From your reading and the class discussions, know the following names and terms:
 

Enuma Elish	Theogony	Genesis	Metamorphoses
Apsu	Chaos	Adam	Four Ages
Tiamat	Eros	Eve	Jupiter
Anu	Ge or Gaia	Cain	Lycaon
Ea	Ouranos	Abel	Flood
Kingu	Aphrodite	Lamach and Seth	Deucalion
Marduk	Titans	Noah	Pyrrha
	Cyclopes	Shem, Ham, Japheth	second creation
	100 handers		Python
Terms	Kronos	Terms
theogony	Rhea	source criticism
cosmogony	Zeus	Yahwistic tradition
genealogy	Hera	Elohistic tradition
catalogue	Athena	Priestly tradition
succession myth	Typhoeus
hieros gamos	Prometheus
	Pandora
	Muses

 
Study Questions
1. Explore the role of male and female in Enuma Elish. How do female gods create, what do they create, how do they interact with other beings compared with the male gods? How does Marduk secure his power? What role do female deities have in his coming to dominance? What role do they have under his rule?

2. How does Marduk's rise to power in Enuma Elish resemble Zeus' in Theogony? To what extent do they use similar methods for obtaining and then maintaining dominance?

3. Examine Enuma Elish and explain what role violence has in the myth. Is there any way to say that it is parallel to or different from the violence of Hesiod's succession myth? Then examine the role of violence in Genesis to see if it functions in a similar way.

4. There are two accounts of creation of the world in Genesis, chs. 1-3. What do they have in common? How are they different? Why are they different? There are two accounts of the genealogy of Seth. Why are there two? Are there any other doublets in Genesis 1-11? Do they contradict each other? Do they each present something valuable and "true"? Explain.

5. How does Genesis fit with other ancient creation myths we have seen so far? Similarities? Differences? Is the account of creation historical in any of them? Are any of the accounts true? Explain.

6. Compare the creation story in Genesis with the one in Metamorphoses, Bk. 1. How many gods are involved in the two myths? To what extent is there theogony or cosmogony or genealogy in the two myths?

7. Compare the accounts of the flood in Gilgamesh, Genesis, and Ovid. What do they have in common? How are they different? What accounts for the differences? Are there any aspects of the flood in the other myths we have read?

8. Think about the role of human beings in all the creation myths we have read. Do they have the same lot or fate in each account? What kind of relationship do they have with the gods in each version. Do you think this relationship is true to life?

9. How does the view of history in Ovid's "Ages of Mankind" compare with the view in Theogony or Genesis or the Homeric Hymns? Is time cyclical or linear? Are human beings progressing or regressing? What are the reasons?

10. One might say that the composers of each myth had a similar purpose in telling about the creation of the world, but different audiences account for the differences between all Do you agree or disagree? Why?
 

Return to CLA 1-216-97 home page