Older Than Dirt

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lascaux_2.jpg

Magdalenian painting in Lascaux Cave

, c. 17,000 BC

"...machinery claims are made to the so called ideas in almost every film, and not infrequently they are backed up by suits for heavy damages. Inasmuch as these ideas, in the main, descend to us from Neanderthal man, it is often quite impossible for a given movie author to prove that he invented what he is accused of having stolen. So he must hunt for it in the literature of the past, and thus prove that, if he lifted it himself, so also did the man claiming it. Defending such suits has familiarized the solicitors of the movie folk with all the popular literature back to the earliest written records."

— H. L. Mencken, "Blackmail Made Easy"

The Oldest Ones in the Book recorded before the Greek alphabet was invented, around 800 BC. Mostly from mythology, and generally orally transmitted before being written down. If the work you're thinking of has a known author, and it's not ancient Egyptian, it's probably not from this era.

Specific works from this period:

Most Mesopotamian Mythology, including Enûma Eliš, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, and Courtship Of Inanna And Dumuzi.
Hittite and Hurrian myths, such as the Kumarbi Cycle.
All but the latest ancient Egyptian Mythology, literature and monuments. ^noteBefore the Late Period. The Sphinx might even predate the pyramids.
The ancient Indian (Sanskrit) Vedas (Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda) are thought to date from this time. (All other Hindu Mythology comes later.)
The oldest examples of ancient Chinese writing^noteBefore the Spring and Autumn period, though little survives from this period.
Visual art from pre-literate cultures that predates 800 BC can be included here, though it's important to be very careful interpreting just what tropes it represents.
Many oral tales of Aboriginal Australian Myths, some of which are so old, that they're believed to depict Australia back when it was still mostly vegetated and there was a land bridge between it and the island of New Guinea, which was more than 10,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.^note
Venus of Willendorf: Stratigraphy studies say that it was carved somewhere between 28,000 and 25,000 BCE.

Note: Tropes originating in mythologies/religions that aren't Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Anatolian, Vedic, or Chinese are never indexed here, as we have no idea whether those stories even existed in 800 BC, or what form they had, centuries or millennia before they were first written down. Even The Bible and Classical Mythology are only Older Than Feudalism.^note Early folklorists often started with the assumption that folktales and myths were primordial; more research has shown that people can and do modify all sorts of tales for any purpose.

Older Than Dirt Tropes:

