Creation Stories of the Ancient World
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Creation Stories of the Ancient World
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Narrated by:
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Joseph Lam
About this listen
Creation stories, found within many ancient cultures, are traditional accounts of the origins of the universe, the earth, and humanity. Often embodied as epic poetry, and told through the acts of divine beings, creation stories illuminate the values, beliefs, and creeds of the earliest civilizations. As such, these stories show us how early cultures made sense of the human condition, in theological, philosophical, and political terms.
These 12 dynamic and thought-provoking lectures offer you a penetrating look at the origin stories of the great civilizations of the Mediterranean. With the richly layered commentary of Professor Lam, you’ll delve into the creation accounts of civilizations ranging from Mesopotamia across the breadth of the ancient Near East to Greece in the West, and encompassing traditions from Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, and ancient Israel. Within the course’s richly detailed inquiry, you’ll explore origin stories in traditions such as:
• Creation Accounts of Ancient Mesopotamia—Take the measure of the Babylonian Creation Epic, Enuma Elish, which portrays the genesis of the world and humanity through a nucleus of deities.
• The Egyptian Creation Traditions—Encounter the pantheon of Egyptian gods related to creation and explore the processes by which creation was said to be accomplished.
• The Hurro-Hittite Kumarbi Cycle—In this important text, witness how universal cosmic order is established through the struggle of two entangled lineages of deities;
• The Theogony of Hesiod—Delve into this great work of Greek epic poetry, portraying the development of the cosmos through generations of divine conflict; and
• The Judeo-Christian Genesis—Chart the contours of the seven days of creation in the biblical Genesis 1 and grasp the contrast between this account and the portrayal of creation in the Garden of Eden story.
In Creation Stories of the Ancient World, you’ll look deeply into an elemental feature of early civilizations.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 The Great Courses (P)2023 The Teaching Company, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
It's worth listening to it with some paper and pen to note down details such as names or places as it's a lot to remember.
Really worth listening
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It's read well and informative. It's on the shorter side (12 lectures) which is personally a good length for me and most of the lectures cover a different creation story. Along the way the lecturer draws your attention to the similarities and connections between the different creation myths. Very interesting
Brilliant 12 lecture series
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It's also not great as an overview, because due to the short length it sometimes devolves into dry lists. Imagine a voice droning on in the vein of: "This was his brother and he married so and so, and then the other deity was the one associated with fertility, which was his grandfathers sister, with the head of a snake", etcetera. Because the lectures are too short to really remember who is who (sometimes they get just 1 sentence) it all becomes a jumble.
My conclusion after all this is that religion, from the most ancient ones to the more recent ones, all basically make the pet peeves of specific people into something holy. For instance misogyny, which almost every religion is rife with. Another example of this would be the Mesopotamian myth where the gods think people are 'too noisy', so that's why there are natural disasters. This easily reads as a cranky old person in power who could not deal with the growing cities & the noise they bring, and just made an edict that the gods were displeased with noise. It seems like every creation myth consists of elements that are really applicable & beneficial to the people in power at that time. It's really baffling to me that some people are still not on to this in modern times as well, but oh, well.
Anyway, I think this would have benefitted from a culling of topics, plus a more overarching, general approach. I also suspect that this is actually a part of a longer lecture series, chopped up into pieces. I noticed that the older Great Courses are all much, much longer. Some over 30 hours long. Now they all seem to be under 10, often even under 5 or 6 hours like this one. Plus I have encountered some re-runs, in the form of the shorter, chopped up ones. Originally you would benefit from a few general introduction lectures, explaining how to tie it all together. Then the 'endless lists' lectures afterwards would make more sense. Now you just get the 'out of context' bits so you never really gain that deeper understanding.
Like I wrote, it's not a bad prof or a bad series of lectures. It's just nowhere near long enough to do the topics justice.
Not bad but very shallow
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Disappointed
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