Gods were reported to having been born in caves, to have taken their meals along with humans, to have made love to human women, to have behaved in the worst possible way (by introducing slavery, racism and ethnic/racial cleansing) and to have died and been buried.
However, at about 20,000 BCE, the rumor went around that the gods ascended to the heavens and since then they are considered by everybody (with the exception of Euhemerus) either as some sort of immaterial beings or products of the imagination.
Unfortunately, scholars and translators who are aware of the ancient texts describing the gods as common human beings, suffer from the same preconceptions as the uninformed layman; thus, when they encounter the ancient scribe reporting in plain language that gods were initially men, they do their best to persuade themselves that the scribe did not write what they are reading.
Following is an excerpt from a book by Esther J. Hamori, entitled “When Gods were Men” (pg 138).
The Akkadian myth of Atrahasis opens with the words “When gods were men” (Inuma ilu awilum). This phrase has been analyzed and translated in numerous ways, but the essential meaning is clear from the context. The text goes on to describe how the lower gods (the Igigi) were initially required to do the labour necessary on earth, and then rebelled against the higher gods (the Anunnaki), eventually instigating the creation of humanity as a work force.
In other words the term “man” in the opening phrase defines a role, a function in the universe, rather than a separate species; when gods served that function, they too “were men.” For this reason the term “awilum,” literally “man”(sg), is perhaps best rendered in English as “men” (pl).
Lambert and Millard translate “When the gods like men” or “When the gods like man” understanding awilum as ending with the locative –um with the same meaning as the comparative –is. They note that this would be the first example of the comparative –um. This grammatical analysis of the phrase renders the same meaning as discussed above, only through a simile, rather than a metaphor.
As Foster observes, “The line is a metaphor… meaning “When gods were (like) men (in that they had to work).”
Later in the myth, the terms are used in their more common sense, as when Ea prepares to create humanity and says “Let man bear the load of the gods.”
Common sense demands to translate Inuma ilu awilum as “When gods were human”; justifying thus the word awilum being in the singular.
To claim that the expression is a metaphor because… gods were like men in that they had to work, the work they were doing should have been a god’s work:
(5) The seven(?) great Anunna-gods were burdening
The Igigi-gods with forced labor.
[The gods] were digging watercourses,
[Canals they opened, the] life of the land.
[The Igigi-gods] were digging watercourses,
[Canals they opened, the] life of the land.
(25) [The Igigi-gods dug the Ti]gris river,
[And the Euphrates thereafter.
[Springs they opened up from] the depths,
[Wells ... ] they established.
[They heaped up] all the mountains.
So it seems, that it was gods’ work they were doing, but the fact that the men who took over did the same work with the same tools indicates that the heaping up of the mountains is just a poetic exaggeration.
When the Igigi gods rebelled they destroyed their tools:
They set fire to their tools,
(65) They put fire to their spaces(spades),
And flame to their workbaskets.2
Gloss No. 2 reads: In effect, the first work stoppage in world history, or at least in world literature.
A story about gods is world history but yet he (Foster) refuses to acknowledge that gods were actually men.
(a) Ea made ready to speak,
And said to the gods [his brothers]:
"What calumny do we lay to their charge?
Their forced labor was heavy, [their misery too much]!
(e) Every day [ ]
The outcry [was loud, we could hear the clamor].
There is [ ]
"[Belet-ili, the midwife], is present,
(190) Let the midwife create a human being,
Let man assume the drudgery of god."
They summoned and asked the goddess,
The midwife of the gods, wise Mami:
"Will you be the birth goddess, creatress of mankind?
(195) Create a human being that he bear the yoke,
Let him bear the yoke, the task of Enlil,
Let man assume the drudgery of god." (COS, pg I:450-1)
Man can and did the work of god and, of course, the above also serves as evidence that the gods created mankind to be their slaves (who eventually rebelled as the Igigi did... but that is another story).
The usual renderings of “inuma ilu awilu", apart from the literal one: When gods [were] men are:
When the gods instead of man,
When the gods, like man,
When gods instead of humans
It is to be noted that the phrase in question was used as the title of the epic in antiquity and it occurs as a colophon at the end of each tablet. It is also found in Akkadian catalogues and it is thus a well known phrase.
Scholars dare not ask “What if the scribe was correct and gods were actually men?” because they will end up with a story that will completely ridicule the idea of God, and that they cannot bring themselves to do.
P.S. This thread will be posted in other forums too as there are uneducated atheists elsewhere as well.