open/close all folders

A-C

Abstract Apotheosis: Imhotep, vizier to the Ancient Egyptian king Netjerikhet Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty, was worshipped centuries after his death as the god of medicine and wisdom.
Action Girl: Egyptian Mythology includes war goddesses such as Sekhmet, Menhit, Neith, and Pakhet.
Adaptational Heroism: Osiris, originally an ambiguous figure in Egyptian religion (he oversaw the weighing of the heart and lets souls enter the afterlife if they pass the test), gradually became the benevolent ruler after he was resurrected thanks to the efforts of Isis and Anubis.
Adaptational Villainy: Set, originally an ambiguous figure in Egyptian religion (he was responsible for the death of Osiris but was also the defender of Re, and was worshipped like the other gods), gradually became a God of Evil after his worship fell out of favor near the end of the New Kingdom.
Afterlife Tour: Like many others, this trope appears as an Unbuilt Trope. Enkidu goes into the netherworld, almost gets stuck there but is rescued, and afterwards gives Gilgamesh a detailed description of the different fates of the people he has seen. The picture is extremely bleak even compared to what Aeneas sees: unless one has at least four sons left, one is quite miserable.
The Almighty Dollar: Egyptian, Hindu, and Mesopotamian mythology all feature deities associated with wealth and fortune, or inversions, being deities of misfortune or poverty.
Altar Diplomacy: As with Arranged Marriage, marrying for politics was more the rule than the exception for ancient royals. The Amarna Letters of the 14th century BC show that the Egyptian pharaohs married foreign princesses from Mittani (a kingdom in northern Mesopotamia) and Babylon as an assurance of the powers' mutual good intentions in Canaan, and it is undisputed that Ramses II (of the Nineteenth Dynasty, during the 13th century BC) married a Hittite princess to cement/shore up a peace treaty/alliance with Hatti.
- The earliest clear example—coming directly from the Amarna Letters—involve brides from Mittani coming to the court of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Mittani had historically been a rival/enemy of Egypt in the Great Power struggle over the Levant; Thutmose III in particular had made much of his campaigns against them, as they had been backing Syrian city-states like Kadesh in their efforts to resist Egyptian suzerainty. But by the time of Amenhotep III (Thutmose III's great-grandson), the geopolitical situation had changed, and Mittani was now an ally of Egypt. To shore up this alliance, Amenhotep married the Mittani princess Gilukhipa, daughter of Mittani King Shuttarna II, in c. 1378 BCE. This is mostly interesting because in c. 1352 BCE—yes, 26 years later—Shuttarna's son Tushratta sent his own daughter Tadukhipa to join Amenhotep III's harem (yeah, Amenhotep III reigned that long). What's more, she may have married his son Akhenaten after he died.
- Also a bit of an Unbuilt Trope: The Egyptians seem to have studiously kept these foreign wives well away from the succession; they always made sure that the seniormost members of the pharaoh's harem were Egyptian royals and nobles. (While some Egyptologists in the 20th century suggested for various reasons that one or both of Akhenaten's most famous wives—Nefertiti and Kiya—might have been foreign,^note modern consensus is that both were of thoroughly Egyptian stock.) The closest any foreigner ever came to inheriting the Egyptian throne^note was with Amenhotep III himself, whose mother seems to have been of at least partial Nubian ancestry, but then by that point Nubia had been annexed to Egypt for generations and the Nubian elite almost completely Egyptianized culturally. And it seems to have been widely known in the Ancient Near East that the Egyptians did this. So what we usually think of as the reason for royal marriage alliances—that the heir to the throne will have a blood tie to the allied state—goes out the window, and it seems that, when dealing with the Egyptians, the ancient powers of the Egyptians saw sending a bride to the land of the Nile as more of a friendly hostage situation than trying to forge permanent family ties to the Egyptian royals.
- As an interesting corollary, for several centuries the Egyptians studiously refused to send their own princesses to foreign powers—the flow of royal ladies was always strictly one-way from the barbarian lands to Egypt. This was apparently a matter of prestige—they come to us, not the other way around. (The aforementioned Tushratta, either not understanding this or understanding it but miffed about it, sent Amenhotep III several missives begging to be sent an Egyptian royal bride—or heck, even an Egyptian non-royal bride—as part of the Tadukhipa deal, arguing it was only fair; he eventually relented after several rounds of getting nowhere with this tack.)
Always Chaotic Evil: Mesopotamian examples include the Allu, Asakku, Gallu, Rabisu.
Anatomy of the Soul: Ancient Egyptian religion did not have the Western concept of souls. Instead, a whole person was believed to consist of the body, the ren (name), the ib ("heart"), the sheut (shadow), the ka (life force), the ba (a sort of manifestation or spiritual force), and the akh (the ba and ka combined). An afterlife required all of these.
Ancestor Veneration: Was part of Ancient Egyptian religious practices and evidence suggests it was part of the earliest religious practices dating back to prehistory.
Animal Stereotypes: To the Ancient Egyptians vultures, cows, and female hippos were seen as nurturing and motherly, hawks and lions as warlike, bulls and rams as symbols of male virility, and a whole slew of animals (antelope, donkeys, male hippos, pigs, tortoises) as evil. These symbolic meanings were part of the associations between gods and animals, and of depicting gods in animal or animal-headed forms.
Animalistic Abomination: Apophis, the ultimate evil of Egyptian Mythology and the embodiment of primal chaos is a giant snake.
Another Dimension: Hindu cosmology contains several universes and planets.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Egyptian Mythology included deifications of concepts such as joy, plenty, order (Ma'at) and the king/Pharaoh's false beard.
Apocalypse How Class X-4: The Egyptian Coffin Texts and Book Of Going Forth By Day (a.k.a. Book of the Dead) tell that eventually, the Primordial Chaos of Nun will re-absorb the ordered cosmos, and of all life only the gods Atum and Osiris will remain in the eternal dark.
Arch-Enemy: With the Egyptian gods Set and Horus, it's personal. Set murdered Horus' dad, Horus hacked off Set's balls, Set gouged out Horus' eye, and on and on...
Arc Number: 70 in Babylonian myth.
Artifact of Death: Princess Ahura: The Magic Book is a New Kingdom Egyptian story about a prince who covets the magical Book of Thoth, buried in the river in six nested boxes and guarded by snakes and scorpions. He digs it out, kills the guardians, and obtains vast magical power, but the offended gods promptly kill him, his sister/wife, and their son.
Artificial Human: In Enûma Eliš, the first humans were made from Qingu's blood.
Artificial Limbs: Queen Vishpla from the Rig Veda was fitted with an iron prosthesis after losing her leg in battle, and returned to battle.
Artistic License: One possible reason why myths change over time, even when written down. Different writers tell different versions of the same myths all the time (see Depending on the Writer), and even if these go back to oral traditions of entire towns, somewhere somebody changed it from the common origin.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Every Egyptian king got to do this upon their death, where they joined Re, Osiris, and/or the Imperishable Stars in heaven.
Assassination Attempt: As you might expect. Examples probably predate history, but the first documented assassination is that of the Twelfth Dynasty King Amenemhat I (r. 20th century BCE), who was killed in his bed by his own guards. This also counts as a literary example, as the assassination is a key event in both the Instructions of Amenemhat and the Story of Sinuhe, two famous Middle Kingdom-era literary texts. Actually, because of an apparent Egyptian taboo on mentioning causes of death in many kinds of texts—including, weirdly, funerary ones—and the loss of his mummy, these stories are the only sources we have to confirm Amenemhat's assassination.
- About 900 years after Amenemhat, the Judicial Papyrus of Turin confirms the assassination of another Egyptian monarch, Ramesses III, in much less ambiguous terms (and supported by close modern analysis of his mummy).
- There is also archaeological evidence to suggest that the Old Kingdom (Sixth Dynasty) monarch Teti was also assassinated by his guards, about 400 years before Amenemhat I met the same fate. However, the evidence, while compelling, is circumstantial, so Amenemhat "wins" for being the victim of the first documented regicide.
Auto Erotica: Of all things! In the Turin Erotic Papyrus, painted in ~1150 B.C, there is featured a beautiful woman having sex with an ugly, fat, balding old man on a chariot with his massive dong.
Awesome Moment of Crowning: The ancient Egyptians again! While records are not perfectly clear on the details, it is clear that Egyptian monarchs marked the formal beginnings of their reigns with a ceremony, and that no later than the New Kingdom this involved placing a Cool Crown on the new pharaoh's head. Actually, two cool crowns; the surviving texts from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties suggest that the ceremony involved two clerics, the high priest of Ra and the high priest of Amun, respectively carrying the Deshret (the hollow, crested Red Crown of Lower Egypt) and the Hedjet (the ninepin-shaped White Crown of Upper Egypt) into the hall. The priest of Ra would place the Deshret on the king's head first, and the priest of Amun would follow by placing the Hedjet inside the hollow of the Deshret, creating the Pschent, the Double Crown of united Egypt. Significantly, Ra's cult was based in the Lower Egyptian city of Iunu (Heliopolis to the Greeks, because, er, it was the center of the cult of Ra), while the cult of Amun was based in the Upper Egyptian city of Waset (Thebes to the Greeks). The ceremony thus symbolized both the political and the religious unity of the Two Lands that made up Egypt in the person of the pharaoh. (Note: The Egyptian kings had always had crowns—the Narmer Pallette, dated to c. 3100 BCE, shows King Narmer, the founder of the First Dynasty (so far as we can tell), wearing both crowns (separately, in different images on different sides of the carved stone), and carvings from the First Dynasty show the Pschent. However, records of an actual coronation ceremony are hard to find before the Eighteenth Dynasty.)
Back from the Dead: Inanna/Ishtar, Dumuzi/Tammuz, Osiris...
Background Music: Many ancient peoples set their rituals and ritual theatre to music. The Egyptians in particular are believed to have had music playing during the festival plays reenacting the murder and rebirth of Osiris.
Badass Family: Any family of related gods: i.e. the Egyptian Great Ennead and the Mesopotamian Annunaki.
Balancing Death's Books: In Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, Inanna must give Ereshkigal another's life to enable her own resurrection. She sends her husband Dumuzi.
Beast Fable: The oldest known beast fables are Sumerian, dating from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. We also have Egyptian ones from the Middle Kingdom (early 2nd millennium BC).
Be Careful What You Say: See Words Can Break My Bones on this page.
Bed Trick: The conception of Hatshepsut and other Egyptian kings, according to royal propaganda.
Belligerent Sexual Tension: The courtship of Ereshkigal, queen of the Mesopotamian underworld, and Nergal, god of plagues and fire.
BFS: Gilgamesh and Enkidu each wield a sword that weighs 120 pounds.
Big Beautiful Woman: The Venus of Willendorf, an early paleolithic sculpture of a full-figured woman.
Big Good: Ra in Egyptian Mythology was the ruler of Heaven and defender of the celestial order, opposing Apep.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Mesopotamian gods and the Hittite gods. There is a pattern here, considering their creation myths are suspiciously similar.
Bird vs. Serpent: Egyptian Mythology: Although Egyptian myths had a number of benign serpentine figures, the demonic serpent God of Evil Apep was not one of them. Every night, he would do battle with the sun god Ra, who was traditionally depicted with the head of an eagle.
Bling of War: Egyptians were very fond of painting their pharaohs as highly decorated war heroes.
Bloody Murder: In Enûma Eliš, Tiamat gives birth to dragons that, among other awesome features, have "venom for blood".
Blow You Away: Mesopotamian wind and storm deities include Enlil and Ishkur.
Bodyguard Betrayal: King Amenemhat I, founder of the Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, is generally accepted to have been assassinated in his bed by members of his royal guard. "Generally accepted", because Amenemhat ruled during the 20th century BCE, and our only sources for the assassination story are literary.^note These are the Instructions of Amenemhat (a guide to rule in Amenemhat's voice but obviously written by someone else, advising the king to trust no one) and the Story of Sinuhe (a bit of a strange adventure story centering on a courtier and military officer who ran away from Egypt fearing that he'd be connected with the assassins). Why exactly Amenemhat's guards would have wanted him dead is especially murky. That said, the sources are very clear about how this went down; in the words of the Instructions of Amenemhat:
I was asleep upon my bed, having become weary, and my heart had begun to follow sleep. When weapons of my counsel were wielded, I had become like a snake of the necropolis. As I came to, I awoke to fighting, and found that it was an attack of the bodyguard. If I had quickly taken weapons in my hand, I would have made the wretches retreat with a charge! But there is none mighty in the night, none who can fight alone; no success will come without a helper. Look, my injury happened while I was without you, when the entourage had not yet heard that I would hand over to you when I had not yet sat with you, that I might make counsels for you; for I did not plan it, I did not foresee it, and my heart had not taken thought of the negligence of servants.
Body to Jewel: Several myths claim gemstones coming from people or animals, and not limited to shellfish.
Bold Explorer: A few:
- The Epic of Gilgamesh portrays its titular demigod hero as an explorer of strange new lands while on his quests.
- The historical Egyptian official Harkhuf (fl. 23rd century BCE) portrays himself as this in his "autobiography" on the walls of his tomb, intrepidly exploring new lands up the Nile deep in the heart of Africa (and finding a pygmy, much to the delight of his eight-year-old sovereign Pepi II).
Born-Again Immortality: Egyptian gods can be killed (as Osiris was), and all of them age and die (especially Re). But they are always reborn as good as new. The sun god in particular, is often shown resurrecting as a child. Some of the other Egyptian gods might actually have Resurrective Immortality instead, though it's not clear.
Breath Weapon: In Egyptian Mythology the sacred uraei and serpents of the Duat breathe fire to protect the king and gods.
Brother–Sister Incest: Notably the Egyptian Great Ennead, and some of the Igigi gods in Enûma Eliš. Real Life Egyptian kings also did this to conserve their Royal Blood.
Cain and Abel: The Egyptian god Set killed his brother Osiris.
Cannibal Tribe: The Knovíz culture of central Europe in the late 2nd millennium BC and early 1st partook in ritual cannibalism, archeologists have determined.
Cartoon Creature: Egyptian Mythology has the "Set animal," which doesn't look like any specific creature in Real Life.
Cessation of Existence: The Egyptians were most terrified of this. According to Egyptian Mythology, a person on the way to the afterlife passed by the Hall of Two Truths, where its heart was weighed against the Feather of Ma'at (Truth and Justice, personified as a goddess). If judged to be impure, the heart would be eaten by Ammit, a demon, and the person would cease to exist. See also Un-person, below.
Character Development: Gilgamesh becomes a sadder, but wiser and more considerate person by the end of his quest.
Chest Burster: In the Egyptian Pyramid Texts the newborn Set, god of deserts and violence and chaos, tears his way out of his mother Nut's womb.
Chickification: There is evidence that, in some cases, as pantheons evolved, important goddesses in Mesopotamian Mythology were prone to being reduced to Satellite Love Interest status. Notably, the Greeks may have imported the Mesopotamian Astarte, a goddess of both love and war, into their myths — and transformed her into the single-focus Love Goddess Aphrodite.
Child Eater: Sumerian and Akkadian texts mention the malevolent goddess (or she-demon) Dimme/Lamashtu who kidnapped and ate babies. Amulets warding against her were widespread. Dimme-kur/Akhkhazu and maybe Lilitu are other Mesopotamian Child Eaters.
Child Supplants Parent: In Enûma Eliš, the gods overthrow their ancestors, Apsu and Tiamat, so Apsu can't kill them all.
Choice of Two Weapons: Common in real life and myths alike. Gilgamesh used an ax, a great sword, and a bow.
Classical Hunter: Hunts were already the subject of cave paintings before civilization even got off the ground.
Clothes Make the Superman: In the Sumerian myth of Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, the goddess Inanna girds herself with clothes and artifacts before her descent, making herself powerful. She passes through seven infernal gates, and at each one, part of her clothing is taken from her. When she reaches the throne room, she is naked and therefore powerless, and she is carried off to be tormented.
Comet of Doom: Mentioned on ancient Chinese oracle bones from the late Shang Dynasty. A comet was also among the omens thought to have foreboded the fall of the Shang dynasty by the victory of King Wu of Zhou over King Zhou of Shang, c. 1050 BC.
Complete Monster: The most heinous characters played seriously with no redeeming or altruistic traits. Villainous figures who are pure evil is one of the oldest tropes out there. The oldest listed example is the God of Evil Apep/Apophis from Egyptian Mythology, who was worshiped against since the days of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 BC – c. 1077 BC).
Conflict: Epic of Gilgamesh features conflicts between Enkidu and Gilgamesh. And Gilgamesh vs cosmic forces.
Continuity Snarl: Egyptian Mythology was always a complete mess, even in the earliest writings from when Egypt was united and the priests of the newly unified kingdom realized that the myths of Upper Egypt lined up not at all with those of Lower Egypt.^note Every now and then the Pharaoh would commission some priests to try and straighten things out a bit (usually in a way that made his dynasty look better), so it's clear they understood this was a thing; the most famous form of Egyptian myth—the Heliopolitan myths of the Great Ennead—are probably the result of attempts to combine Upper and Lower Egyptian myths (Heliopolis is near where the two meet) and various rival cults claiming their deity was chief god (particularly Atum v. Ra v. Osiris v. Horus).^note
The Conqueror: The first prominent conqueror of recorded history is Sargon of Akkad. Other famous conquerors of this period are Thutmose of Egypt and Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria.
Cool Boat: For the Ancient Egyptians one way to depict the sun god was to show Re sailing through the sky in a boat. At night, he sailed a different boat through either The Underworld, the inside of the sky goddess Nut, or the waterway behind the sky. The daytime sky could also be considered a waterway.
Cosmic Egg: The creation myth in the Sanskrit Rig Veda.
The Coup: Ignoring real life examples, which are likely as old as politics:
- In Mesopotamian Mythology, the younger gods, led by Marduk, defeated and killed Tiamat and Apsu and took over the universe.
- In Hittite Mythology, Anu overthrew Alalu and took over the kingship of heaven, then Kumarbi overthrew Anu, then Teshup overthrew Kumarbi.
- In Egyptian Mythology, Isis seized the sun god Re's throne, although she did it with trickery instead of violence.
Court Mage: The Westcar Papyrus, dating from the late Middle Kingdom or Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egyptian history (c. 1650-1550 BCE), tells of the lector priest and magician Djadjaemankh, court magician to King Sneferu of the Old Kingdom Fourth Dynasty (from the 26th century BCE). Djadjaemankh was allusively associated with several wonders, but the only one that survives (from the story in the Westcar Papyrus) involves him parting the Nile to pick up a piece of jewelry a beautiful lady in Sneferu's service had dropped in the river during a pleasure cruise.
Crazy-Prepared: In Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld the goddess anticipates problems, and instructs her priestess exactly what to do.
Creation Myth: The Mesopotamian Enûma Eliš and the Hittite Kumarbi Cycle both date to this period. The Ancient Egyptians had several, starring creator gods such as Re, Ptah, Atum, and the Eight Gods of Hermopolis Magna.
Creepy Uncle: A variant appears in Egyptian Mythology when Set sexually abuses his nephew Horus. Along with highlighting Set's depravity,^note this incident also serves to degrade Horus. See, Horus was Set's Arch-Enemy at the time because Set had killed Osiris, who was his own brother and Horus's father. Ultimately, Horus gets the last laugh when his mother Isis (Set's sister) mixes some of Horus's semen into Set's food.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Certain Ancient Egyptian punishments involved cutting off a person's arm first, then their head.
Cuckold: The fear of a man's wife/sexual partner sleeping with another man has likely been around longer than human speech.
Curse: Mesopotamian kings inscribed very elaborate curses on their stelae, threatening the hatred of the gods and long lists of nasty misfortunes upon any future king who overturned their decrees. Some Ancient Egyptian tombs threaten curses of misfortune and divine retribution upon would-be desecrators.

