-
The Myth of Adapa
“Bu tür mitoslarda sık sık, ölümsüzlük şansının yitirilmesi, tanrılardan birinin ya da ötekinin kıskançlığının ürünü olarak gösterilir ve tanrıların ölümsüzlüğü kendilerine ayırdıkları söylenir. Adapa mitosundan aynı zamanda, Tammuz’un ortalıktan yitişinin Sami mitolojisinin sık karşılaşılan bir öğesi olduğunu anlıyoruz. Tanrıların mitosun kahramanına sundukları giysi motifi ile, ileride İbranilerin (Cennetten) Düşüş öyküsünde, Yehova’nın Âdem’e ve Havva’ya deri giyişiler vermesi arasında bir bağlantı görülebilir. “[4]
Adapa antik Eidug şehrinin kralıydı. Enki tarafından yaratıldığına inanılırdı, bir bakıma Enki'nin oğlu olarak düşünülmüştür. Yarı faniydi ama ölümsüzlerin kuvvetine sahipti. Evrenin tüm bilgisinin üçte birine sahip olduğu, bu bilginin ona Enki tarafından öğretildiğine inanılırdı. İnsanlığa dili öğretenin Adapa olduğuna inanılır. Kral olarak görevlerinin yanı sıra bir rahip ve üfürükçüydü. Öldükten sonra apkallu`dan biri olmuştur.
Adapa mitinin öyküsü
Mite göre Adapa tanrısal soydan gelen bir fanidir. Balıkçı teknesini devirdiği gerekçesiyle Güney Rüzgârı'nın kanatlarını kırınca cennetin ve tanrıların tanrısı olan Anu'nun önünde hesaba çekilmesi gerekir. Adapanın koruyucu tanrısı olan Enki, cennetteyken yeyip içmemesi gerektiği konusunda onu uyarır. Bu aslında bir aldatmadır, böylece Adapa'nın ölümsüz olma şansını elinden almıştır. Bu mite göre ise insanların ölümlü oluşu Adapa'nın aptallığından kaynaklıdır. Enki (Ea), oğluna bilgelik vermiş, ama ölümsüz yaşamı vermemiştir. Bir gün Adapa'nın önüne ölümsüzlüğü elde etme şansı çıkar, ancak Adapa reddeder. Tanrı Anum'un huzuruna çağrılır. Ea, önceden ona orada ölüm için yiyecek ve içecek verileceğini, onlardan tatmamasını haber verir. Hüküm verileceği gün, öteki tanrılar onu tutarlar ve yumuşayan Anum, ölümsüzlük yiyecek ve içeceğini getirtir. Adapa bunları da almak istemez. Anum, şaşırıp nedenini sorar. Adapa şöyle yanıtlar: "Bir başkası yemeyeceksin, içmeyeceksin, dedi". Anum, buna bakıp Adapa'nın yeryüzüne atılmasını emreder.
Günümüz inançlarına etkiler
Yahudilerin babil sürgünü sırasında Yahudi bilginleri tarafından diğer mitolojik unsurlarla birlikte kültürel hafızaya alınan Adapa öyküsü ilk insan ve insanlığın atası olarak Tevrat'ın yazımı sırasında tevrat anlatımlarına (genesis) konu edilmiş, kültürel miras olarak Ortadoğu din ve inanışlarına aktarılmıştır. Diğer Sümer yaratılış efsanelerindeki temalarla birlikte Adapa kaynaklı olabilecek unsurlar; Adem (Adam) ismi, sonsuz yaşam sürülen cennette yaşamaktayken yasak meyvelerden yeme ile bağlantılı bir şekilde tanrı tarafından hesaba çekilme ve cennetten atılma, her şeyin isminin (bilgisinin) kendisine öğretilmiş olması, kendisinin ilk insan olmakla birlikte ilk rahip (ibrahimi dinlerde ilk peygamber) oluşu, cennetten medeniyete ait sanat veya bilgileri getirmesi ve benzerleridir.
Adapa
and the Suggested Parallels with Adam
The
Adapa myth tells a simple story
about a wise man, Adapa, in the city
of Eridu in southern Mesopotamia.6 He was created
by
Ea (Sumerian Enki), the god of the great deep and of the world of
man, and served
the city of Eridu and its temple with
great devotion by, among other
things, providing fish. Once a sailing mishap on a fishing
expedition made him curse the south
wind, thereby breaking its wing,
whereupon the land was
deprived of its cooling and moist breezes. For this offense he was summoned to
the high god Anu (Sumerian An) to give
account of his deed. First, however, he received this advice from his god Ea:
(1) to appear in mourning garb at the gate of Anu so as to
receive sympathetic assistance from the
two heavenly gate keepers, Tammuz and
Gizzida (vegetation gods); (2) to
refuse the bread and water of death offered to him, but to accept
oil for anointing himself
and new garments. With this advice, which he followed carefully, Adapa
succeeded admirably in his
heavenly audience (to Anu's surprise), whereupon he was returned to earth (for he was but a man) with forgiveness for himself, release
from feudal obligations for his city
(Eridu), and healing for the illness which his offense had brought upon mankind.
