Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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The Garden of Eden was based on The Galápagos Islands. (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I’m kidding here, but the similarities are odd. The weather is always between 70F and 85F all year round. The biggest threat to you on the island are apples. You shouldn’t eat the apples that grow on the island; the small green ones are poisonous. Oh, and it isn’t easy to immigrate there. It’s a place where only few people are allowed to reside. Oh, and did I mention the abundant variety of plants and animals on the island?

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago (3 children)

IIRC there are theories that Eden refers to a location near where the Tigris and Euphrates meet.

Something about a line mentioning three rivers and there being a river that joins the combined river shortly after it merges.

I just think it'd be funny to imagine that the legendary first home of humanity was somewhere in southern Iraq or Kuwait.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I just think it'd be funny to imagine that the legendary first home of humanity was somewhere in southern Iraq or Kuwait

No one tell this guy about 6th grade geography.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Mesopotamia is merely the first place civilization developed, not the place humanity originated from

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

There's a field that was called Gu-edin (meaning "open fields") in the mid third millennium BCE that was the subject of a border war that lasted a couple centuries, between the cities of Lagash and Umma (which is right where you said), because the founder of Lagash bought an unassuming piece of land from Umma and a bunch of surrounding terrains, and then did mad irrigation work and it became crazy fertile. According to Lagash's records, Umma got mad that it was swindled out of such great land and kept attacking Lagash over it, and kept getting its ass kicked and its kings killed. People from Umma were "allowed" to till the field for Lagash for a time, but most of the grain would still go to Lagash, causing more revolts from Umma (and more punishment).

It's fairly agreed that this place probably gave some degree of inspiration for "Eden", along with some rare green gardens in the region created with irrigation work. The apple bit, the woman rib bit, and the knowledge bit came from other Sumerian myths.

I'm not sure if it's the Galapagos, maybe in the Canaries instead?, but some island famous for its apples, weather, and safety did play a part in inspiring the myth of Avalon, the island of apples.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There's no mention of apples in the biblical record, just "fruit"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Right, the Inanna myth where she learns about sex also talks about eating the herbs and trees on a mountain / highland, I'm not sure when Eden was associated with an apple.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This is a/the part of the Bible (Genesis 2) people reference to support that belief:

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel*: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

*Ostensibly Tigris

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

One of the most heavily edited books based on old Sumerian fables just happens to base itself around what was ancient Sumer.

Wow.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah, its 4 rivers, and to the best of my knowledge, biblical scholars have basically given up on trying to associate 4 rivers and the place names given with any actual real location.

Either its mythical, or some of the place names just do not linguistically connect with any of the historical record of actual locations.

Same with the 4 rivers. No conclusive evidence of dried up ancient river beds that actually fits.

Basically Eden would have to be... somewhere up river of the Tigris, but the Tigris and Euphrates actually have headwaters in modern day Turkey, and they don't have the same sources.

Most likely the authors went with some kind of local, incorrect lore from Sumer/Akkad/Babylon, or possibly the rivers did at one point actually connect, but no conclusive evidence of that exists.