D-I

Darkest Hour: The death of The Hero's best friend, Enkidu, in The Epic of Gilgamesh triggers the first Heroic BSoD.
Dark Is Not Evil: Kek and Kauket, god and goddess of darkness, are two of the eight gods who create the sun, dry land, and the entire universe in one of the Egyptian creation myths. Like the other six gods of the Ogdoad, their role was entirely positive.
Dead Sidekick: Gilgamesh kinda lost it after Enkidu died.
Deal with the Devil: there are Sanskrit and Sumerian tales of craftsmen forming deals with what are essentially demons for superlative skill in their craft.
Death Glare: Literally, in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld.
Decapitated Army: Tiamat's army, after Marduk killed her in Enûma Eliš.
Defeat Means Friendship: Gilgamesh and Enkidu meet this way in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Deity of Human Origin: The kings of Ancient Egypt were considered fully divine after death. A few non-royals, like Imhotep and Amunhotep son of Hapu, were also deified. In the late dynastic periods, anyone who drowned in the Nile was deified.
Depending on the Writer: There are contradictory tales concerning gods and heroes in several ancient texts. Some Egyptian funerary texts have the god Set battle the Eldritch Abomination Apophis, and in others Set and Apophis are clearly identified with each other. The Mesopotamian Epic of Atra-Hasis (18th century BC) tells details of the Deluge which contradict The Epic of Gilgamesh. Etc.
Diabolus ex Machina: The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Diligent Draft Animal — Before the rise of technology, animals were tamed and used as transportation and field work, with oxen being among the first.
Dishing Out Dirt: Geb from Egyptian Mythology can cause earthquakes and allow crops to grow.
Disproportionate Retribution: When King Gilgamesh declined to sleep with Inanna/Ishtar, the goddess sent the Bull of Heaven to terrorize a whole city of his innocent subjects.
Distaff Counterpart: Egyptian Mythology included deities who seemed little more than female counterparts added to a much older god, such as Input (counterpart of Anubis, whose Egyptian name was closer to Inepu), Sobeket (counterpart of Sobek), and Sokaret (counterpart of Sokar). The four goddesses of the Ogdoad (Naunet, Amaunet, Hehet, and Keket) are Distaff Counterparts to Nun, Amun, Heh, and Kek.
Distressed Dude: In what may be the first recorded example of this trope, a central point of Ancient Egyptian religion is the rescue of Osiris by Isis, after he's killed by Set.
Divine Date: The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna did it a lot.
Divine Incest: This originated in the earliest mythologies, such as the Egyptian and Mesopotamian ones. It probably dates back even further to primitive oral religions, but those were the first to be written down in Canon.
Divine Parentage: Imhotep, supposedly son of the god Ptah; the Egyptian kings who claimed that gods fathered them; and whatever god(s) was/were responsible for Gilgamesh being 2/3 divine.
Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Gilgamesh has a habit of insulting Inanna, refusing her advances, throwing animal body parts at her face, etc. It doesn't do him any good.
Dominatrix: Possibly dates back to Mesopotamia, involving rituals of the goddess Inanna (or Ishtar as she was known in Akkadian). Ancient cuneiform texts consisting of "Hymns to Inanna" suggest that these rituals involved powerful females displaying dominating behaviors and forcing men into submission to them. The same text suggests myths where Inanna did the same to her fellow gods.
Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal:
- As King, Gilgamesh (who was two thirds divine) made a law that all new brides in his city had to have sex with him first. This did piss his subjects off, and the gods sent Enkidu to wrestle Gilgamesh and give him an outlet for his pent up energy.
- The Egyptian kings started claiming the "benevolent" variation of this as a form of royal propaganda during the New Kingdom. It started with Hatshepsut, who needed some kind of justification for taking the royal titles and power for herself (effectively a self-coup/usurpation from her nephew/stepson Thutmose III, just a toddler at the time, for whom she was acting as regent). She declared that she was actually supposed to have been monarch all along because the chief state god Amun was her real father, having slept with Hatshepsut's mother Ahmose in the guise of Ahmose's husband, King Thutmose I. (For all that, she never denied Thutmose III the royal titles—she just set herself up as senior co-ruler.) She had the story carved in great detail in both text and pictures into the walls of her famous mortuary temple (making this an artistic example as well as a historical one). When Hatshepsut died and her nephew took power for himself, he found the story was such good propaganda that he took it on himself, just replacing Thutmose I with Thutmose II and Ahmose with his own mother, Iset. Eventually, this became the "standard" story of royal conception (though sometimes with a different god like Ra switched out for Amun), and in theory it was this—being impregnated by a great god—was the "official" theory of how the succession worked. (Of course, the reality was that the succession almost always went to the oldest surviving son of the king's highest-ranking wife, with occasional deviations due to politics, but this wasn't transparent and so you needed a story.)
Draconic Abomination: Primordial chaos deities like Tiamat and Apep are often depicted as being dragons. The Asura known as Vritra or Ahi from the Rig Veda is also described as being a dragon-like creature.
Dragons Are Demonic: Vritra from Hindu Mythology is a serpentine dragon and a personification of drought, who was slain by Indra in the Rig Veda.
Dragons Are Divine: The Chinese have revered dragons for millennia, with the oldest known dragon statue dating back to the 5th millennium BC, during the time of the Neolithic Yangshao culture.
Dream Sequence: In The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Droit du Seigneur: It was a Dead Unicorn Trope as far back as The Epic of Gilgamesh, with Gilgamesh making it a practice to deflower his subjects' wives. When Enkidu finds out he immediately travels to the city to beat it out of him.
Duality Motif: The ancient Egyptians depicted their gods with animal heads as a purely symbolic gesture to represent their dual natures, as they could take on either a fully human or fully animal form as needed, but not both as is often depicted in popular culture.
Due to the Dead: Known among the Neanderthals, who buried their dead.
Eldritch Abomination: Tiamat, the primordial goddess in Enûma Eliš, was huge enough for the gods to create heaven and earth from her corpse, while making The Underworld from her husband Apsu's body. Apep/Apophis of Egyptian myth was a living embodiment of the formless primordial chaos and darkness outside of the shaped universe, typically painted as a giant snake/serpent. Hittite myth had the dragon-like Illuynka, enemy of Teshub.
Elemental Powers: Several gods have them: Teshub commands the lightning; Enlil and Marduk command the winds; Ishkur and Set control storms; and Sekhmet, Wadjet, and Nergal wield fire.
Elemental Rivalry: Horus the sun god vs. Set, god of storms and murderer of Horus' father Osiris.
Emissary from the Divine: Egyptian Mythology might have seen their pharaohs as a divine emissary, with a mission to rule.
Engagement Challenge: In the New Kingdom Egyptian "Tale Of The Doomed Prince", the chief of Naharin makes suitors for his daughter climb a tall cliff to her window.
Emperor Scientist: The New Kingdom Pharaoh Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, in addition to being history's first undisputed Young Conqueror, was history's first monarch with a clear personal interest in the natural sciences—or at least what passed for them in the 15th century BCE. One of his greatest monuments is his "botanical garden", a chamber in the innermost part of his addition to the Karnak temple complex, in which he has depicted a catalogue of the flora and fauna of the lands he ruled (most especially the ones he had conquered himself) in the kind of painstaking technical detail and accuracy (for the time) that can only come from a sincere fascination with all these strange new plants and animals in themselves. He even applies some early suggestions of method, being careful to group the depictions geographically by the region in which they are found. His descriptions of his border-expanding campaigns towards the Euphrates suggest he was motivated almost as much by curiosity about these strange new lands as by a desire to control or exploit them,^note and his final "campaign" to Nubia was really a discovery-expedition-cum-pleasure-cruise up the Nile aimed mostly at seeing how far upriver he could go, where the Nile flood came from, and what kind of cool stuff was up in Nubia (he found a cool mountain and after investigating it as best as he could he ordered the construction of a city there). His great-grandson Amunhotep III did something similar about 40 years later, going on a geographic exploratory expedition in the far south of Nubia after putting down a revolt there; he discovered an oasis in the desert he identified as the "Pools of Horus", a place sacred to the royal god, before going home.
Equivalent Exchange: The First Law of Thermodynamics. This is old as reality itself.
Everybody's Dead, Dave: In the Old Kingdom Egyptian "Tale Of The Shipwrecked Sailor", the protagonist was the only survivor of his ship after a storm on the Red Sea.
Everybody Hates Hades: In the earliest myths, Set was not the God of Evil he is portrayed as today, defending Ra from Apophis every night. However, modern stories are not what made him as a villain. Following the Second Intermediate Period he became demonized for his jealous murder of his brother Osiris, his intense rivalry with Oriris' son Horus, and being regarded as the god of foreign invaders, the harsh desert, storms, and chaos. (And even later stories turned him into something that would make Hollywood's view seem tame.)
Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: The Priestesses of Ishtar were transexuals/crossdressers representing the Goddess. Having sex with "her" was a sacred duty and people jumped at the idea.
Evil Chancellor: An evil vizier or two show up in Egyptian stories.
Evil Uncle: After murdering his brother Osiris, the Egyptian chaos god Set tried to kill his nephew Horus as a boy, and later fought him over Osiris' throne. In the New Kingdom fable "Truth And Falsehood", Falsehood acts much like Set towards his nephew Truth.
Evil Versus Evil: To ward off the Child Eater Dimmu, some Mesopotamians turned to the evil demon Pazuzu.
Evil Versus Oblivion: One ancient Egyptian explanation for Apophis/Apep's repeated attempts to eat the sun god was that Apep was an Omnicidal Maniac who wanted to disrupt the cycle of time to kill Ma'et (the goddess and cosmic principle of Lawful Good, translated as justice or truth) and allow the universe to be destroyed by the ensuing entropy. Set, one of the nastiest and most demonised of all Egyptian deities, was the guy whose job it was to protect the sun from Apep. He was also one of the sun god's favorites.
Excessive Mourning: When Enkidu dies from a sickness sent by the gods, Gilgamesh refuses to let him be buried for seven days, hoping he can call him back to life by his mourning. Only when maggots appear in Enkidu's face does Gilgamesh allow the corpse to be buried (The Epic of Gilgamesh).
Extra Eyes: The four-eyed Babylonian god Marduk.
Eye Scream: In Egyptian Mythology Set ripped out or blinded Horus' eye with his bare hands, and Apophis sometimes wounded the sun god Re's eye during the night.
Failed State: The Admonitions of Ipuwer are a long litany of the ills befalling Ancient Egypt during the First Intermediate Period, a time when "chaos reigns and order has been forgotten". Grievances of the time included widespread looting, lack of maintenance of vital infrastructure, and female slaves freely talking to their mistresses.
Fairy Tale: The oldest extant fairy tales are written on Egyptian papyri from c. 1200 BC. A January 2016 linguistic study suggested some of the tales may be even older than that, dating as far back as 4500 B.C.E. in the Indo-European Language.
Fate Worse than Death: In some Egyptian books of the netherworld (New Kingdom), Eldritch Abomination Apep/Apophis is said to have swallowed some gods or human souls whole. They're still aware in there, and about once a night someone beats up Apophis enough that they can stick their heads out for a short time... before he recovers and swallows them again. They never actually escape.
Femme Fatale: Inanna/Ishtar tended to lead her lovers to their deaths, according to The Epic of Gilgamesh - indicating that it was already a trope by the time the Epic was written down.
