Mythology in Ancient World

Mythology in Ancient World Page 1

Gods and Goddesses of the Earth

Since time immemorial there has existed a connection between man and his environment , ancient civilizations reflected the conditions of its environment including their way of life , culture , arts and religion . Man may have different beliefs and practices but one thing remains , across cultures , a supreme being exists and has power over the land , the heavens and the fate and destiny of men . These supreme beings were referred to as gods and goddesses of the earth . They were fickle consumed

by hate and anger , but capable of love and generosity . This attempts to discuss the gods and goddesses of the earth in the ancient civilizations of Catal Huyuk , Sumer /Mesopotamia , Egypt , Greece and Rome and how these beings reflected the environmental state of the society

A literature search on Catal Huyuk revealed that the settlement found in the south of Anatolia , overlooking the wheat fields of Konya had worshipped a goddess of the earth ( HYPERLINK "http /www .wikpedia .com www .wikpedia .com . The goddess of the earth symbolized the cycle of life - birth , life and death . The people of Catal Huyuk lived on farming their life was a succession of planting , cultivating and harvesting . Moreover , the harvesting phase was associated with the death of the field but bode wellness to the community , for it was found that the people of the settlement were not afraid of death and looked on it as vital to being born again , without the harvested grains , there would be no seeds to start a new field . The parallelism of the settlement 's way of life and their dependency on their environment and their belief in the goddess of the earth is therefore striking

Mesopotamia is said to the cradle of the earliest civilizations and that subsequent cultures were influenced by the culture and arts of the various civilizations in the area . Among the most noted civilization in Mesopotamia was Sumer . It is surrounded by the desert and naturally is dry and almost barren . However , despite this conditions Sumer flourished and attained cultural greatness . Summerians were the first to use irrigation to water their fields and ensured a good

Mythology in Ancient World Page 2

harvest (www .wikipedia .com . Like many other early civilizations , they depended on the earth for their existence . Thus , they worshipped Enlil the father of the gods ' and the king of all lands . As such , the people of Sumer looked to Enlil as their father who would provide for their needs and bring them to prosperity and to punish them for any misgivings . Among the attributes of Enlil , he was also said to have invented agricultural tools and since the Sumers were the first to use irrigation , it is not wrong to suppose that this knowledge could have come from Enlil

Egypt owes its greatness and magnificence to the Nile River . The Nile was like an oasis in the dessert but in Egypt 's case it was its heart as...