Classical Literature/ The Ancient World/ What is humanity to expect of life and death (the afterlife) after being created? Compare and contrast views in the Enuma Elish, Genesis, The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Book of Job.

Running head : THE AFTERLIFE

THE AFTERLIFE

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THE AFTERLIFE

There is this certain idea that usually enthralls quite a number of people . This conception is called the afterlife . What is it about this idea that makes people engrossed ? It seems that the unpredictability that it has or the mystery that shrouds its real intent makes a person baffled . In any event , there is much speculation about what it may be like or even the mere existence of

it . theless , speculations had spread from the past to the present and maybe even in the future . This particular then would aim to address the thought by presenting certain works that could help in answering the question

Enuma Elish : The Babylonian Creation Epic

It was said that this particular epic was written in clay that some parts of what was written could hardly be translated to be conveyed more clearly to those who are interested in it . This spectacular tableau was very much concerned with gods and mankind . This epic had talked about by the war between gods . But in this chaos , the starting of man 's realm had begun with the war . It was said that Tiamat was the goddess whom all gods sprung forth . She was powerful enough until she got defeated by Marduk . It was said that the gods had been too overbearing that Apsu who was the husband of Tiamat , decided to do evil ADDIN EN .CITE David Damrosch20041 16David Damrosch April Alliston , Marshall Brown , Page duBois , Sabry Hafez , Ursula K Heise , Djelal Kadir , David L . Pike , Sheldon Pollock , Bruce Robbins Haruo Shirane , Jane Tylus , Pauline YuThe Longman Anthology of World Literature , Volume A : The Ancient World2004New JerseyLongman (David Damrosch , 2004 But Ea , the son of Apsu and Tiamat , discovered such folly and took matters in his own hand . Ergo , he had slain Apsu and resided on his corpse (in a sense , he had taken refuge in the place where Apsu was god and that is over the fresh water . He and his wife , Damkina , had a son named Marduk . Their son was known to be much stronger than the other gods and goddesses . In Tiamat 's rage against the death of her husband she had vowed revenge ADDIN EN .CITE BratcherDennis BratcherEnuma Elish "When on High : The Mesopotamian /Babylonian Creation Myth2007September 252006http /www .cresourcei .org /enumaelish .htmlCRI /Voice Institute (Bratcher 2006 . In the event of these vows , it was Qingu who had fired in her this sense of vengeance . After the war , Marduk had won the battle and decided to generate mankind through the blood of Qingu as well as dividing Tiamat in to produce Earth and the sky . Marduk then decided upon creating himself a dwelling place where it would be called Babylon as well as fashion places where other gods could reside . It was at the end of the epic that Marduk had decreed that man repeat what he had done...