Shamash Hymn

Some examples of this include the hope of religion, looking up to a specific person/thing, meditating, drinking alcohol, engaging in illegal substances, etc. For me, looking to God helps me during hard times. My faith reminds me that God is there to help and he will create a path for me and direct me to it. Many of my peers feel this way about difficult times, however I understand that there are people who deal with their struggles in a different way.

In ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’, the protagonist fails to fulfill the demands and responsibilities the gods’ and people of Ancient Sumerian society have bestowed upon him. The duties of a Sumerian king are to honor and best represent the Gods ‘ virtues and principles through his ruling actions over the inhabitants of the kingdom.

Faith in a "higher power" is often used as a crutch by many in times of struggle. However, when that crutch is removed, the hardships that need to be overcome seem to increase as hope diminishes. This is true

In ancient Greek culture the gods were seen as taking a very active role in the development and course of human history.  The entire Olympian pantheon, as well as many other less important divinities, meddles in human affairs to no end.  The people of the many city-states that composed Greece firmly believed that every aberration from normalcy was due to an act of the gods.  Homer, the author of The Iliad, coined the prevalent religious beliefs of the time in his epic poems, showing the gods as temperamental and willful, meddlesome and dynamic.  Homer’s entire poem is replete with instances of divine intervention in mortal lives, and no single major occurrence comes to pass unless it is the will of one of the many Olympian gods.  Few major decisions are made without consulting the gods first, and the handful of instances in which one leader or another takes initiative almost always fails miserably.  Life, according to the Greeks, is almost entirely rooted in their religion, as there is a god or goddess governing every aspect of the universe, and also because the gods so actively involve themselves in the everyday lives of mortals.

In both Mesopotamia circa 2100 BCE and Israel circa 367 CE, two very different forms of religion were being practiced. However, key concepts in both religions remain strikingly similar, and in some cases, nearly identical. The relationship between people and their deities is a strong one based entirely on literature, whether that be oral or written. And while this relationship is characterized mainly by love and admiration, fear of and punishment by deities was not an uncommon practice in any religion. The Epic Of Gilgamesh and The David Story both work to prove that the relationship between a people and the divine is characterized by both love for and fear of deities. This relationship based on love and fear directly impacts both the decisions made with the guidance of deities and the punishments inflicted for decisions made without approval of these deities.

In both stories, the gods are respected and feared in some way, but at some point, humans displease the gods. To enforce His authority over all living creatures, the god in Genesis “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” so He fashioned an immense flood to rid the world of the evil that He brought about (King James Version, Gen. 6.5). However, not all humans continuously sinned; He spared Noah and his family because he remained so devoted to God, then later made a promise that “waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Gen. 9.15). Likewise, in The

One of the best known of the official military songs is the Marine Corps Hymn. And yet, no one knows who made it or exactly how old it is. Legend has it that it dates back to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). It wasn’t officially copyrighted until 1917 when W.E. Christian published it in the book “Rhymes of Rookies” (Gutenberg.org). Even though we don’t know its exact origin, we do know what the song stands for and what it means. The hymn praises the idealism of the Marine Corps and also looks back on historic moments Marines have dealt with and overcome.

For instance Wiesel states, “I was alone. Terribly alone in a world without God.” (Wiesel 68) Terribly, this is how he felt. A world without Go. He's in darkness, he's suffering. Wiesel feels more alone than he's ever felt. From the beginning transitioning to now all faith is gone. One would wonder how could someone with faith so strong lose God? Suffering can make you forget the good. Another example of this is when a man tells Elie Wiesel, “One day he said to me: it's over. God is no longer with us.” (Wiesel 76) Wiesel doesn't believe there can be good anymore, and neither does anyone he's with in these camps. God is good, He is their creator and savior, yet they believe in a God that wouldn't let bad happen. When suffering begins, one's faith starts to

This loss of faith gives them no reason to live. They have experienced many hardships and inhumane treatment. This makes them feel like God is no longer with them. They begin to question God’s existence and will towards them. “For God’s sake, where is God?

In life we are given obstacles. Some obstacles may be a lot worse than others, but everyone faces them. The only way to overcome them is by keeping faith in God. During these challenging times in life, people start to question why keep faith in someone or something that is causing pain and suffering to themselves and/or the rest of the world. They start to give up hope and start losing their faith in God.

Many authors have employed the religious beliefs of their cultures in literature. The deities contained in Homer’s Odyssey and in the Biblical book of Exodus reflect the nature of the gods in their respective societies. Upon examination of these two works, there are three major areas where the gods of the Greek epic seem to directly contrast the nature of the God of the Israelites: the way problems are solved, the prestige and status that separates the divine from the masses, and the extent of power among the immortal beings.

Many people believe that everything happens for a reason. Some people believe there is a God out there deciding their fate, and others believe it’s their actions that create the path they will take. No matter the idea, everyone has a different relationship with what they believe in. In Gilgamesh, edited by Steven Mitchell, demigod Gilgamesh struggles with his relationship to the gods. When the council of gods kill his best friend, Enkidu, Gilgamesh goes on a difficult journey aiming to become immortal and truly equal to them. His relationship with the gods is complicated because without them, Gilgamesh cannot succeed. Yet somehow, they are also the only thing in his way. In this epic, the relationship between gods and men is filled with tension because the gods have immense power over the humans, including the ability to decide the fate of their entire world.

The personalities of the gods are as broad as there are stars in the heavens, and as such the ways that these gods interact with mortals vary. The purpose of gods intervening with the days of man comes down to two things, good or bad; there are gods who are caring and loving towards mortals while others view man as pawns which they can use for their own personal agenda. A few gods that capture and exemplify the various personalities of the gods can be found in Ovid: The Metamorphoses of Ovid and Homer: The essential Homer: Selections from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although the ways man and the gods communicate and get each other’s attention are different, there are reoccurring and overarching themes such as desire, and loyalty that make each intervention between gods and mortals similar.

Violence, with an evil undertone is expressed in “The Epic of Creation”. The telling of the creation of Marduk is to incite fear as Marduk is not similar to the humans that are telling this myth; he is a beast of the forces that created him. The chaos of the gods, the war, and the destruction of Tiamat combined with the creation of the world the Mesopotamian knew is about actions and consequences of the all-powerful gods to be feared. Marduk is to be worshipped and feared, as the Mesopotamians shall worship and fear their gods. Their unfriendly natural environment solidifies their belief that the entities that control the elements they experience must be fierce, vexed and feared. Marduk spew’s flames, he created the evil wind that destroyed Tiamat, the mother of gods and the universe before the land they stand upon. Marduk simply has the power to destroy and create. Furthermore, within “The Harps That Once…” we see the people abandoning their “byre” due to the winds created by Enlil’s storm; see their pleas for mercy, their suffering and death. These entities that are introduced in this text are merciless and feared. Their land is a desert landscape with the scorching sun cracking the skin of the people. Between the environment and the storm, this paints

Throughout the life of my person of interest, knowledge of the existence of a creator has had a crippling effect in his struggle to reconcile his perception of life and the great desire for divine approval and acceptance. This is a result of the common belief that moral and spiritual development is attained through the shedding of dogmatic belief structures, resulting in the elimination of God towards the attainment of self-realization.