this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2025
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For many its the Roman empire or the Greeks. Similarly ancient Egypt. Or the British empire. Maybe the Japanese, Chinese and Norse as the next 3.

I have deliberately not mentioned time periods there.

These are the most commonly beloved. What are your favourites and why?

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[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 26 points 4 days ago (7 children)

Ancient Mesopotamia, hands down. You've got the Sumerians, the Babylonian empire, the Akkadian empire. There's creation myths, flood myths, myths about great battles between the elder gods. Gilgamesh, Sargon, Hammurabi. Such cool artwork and artifacts were left behind for us to find. Friggin ziggurats. And they figured out writing, which has proven useful. Also they had cultural overlap with other notable societies like the ancient Israelites/Canaanites and Egyptians, which allowed for borrowing and retelling of stories, myths, and legends among the people of the time. Pieces of the story of Moses are apparent in Sargon's personal account of his history. You can see lots of the Noah story in Gilgamesh, and also in Atrahasis. An elder, primordial god named Tiamat is an embodiment of sea water and its associated chaotic nature that existed in the void before creation, and is probably cognate with the Hebrew word "tehom" meaning "the abyss".

[–] Insekticus@aussie.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Really interesting section, thanks for sharing. Would be cool to see some videos made on the matter with references to texts. Like explaining that Tiamat part with paragraphs from their texts talking about it.

[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Nice! Look for content about the Enuma Elish (which is basically like the Babylonian creation story) to hear all about Tiamat and their counterpart, Apsu (embodiment of fresh waters amongst the void) and their relationship followed by an eventual battle that ensues between descendants of Apsu and Tiamat, leading to a god named Marduk becoming the head of their pantheon (and also the god that raised Babylon from sand into a great city). From there, check out the wiki for tehom and if you're looking for videos, peruse the online video warehouse of your pleasure for links between Babylonian Tiamat and Hebrew tehom and you will not be disappointed. I'm pretty sure Richard Elliot Friedman covers it in one of his lectures about the Hebrew Bible/OT, although I can't recall exactly which one offhand.

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