Serendipity

I'm not sure about you, but I for one don't regularly find my own college courses having a direct application to everyday life. It's just one of those fun little side effects of being a theoretical mathematician. Plenty of exciting insights into iterative techniques and functional analysis, precious few off-campus moments along the lines of, "Oh my goodness! We were just learning about this in class!" 

However.

Guess what? Today, I had one of those moments (to be treasured always). :)

Among the first readings we were assigned in this mythology class was the Babylonian creation myth The Enuma Elish, which is notable for having been discovered in Nineveh (in modern day Iraq) written in cuneiform on a group of seven clay tablets. It is fairly old so far as creation myths go, quite possibly dating back to sometime around 1900 B.C.

It's a bit of a long story, but in essence the myth goes something like this. Before all else there exists only water, out of which spring Father and Mother gods as well as their Son. Before long, other gods are formed and these begin to reproduce to such an extent that their joyous cavorting disturbs the original gods and a plot is hatched to destroy these young upstarts, thus restoring a little much-needed peace and quiet (Father and Mother are clearly of the 'seen and not heard' tradition).

Well, the younger gods (being all youthful and spritely and suchlike) overhear the plan and launch a preemptive retaliation, killing the Father and capturing the Son. This in turn greatly upsets the Mother goddess (whose name is Tiamat, by the way) and she soon creates an army of fearsome monsters with which to take her revenge...

Um, yes, just like those.

Ahem. So anyhow, the crafty young things have a secret weapon up their collective sleeve: the bright and shining new god Marduk. Well, Marduk is pretty much the epitome of badass. He is born fully grown, fed by goddesses, breathes fire, and rocks the four-eyes-four-ears look. He wears the halos of ten gods and apparently makes his dad really proud. Sweet kid, really.

So Marduk is sent forth -- after a fabulous going-away party with plenty of ego-boosting praises and displays of magical power -- to confront Tiamat and her monsters. With the aid of magic and a great deal of wind, Marduk defeats Tiamat, splitting her body open and smashing her head in with a mace before then dividing her remains to form from them the earth and sky, waters and mountains. (I did say the guy was... special.) Out of this great violence he creates order. Ultimately, he creates all of humankind and sets himself up as their most beloved god.

...I guess you might be wondering how this applies to everyday life, huh?

Well, in true collegiate form I've been spending my Friday evening trying desperately to forget everything I just learned this week by tossing homework by the wayside and completely going wild.

In my case this means working on the quilt I'm sewing and watching old episodes of Stargate SG-1. To each her own. ;)

Well, folks. Season 5, episode 8 definitely finds the team on a remote planet uncovering a bunch of cuniform writing which outlines the story of -- you guessed it -- the Enuma Elish. I kid you not. Cheesy sci-fi it may be, but Stargate sure gets its facts straight when it comes to mythology. The team learns all about the history of the god Marduk and even tries to track down an ancient artifact known as the Eye of Tiamat. Now that is what I call quality television. :)

In conclusion it should be noted that the show as a whole consists of a fascinating series of myths within myths. Each episode attempts not only to explain the world around us (through exploring alien planets), but also to find causes for the very myths upon which our many cultures are founded. The overlying plot is thus itself a myth of epic proportions. Both informative and moralistic, it also happens to be a darn good time.

So so cool.

And now...

back to my quilt and the continuation of my riotous evening. ;)