I hope dear moderators and administrators do not mind.
However, at about 20,000 BCE, the rumor went around that the gods ascended to the heavens and since then they are considered by everybody (with the exception of Euhemerus) either as some sort of immaterial beings or products of the imagination.
Unfortunately, scholars and translators who are aware of the ancient texts describing the gods as common human beings, suffer from the same preconceptions as the uninformed layman; thus, when they encounter the ancient scribe reporting in plain language that gods were initially men, they do their best to persuade themselves that the scribe did not write what they are reading.
Following is an excerpt from a book by Esther J. Hamori, entitled “When Gods were Men” (pg 138).
The Akkadian myth of Atrahasis opens with the words “When gods were men” (Inuma ilu awilum). This phrase has been analyzed and translated in numerous ways, but the essential meaning is clear from the context. The text goes on to describe how the lower gods (the Igigi) were initially required to do the labour necessary on earth, and then rebelled against the higher gods (the Anunnaki), eventually instigating the creation of humanity as a work force.
In other words the term “man” in the opening phrase defines a role, a function in the universe, rather than a separate species; when gods served that function, they too “were men.” For this reason the term “awilum,” literally “man”(sg), is perhaps best rendered in English as “men” (pl).
Lambert and Millard translate “When the gods like men” or “When the gods like man” understanding awilum as ending with the locative –um with the same meaning as the comparative –is. They note that this would be the first example of the comparative –um. This grammatical analysis of the phrase renders the same meaning as discussed above, only through a simile, rather than a metaphor.
As Foster observes, “The line is a metaphor… meaning “When gods were (like) men (in that they had to work).”
Later in the myth, the terms are used in their more common sense, as when Ea prepares to create humanity and says “Let man bear the load of the gods.”
Common sense demands to translate Inuma ilu awilum as “When gods were human”; justifying thus the word awilum being in the singular.
To claim that the expression is a metaphor because… gods were like men in that they had to work, the work they were doing should have been a god’s work:
(5) The seven(?) great Anunna-gods were burdening
The Igigi-gods with forced labor.
[The gods] were digging watercourses,
[Canals they opened, the] life of the land.
[The Igigi-gods] were digging watercourses,
[Canals they opened, the] life of the land.
(25) [The Igigi-gods dug the Ti]gris river,
[And the Euphrates thereafter.
[Springs they opened up from] the depths,
[Wells ... ] they established.
[They heaped up] all the mountains.
So it seems, that it was gods’ work they were doing, but the fact that the men who took over did the same work with the same tools indicates that the heaping up of the mountains is just a poetic exaggeration.
When the Igigi gods rebelled they destroyed their tools:
They set fire to their tools,
(65) They put fire to their spaces(spades),
And flame to their workbaskets.2
Gloss No. 2 reads: In effect, the first work stoppage in world history, or at least in world literature.
A story about gods is world history but yet he (Foster) refuses to acknowledge that gods were actually men.
(a) Ea made ready to speak,
And said to the gods [his brothers]:
"What calumny do we lay to their charge?
Their forced labor was heavy, [their misery too much]!
(e) Every day [ ]
The outcry [was loud, we could hear the clamor].
There is [ ]
"[Belet-ili, the midwife], is present,
(190) Let the midwife create a human being,
Let man assume the drudgery of god."
They summoned and asked the goddess,
The midwife of the gods, wise Mami:
"Will you be the birth goddess, creatress of mankind?
(195) Create a human being that he bear the yoke,
Let him bear the yoke, the task of Enlil,
Let man assume the drudgery of god." (COS, pg I:450-1)
Man can and did the work of god and, of course, the above also serves as evidence that the gods created mankind to be their slaves (who eventually rebelled as the Igigi did... but that is another story).
The usual renderings of “inuma ilu awilu", apart from the literal one: When gods [were] men are:
When the gods instead of man,
When the gods, like man,
When gods instead of humans
It is to be noted that the phrase in question was used as the title of the epic in antiquity and it occurs as a colophon at the end of each tablet. It is also found in Akkadian catalogues and it is thus a well known phrase.
Scholars dare not ask “What if the scribe was correct and gods were actually men?” because they will end up with a story that will completely ridicule the idea of God, and that they cannot bring themselves to do.
P.S. This thread will be posted in other forums too as there are uneducated atheists elsewhere as well.
I hope dear moderators and administrators do not mind.
"Culture is memory"
Yuri Lotman
Yuri Lotman
