bad things. So.. please keep this civilized.
This is a serious thread, inspired by Keruvalia and his "So you want to be a Muslim?" thread.. and he claims to want to see this.
However, due to limited time at the moment, I will only start it with the basics.. but later on I will edit this post and pretty much jam pack this wth everything I know about my religion. I'm not looking for converts, and frankly I'd prefer no one convert.. I'm happy alone here, but I do like discussing my religion.

So, on to the basis of this thread.
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What is the Sumerian Religion?
- Well, there is no actual name for it, the religion and culture having been extinct long before even the Torah was written. As it goes, I can come with only a few things to call it:
Sumerian Pantheism
The Sumerian Religion
Kiengir (Which is actually the name the Sumerians had for themselves)

But, to give you a general outline, the Sumerian religion is a very very old religion, based out of Southern Iraq. It is polytheistic, meaning many gods/goddesses, and because of refrences in the Bible to it's offshoots (Akkadian/Assyro-Babylonain), it is surprisingly familliar with most people.

Exactly how old is the Sumerian Religion?
- I can't tell you when it started, no one can. This is because writing as a fully devloped system was invented by the Sumerians, and they left only one clue to it's age, a kings list, which will be discussed later.
I can, however, tell you that by around 1800 BCE (Before Common Era), the Sumerians were extinct, and all that remained of them were some clay tablets, and their writing system, which was used until the first century CE (Common Era). This effectivly has the Sumerians predating the Hebrews, Romans, Greeks, and Persians. Sumer even predates the Egyptians by a few centuries, however it's not alot when you look back over the scope of approxemetly 6000-8000 years.

The Sumerian Pantheon
- This is fundamental to the Sumerian Religion, the belief that there are multiple gods and goddesses.
There are ALOT of gods and goddesses, one for anything and everything you can come up with. But it is in no way nessicary to know them all, I myself know only a handful off by heart.
The Pantheon is divided into two basic groups:
- The Annunaki
- The Igigi
The first two groups are the most important, they are the high ranking gods and goddesses.
The Annunaki are, simply put, "The children of An". An is one of the first gods, all others are his children (Except the two before him, which I will discuss later). This group basicly covers all the gods and goddesses.
The Igigi on the otherhand, is composed of the "Younger generation" of gods and goddesses, there are not asmany, and they are all members of the Annunaki, but these are the ones often refered yo in the myths. This group is headed by Enlil, and is the most relevant to the actual practise of the religion. The Igigi are the ones who more often then not toil in others peoples buisness.

The creation myth
- The creation myth is a little bit of a mystery, no one has found a tablet with it inscribed, yet it is referred to in many other myths and legends. What is now known of it comes from piecing together bits and pieces from the other myths and legends.
Everything stems from the goddess Nammu, the "primordia sea". Before everything, there was only water. She in turn, gave birth to An the sky god, and Ki (Also known as Ninhursag, and many other names) the Earth goddess. An and Ki moved on, creating the universe as it is known, and procreating, having children of their own (Will also discuss this later). This is the basic creation myth as we know it.

The great Deluge
- This is something that shows up big time in Judiasim/Christianity/Islam, a great flood that washed the Earth. The earilest version of this story is from Sumer. In this story, a king of the city of Shuruppak, by the name of Ziusudra, is the survivor of the flood. Again, not much has survived the thousands of years of wear and tear, but what little is known is that a heavy rainstorm that lasted about six days caused the Euphrates river to rise up dramaticly, swaming the city. Ziusudra survived by use of a commercial barge, as well as helping others, and for his good deeds he was granted eternal life by the gods. The myth itself states that the gods caused the flood, although I can not quite remember the reason (I can remember the Akkadian reason though, but that's irrelevant).

