Tristan Hughes

I know I'm bringing us back near the start, but I don't want us to finish this episode without mentioning the underground river because that's startling in its own right.

And do we think this is also potentially be like an underworld link, a catholic link linking the underworld to the Garden of Eden at all?

Book of the Dead and so on, which actually is nice.

I'm glad I said that.

To also ask about influences from ancient Egypt with the story of Adam and Eve, because you've already mentioned earlier the story of the snake linked to snatching the plant of eternal life from Gilgamesh.

So a clear Mesopotamian link there.

But when I think of snakes, I also think of them as a divine symbol of Peronic Egypt and the pharaohs.

Could there be a clear Egyptian link in the story of Adam and Eve?

And if we go back to the fruit, I asked you right at the beginning to dismantle the apple idea.

Okay.

But of course, I didn't ask, are there any theories as to what the fruit could have been if it wasn't an apple?

And the possible, once again, that's Mesopotamia, we're thinking in the east.

I had to ask that.

We've covered so many themes from the story of Adam and Eve, but are there any other particular mentions, parts of the story that have clear links to Mesopotamia or other places in the early first millennium BC that we haven't covered yet?

That leads me nicely into what I was going to ask, which was the legacy of the Adam and Eve story.

Does it remain very important into the Roman period where you have the first Christians and you have apostles like Paul spreading the word?

I guess it's a much more recognizable story than the other creation story of Genesis 1, of God and how would you depict, of course, creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh.

The Adam and Eve creation story, or those you highlighted early on, they almost contradict each other with the story of the creation of man and woman.

It's easier for these artists to depict, for people to recognize as time goes on.

And also the Garden of Eden and its meaning today for any beautiful place that you enter.