Feathered Serpent: The Olmecs started this and they predate the Greek alphabet.
Fire and Brimstone Hell: Although Hell as a location entirely separate from The Underworld is a Christian innovation, the fire and brimstone come from the Egyptian Books of the Netherworld. Among the caverns of the Duat are several where sinners are burned in lakes of flame, tended by fire-breathing goddesses and dragons.
Fire Is Masculine: In Egyptian Mythology, Ra is god of the sun, sky, and kings, and is also considered a fire deity because of this. He is depicted as a man with a falcon head.
Fisher King: A variation appears in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld. The fertility goddess Inanna mourned her husband Dumuzi each year when he died. Her grief (and guilt for killing him) transformed the earth into a parched wasteland where nothing could grow. Only the annual return of Dumuzi could cheer her up.
Flanderization: There is evidence that the Ancient Egyptian god Set started out as a rival to various other gods, but also an accepted part of the pantheon who helped preserve the cosmic order. But those other gods increased in importance while Set was identified with a bunch of foreign invaders, so he ended up flanderized into God of Evil status. Likewise, a little later, the Greeks may have taken the complex Mesopotamian goddess of love and war Ishtar and flanderized her into Aphrodite, who can be a bit of a one-note Love Goddess.
Floating Continent: The Rig Veda has one.
Flowery Insults: From Mesopotamian Mythology: For a guy who allegedly lived most of his life in the wilderness, Enkidu has quite a way with words.
Foreign Ruling Class: Several of the ancient Egyptian dynasties were ruled by foreigners, including the 15th Dynasty (Hyksos), the 22nd and 23rd dynasties (Libyan), the 25th dynasty (Nubian), and the 27th and 31st dynasties (Persian).
The Four Gods: While the modern configuration was settled much later, the earliest known depiction of any of the four gods was found in a tomb dating back to 5300 BC. Inside to the east and west of the human remains were clam shell and bone mosaics depicting figures resembling the Azure Dragon and White Tiger respectively, the cardinal gods of the east and west respectively.
Framing Device: The Egyptian "Tale Of The Shipwrecked Sailor", from the Old Kingdom, and the Middle Kingdom Westcar Papyrus both use framing devices of the narrators and their audiences.
Frivolous Lawsuit: Under the Code of Hammurabi, someone bringing a lawsuit without evidence, or using false witness, could be executed.
Funny Animal: Some Ancient Egyptian and Sumerian art features animals that are only anthropomorphized just enough to stand on their hind legs and use opposable thumbs. They play music, serve drinks, ride chariots, herd livestock, play board games, and do other human activities, but don't bother with clothes.
Gainax Ending: The twelfth and final tablet of The Epic of Gilgamesh is a borderline incoherent poem where Enkidu is inexplicably alive again and gets trapped in the Underworld rather than dying of disease as happens in the main story.
The Gambling Addict: Was a thing as far back as Vedic India. Mandala 10, Hymn 34 (sometimes titled "Invocation of the Dice") of the Rig Veda is the lament of a gambling addict who has lost all his property, including his wife, in games of dice. Dated c. 1,100 BC or earlier.
Garden of Love: The Mesopotamian god Nabu and his divine consort Tašmetu, whose garden-set ritual lovemaking is celebrated in poetry.
Gemstone Assault: crystals have long been used as weaponry and tools. Like Obsidian blades.
Genesis Effect: Every religion has its own creation myth, and the religions on this page are no different.
Genius Loci: In the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian religions the earth, sky, sun, moon, and stars are gods and/or have a life of their own.
The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld depicts the divine sisters Ereshkigal and Inanna as this.
God Couple: Marriages and love stories of the gods appear in many myths. Egyptian Mythology has Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Shu and Tefnut, etc. Mesopotamian Mythology has Anshar and Kishar, Anu and Ki, Apsu and Tiamat, Negal and Ereshkigal, etc.
God-Emperor: To some extent, the kings of Ancient Egypt were viewed as living gods. However, they were likely not fully deified until they died.
The Gods Must Be Lazy: Re in Egyptian Mythology preferred to withdraw from the squabbles of the other gods, except when it came to Apophis. His reaction to the contest of Set and Horus was sometimes depicted as "Leave me alone."
God of Order: Ma'at, the very embodiment of order.
God of Light: Arguably the oldest kind of god there is, showing up in Egyptian Mythology (Rah, Aten, Nut, Nefertum), Mesopotamian Mythology (Girra, Shulsaga, Serida), and in Proto-Indo-European Mythology (Sehul and Hewsos)
God of the Moon: Moon gods and other lunar deities are some of the oldest in the book and can be found in Egyptian Mythology (Iah, Thoth, Khonsu, Horus), Mesopotamian Mythology (Sin/Nanna), and in Proto-Indo-European Mythology (Sehul and Hewsos).
The Good Chancellor: Apparently Imhotep, Chancellor to the Egyptian king Netjerikhet Djoser (founder of the Old Kingdom Third Dynasty), was one of the best.
The Good King: From Ancient Egypt (of course), specifically relating to King Sneferu of the Old Kingdom Fourth Dynasty (reigned c. 2613-2589 BCE, give or take). Starting no later than the Middle Kingdom's Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1802 BCE), Egyptian texts ascribe to Sneferu many of the classic characteristics of this trope. Middle Kingdom texts trying to link the current monarch to a prior golden age of splendor, prosperity, and justice tended to try to link the king to Sneferu, who was always portrayed as a wise king willing to take the counsel of his priests and advisors and who made Egypt beautiful. As the Middle Kingdom was characterized by a flowering of Egyptian literature, with texts composed during this era copied continuously for the next 2,000 years, the court of Sneferu became a default setting for any Egyptian trying to present a didactic story presided over by a great and just king. Interestingly, Sneferu's reputation is pretty well deserved: Sneferu built the first true pyramid (the Red Pyramid at Dahshur), and what records exist from his incredibly ancient reign suggest that he really did reign well and prosperously.
The Great Flood: Ziudsura/Utnapishtim/Atrahasis (his name depends on the writer) survives the Deluge in Mesopotamian Mythology.
The Great Serpent: Apep of Egyptian Mythology was a giant snake said to be the physical embodiment of chaos, whom the sun god Ra would do battle with during his journeys across the underworld every night. Depending on the story, it was said he lurked beneath the horizon, forbidden to enter the mortal kingdoms, and somewhere in a western mountain called Bakhu, where he lay in wait for Ra before the dawn, or after the sun set. Because of the many possibilities of his location, he eventually earned the epithet World-Encircler, and as a perpetual resident of the underworld (since Ra trapped him there), his roars would shake the underworld, while his movements caused earthquakes.
Green Aesop: Fragments of The Epic of Gilgamesh discovered in the mid-2010s have this moral, with Gilgamesh's killing of Humbaba and the subsequent cutting of the cedar forest being treated as wicked and unnecessary.
Green Gators: Ancient Egyptian art often depicted crocodiles as being green.
Groin Attack: The Egyptian Set and the Hittite Anu both got castrated, violently.
Guyliner: All Ancient Egyptians wore lipstick and black eyeliner if they could afford it. Possible reasons include protection from eye parasites, blocking glare from sunlight, and a protective magical charm.
Half-Human Hybrid:
- Many Egyptian gods are frequently depicted with animal heads on human bodies, such as Horus, Re, Set, Sakhmet, Bast, Anubis, Khnum, and Thoth. Imhotep's father was said to have been the god Ptah, as well. However, these were probably understood to be purely symbolic depictions, not their actual appearances, and most deities had a varied iconography. Visual artworks going back to the Ice Age depict what look like animal-headed humanoids, though it's impossible to know what those from non-literate cultures represent.
- Gilgamesh is two-thirds divine and one-third human. He had two fathers, apparently.
- The Real Life example is that most people from Europe can trace up to 4% of their DNA to Neanderthals. It is now believed that interbreeding was pretty common in the past. So technically, an entire population of Half-Human Hybrid people did actually exist in the past, crossing back into the human population to dilute the genes.
Happily Married: Osiris and Isis, despite his being murdered and mummified.
Heaven: The Ancient Egyptians believed in several afterlife concepts. One of these, the Duat, included at least in New Kingdom times a region called the Fields of Contentment/Offerings, and the Field of Reeds, which were heavenly landscapes with exclusive entry requirements. Another belief was that the virtuous dead, or at least kings, could join the stars and sun in the sky after they died.
Healer God: The Egyptians and Babylonians had gods and goddesses who were known as ultimate healers, such Isis when she reassembled and cured Osiris.
Heavenly Concentric Circles: In Mesopotamian Mythology the sky is made of three (occasionally seven) concentric domes made of fluid precious stones encasing Earth. The jasper (green) lowest dome contains the constellations, the saggilmut (blue) middle dome houses the Igigi (Depending on the Writer, Anunnaki deities or the precursors of humans), and the luludānītu (red) highest dome is Top God (and god of the sky) An's physical form.
Hellhound: The Babylonian Savage Dog in Enûma Eliš.
Hellish Horse: Marduk's chariot is drawn by these in Enûma Eliš.
Heroic BSoD: In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the eponymous protagonist mourns his best buddy, Enkidu.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Historical Badass Upgrade: The title character of The Epic of Gilgamesh gets a big one. Gilgamesh is believed to have been an actual Sumerian king, but he probably wasn't 2/3 god, among other things.
Home Sweet Home: In the Egyptian legend of Sinuhe, the protagonist flees political instability but never stops wishing to return, and eventually does get back to Egypt.
Homoerotic Subtext: Gilgamesh and Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Sumerian goddesses Inanna and Ninshubur could be as well.
Honest John's Dealership: A cuneiform tablet from about 1750 BC has been found, addressed to one Ea-Nasir, which accuses him of selling substandard copper.
Honor Thy Parent: A traditional value in virtually every ancient culture, often extending to ancestor worship. As just one example, the Instructions of Šuruppak son of Ubara-tutu (Sumerian wisdom literature dated to c. 2600 BCE) advises, "The instructions of an old man are precious, may you submit to them" and tells sons to treat their father's words like the words of a god.
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: The Epic of Gilgamesh has Shamhat, a temple prostitute who introduces Enkidu into human civilization by sleeping with him.
Horned Humanoid: In Egyptian artwork, the goddesses Hathor and Bat were often depicted as women with the horns of a cow.
Hot-Blooded: Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. Aside from her devastating prowess in battle as a war goddess, and her habit of riding into town on the back of a lion, she was also known for physically dragging men out of taverns to sate her, erm, appetites.
Human Sacrifice: In Real Life the Egyptians did this in the first two dynasties, and possibly later as a form of execution.
Humongous Mecha: Parts of the Sanskrit Rig Veda appear to describe air-to-air missiles traded between flying mecha and floating cities.
I'm a Humanitarian: In the Pyramid Texts, the Egyptian god Shezmu butchers people and other gods for the deceased king to eat.
I Have Many Names: The Egyptian gods Re and Amun both have tons. Osiris has 100 in the Book of the Dead. Marduk has 50 in Enûma Eliš. Each Egyptian king had several throne names. Also, all Hindu gods have multiple names, while several (such as Krishna and Ganesha) are known have thousands.
I Know Your True Name: The Egyptian goddess Isis tricked the sun god Re into revealing his true name to her, thus gaining power over him.
Immortality Seeker: A major plot thread in The Epic of Gilgamesh is the hero's attempt to achieve immortality.
Improvised Weapon: Older than non-improvised weapons in the archaeological record. Heck, older than our species. The earliest weapons known are the Schöningen spears, c. 400-375 millennia old. They were simply sharpened wooden poles, without any hafted points.
It's Been Done: From a 19th Century BC Egyptian poem: "What has been said has been said."

