YMMV / Mesopotamian Mythology

• Common Knowledge: Tiamat is generally thought of as a dragon. While she did apparently give birth to dragons and sea serpents (among other creatures), her description in a surviving version of the Babylonian creation myth is rather vague (it states that Tiamat represents "the salty water"), and many alleged depictions of her are under contention.
• Complete Monster: Lamashtu is the daughter of the benevolent god Anu. A savage monster who rejects all goodness, Lamashtu causes famines and droughts, spreading pestilence and disease in the process. Not content with this, Lamashtu induces miscarriages and will steal infants to murder them while also murdering pregnant women and innocent young mortals, rending them apart to eat them herself. So vile is Lamashtu that even another demon like Pazuzu may be invoked against her, being the most terrifying and remorseless monster in the entire pantheon.
• Ho Yay:
  • Gilgamesh and Enkidu are the biggest examples.
  • Inanna and Ninshubur, as Ninshubur is described as Inanna's consort in Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld. It's so obvious that the Babylonians even changed Ninshubur's gender from female to male to avert the subtext.
  • In the myth Dumuzi's Dream, Dumuzi's sister Geshtinanna is assisted by the goddess Geshtindudu, who is described as her adviser and girlfriend.
• Values Resonance: Ancient though as it might be, the texts of the Mesopotamians show that nothing is new under the sun:
  • Pretty much all of the The Epic of Gilgamesh. See this entry there.
  • A recovered text on Humbaba shows it as a noble guardian of the wilds and lamenting the destruction of the environment by humanity.
  • Tiamat is a monster, but only on the most literal of senses. She is depicted as a grieving wife who's forced to retaliate against her own children. Quite a lot of sympathy at a time when the combination of being a woman in power and a non-human being would make the end of her portrayal one dimensional.
  • Many stories allude to the honour and respect intersex people had in ancient Mesopotamian societies, which definitely ressonates with the current LGBT rights struggle.