INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world.
These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.
I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.
Before we get started, I’ve just got to put out a correction from my Bokkenrijders episode two weeks ago - I did not know that there was a difference between Holland and The Netherlands, so for all my Dutch listeners, apologies and now I know it’s not Holland.
But back to normal scheduling, It’s June, so it’s the first week of summer - thank goodness. It’s definitely warming up here which is lovely, but I’m sure in a few weeks I’ll be telling you how uncomfortable I am.
DESCRIPTION:
But we’re heading somewhere quite warm and quite ancient this week, and going over to Ancient Mesopotamia to look at an epic monster, the Bull of Heaven.
The Bull of Heaven is a figure from Sumerian mythology that is generally described as a godly bull sent through by the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, otherwise known as Ishtar. This bull only is ever mentioned in the one myth, of Gilgamesh, the legendary Mesopotamaian hero who had an epic written about him and his super journey through the ancient middle east.
The bull is of godly descent, and is typically thought of as a much larger and more aggressive bull than its usual form on the farm. However, this bull is sometimes described completely as an astral being - made up of starlight and constellations, which come more into play later on too.
This bull only has the one goal and motivation, to kill Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu. However, its one power is to cause utter devastation to the land - drinking whole rivers and destroying crops. The gods sent the bull knowing that it would cause the land 7 years of devastation, but it wreaked havoc. It used its almighty breath to open up pits in the ground that swallowed 300 men, drank the entire Euphrates river, dried up all the marshes and caused drought and famine across the land.
I will go onto describe the myth more in a moment, but the Bull meets its end at the hands of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, just by mortal means - he has an axe wedged into his noggin, a sword in his throat as well as being hacked into pieces by our heroic duo - so there was no immortality or anything supernatural post the fact that it was blessed by a goddess, and was abnormally big and had an equally big appetite.
I’ve talked about Ancient Mesopotamia before in other episodes, but just in case you weren’t aware - it was a whole civilisation, constituting of Sumeria, Assyria, Babylon and Akkadia - which geographically are in Iraq, Turkiye, Kuwait and Syria. In terms of their pantheon of gods, these were separate too, and are still worshipped with modern-day pagans who branch into that pathway of Paganism.
ORIGIN:
Now onto etymology, as you can imagine there’s not much to this one, mainly because it is what it is. It’s a Bull, sent from Heaven - I’m not sure how much else I can tell ya honestly.
The history and story behind this monster is a lot more interesting than this though - and of course comes with its own myth. The Bull of Heaven comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world’s oldest pieces of text and poems dating all the way back to 2100 BC which is over 4000 years ago. There are some debates that it could have been a little earlier to around 1800 BC, but we just don’t know. However, what we do know is that it was written within the Bronze Age, during the Akkadian Empire of the Mesopotamian civilisation.
The Mesopotamian civilisation was around all the way from 10,000 BC all the way until the 7th century AD in the 600’s. During this time, they experienced a whole load of things such as cavemen way back when, a Roman takeover and finally a Muslim conquest in the 600’s which officially ended the civilisation and paved the way for the countries involved including their religion and culture in the modern-day. However, probably one of the most significant events was the fall of Babylon in 539 BC where one of the 7 wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, were destroyed forever.
Anyway - enough about ancient Mesopotamia, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a tale of a hero called Gilgamesh who was king of Uruk in Iraq, who oppressed his people so much that they asked the gods for help - yep, not your average hero story. The gods responded with creating him an equal, Enkidu - who he eventually went on to become pals with. I’m not going to tell you the whole thing, this epic is 12 tablets long - but the gist is that they go on loads of adventures together at the behest of some of the gods because Gilgamesh is not the greatest person ever.
But our story with the Bull of Heaven kicks in on tablet 6 - where the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar who is sometimes known as Inanna, who is god of love, war and fertility falls for Gilgamesh and puts it to him to become his mate. However, Ishtar doesn’t have the best track record with lovers, such as the god Dumuzi, god of shepherds and Ishtar’s husband - who she allowed demons to drag down to the Underworld as her replacement when she descended one time. Gilgamesh refuses Ishtar, who is mightily offended and she goes back to her father, the god Anu - king of the gods and sky to send the Bull of Heaven to avenge her. He refuses as it’s a little bit much and Ishtar threatens to raise the dead and destroy the living if he does not.
Anu warns his daughter that if the Bull of Heaven is sent to Earth, there will be 7 years of devastation. Ishtar knows this and provides him with 7 years of provisions to account for it and Anu finally agrees. Ishtar lets the Bull loose in Uruk and it does just that - total devastation of the city, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Knowing this is probably his fault, Gilgamesh and Enkidu go up against the bull, with the latter pulling the bull’s tail to distract it whilst Gilgamesh thrusted his sword into its throat, killing the beast. They cut the bull into pieces, throwing the right thigh at Ishtar’s face in disrespect - then they have a massive feast to celebrate the bull’s death.
