can you spare a myth

What was the last myth you heard/read?

The TV show “Lost” maybe?

Batman?

Twilight?

But “Lost” was not called a myth. It was called a TV show. The ancient world didn’t have TV. They had myths but I bet they didn’t know they were myths.

We have myths today but because of our modern communication systems we call them novels, movies, comics, government policy, reality TV, etc.

Anyone know of a blog of myths?

I just finished reading up on the myth of Inanna, the Sumerian queen of heaven and earth, and her descent into the underworld. This story comes from clay tablets dated around 2000 B.C. Can you imagine texting with clay tablets? What if the I-pad was made of clay? I guess you could write something and then throw the tablet in their direction.

I had never known of any Sumerian queens. Dairy queen is the one I’m most familiar. I had a strange path getting to this myth. I was looking at a science page over on the PBS site and clicked over to a page on the planet Venus. Scholars (don’t you wonder if they are just wild guesses?) believe Inanna represented Venus.

Suggest you look-up this Inanna chick. The story tells me that things have not changed much in 4000 years. Larry King probably knows this already.

Here’s the A Few Clowns Short version of Inanna -

Inanna decides to vacation in the underworld. She pimps herself up with jewelry, nice threads, even mascara. Did you realize mascara goes back to the ancient world? Eye makeup was big in Egypt, but this takes place before Cleo and all that pyramid power stuff.

So Inanna was most likely this hot looking babe because they wrote about her. Turns out she has this jealous sister (things don’t change over 1000’s of years) who gives the gatekeepers special instructions for Inanna’s entry. Gatekeepers - think TSA agents before scanners.

So these TSA gatekeepers (seven gates ? did the author play craps? I don’t know) take something off Inanna with each gate passage. By the time she finally gets in the underworld, she’s naked. Naked in the underworld - sounds like CSI. (maybe this was porn in clay? - if I kept up the guesses I’ll be a scholar)

Ok so I guess she has a look around and decides to head home. I understand that people just don’t get to leave the underworld (modern airplanes or that TV series Lost). She strikes a deal that someone can be exchanged for her and she goes back with a bunch of demons tagging along (like a Lady Gaga music video).

As she meets her friends, the demons keep asking if this person or that person should be exchanged.  They ask about her hairdresser.  She refuses to exchange anyone until

(this is the part that never changed over 4000 years)

they come upon her husband.

He is found lounging around under a fruit tree enjoying himself. Totally clueless that his wife, Inanna, was stuck in the underworld. He didn’t miss her at all. Big mistake on his part. The demons haul him away to the underworld.

This could be the next reality TV show.

The blog world I travel has a few regular features tied to days. Friday Fragments, One Word Wednesday, Sundays in my City, Saturday Sampling, etc. So I was thinking, how about Myth Mondays? What do you think?

You know, it would combined great with Margarita Mondays. A few margaritas and anybody can tell a myth.

(Disclaimer - to the best of my knowledge I’m not Sumerian, so no real Sumerian is associated with any scholarly statement I have made.)