與吉爾伽美什史詩相遇

以前上歷史系時 似乎沒有聽過這個史詩
現在上美術史才第一次讀到

Ancient Mesopotamia for Kids
http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/gilgamesh.html

The Legend of Gilgamesh The First Superhero

吉爾伽美什史詩》是來自四大古文明之一的美索不達米亞的文學作品。史詩所述的歷史時期據信在公元前2700年至公元前2500年之間，比已知最早的寫成文字的文學作作品早200到400年。

宇宙學（或宇宙論）譯自英文之「Cosmology」，這個詞源自於希臘文的κοσμολογία（cosmologia, κόσμος （cosmos） order + λογια （logia） discourse）。宇宙學是對宇宙整體的研究，並且延伸探討至人類在宇宙中的地位。雖然宇宙學這個詞是最近才有的，人們對宇宙的研究已經有很長的一段歷史，牽涉到科學、哲學、神秘學以及宗教。

Worship and Sacrifice

犧牲的原意為宗教祭祀儀式上所用供品，供品包括宰殺的生命，甚至活人也用作供品，例如亞伯拉罕諸教，舊約的亞伯拉罕想殺自己的兒子以撒，獻給耶和華。古代也有以活人獻拜死者的殉葬等。在祭祀活動，用於祭祀的供品，稱為祭品；動物方面通常是牛、豬、馬、雞、魚及羊等，之後引申為個人為了正義而作出的奉獻，甚至是生命。現代的極端宗教行為、古代宗教活動中，宰殺活人用做祭祀供品的活動，稱為「活人祭」。

A prayer to the god Enlil.The pagan Mesopotamians venerated images of their gods, which it was believed actually held the essence or personality of the deity that they represented; this is evident from the poem How Erra Wrecked the World, in which Erra deceived the god Marduk into leaving his cult statue.
A number of written prayers have survived from ancient Mesopotamia, each of which typically exalt the god that they are describing above all others. The historian J. Bottéro stated that these poems display "extreme reverence, profound devotion, [and] the unarguable emotion that the supernatural evoked in the hearts of those ancient believers" but that they showed a people who were scared of their gods rather than openly celebrating them.

Magic and witchcraft
In parts of Mesopotamian religion, magic was believed in and actively practiced. At the city of Uruk, archaeologists have excavated houses dating from the 5th and 4th centuries BCE in which cuneiform clay tablets have been unearthed containing magical incantations咒語