The Golden Chain: Mesopotamian Gods

As human we always wonder why we were put on Earth and what we should do on Earth in our short lives. Though we may ask ourselves “why” and “what” we never asked ourselves “how.” How did we get here in the first place? Over thousands of years we, as humans, have made stories to help us understand how we got here even though no one will truly know the exact answer. In certain cultures they created tragic dramatic stories to help us understand how we got here.It is a true wonder why people must know everything including how we got here. They believe that if they are able to figure out the past they can conquer the future even if the past won’t help them learn how to control their future. Humans created creation stories to help them grasp a

Mesopotamian gods like Apsu and Mummu were easily aggravated and cruel people who had dramatic punishments. Mesopotamian people made this story from the influence of their environment, which was harsh and unpredictable. Similar to Greek, Mesopotamian, and Norse was the story of “The Golden Chain” which was the story of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Nigerian people created this story in the Post-classical era. The beginning of the myth shows that the only thing that existed was the sky, water, and marshlands. Obatala asked Olorun, who was the ruler of the sky and the gods, if he could create land over the vast water areas. Olorun grants Obatala his wish mainly because olorun favored Obatala. Obatala went to the Prophecy goddess and she tells him he will need a golden chain to reach down to the water underneath the sky. Obatala asks every god for gold and he then brings it to a goldsmith to melt it down into links. Before he goes to the water on Earth he brings with him a shell filled with sand, a white hen, a cat, and a palm nut. When he starts working his way down the chain, he realizes it’s not long enough and calls for Orunmila. She tells him to drop the sand and the hen and he does. When he dropped the sand the hen spreads it across the ocean by scratching at it. Obatala lets go of the chain and drops onto the first land on