J-P

Javelin Thrower: Javelins certainly go back to the Stone Age, and in fact prehistoric cave paintings have been discovered which appear to depict humans or hunted animals which have been wounded by thrown spears.
Jerkass Gods: Very frequently, and sometimes called out by the mortals (such as Gilgamesh), though doing so was a very bad idea.
Judgement of the Dead: In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, deceased people's hearts (representing their soul) would be weighed against a feather representing truth. If their heart was lighter than the feather, they would be allowed into the realm of Osiris and have a happy eternal life. If not, and they were found to have a heavy conscience, they would be fed to jackals and destroyed forever.
Jumped at the Call: Gilgamesh was bored and oh-so-happy for something better to do than steal women from their husbands.
"Just So" Story: The recurrent death of Dumuzi creating the seasons in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld; and Horus' eye injury making the moon dimmer than the sun; and the castration of Set turning the deserts sterile.
Kavorka Man: Or at least the Distaff Counterpart is this old. The Egyptian goddess Tawaret takes the form of a hippopotamus woman with saggy breasts, but she's been involved with numerous gods (including Sobek) and she always appears pregnant.
Kidnapping Bird of Prey: The misconception that large birds will kidnap your babies goes back to this time period. And to enforce everyone's horror, it may have been Truth in Television: the Taung Child, the fossilized skull of a young early hominid, was discovered to have been killed by an eagle.
Kill Him Already!: After Gilgamesh defeats the Humbaba and has him at knife-point, Humbaba begs for mercy. Gilgamesh seems ready to grant it, but his friend Enkidu persuades him to get on with it.
Kill the God: God-on-god only. In Egyptian Mythology, Set killed his brother Osiris by chopping him up and scattering the pieces to the four winds (or dumping them in the Nile, depending on the version). Isis put him back together, but he was stuck in The Underworld, where he became king.
Lady of Black Magic: Isis is the goddess of magic, as well as healing and motherhood, and is portrayed as elegant, wise, and the representation of the pharaoh's power. She is also known as "She Who Knows All Names", a fearsome title because using names for casting Egyptian magic spells was believed to give one great power, and for being the only one who knows Ra's true name.
Land of One City: Most ancient Mesopotamian civilizations were city-states, before the Akkadian Empire started.
Large and in Charge: Egyptian artwork already depicted kings much larger than other folks before the First Dynasty. Gilgamesh is also an example.
Leave Behind a Pistol: Per the 12th-century BCE Judicial Papyrus of Turin, certain royal personages of the "harem conspiracy" to assassinate the Twentieth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses III were "left where they were" after being found guilty of high treason but pointedly not (yet) explicitly sentenced to death. These conspirators are then noted to have taken their own lives.
Let No Crisis Go to Waste: In Enûma Eliš, when the other gods beg Marduk (Ashur in some versions) to save them from Tiamat, he agrees... provided they make him king of the gods and ruler of the universe. The desperate gods agree.
LGBT Fanbase: Fan celebration of gay love since at least The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Libation for the Dead: The Ancient Egyptians poured libations to the dead, particularly to dead kings, at least since Old Kingdom times.
Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: "Light emerging from primordial darkness" is an idea from the oldest creation myths. Interestingly, this is Truth in Television since at one point, the universe was dark, then light came out once stars and gases began forming. Also, water did cover all or most all of the Earth around 3 billion years ago. It can also represent the collective subconscious recalling birth.
Light Is Not Good: The Egyptian Eyes of Re, such as Sekhmet and Hathor, were solar goddesses, but one of them once almost destroyed humanity in a bloody rampage.
Liminal Being: Egyptian art is full of part-human/part-animal beings.
Liminal Time: The five last days of the year were created to be not properly in any year, so that Nut can give birth despite the curse on her. They are the Demon Days and unlucky.
Little People Are Surreal: Ancient Egypt is the first civilisation known to have employed court dwarfs. In early periods of Egyptian history, dwarfism was seen as an otherworldly, divine trait. After the Old Kingdom, depictions of little people started veering into the more mocking versions of this trope.
Long List: The Litany Of Re is an Egyptian work listing 75 different names and manifestations of the sun god.
Loophole Abuse: The Mesopotamian flood myth has the god who wants to save humanity talk to a wall (which just so happened to have a human next to it) about the gods' genocide plan... apparently, there was an oath not to tell it to people.
Lord of the Ocean: Nearly every polytheistic religion has at least one god associated with water-sources large and small.
Lost Him in a Card Game: Mandala 10, Hymn 34 (1,100 BC or older) of the Rig Veda is the lament of a gambler who has lost not only all his property, but also his wife in games of dice.
Love Goddess: Inanna/Ishtar was the Mesopotamian goddess of love and fertility. Hathor held that role in Egyptian religion.
Magical Eye: This trope goes back to at least the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, when the Eldritch Abomination serpent Apep/Apophis was believed to have a harmful or hypnotizing gaze. People wore and recited charms and spells to protect themselves from him. On certain occasions the Pharaoh also ritually whacked at a ball that symbolized Apep's eyeball.
Magical Queer: In Mesopotamian Mythology, the underworld goddess Ereshkigal cursed intersex and nonbinary people to be shunned by society, so Ishtar gifted them with healing and prophecy to make up for it. As Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions put it: "So the lesson of this particular legend is if you're gender non-binary, you're magic, Ishtar loves you, and even the queen of hell thinks you're hot."
Magical Weapon: The Mesopotamian god Ninurta had a mace named Sharur that could fly and talk.

Making a Splash: Sobek from Egyptian Mythology.

