Template talk:Mesopotamian myth (monsters)
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[edit] Purpose of the Myth Box
PURPOSE: This Myth Box is to introduce briefly the fundamental topics of Mesopotamian mythology with a short description of each. It is to make it easy to navigate around the various relevant topics. These topics are grouped together in the Myth Box.
[edit] Analysis
[edit] Recently, about half the names in this Myth Box were erased without rationale. The names linked to existing articles on Mesopotamian mythology. The description of this grouping was also removed and other groupings were removed from the navigation section. The following has been taken verbatim from Template talk:Meso myth as it applies here as well.
To be understood, technical words need descriptions. The descriptions of the names in the original Myth Box have been erased. This analysis discusses that erasure.
I am the original creator of this Myth Box and the only one who has made any substantive edits. One user has an ongoing dispute with a third party, and apparently that dispute has spilled over here. The resultant edits have blanked more than half of this template, leaving mostly empty space that wastes bandwidth on each article that uses it. Moreover, the edits left dangling conjunctions showing that the edits were made carelessly and without due consideration.
Wikipedia's Myth Project has devised several standards and models of which this series was a particular beautiful example as originally designed. One of the standards of the Myth Project is to have a list of links to articles pertinent to mythology. A mere list of gods with mostly empty space and dangling conjunctions serves no purpose and wastes space.
As originally designed, each description was linked to an article important to Mesopotamian mythology.
A template on Mesopotamian mythology is incomplete without a link to Mesopotamian astrology.
For example, Ishtar is paired with the article on Babylonian astrology, which is the historical origin of modern Western astrology. Planets were named after Mesopotamian gods. Ishtar was the planet Venus. This last pairing is interesting since it is also important to the field of comparative mythology comparing gods of the Near East with those of the Roman Empire.
A template on Mesopotamian mythology is incomplete without a link to Zecharia Sitchin's popular ancient astronaut theory.
Mesopotamian mythology has also appeared in popular literature such as the series by Zecharia Sitchin. Sitchin's science fiction series about the Mesopotamian gods purported that they were actually ancient astronauts. This has inspired a number of fictional and semi-fictional works, including popular films and TV series such as Stargate. Now I think his theory was science fiction and it it is extremely popular. The movie and TV series have generated millions of dollars and has attracted millions of viewers for decades. This shows how Mesopotamian mythology is relevant today.
These are just two examples of what was lost when half the Myth Box was blanked out. All descriptions were erased.
Others were:
- Utnapisthtim and the world flood: The world flood myth is what makes Utnapishtim important. He is the template for Noah's ark.
- Tammuz and new life: "New life" is what the epic of Tammuz about; he returns from the dead!
- Zu, the lion-eagle: Zu is interesting because of his bizarre shape: half lion, half eagle!
- Kingu, mankind's blood: Mankind was created out of Kingu's blood. This is a common theme in creation myths!
- Gilgamesh and the Cedar Forest: The hero Gilgamesh almost obtains immortality by travelling to the world of the gods: the Cedar Forest!
- Enlil and the 7 who decree fate: Mesopotamian mythology is based on these 7 gods!!!
- Resheph and plague and war: Resheph is the demon of plague and war. Another user User:Oliver Lineham agreed, and put in the latest link.
- Enkidu and Namtar had brief descriptions of what they are.
- Marduk and Babylon: Marduk is the high god and patron of Babylon, that's why this god is important!
How can a reader figure out what these Mesopotamian names are without a description?!!!
This Myth Box Series, as originally designed, matches exactly the beautiful Greek Myth series. Both break down the mythology into smaller pieces so as not to waste space and bandwidth with a needlessly long template. This makes for easy navigation and helps the reader understand the whole mythology by grouping it into topics.
This Myth Box is the introduction to the series. The main topics are introduced, and links to gods and concepts are displayed to attract interest.
The altered version does not seem to follow any particular criteria at all. It is half empty space without links to any topical articles whatsoever and with dangling conjunctions.
Without descriptions this Myth Box is useless.
- C. dentata 
22:15, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] These templates are bad, and the guy who created them rambling on doesn;t change that
{{NPOV}}
Gosh Castanedo Denatatas, you do ramble on. Too bad your mythology knowledge isn't up to par.
Unfortunately, it is your descriptions that are useless. Most other infoboxes of this type do not feel the need to give descriptions, so you can't claim that it is worthless without them. Furthermore, your descriptions are frequently unrelated, incorrect, and just plain bizarre. Someone who understands Mesopotamian mythology needs to correct them, and, oh, that's just what I keep trying to do, but you blindly revert everything I do and pretend it is vandalism and go run around and encourage others to make harassing revenge edits. Simply put, I *will* update these templates, or I will remove them, but you do not get to force them as is on any article you want based upon your faulty understnadings of mythology and Wikipedia practices. DreamGuy 06:10, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] What is up with these awful templates?
How many different versions of this are there, and are they all messed up? I tried fixing as much as I could, but too much to do, needs major organization abd better graphic and just not to be so random and weird. DreamGuy 02:37, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] RVs unsubstantiated
You have not explained why you believe any of this. All the links are correct and important as originally designed. I have continued to add to and refine this Myth series.
Your reverts also deleted many of the gods in the list without explanation.
Your reverts deleted the categories.
Your reverts do not follow Myth Project guidelines.
So far, all you have done is made emotional and sweeping generalization without substantiation, and given insults. This may be your own POV, but it does not belong on Wikipedia or anywhere else.
It is not good enough.
