Gods+And+Goddesses+How+It++Began

**All of these stories are myths.** =media type="youtube" key="y4NkTbjrez8" height="315" width="560"-= = **How it began** = This is the story of how the people in Mesopotamia belived that life began. At the beginning of time there were only gods and goddesses living on earth and they had to do all the work. Each god and goddess had a job. For example, they could have to dig fields, plant crops, water plants and clean out ditches. The work was very hard and the gods and goddesses grew unhappy. The gods and goddesses met and talked about ways to make it easier on them. They finally decided to go to Ea, who it the god of fresh water. The Mesopetamian people believed that Ea was a very wise and intelligent god. When they came to him, he was fast asleep in his water house. Ea suggested that they would make craters to make to do their work for them. The gods and goddesses thought that Ea's plan was a excellent plan. Ea collected clay for around his water home. He used it to make humans. He blew life into the clay figures. While he did that, he limited how long they would live. The humans got put to work doing all the gods and goddesses work. Since the humans were servants of the gods and goddesses, they had to provide them with food. The humans would lug pales of water to irrigate the dry, lifeless land. After lots of hard work, the humans brought life to the land and the gods and goddesses that brought life to the humans were happy, at least for the moment...
 * Graces Podcast: media type="file" key="Grace.mp3"**

= The story of Ea and Enlil = In early Mesopotamia, the two most important gods were Enlil and Ea. Enlil was the Lord of earth, air and wind. He was the firstborn of Anu, the Skyfather, and Ki, the Earth Mother. Some stories say that Enlil created everything, while others say that every god and goddess pitched in. Ea, on the other hand, was the god of the sweet underground fresh waters and of all crafts, magic and wisdom. This means that means Ea could make things into many different shapes and sizes. Ea's father was also the Skyfather, and his mother was Nammu, the goddess of salt waters that gave origin to everything there is. (The skyfather had an affair with Nammu and so that's why Enlil and Ea have different mothers.) Ea also had a twin sister named Ereshkigal. Each of these sibllings had a goal in life. Ereshkigal's goal was to be the Great Goddess of the Underworld, while Enlil was sworn to protect the Living Earth and Ea´s task was to protect all the sweet waters including the rivers and lakes. Each of these sibblings lived in a different place. Ea was supposed to live in the sweet waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers while Enlil was supposed to live on the land between those two rivers and Ereshkigal lived in the underworld. = Comparing then and now = - First time that religion became popular to everyone. - Gods and goddesses - everyone believed in them. - Sense of being in charge, Kings and Queens used this for power. - Women and girls were not treated unequally, but Goddesses were worshipped.

Things have changed a lot in Egypt since early Mesopotamia days. In early Mesopotamia, goddesses were treated as queens and were praised and worshipped while regular women were not treated as normal people. For example, fathers owned their daughters and so the fathers would choose who their daughters would marry and what they could do. Now in Egypt, women have more freemdom and now everyone is allowed to believe in whatever religion they want like Budisum, Christianity and Hinduisum. In the past, Kings and Queens had lots of power and would use people as their slaves. For example, Cleopatra used to get people to kill others for her and she didn't pay them. Now, Egypt has a government that makes decisions.

= Bibliography =

Youtube

Picture of Ea wikipedia

Ea and Enlil story form gatewaytobabylon.com by lishtar

Story of how it began story from mesopotamia.co