Malicious Slander: In the Egyptian New Kingdom "Tale Of Two Brothers", Anubis' wife tried to seduce her brother-in-law Bata. When Bata angrily spurned her, she accused him of trying to seduce her and of beating her when she refused. Anubis tried to kill his brother, which started Bata's fantastic adventures.
Mama Bear: Tiamat in Enûma Eliš initially reacts this way when Apsu wants to kill their children, but later tries to kill them herself.
Meaningful Name: Many Egyptian names had clear meanings; i.e. gods like Amun ("hidden" or "hiddenness") and Meretseger ("she who loves silence"), and kings such as Merikare ("beloved of the ka of Re"), Tutankhamun ("living image of Amun"), Sobekhotep ("Sobek is satisfied"), and Scorpion.
Mesopotamian Monstrosity: Any monster in Mesopotamian Mythology (and there are a fair few) is by definition a Mesopotamian monstrosity. Given that some successor cultures carefully preserved these old myths, the idea of going back to old Mesopotamian myths for cool monsters may itself be old enough to qualify here.
Mission from God: The preface to the Code of Hammurabi declares that Hammurabi wrote down his code at the command of Anu and Bel.
Mister Seahorse: In Hittite myth, Kumarbi gave birth to Teshub, Tigris, and Tasmisus after biting off Anu's genitals. The Sumerian water god Enki somehow impregnated himself.
Mix-and-Match Critters: Many mythological animals and people, especially in southwest Asia. The girtablullu (scorpion men) of Mesopotamian Mythology, appearing in Enûma Eliš and The Epic of Gilgamesh, were part man, part scorpion. Other examples from this period include griffins, leogryphs, sphinxes, urmalullu, lamassu, shedu, serpopards, sirrush, Anzu, gud-alim, and various dragons. The Egyptian Gods were also sometimes depicted in art as human beings with animal heads, though this wasn't necessarily meant to be taken literally.
Mood-Swinger: The Mesopotamian Inanna/Ishtar was goddess of love by night, but goddess of war by day. Romantic relations with her were... perilous.
Mortality Phobia: The Epic of Gilgamesh is possibly the oldest example of this trope. It chronicles the life of Gilgamesh as a seeks a way to avert death following an act that angered the Sumerian gods. The title character goes to great lengths to gain immortality, including trying to stay awake for seven days, and swimming to the bottom of the ocean to get a magical weed. His quest for immortality ultimately ends in him having to accept that death cannot be subverted.
Mother of a Thousand Young: Tiamat in Enûma Eliš.
Ms. Fanservice: Ishtar from Mesopotamian Mythology.
Multiple-Choice Past: Egyptian sources frequently differ about the parentage of individual deities.
Mummies at the Dinner Table: Gilgamesh refused to accept Enkidu's death for seven days, until finally a maggot fell out of his nose.
My God, What Have I Done?: The title goddess in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, right after siccing demons on her husband.
Mystical Pregnancy: Weird pregnancies have been around for a very long time:
- Enki impregnates himself by consuming his own semen.
- Egyptian god Horus was conceived by Isis hovering in the air over Osiris and beating her wings. At the time, Osiris was A: dead, and B: neutered, his penis being the one piece of his body Isis couldn't recover due to its being eaten by a fish.
Named Weapons: In a fictional Egyptian tale of the conquest of Joppa, the Pharaoh Men-kheper-Re has a named staff/cane. He hides it in the luggage of the protagonist sent to put down a revolt, who kills the rebel leader with it. Unfortunately the text is damaged, so its name and powers are unknown.
Nameless Narrative: Surprisingly for a culture that put such emphasis on names, ancient Egypt has a few such tales: "The Wax Crocodile" (from the Westcar Papyrus), the "Tale Of The Shipwrecked Sailor", and the "Tale Of The Doomed Prince".
Narrative Poem: The Mesopotamians had them.
Nature Hero: Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Nature Spirit: There are many, many gods of earth, sun, moon, stars, rivers, trees, fertility, animals, plants, disease, life, death, storms, wind, the sea, the sky, etc. in Mesopotamian Mythology and Egyptian Mythology.
Never Say "Die": The ancient Egyptians believed that to record something in writing made it more real. Scribes usually did not speak of death, only of euphemisms such as passing west (towards the setting sun and The Underworld) or joining the sun god's barque in the sky. Set was never said to have killed or murdered his brother Osiris; instead he knocked him down.
Never Smile at a Crocodile: Sobek the crocodile-headed Egyptian god was not entirely bad, but was unpredictable, representing the power the Nile itself held over Egyptians' lives. Another example comes from a folktale where a prince is prophesied to die by "a snake, a crocodile or a dog". Despite efforts to avoid all of those things, he still dies.
Nice to the Waiter: The complaint letter to Ea-Nasir accuses him of not only swindling the writer, Nanni, in a purchase of copper, but mistreating the servant who handled the transaction. (Given the values of the time, this was probably seen as more of an insult to Nanni than to his servant.)
Night and Day Duo: Vedic goddesses Usha (goddess of the dawn) and Ratri (goddess of the stars and night), sisters who protect humanity from demons.
Noble Bird of Prey: The falcon was the symbol and sacred bird of two major Egyptian gods, Horus and Re, and many minor deities.
No Man of Woman Born: In Egyptian Mythology, the Sun god Re decreed that Geb and Nut could have no children on any day of the year, for fear that their offspring could usurp his crown. The god Thoth created five extra days by gambling with either the moon god or the sun god, and on those five days Nut bore Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder.
Nominal Hero: Gilgamesh is a tyrant and serial rapist at the start of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Even after his Heel–Face Turn, his heroic deeds are motivated less by a desire to help people and more by his desire to be remembered.
Non-Human Head: Depictions of these types of creatures go back at least to Egyptian Mythology, where many deities were depicted with animal heads and human bodies to show their divine natures.
Non-Nazi Swastika: The oldest known swastika dates back to 10,000 BCE.
The Nothing After Death: The Mesopotamian underworld, Irkalla, was like this.
Obnoxious In-Laws: The current page quote is a Sumerian proverb.
Offerings to the Gods: A religious practice that features in cultures all over the world and in recorded history all the way back to Mesopotamia.
Offing the Offspring: Apsu tries it in Enûma Eliš. Tiamat picks up where he left off. Both fail.
The Oldest Profession: While the concept of having sex for goods or services has likely existed for around as long as people have, the oldest known specific example is Shamhat's profession, which was being a temple prostitute.
Only Smart People May Pass: In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, many gates in The Underworld are guarded by fierce minor deities who will only step aside for one who has learned their secret names. The funerary texts of course provided this information.
Only the Worthy May Pass: The Egyptian god Anubis tested the worth of dead people before letting them into paradise, by weighing their hearts on a scale against the Feather of Justice. Any heart that didn't pass got eaten by the monster Ammut, denying that person any afterlife at all.
Orifice Evacuation: In Kumarbi Cycle, after the Hittite god Kumarbi became pregnant from eating Anu's genitals, the storm god Teshub had to emerge from his body. It was a multiple birth, and one was born through a crack in the head, one through the mouth, and one through an orifice euphemistically identified only as "the good place."
Our Centaurs Are Different: Urmahlullu are Mesopotamian lion-centaurs, with lion bodies and human torsos. There aren't any surviving stories of them, just carvings.
Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Sumerian Gud-alim are similar to the Greek Minotaur, but much older.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: There have been cave paintings over 14,000 years old that depict men with bestial faces, so yeah, it's an old concept.
Outliving One's Offspring: Ramses II the Great made it to at least ninety years old (no small feat, especially in Ancient Egypt) and outlived over a dozen of his children. The eventual heir, Merneptah, started out fourteenth in line for the throne.
Out-of-Clothes Experience: Inanna winds up naked in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld.
Outrun the Fireball: Yes, really. At one point, Gilgamesh ended up in a tunnel with the exit on one side and the sun coming at him from the other, and if the sun doesn't count as a fireball...
The Outsider Befriends the Best: Quite possibly the Ur-Example from The Epic of Gilgamesh: Enkidu the wild man is created by the gods to balance out king Gilgamesh, who otherwise spends his days drinking, feasting and exercising Droit du Seigneur. After a wrestling match ends in a draw, they become best friends and Gilgamesh a better king.
Pale Females, Dark Males: This goes way back to the ancient, old, simple caveman paintings and the like, where the way to discern gender was most often by the skin tone.
Parental Incest: Technically, Kumarbi and his father Anu were the parents of the Hittite thunder god Teshub. Enûma Eliš implies that Tiamat did this too: her second husband Qingu was one of the Igigi, her own children and descendants. Her descendant Ea/Enki sometimes seduced his own daughters.
Parental Marriage Veto: The Egyptian air god Shu tried to prevent his son and daughter, Geb and Nut (earth and sky), from marrying and having kids. It didn't work, but he still holds them apart.
Parting the Sea: In the Egyptian tale "King Cheops and the Magicians," Tchatchamānkh says certain spells, the effect of which is to cause the water of the lake first to divide into two parts, and then the water on one side to rise up and place itself on the water on the other side.
Plague Master: The god Nergal in Mesopotamian Mythology and the goddess Sekhmet in Egyptian Mythology.
Planimal: Mexican rock art depicting deer/peyote cactus mixes have been dated to circa 2000 BCE.
Playing with Fire: Egyptian Mythology features fire-breathing goddesses (Sakhmet, Wadjet, etc.) and dragons.
Pirate: The earliest known example of pirates were the Sea Peoples, a seafaring confederation of raiders from Europe and the Middle East, who frequently attacked Egypt during the Late Bronze Age.
Powers That Be: While most gods had several names, more mysterious forces [refuse to] show their faces now and again. The ancient Egyptians largely eschewed naming or visually depicting their concept of the god beyond the gods for most of their history.
Power Trio: The ancient Egyptians liked their divine trios. By the end of the New Kingdom, many temples were dedicated to groups of three gods, who were often depicted as father, mother, and son.
Primordial Chaos: Egyptian Mythology had Nun, a creator god but also the vast, chaotic waters that preceded the creation of land and sun, and would swallow the world again if kings did not maintain the social and cosmic order.
Product Delivery Ordeal: There are ancient drawings despicting Egyptian workers transporting enormous bricks for the construction of pyramids.
Psychic Dreams for Everyone: In The Epic of Gilgamesh, both Gilgamesh and Enkidu have recurring prophetic dreams. About one another, about the challenges to come, about the afterlife...
Psychopomp: The Celestial Ferrymen were a group of Egyptian gods who would carry deceased kings across a heavenly waterway to an afterlife in the sky.

