Ancient History Reads

Assyrian superstition
Source: http://www.amazeingart.com/seven-wonders/assyria.html

Deeply superstitious, Assyrian kings would not take any major military actions without first consulting their diviners. In addition to submitting detailed reports of their military campaigns to a statue of their supreme god, Assur, they also had many strange taboos that applied to them. Sometimes they had to fast until a new moon appeared, sit inside a reed hut being treated as if they were ill, or even wear the clothes of a nanny. One of the Assyrian Kings, Assurbanipal, who was a great patron of the arts, apparently got a little carried away with all this, for he also wore cosmetics and spoke in a falsetto voice. This may have been a little too confusing for his soldiers, and it seems that one of his generals killed him while he was applying cosmetics.

Sumerian Creation Myth
Source: http://www.crystalinks.com/sumermythology.html

Heaven and Earth were once a mountain that rose out of the primeval Sea. The mountain's peak reached into Heaven and its base was the Earth. An was heaven, and Ki was Earth. Nammu is the Sea goddess that surrounded the Earth. She was also the original dark chaos out of which everything formed. The mountain rose up out of the blackness of the deep sea. Enlil, the Air god, seperated Heaven and Earth and gave birth to the dawn. Enlil raped Ninlil the Air Goddess, and she gave birth to the Moon god, Nanna. Nanna and Ningal, his consort, gave birth to Utu, the Sun. Thus the Moon was born out of the darkness, before the Sun. This may be an indicator of the earlier matriarchal religion. Nanna and Ningal also gave birth to Inanna, the Evening Star.