Prayr and Sacrafice
- This would be the more, offensive subject if one were to literally practise the same rites as say, 5000 years ago.
The idea of prayr iand sacrafice is to please a particular god or goddess. This is generally done by offering something special to the person doing the rite. Back in the day, when the Sumerians were still around, this was often special oils and spices, slaughtered animals, and sometimes crops. All three of which were very important to life, or very precious to the people, and thus sacraficed to show how serious they person was, and the meaning. I doubt you're going to find many people in the current time slaughtering animals as a sacrafice, or any of the other general things, it wouldn't have the same meaning today with the ability to buy pre-packaged food at the store.
Instead, a more modern approach could involve insence, candels, water, anything really. What a person offers to the gods is (Or should be) up to what the particular god in question wants. I have talked to people who have made offerings to Ereshkigal of blood, but they made it clear they meant menstrul blood (Blood is blood I guess?). Personally I find this a little, odd, but I don't complain, what the gods want, the people give (Besides, it's not like they're killing someone/something to get said blood).
That was an odd case, since Ereshkigal isn't one people would nessicarily pray to. More often is insence and candels, accompanied by an item (Anything, can even be food). This is much easier because candels and insence come in many scents and what not, so it's much easier to mix things up and offer something that will be recieved well. And of course, you don't have to offer sacrafice at all! The whole point of offering a sacrafice is to gain favour of a particular god, so that they may help you out in some way. For instance offering to Inanna for a better love life, or Utu for asafe journey if you're going somewhere. If you don't want their help, then don't ask, they really don't care.
Prayr is usually a part of the sacrificial rite, but it doesn't have to be. A Prayr can be anything from the more common, and easier, reciting of a poem of lamentation pertaining to said particular god or event, or the practice of "magic", which is nothing more then the incantation of certian chants, or whatever you want to call them. Magic doesn't have any real power, and unless someone somehow became a Sumerian preist or preistess, it's not really anything to worry about, just one of those things that the temple preists do because they can't just sit around all day, it would be unproductive. "Magic" has gained a much bigger following since things like Wicca have sprung up, and as such the few people who decide to actually take up the Sumerian religion usually do and try to practice the magic. (I would like to put a note here that practising Wicca, or any other "new age" pagan religion, but using the names of Sumerian gods and events and places, is not practising the Sumerian religion).
The final option of prayr (The one I use the most), is just talking to the gods. It's usually a one way conversation, no special words of formats involved, just talk. Wether you talk out loud or in your head is up to the person doing it, personally I prefer the latter option. And again, prayr isn't required! It's just the same as sacrafice, only a way to gain favour of a particular god for something, it's not nessicary, and never has to be done. Wether or not you pray probably won't affect your situation in the afterlife (Depending upon to whom you pray/sacrafice, and what about).
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End, for now.
I will update after school tommorow.. or today. It's about 2:30am right now.
- Update: Added "Prayr and Sacrafice"

Questions? Comments? Please, don't be afraid to ask!

I've actually heard of some of those deities, through art history. That amuses me, for some reason.

I just wanted to know why you used the BCE/CE method of measuring time. I've only ever come across that in art history circles. (Granted, it's not really something I look for, generally)

I've actually heard of some of those deities, through art history. That amuses me, for some reason.

I just wanted to know why you used the BCE/CE method of measuring time. I've only ever come across that in art history circles. (Granted, it's not really something I look for, generally)

I can get to thic quickly before I run to bed.

BCE/CE is the more commonly accecpted and more scientificly accecpted, way to measure time now.
BC/AD is directly related to Christ, and Christianity. This hasn't exactly been welecoming to Muslim, Jewish, Pagen, and even Atheist scholars. It's really more of a political correctness thing I think.. but I like it more personally.

I could always pull out my calculator and Sumerian calender and do my years up based from when they say the universe began (The beginning of the kings list), but tht number would be about seven or eight digits long. And quite frankly, it doesn;t matter that much to me. So I use the Common Era thingy.

Mankind in its present genetic form has existed for at least a hundred thousand years. After the ice age ended mankind went from hunting/gathering to the space age within 10,000 years. The ice age did not begin until roughly 40,000 years ago. So chances are good that civilization was fairly advanced during the first 60,000 years but was pretty much wiped out by a major cataclysm. Earth-crust shift has been postulated as a possible explanation. The Sumerian creation myth is remarkably similar to creation myths all over the world, from Japan to the aboriginal cultures of the Americas. Sumeria is the earliest post-ice age civilization found to date, but is assuredly not the first human civization.

I can get to thic quickly before I run to bed.

BCE/CE is the more commonly accecpted and more scientificly accecpted, way to measure time now.
BC/AD is directly related to Christ, and Christianity. This hasn't exactly been welecoming to Muslim, Jewish, Pagen, and even Atheist scholars. It's really more of a political correctness thing I think.. but I like it more personally.

I could always pull out my calculator and Sumerian calender and do my years up based from when they say the universe began (The beginning of the kings list), but tht number would be about seven or eight digits long. And quite frankly, it doesn;t matter that much to me. So I use the Common Era thingy.

Thanks for the quick reply. :) I knew about the BC/AD relations to Christianity, but I haven't really heard BCE/CE anywhere else besides art history. Which is strange on one hand, as I'm a biology major and should hear about scientifically accepted things, but is to be expected on the other, since most of my texts refer to things like "1978" and it's pretty obvious as to which 1978 they mean.

The great Deluge
- This is something that shows up big time in Judiasim/Christianity/Islam, a great flood that washed the Earth. The earilest version of this story is from Sumer. In this story, a king of the city of Shuruppak, by the name of Ziusudra, is the survivor of the flood. Again, not much has survived the thousands of years of wear and tear, but what little is known is that a heavy rainstorm that lasted about six days caused the Euphrates river to rise up dramaticly, swaming the city. Ziusudra survived by use of a commercial barge, as well as helping others, and for his good deeds he was granted eternal life by the gods. The myth itself states that the gods caused the flood, although I can not quite remember the reason (I can remember the Akkadian reason though, but that's irrelevant).


Is this where the Epic of Gilgamesh (sp) comes from?