Q-Z

The Quest: Gilgamesh searching for the secret of immortality.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Real Life Sumerian king Shulgi, c. 2000 BC. At least if you believe the poems he wrote about how very good he was at beating the crap out of lions and elephants.
Really Gets Around: Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, demanded to sleep with every bride in the city on her wedding day.
Recruiters Always Lie: The ancient Egyptian text Instructions of the Scribe Wenemdiamun (ca. 1878-1839 BCE) describes in detail how lousy the soldier's life was as a pushback against the trope. It finishes with "Be a scribe, and be spared from soldiering!"
Revenge: Several examples, i.e. Ishtar/Inanna to Enkidu, and those below. Some of these stories can be Values Dissonance for modern readers.
Revenge by Proxy: Quite frequently, i.e. the Inanna example of Disproportionate Retribution. The Code of Hammurabi required Revenge by Proxy for some crimes. For some crimes, Ancient Egyptian law heavily punished both the criminal and their family.
Revenge Is a Dish Best Served: In Egyptian Mythology, the goddess Isis mixes her son Horus's semen into her hostile brother Set's food.
Revenge Myopia: In Enûma Eliš, Tiamat does her best to avenge Apsu's death at the hands of the Annunaki, completely ignoring the two small facts that Apsu was actively planning to kill them all and that she herself ratted him out to them, allowing a preventive strike.
Rightful King Returns: Horus in Egyptian Mythology, when he regains his father's kingdom (or sometimes half of it) from his murderous uncle Set.
Right Makes Might: This is a constant theme in Egyptian Mythology, resulting in nearly universally happy endings. The good guys (champions of order, justice, goodness, the gods, and Egypt) always triumph over the bad guys (fighting for rebellion, chaos, injustice, and anarchy) every time.
Ritual Magic: The ancient Egyptian concept of magic involved sacred words and ritual actions that had effects ranging from mundane to cosmic. Many religious rituals consisted of such actions, but the same knowledge applied outside the temple could be used for non-religious purposes.
Rock–Paper–Scissors: A color-coded variant in the mating habits of the common side-blotched lizard. Orange-throated males outcompete blue-throated males, blue-throated males outcompete yellow-throated males, and yellow-throated males sneak past orange-throated males and mate with their females.
Roll-and-Move: The Egyptian game of senet, which was played before 3000 BC, used flat two-sided throwsticks which indicated the number of squares a player could move.
Royal Blood: The ancient Egyptian kings depicted themselves as descended from the gods and inherently separate from mere mortals. To preserve their bloodline, they preferred to marry very close relatives, even their own sisters, or else foreign royalty.
Royal Brat: Gilgamesh.
Royal Harem: Interestingly, subverted before it was played straight:
- The kings of Ancient Egypt had numerous wives and concubines. Ramses II, for one example, is known to have fathered at least a hundred children by his harem. However, while they had a dedicated space (the Eighteenth Dynasty dedicated a whole gigantic palace in the Faiyum called Merwer to the royal harem), they weren't actually secluded in the sense of being required to be apart from the world. The senior royal wives tended to have important public roles both in the royal court and in the priesthood, and the royal ladies tended to be integrated into local high society. Indeed, products made by the ladies of the royal household—especially harem-made linen, which was the preferred material with which to clothe the statues of the gods in temples across Egypt—were a significant source of income for the Crown, and it seems the royal ladies were largely responsible for getting their wares to market themselves. The harem palace was a retreat for the royal family to escape their public duties, but its inhabitants could and did leave when they liked/needed. (In other words, think Sandringham, not the Seraglio.)
- The trope is seen played much straighter in ancient Assyria. The king's consorts lived in seclusion and they could only travel together in the company of their husband with a series of edicts kept in place to prevent court intrigue among them. Since Assyria is almost as ancient as Egypt, it still counts.
Royal Inbreeding: In ancient Egypt pharaohs would frequently marry siblings and/or half-siblings. This gets the blame for dramatic rates of birth defects in their dynasties: Among others, Tutankhamen had a very severe cleft palate.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Gilgamesh did lots of things after the gods answered his subjects' prayers to get him the heck out of their city and away from their wives.
Rule of Three: Pops up all the time in stories that were originally handed down verbally, likely to make them easier to remember.
Rule 34: Depictions of sex have been around since early humans developed any semblance of abstract or symbolic thought concerning sex.
Sacred Flames: In Mesopotamian Mythology, sacred flames dedicated to Nuska, the god of fire and light and vizier to Enlil, were used to transport sacrificial offerings into the presence of the gods.
The Sandman: Mythical character in Western and Northern European folklore that represents the Lord of Dreams.
Scales of Justice: Scales have been affiliated with the ancient Semitic religion with their god of justice Shamash and the Egyptian gods Osiris, Anubis, Maat, Isis
The Scottish Trope: In the ancient Egyptian religion, written words were considered magic in and of themselves. Therefore, the true name of the principle opposing Ma'et was never to be written. Even its alias (isfet) was risky.
Scarab Power: Scarabs were the symbol of the Sun God Khepri (an aspect of Ra/Ra's brother), and were very popular as warding amulets for centuries.
Seeks Another's Resurrection: After Osiris got chopped up into bits and scattered all over the world by Set, Isis tracked down all the missing pieces and put them back together again.
Semi-Divine: Gilgamesh is two-thirds god.
Serpent of Immortality: This appears in The Epic of Gilgamesh, where the magical plant which grants eternal life and youth is stolen by a snake, making it immortal. Gilgamesh didn't get a chance to eat the plant and had to go home mortal.
Servant Race: This is what the gods made humanity for, according to Enûma Eliš.
Sex as Rite-of-Passage: Shamhat, for Enkidu, in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Sex Is Violence: Several prehistoric cave paintings in France and Spain show hunters killing their prey while sporting erections.
Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: At least as far back as ancient Egypt.
Sex for Services: This is why prostitution is believed to be The Oldest Profession, possibly literally. Many historians believe that, indeed, there were situations like this in primitive times, where humans - men and woman - had to hunt for food or starve, and most were unwilling to share. It may not have been unfeasible for a woman who had a string of bad luck on such on any given day to offer sex to a man who had brought down some game in order to convince him to share with her. It was a matter of survival. In fact, this behavior has been observed in monkeys, suggesting that it predates humanity.
Sexy Cat Person: Bastet, an Egyptian goddess associated with love and fertility, is usually depicted with the head of a cat (a lioness in earlier depictions, a housecat starting around the Late Period).
Sexy Soaked Shirt: An Ancient Egyptian love song/poem dating from the 19th Dynasty (around 1250 BCE), "Love, how I'd love to slip down to the pond," addressed by a woman to her lover, has these lines, which make this point rather, erm, suggestively:
Love, how I'd love to slip down to the pond, bathe with you close by on the bank.
Just for you I'd wear my new Memphis dress, made of sheer linen, fit for a queen—Come see how it looks in the water!
Couldn't I coax you to wade in with me? Let the cool creep slowly around us?
Then I'd dive deep down and come up for you dripping,
Let you fill your eyes with the little red fish that I'd catch.
And I'd say, standing there tall in the shallows:
"Look at my fish, love, how it lies in my hand,
How my fingers caress it, slip down its sides..."
But then I'd say softer, eyes bright with your seeing:
"A gift, love. No words.
Come close and look, it's all me."
She Is the King: A Real Life example, no less: His Majesty Hatshepsut, King of Egypt's New Kingdom (18th Dynasty, 15th century BCE). Statues portray her with a male's body and she wore a ceremonial beard, as she was the King. She seems to have gone to this trouble because of some subtle but apparent resentment of and discomfort with the idea of a female monarch. (This resentment may be the origin of calling the King of Egypt the "Pharaoh"; the relevant Egyptian word existed before her reign, but it referred to the royal palace, not its occupant.) She also seems to have come up with the Bed Trick story about her conception as part of her propaganda to improve her standing.
- And Hatshepsut is not the Ur-Example; that's Sobekneferu of the Middle Kingdom 12th Dynasty (18th century BCE). She didn't seem to have Hatshepsut's problems with acceptance as monarch, though. (Whether this is because of different political circumstances, different cultural circumstances, or simply that her reign lasted 3 years and Hatshepsut's over 20 is unclear.)
- Also note that "Ur-Example" merely means "oldest known." Even ancient Egypt gives us possible older answers from the Old Kingdom. This includes the probably-nonexistent 6th-Dynasty Nitocris^note and three royal ladies of the 4th and 5th Dynasties named Khentkaus (who all definitely existed and were definitely powerful in their time but whose status as queens regnant is questionable at best).
Sibling Yin-Yang: The Sumerian sun god Utu and his brother Nergal, god of plague and fire.
Sinister Sentient Sun: Sekhmet from Egyptian mythology is a sun goddess who almost committed genocide on mankind and could only be stopped by making her drunk on beer.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: The Sumerian Courtship Of Inanna And Dumuzi. Inanna spends most of the story berating the shepherd Dumuzi for not being a farmer, until they have a good argument and Inanna becomes smitten. They spend the rest of the story having awesome sex.
Smash the Symbol: After establishing a monotheism centered on the sun god Aten, Akhenaten carried out an iconoclasm against all other Egyptian gods.
Snakes Are Sinister: Apep/Apophis in Egyptian Mythology is the God of Evil known as the snake of chaos, with the resident good god Ra constantly battling him and making sure he doesn't win because if he does, he will consume the whole world. At the same time, snakes were also associated with protection, such as the goddess Wadjet, whose symbols were worn by the Pharoah.
Sole Survivor: In the Old Kingdom Egyptian story "Tale Of The Shipwrecked Sailor", the protagonist was the only survivor of his ship after a storm on the Red Sea.
Soul Eating: In Egyptian Mythology, those whose hearts (Believed to contain the soul) proved heavier than the feather of Ma'at at judgement would have their hearts eaten by Ammit.
Spare to the Throne: The surprise succession of a younger son after the death of the heir apparent is probably as old as the institution of monarchy, which is to say it’s probably prehistoric (literally). That said, a very early and prominent historical example is that of Amenhotep IV, King of Egypt, better known by the name he chose for himself, Akhenaten. Young Prince Amenhotep was the second of King Amenhotep III's two sons by his Great Royal Wife Tiye, and as such he was trained for the priesthood. Meanwhile, his much older brother, the Crown Prince Thutmose, appears to have received a more comprehensive education for the throne. However, Thutmose died young, possibly in a plague that appears to have struck Egypt in the middle to late years of Amenhotep III's reign. As a result, Prince Amenhotep became the new heir…and many historians wonder if his shortcomings as monarch and his unusual devotion to religious affairs was influenced by his education.
Speak of the Devil: Some Egyptian gods were apparently feared enough that they were called only by odd euphemisms, such as "That Ba."
Speaks Fluent Animal: In the Egyptian story "Princess Ahura: The Magic Book", the eponymous Artifact of Death grants the reader the ability to understand birds and beasts, among other fantastic powers.
Spear Counterpart: While Distaff Counterparts seem to be more common in the Egyptian pantheon, they also have a few of these. I.e. Sesha (counterpart of Seshat) and Tefen (counterpart of Tefnut, or maybe another name for Shu).
Spell Book: Examples from Ancient Egypt date as far back as the Middle Kingdom, although many of the longer and more famous spellbooks (of those intended for use by the living) date to Greco-Roman times.
