09-01-2008, 12:30 PM
Hi Sean,
There are references to the festival of ghosts and the Gilgamesh games during the reign of Ashurbanipal showing that the Games were not only continuously conducted during the Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian periods of Middle Eastern history but even after the fall of the empire under Greek ruke they continued to practise the games.
In fact four hundred years after Homer wrote the Iliad and following in the tradition of Gilgamesh and Achilles, Alexander the Great, during his military campaigns, also mourned the death of his friend Hephaistion with similar extravagant funerary games in 324 BC in the heart of Mesopotamia, at Babylon, in which about 3000 athletes took part!
As stated in the thesis we don't have any mention of what type of athletic events the 'feats of strength' consisted of which is why I was trying to show that the athletic games conducted during the Olympic Games were neither new or unique to Greece and various athletic events were being conducted by the Hittities and Mesopotamians.
Thank you for daring to explore our shared civilisation, both Eastern and Western.
This link requires a paradigm shift but is important to make. Because once we acknowledge we recognise this culutral continuity we can then see our modern view of history in a new light and begin to hopefully give importance to a barely gleened chapter of our history.
Regards,
David Chibo
http://www.gilgameshgames.org
Quote:I've finished reading that site through, and I think their basic argument is sound, but their conclusions go too far. Its now clear that there were sacred sporting events in Mesopotamia, and that these have definite similarities with the ancient Olympics. It does make some leaps in time. For example, we don't know if the custom recorded in the Death of Bilgames poem was still common by the Iron Age. The text about the Abu festival is from the early second millennium BCE.
There are references to the festival of ghosts and the Gilgamesh games during the reign of Ashurbanipal showing that the Games were not only continuously conducted during the Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian periods of Middle Eastern history but even after the fall of the empire under Greek ruke they continued to practise the games.
In fact four hundred years after Homer wrote the Iliad and following in the tradition of Gilgamesh and Achilles, Alexander the Great, during his military campaigns, also mourned the death of his friend Hephaistion with similar extravagant funerary games in 324 BC in the heart of Mesopotamia, at Babylon, in which about 3000 athletes took part!
Quote:It also uses evidence from other events when they can't find a parallel with the little we know about the Gilgamesh games. For example, since the earliest Olympics were a running event not a wrestling event like the Gilgamesh games, he argues that they were modeled on the foot-race of Nabu. I don't understand the argument that page makes for some of its points, such as the connection between the laurel wreath of victory in Greece, and Gilgamesh's poplar leaves, is also weak. But some of the parallels are convincing.
As stated in the thesis we don't have any mention of what type of athletic events the 'feats of strength' consisted of which is why I was trying to show that the athletic games conducted during the Olympic Games were neither new or unique to Greece and various athletic events were being conducted by the Hittities and Mesopotamians.
Quote:I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Greeks borrowed the idea of sacred games from the Hittites, including some bits from the major Babylonian games. That would make the four pan-Hellenic games just like astronomy, or the alphabet, or other foreign ideas which the Greeks borrowed and put their own unique twist on. How close and direct was the borrowing? I'm not sure. But its definitely worth studying some more!
Thank you for daring to explore our shared civilisation, both Eastern and Western.
This link requires a paradigm shift but is important to make. Because once we acknowledge we recognise this culutral continuity we can then see our modern view of history in a new light and begin to hopefully give importance to a barely gleened chapter of our history.
Regards,
David Chibo
http://www.gilgameshgames.org
