The Fall of Man
In his book “Pagan Origins of the Christian Myth,” George G. Jackson writes, “there is nothing unique about these Hebraic Eden myths. They were known among the so-called heathens thousands of years before the Bible was invented.”
He cites several examples, but one was a quote from Sir Godfrey Higgins, the English orientalist, as follows:
“Another striding instance is recorded by the very intelligent traveler (Wilson) regarding a representation of the fall of our first parents, sculptured in the magnificent temple of Ipsambul in Nubia. He says that a very exact representation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is to be seen in that cave, and that the serpent climbing round the tree is especially delineated, and the whole subject of the tempting of our first parents most accurately exhibited.”
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, EnKidu was tempted by a woman named Shamhat. He accepts food from this woman and is forced to leave his paradise in the forest after becoming aware of his own nakedness. Later in the epic, he encounters a snake which steals a plant of immortality from him. He dies regretting the day when he turned into a human.