Spontaneous Generation: Whichever god comes first in a Creation Myth usually either appears from nowhere, or creates him/herself. Explicitly spontaneously-generated Egyptian gods include Ptah, Atum, and the eight gods of the Ogdoad. Tiamat and Apsu in Enûma Eliš apparently also came from nowhere.
Staff of Authority: Used by Egyptian and Mesopotamian rulers.
Stairway to Heaven: The Egyptian Pyramid Texts describe both a ladder and a stairway for the deceased king to use when he Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence, and the Step Pyramid was probably a literal Stairway to Heaven for King Djoser.
Star-Crossed Lovers: The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna/Ishtar is bereaved every year when her love Dumuzi spends several months in The Underworld. The Egyptian gods Nut and Geb are kept apart by their father Shu, who wanted to prevent their marriage.
Strategy Game: Senat, and possibly Go. A board resembling a draughts board was found in Ur dating from 3000 BC.
Stripperific:
- Ancient Minoan dresses were topless by default. To be more descriptive, the most common costumes for Minoan females consisted of two types: an every-day dress that consisted of a full, ankle-length skirt, and a loose, short-sleeved blouse which was fully open in the front; and a ceremonial dress consisting of a long, mulch-layered skirt, and a tight bodice cut to fully expose the breasts. Minoan women apparently didn't believe in hiding their assets.
- Minoan men hardly fared better. The common male garment consisted of a short white woolen kilt, often worn with a prominent codpiece. And that's pretty much it, except for an optional woolen cloak in inclement weather.
Succubi and Incubi: In Mesopotamian Mythology, on top of being Child Eaters Lilitu, Dimme and Dimme-kur are sometimes this as well, Depending on the Writer.
Super-Strength: Gilgamesh had it.
Swallowed Whole: The various Egyptian books of the netherworld (New Kingdom) include a few vignettes showing deceased people, or maybe gods, swallowed whole by Apep/Apophis.
Swirling Dust: Tuareg Mythology presents us the tale of Adelasegh and his sister. Needing a diversion to rescue her from bandits, he makes the two fastest horses run around in circles while one of them has its eyes irritated and the other a bone stuck on its hoof. He makes the bandits believe it's an equestrian dance. It's something of an Unbuilt Trope.
Take Me Instead: Dumuzi's sister, attempting to save her brother in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld.
Take Over the World: Inanna's reason for going to the underworld in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld. She wants to be supreme over the heavens, the earth, and the underworld.
Taken for Granite: Ngurunderi, an ancestral character of the Jaralde people of southern Australia, turned his wives to stone by raising the seas around Kangaroo Island and drowning them.
Talking Animal: Ancient Egyptian Fairy Tales.
Talking to the Dead: Some Ancient Egyptians wrote letters to the dead — occasionally along the lines of threatening a lawsuit if they didn't stop sending phantoms to torment the living.
A Taste of the Lash: The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi mandates this for some crimes, c. 1780 BC.
There's No Place Like Home: This is the theme of the Egyptian story of Sinuhe, who lives in exile in Palestine but forever longs for Egypt.
Threshold Guardians: The Girtablullu ("scorpion-men") in The Epic of Gilgamesh, who guard the gates of the sun.
Thunderbolt Iron: Tutankhamun was buried with a dagger made from the stuff.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The Ancient Egyptian courtier Seneb had dwarfism and was depicted with a wife of more typical height.
To Hell and Back: This is the plot of Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld.
To Serve Man: Babi, a god of baboons in Egyptian Mythology, is said to have lived off of human entrails.
Toilet Humour: The oldest recorded joke in the world is recorded on a Sumerian tablet from c. 1900 BCE. It's a fart joke:
"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."
Took a Level in Kindness: King Gilgamesh ends up sadder, but more considerate and restrained at the end of his quest.
Top God: Several ancient religions have a singular supreme deity at the top of their pantheon: i.e. Egyptian Re, Amun, Atum, and Isis; Mesopotamian Apsu, Tiamat, Enlil/El, Ashur, and Marduk. Notably, people of this period didn't generally agree which god that was, and beliefs also changed over the millennia.
Tragic Bromance: Gilgamesh and Enkidu are very close friends, perhaps more than friends. Enkidu dies, and Gilgamesh really can't get over it.
Truly Single Parent: Several Egyptian creation gods did this: Atum created the deities Shu and Tefnut from his semen or spit, Re created humanity from his tears, and Ptah created Atum and the other gods with his voice and heart (mind).
Tsundere: The Sumerian goddess Ereshkigal and her sister Inanna.
Twisting the Prophecy: In the legend of Sumerian king Enlil-bani, the former king appoints Enlil-bani as his successor to avoid the wrath of the gods. Enlil-bani then poisons the former king to fulfill the gods' will and get to stay king.
The Underworld: The Mesopotamian Irkalla and the Egyptian Duat are both the afterlife where everybody, one way or another, goes when they die, unless somehow they cease to exist (see Un-person). While the Duat has sections corresponding to Heaven and Hell, and some damned in the Duat even suffer in lakes of fire that probably inspired the Christian Fire and Brimstone Hell, these regions are connected to each other and a dead person or living visitor could potentially take a tour of both. Unlike the Duat, Irkalla is generally gloomy and unpleasant.
Twins Are Special: Based on some versions, Inanna & Utu from Ancient Mesopotamian mythology; Nut & Geb and Osiris & Isis from Ancient Egyptian mythology. In all cases, they are fraternal male/female pairs whose bonds are considered so deep that they become husband and wife. Nut & Geb are also considered special as twins as they are considered the embodiment of duality and complementary natures (Nut is the goddess of the sky, Geb is the god of the earth), forming a single whole.
Twincest: In most polytheistic religions and mythologies, gods are incestuous; Justified as there are literally no other options besides each other. Some examples of incestuous twins are the fraternal male/female pairs Inanna & Utu from Ancient Mesopotamian mythology; Nut & Geb and Osiris & Isis from Ancient Egyptian mythology.
Un-person: In Real Life, one of the punishments for traitors in Ancient Egypt was to chisel away every written or carved instance of their name. Egyptians believed that they could only have an afterlife if their name, and either their body or a good portrait, was preserved for eternity. So this was considered a most permanent punishment. Sometimes they cremated criminals' bodies too, to really prevent an afterlife.
Uneven Hybrid: King Gilgamesh from The Epic of Gilgamesh was said to be 2/3 god and 1/3 human.
Unstoppable Rage: In the Egyptian Book Of The Heavenly Cow (14th century BC), several mortals rebelled against the god Re when he grew old. He sent the fierce goddess Sekhmet to punish the rebels, but could not stop her from gleefully trying to exterminate all humanity. He finally tricked her into drinking an entire lake of beer, and she passed out.
The Vamp: Mesopotamian Mythology has the goddess Ishtar/Innana and the Child Eater Lilitu.
Vestigial Empire: Ancient Egyptian history provides two examples; the second was noted in Greek histories.
- The early Egyptian First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BC) had one within Egypt: records show that the Pharaohs at Memphis were still given respect and may have a religious role across the land, but in reality he had no power outside Memphis and the country was run by squabbling local lords.
- The Twentieth Dynasty and much of the Third Intermediate Period (around 1200-1000 BC, give or take a century) were characterized by splendid isolation, the loss of the New Kingdom's empire in Nubia, the Levant, and Libya, along with interminable squabbling among heirs to the throne, several coups, barbarian raids (including the "Sea Peoples"), and occasional temporary conquest by outside powers.
Wall of Text: Pyramid texts in Ancient Egypt written on walls, dating back to 2400BC, were unformatted, making them hard to follow.
Warrior Prince: Egyptian kings (according to royal propaganda found on temple inscriptions); also King Gilgamesh.
Water Is Womanly: Tiamat from Mesopotamian Mythology is the primordial goddess of the salt sea and a Mother Goddess who birthed countless deities.
Wealthy Ever After: The Egyptian tale "The Eloquent Peasant" apparently ends with the protagonist Hunanup richly compensated for his troubles and rewarded for his eloquence with numerous goods confiscated from the household of Djehuty-nekht, the man who had wronged him.
What the Hell, Hero?: Dumuzi gets this for not saliently mourning his wife Inanna when she died.
Wild Hair: Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Winged Humanoid: Winged-humanoid Egyptian gods usually have the wings attached to their arms, but occasionally on their backs. Mesopotamian art has the winged genii called Apkallu.
Wise Serpent: The ''Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor from the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (c. 2055 BCE–c.1650 BCE). The titular shipwrecked sailor, whose ship is lost on a trading mission in the Red Sea, washes ashore on a mysterious island inhabited by a giant talking snake. The snake consoles the sailor and counsels patience, advising he would be rescued and returned to Egypt in a season (which for the Egyptians was four months). He also tells the sailor about some personal tragedies of his own and how he overcame them. Four months later, the snake is proved right, and the sailor is rescued. (At this point the serpent officially reveals he's actually a god, and also the Lord of Punt, and also that the island is magic and will disappear as soon as the sailor's ship slips over the horizon, because ancient Egyptian stories are weird like that.)
Womanliness as Pathos: Dates back to The Epic of Gilgamesh, which uses a wide variety of variants, such as the wild Enkidu being magically tamed after sleeping with a prostitute.
Woman Scorned: Inanna/Ishtar, in The Epic of Gilgamesh, takes it very badly when Gilgamesh turns down her proposition, and calls her out for killing her past lovers.
Words Can Break My Bones: One of the ideas behind Ancient Egyptian magic was the very real potency of words and especially names. Their religious rituals also made extensive use of this principle.
World's Strongest Man: Gilgamesh of Mesopotamian Mythology.
Worthy Opponent: Gilgamesh and Enkidu, to each other.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: From the Egyptian "Tale Of Two Brothers", New Kingdom: Anubis' wife tried to seduce her brother-in-law Bata. When he refused, she created fake bruises from makeup, and told Anubis that Bata tried to seduce her and beat her for refusing.
Yandere: The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna/Ishtar.
You Can't Fight Fate: In the Egyptian story "Princess Ahura: The Magic Book", the prince and his family cannot escape the punishment the gods decree for their sacrilege. Gilgamesh fails to escape the mortality of humanity.
You Killed My Father: Horus in Egyptian Mythology, after his uncle Set killed his father Osiris.
Young Conqueror:
- The earliest one we know about for sure is Thutmose III of Egypt. He took control of the Egyptian Army as a teenager during his joint rule with his aunt Hatshepsut. A few years later—in 1479 BCE, when he was 22 or 23—Hatshepsut died, and Thutmose became the sole ruler of Egypt. The Canaanite city-state of Kadesh took advantage of the transition to march on Egyptian territory, but Thutmose fought them off and promptly began conquering much of the rest of Syria. In this and subsequent campaigns in Syria and Nubia, Thutmose proved to be a very skilled general—modern historians compare him to Napoleon for his grasp of strategy and tactics and his ability to leverage his country's colossal human and economic resources into military advantage—and had conquered most of his substantial empire by age 30.
- It is possible that Sargon of Akkad about 900 years earlier also fit the trope, but we don't know how old he was when his reign began and he started forging an empire.
Your Mom: A "Your Mother" joke was found on a cuneiform tablet from ca. 1,500 BC.
Zombie Apocalypse: The Sumerian goddess Inanna twice threatened to make the dead rise from The Underworld to devour the living if she didn't get her way.

Specific works from this period:

Older Than Dirt Tropes:

Alternative Title(s): Older Than Greek

Previous

Index

Next

Older Than Dirt

Edit Locked

Specific works from this period:

Older Than Dirt Tropes:

Alternative Title(s): Older Than Greek

Previous

Index

Next