myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
Oct 25, 2026, 9:18 PMIn ancient Sumer the sun went to the underworld at night, under the ground where dwelled the dead.
Few questions for the Australians.
Do you remember a life before?
Replies
- myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.winOct 25, 2026, 9:20 PM
I'm being silly but I really enjoy the idea that the sun was always shining somewhere in this understanding of the world.
Oct 25, 2026, 9:19 PMNot that this is entirely relevant but remind me to tell you my older kid’s “past life” story. I don’t know that I believe but it gave me a couple of “huh” moments.
- myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.winOct 25, 2026, 9:21 PM
Maybe we all just bounce from one side to the other, one life after another. The whole world in a kind of underworld.
Lien Raglienrag@mastodon.tedomum.netOct 25, 2026, 9:21 PMYeah, it would be bad for Australians if they lived where the sun doesn't shine...
Oct 25, 2026, 9:24 PM@futurebird underworld with sunshine feels a bit off, doesn't it?
Andrew Feeneyandrewfeeney@phpc.socialOct 25, 2026, 9:34 PMHello from the downunda-world
dataramadatarama@hachyderm.ioOct 25, 2026, 9:35 PM@futurebird The people of the Nordic Bronze Age weren't literate, so all we know of their beliefs is what we can piece together from petroglyphs, carvings and other art.
But we do know that they worshipped the sun. And the sun's trip around the world was a pretty wild ride. First it was pulled from the waters by a giant fish, then a giant waterfowl helped lift it into the sky. From there, it was pulled across the sky by a great horse, until it was placed on a ship and sailed to the horizon. At sunset, a giant snake would come and pick up the ship, and would then pull the ship (with sun on board) through the underworld until the fish could take over and begin the cycle again.
The ship was crewed, and the current consensus is that the crew was most likely the souls of the dead ancestors! But we can't know for sure; they had no written language, and while they had some contact with Greeks, nothing was ever written down about them.
llewellyllewelly@sauropods.winOct 25, 2026, 11:07 PM@futurebird imagine. An afterlife of used sunlight.
.... wait a minute, isn't that what fossil fuels is? Are we in the Sumerian underworld?
Phil Bettsphilbetts@mastodon.socialOct 26, 2026, 8:09 AM@futurebird As an Australian, why did the ancient Sumerians assume they were up top? 🤔
Matt McIrvinmattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyzOct 26, 2026, 4:45 PM@futurebird I sometimes think about how in early medieval Europe they believed the equatorial zone was too hot to cross and remain alive, so if any people existed in the Antipodes, they had to be forever undiscoverable and out of contact. And then some Christians said that they couldn't exist because they'd either be cut off from salvation, or have their own Antipodean Christ, and both options seemed absurd. Today some people have the same argument about intelligent extraterrestrials.
Little did they know, people originally *came from* the tropical zone and spread into both hemispheres.