Ishtar, in contrast, gets all the prostitutes in the land to mourn for the Bull and curses Gilgamesh and Enkidu - where one of them must die as a punishment for slaying the Bull. The Gods eventually choose Enkidu, who quickly gets deathly sick and dies after dreaming of the Underworld. The rest of the Epic is mostly Gilgamesh being sad about his death, and then realising his own mortality and getting really scared of his own.
Some scholars say that the Bull of Heaven in this story is meant to represent natural disasters, such as earthquakes - as bulls were generally compared to them in ancient times. Another is that they may represent summer, and the coming of drought, infertility and death - which also gives Ishtar her perfect representation through an animal.
The Bull of Heaven is still with us to this day though, but in the stars - the Bull is most commonly associated with Taurus, the constellation and the second star sign in the zodiac. It’s sometimes said that Gilgamesh is written in the stars within Orion, which faces Taurus - to symbolise their combat.
If you’re born between April 20th to May 20th, you will know this sign well and apparently you’re as stubborn as a bull too. This is the most common explanation behind Taurus, but the Greeks thought it was Zeus, king of the gods, when he was abducting Europa in the guise of a white bull - or maybe even of his consort Io, who he turned into a cow to hide from his wife Hera. Another is that it might be the Cretan Bull from Heracles’ labours - but we just don’t know.
To the Ancient Egyptians, Taurus was the sacred bull who brought spring and to the early Hebrews, it represents their first letter in the alphabet - Aleph.
There are of course, lots of bulls within mythology throughout different cultures - heck, I’ve just told you three just from Greek mythology. But the biggest mythical comparison is Gugalanna, who is the husband of the queen of the Underworld in Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal - and sister of Ishtar. This man’s name directly translates to ‘wild bull of Anu’, and when Ishtar descends to the Underworld in her own epic - she says that she is visiting for his funeral. Some scholars believe that Gugalanna is in fact, the Bull of Heaven - however, there is so little information on him, that it’s really difficult to draw a full conclusion. This isn’t helped by some of the epic tablets being missing or broken over time - and it’s a real shame that we don’t know more about this character.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Now onto modern media, there’s nothing on the Bull of Heaven but I can cover some Gilgamesh media so that you can see their fight and the story that covers the Bull - so that’ll do.
For art, I would really recommend looking into independent art this week - there’s a real lack of classic art for this I’m afraid. However, you can look at some statues with the Bull and Gilgamesh but again, no dates or artists attached for me to pass on.
In movies, we have; Eternals, The Epic of Gilgamesh or This Unnameable Little Broom, Unlimited Blade Works, Heaven’s Feel, Princess Mononoke, Gilgamesh, The Ark of the Sun God, Knights Templar: Rise and Fall & The Replacement Gods.
For TV, we have; Ancient Aliens, Gilgamesh, American Dad, The Tower of Druaga, Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night, Star Trek, The Secret Saturdays, Hercules: The Legendary Journey & The Outer Limits.
In video games, we have ones such as; Smite, Fate/Grand Order, Fate/Stay Night, Tower of Druaga, Adventure Construction Set, Final Fantasy, Civilisation 5 and 6, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Scribblenauts, Tales of Destiny, The Return of Ishtar, The Quest of Ki, The Blue Crystal Rod & Mach Breakers.
My book recommendation this week is to just have a read of the Epic of Gilgamesh - it’s a great read, one of the oldest texts of humanity and is full of monsters and adventures, I’d really recommend it - same as Beowulf too.
DO I THINK THEY EXISTED?
Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? 1447
I’m going to say maybe for this one, only because it’s very literally a bull - it could just be your neighbourhood cow to be completely frank. It’s also massively common within mythology for gods to bless cattle or even curse people to be cattle.
Most of the time too within all of these different myths, the cows either turn back into people - or they just run off and cause havoc or live in peace, they’re usually never mentioned again. So actually the Bull of Heaven is a little unique in the sense of being one that actually meets its end.
I love the whole mythical cow image though, I think it’s a super interesting trope and I also love cows. My cousin is deathly scared of cows, and I think it’s possibly one of the funniest phobias - but I do get that they can run over you, but that’s about it. I once had a calf eat my entire hand at a farm once, and use it as a teething toy which was the cutest thing - although yes, I do tell people I have fisted a cow in the mouth.
But what do you think? Did the Bull of Heaven roam through Ancient Mesopotamia? Let me know on Twitter!
OUTRO:
An interesting one this week, and I do like monsters that overlap with gods - but it does make them tricky to write up I must say, in comparison to last week and the immense description I could give on that one - this one is lacking in comparison, but their history is much richer and more defined.
Next week, we’re heading over to the Caribbean for the first time and looking at a vampiric entity from most of the islands - the Soucouyant. Join us next Thursday for this flying fireball of a monster!
For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.
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But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.