Now we can turn to the so-called "parallels"
between this story and the biblical story of Adam, notably
Adam's fall (Gen. 3).
5 S. Sandmel, "Parallelomania," JBL
81 (1962): 1-13, warned against
it. See
now also W. W. Hallo,
"New Moons and Sabbaths:
A Case Study in the Contrastive
Approach," HUCA 48 (1977): 1-18.
6 The best English translation is by E. A. Speiser in ANET, 101-103. Of the four
extant fragments, three (A, C, D) derive from the Ashurbanipal library (7th cent.
B.C.), and the fourth (B) comes from the Amarna archives (14th
cent. B.C.).
The Myth of Adapa (also known as Adapa and the Food of Life) is the Mesopotamian story of the Fall of Man in that it explains why human beings are mortal. The god of wisdom, Ea, creates the first man, Adapa, and endows him with great intelligence and wisdom but not with immortality, and when immortality is offered Adapa by the great god Anu, Ea tricks Adapa into refusing the gift.
Though it is not expressed directly in the myth, Ea's reasoning in this seems similar to Yahweh's in the Genesis story from the Bible where, after Adam and Eve are cursed for eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Yahweh casts them out before they can also eat of the Tree of Life:
“Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden”(Genesis 3:22-23)If Adam and Eve were immortal they would be on par with Yahweh and there would be a loss of status for the god; and this is Ea’s same reasoning in the Adapa myth. In the Genesis myth, man takes knowledge for himself by eating of the tree; in the Mesopotamian myth, the god Ea grants man knowledge in the process of creation. Knowing that Adapa is already wise, Ea (like Yahweh in the later story from Genesis) needs to keep the man in his place.
Adapa was the king of the city of Eridu and, the myth tells us, went fishing one day in the Persian Gulf when the south wind suddenly capsized his boat and hurled him into the sea. Furious at this, Adapa broke the wing of the south wind and for seven days the wind could not blow. The sky god Anu is angered by this and sends for Adapa to explain himself. Adapa receives counsel from Ea on how he should behave in the court of the gods. As Ea is Adapa's father-god and creator, Adapa trusts him to tell him the truth. But Ea fears that Anu is apt to offer Adapa the food and drink of eternal life and Ea is intent on making sure that Adapa does not accept the offer.
First Ea tells him that he should flatter the guardians of the gates, Tammuz and Gishida (two dying and reviving deities) by making it known that he remembers them, that he knows who they are. If Adapa does this then the guardians will let him pass without difficulty and will speak favorably of him to Anu. Once Adapa is in the presence of Anu, Ea further tells him, he should refuse any food or drink offered because it will be the food of death and the drink of death which will be offered as punishment for Adapa breaking the wing of the south wind. However, Ea says, Adapa may accept oil to anoint himself and accept whatever clothing is offered.
Adapa does exactly as Ea suggests, respectfully honoring Tammuz and Gishida and refusing the food and drink offered by Anu (though anointing himself and accepting a robe). Anu, puzzled that the man should refuse the food and drink of life and the gift of immortality, sends Adapa back to earth where he must live out his life as a mortal. The tale would seem to conclude with Anu punishing Ea for deceiving Adapa, but as the third tablet is fragmentary, it is difficult to say with certainty.
An alternative interpretation of the myth claims that Ea is sincerely acting in the best interests of Adapa when he warns him against accepting food or drink from Anu because Ea earnestly believes that Anu will punish Adapa with death for breaking the wing of the south wind. This interpretation claims that Ea’s punishment at the end of the poem is not for deceiving Adapa but for warning him against Anu’s plans. Nowhere in the poem, however, does it state that Anu planned to kill Adapa, only that he was upset that the south wind was not blowing (that life on earth was not functioning as it should) and wanted Adapa to explain himself.
The poem makes more sense when understood as Ea deceiving Adapa to keep immortality from human beings and Anu punishing Ea for this deception. Anu, upon hearing Adapa’s explanation for his action, asks, "Why has Ea revealed to impure mankind/The heart of heaven and earth?” This response seems to indicate that Anu respects Adapa’s answer and is impressed by it but wonders why Ea should have made Adapa so intelligent yet denied him eternal life. It is directly after Anu asks this question and “What can we do with him?” that he orders the food and water of eternal life be brought to Adapa. Anu wishes to correct Ea’s mistake and grant Adapa eternal life and seems genuinely puzzled when Adapa refuses his hospitality. Anu is attempting to pre-empt the fundamental question which human beings have asked through the ages, “Why should I be born to die and, knowing I will die, what is the point of living?”, by granting immortality; but this is not to be.
The myth comes from the Babylonian Kassite period of the 14th century BCE (when the Kassite tribe ruled in Babylon). The 3rd century BCE writer Berossus called Adapa "Oannes" and described him as a fish-man who lived in the Persian Gulf and taught wisdom and civilization to human beings. Berossus was following the tradition of Adapa as one of the Abgal (or Apkallu) the seven sage demi-gods who gave civilization to human beings in the ancient days before the Great Flood. In The Myth of Adapa, however, the central character is depicted as a wise king who is duped by a god, not as a demi-god himself.