Mankind in its present genetic form has existed for at least a hundred thousand years. After the ice age ended mankind went from hunting/gathering to the space age within 10,000 years. The ice age did not begin until roughly 40,000 years ago. So chances are good that civilization was fairly advanced during the first 60,000 years but was pretty much wiped out by a major cataclysm. Earth-crust shift has been postulated as a possible explanation. The Sumerian creation myth is remarkably similar to creation myths all over the world, from Japan to the aboriginal cultures of the Americas. Sumeria is the earliest post-ice age civilization found to date, but is assuredly not the first human civization.

There's one probem with assuming Sumer is not the first civilization.
No proof.
I've heard many ideas that a civilization is burried under the ice of Antartica, or that it's "Atlantis". But you haveto realise something, unless you can prove it, you can't call it a fact.

Mankind has existed for about 200,000 years in our current form, and we were nomadic hunters in Africa for a good chunk of that, migrating to other parts of the world around 100,000 years ago.
Also, there were many "Ice ages", the last one ending only 10,000 years ago.

Is this where the Epic of Gilgamesh (sp) comes from?

No, and Gilgamesh is actually the Akkadian variant of the story. The origonal is of Bilgames, still the king of Uruk, but the plot is a bit different.
Gilgamesh travels to find imortal life, and Uta-Napishti (Akkadian name for Ziusudra) is the only imortal who was once human that he knows of. So after Enkidu's death, he ventures to find Uta-Napishti.
I do believe in the Bilgames sagas, he does not venture to find Ziusudra. However, Ziusudra is mentioned, as well as the great deluge, and this is where some of the details are learned of the flood myth.

Hmm, would I be considered atheist if I didn't believe in any Sumerian gods? I think I would be. I am without god. Atheism doesn't specify which god, which religion... a theis is a theis!

Sumerian Pantheism

i don't think you actually mean pantheism (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pantheism/).

Thanks for the quick reply. :) I knew about the BC/AD relations to Christianity, but I haven't really heard BCE/CE anywhere else besides art history. Which is strange on one hand, as I'm a biology major and should hear about scientifically accepted things, but is to be expected on the other, since most of my texts refer to things like "1978" and it's pretty obvious as to which 1978 they mean.

in biology you're more likely to come across bp (before 1950). bce is used mainly in the historical (or only slightly pre-historic) disciplines - history of all kinds, archaeology, etc.

I've actually heard of some of those deities, through art history. That amuses me, for some reason.

I just wanted to know why you used the BCE/CE method of measuring time. I've only ever come across that in art history circles. (Granted, it's not really something I look for, generally)

Because BC and AD have religious meanings. As a result, the date system found in many textbooks is BC and BCE.

Because BC and AD have religious meanings. As a result, the date system found in many textbooks is BC and BCE.

I understand the religious meaning behind BC and AD. I was simply wondering why he personally used BCE/CE, as I know very few people who have even heard of that system, beyond fellow students in my art history courses.

Mankind in its present genetic form has existed for at least a hundred thousand years. After the ice age ended mankind went from hunting/gathering to the space age within 10,000 years. The ice age did not begin until roughly 40,000 years ago. So chances are good that civilization was fairly advanced during the first 60,000 years but was pretty much wiped out by a major cataclysm. Earth-crust shift has been postulated as a possible explanation. The Sumerian creation myth is remarkably similar to creation myths all over the world, from Japan to the aboriginal cultures of the Americas. Sumeria is the earliest post-ice age civilization found to date, but is assuredly not the first human civization.
Are you US-American?

Now that's informative! Kudos, Dostanuot!

Now that's informative! Kudos, Dostanuot!
Oy Keru!
So You Want to Be a Chaos Magickian? (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=402303)

Questions? Comments? Please, don't be afraid to ask!
Okay, I have a question. What is your religion about?

Okay, I have a question. What is your religion about?

I dunno, does it have to be about something?
That's the beauty of polytheism, it doesn'thave to be about anything, and there are gods and goddesses with all sorts of personalities.
Seriously, Inanna, one of the major goddesses (That if love and war), is a prostitute.
Not only that, but a whiney little girl of a prostitute as well!
The pantheon covers the whole spectrum, not just one omnipotent, merciful god that must be feared. Just a bunch of gods who generally bicker amongs themselves, you can fear some, or none, or all. Make fun of some (I certianly do >.>), and you won't get in too much for it because there's always a ton of other gods and goddesses who don't like whoever you made fun of.
Of course, it does just make you feel like a pawn in a game of chess.

Generally, respecting other humans, regardless of race, religion, sexuality, or gender, is a pretty big thing, but not required. So is praying/sacraficing (Will add that to the first post in a buit) to the gods/goddesses, but not all of them, and it's not required.

i don't think you actually mean pantheism (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pantheism/).

I am using the term as I have heard it from Assyriologists (People who specialise in the history of ancient Mesopotamia), and they use it in refrence to a belief in the Sumerian pantheon of gods and goddesses, and their myths.


EDIT: Updated for those who wish to know.

I understand the religious meaning behind BC and AD. I was simply wondering why he personally used BCE/CE, as I know very few people who have even heard of that system, beyond fellow students in my art history courses.

Where do you live? I knew about BCE/CE at 7.