Adapa, the first of the Mesopotamian seven sages, was a mythical figure who unknowingly refused the gift of immortality. The story is first attested in the Kassite period (14th century BCE), in fragmentary tablets from Tell el-Amarna, and from Assur, of the late second millennium BCE. Mesopotamian myth tells of seven antediluvian sages, who were sent by Ea, the wise god of Eridu, to bring the arts of civilisation to humankind. The first of these, Adapa, also known as Uan, the name given as Oannes by Berossus, introduced the practice of the correct rites of religious observance as priest of the E'Apsu temple, at Eridu. The sages are described in Mesopotamian literature as 'pure parādu-fish, probably carp, whose bones are found associated with the earliest shrine, and still kept as a holy duty in the precincts of Near Eastern mosques and monasteries. Adapa as a fisherman was iconographically portrayed as a fish-man composite. The word Abgallu, sage (Ab = water, Gal = great, Lu = man, Sumerian) survived into Nabatean times, around the 1st century, as apkallum, used to describe the profession of a certain kind of priest.
Roles
Adapa was a mortal man from a godly lineage, a son of Ea (Enki in Sumerian), the god of wisdom and of the ancient city of Eridu, who brought the arts of civilization to that city (from Dilmun, according to some versions). He broke the wings of Ninlil the South Wind, who had overturned his fishing boat, and was called to account before Anu. Ea, his patron god, warned him to apologize humbly for his actions, but not to partake of food or drink while he was in heaven, as it would be the food of death. Anu, impressed by Adapa's sincerity, offered instead the food of immortality, but Adapa heeded Ea's advice, refused, and thus missed the chance for immortality that would have been his.
Vague parallels can be drawn to the story of Genesis, where Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden by Yahweh, after they ate from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus gaining death.[2] Parallels are also apparent (to an even greater degree) with the story of Persephone visiting Hades, who was warned to take nothing from that kingdom. Stephanie Galley writes “From Erra and Ishum we know that all the sages were banished ... because they angered the gods, and went back to the Apsu, where Ea lived, and ... the story ... ended with Adapa's banishment” p. 182.
Adapa is often identified as advisor to the mythical first (antediluvian) king of Eridu, Alulim. In addition to his advisory duties, he served as a priest and exorcist, and upon his death took his place among the Seven Sages or Apkallū. (Apkallu, "sage", comes from Sumerian AB.GAL.LU (Ab=water, Gal=Great Lu=Man) a reference to Adapa, the first sage's association with water.)
As Oaneness
Oannes (Ὡάννης) was the name given by the Babylonian writer Berossus in the 3rd century BCE to a mythical being who taught mankind wisdom. Berossus describes Oannes as having the body of a fish but underneath the figure of a man. He is described as dwelling in the Persian Gulf, and rising out of the waters in the daytime and furnishing mankind instruction in writing, the arts and the various sciences. Oannes and the Semitic god Dagon were considered identical.
The name "Oannes" was once conjectured to be derived from that of the ancient Babylonian god Ea,[4] but it is now known that the name is the Greek form of the Babylonian Uanna (or Uan) a name used for Adapa in texts from the Library of Ashurbanipal.The Assyrian texts attempt to connect the word to the Akkadian for a craftsman ummanu but this is merely a pun.
Iosif Shklovsky and Carl Sagan cited tales of Oannes as deserving closer scrutiny as a possible instance of paleocontact due to its consistency and detail.
[1] Erich Ebeling, „Tod und Leben nach den Vorstellungen der Babylonier“, de Gruyter, Berlin 1931, s*0
Bununla ilgili ayrıca genişçe bilgi edinmek için bk. Giorgio Bucellati: Adapa, Genesis and the Notion of Faith. In: Ugarit-Forschung 5. 1973, S. 61-66 (Burada özellikle Ugarit mitosları ile ilgili genişçe bir araştırma söz konusudur. Tekvin kitabında yer alan anlatımların köklü araştırması sunulan bu eserde Mezopotamya kültür havrası ve oradaki mitoslarla ilgili bilgiler verilmektedir. Eser’in pdf dosyasına archieve.org adresinden ulaşılabilir)
Bununla ilgili ayrıca genişçe bilgi edinmek için bk. Giorgio Bucellati: Adapa, Genesis and the Notion of Faith. In: Ugarit-Forschung 5. 1973, S. 61-66 (Burada özellikle Ugarit mitosları ile ilgili genişçe bir araştırma söz konusudur. Tekvin kitabında yer alan anlatımların köklü araştırması sunulan bu eserde Mezopotamya kültür havrası ve oradaki mitoslarla ilgili bilgiler verilmektedir. Eser’in pdf dosyasına archieve.org adresinden ulaşılabilir)
[2] Hooke, “Ortadoğu Mitolojisi”, s.70
[3] Hooke, a.g.e. s.70
[4] Hooke, a.g.e s.75
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder