The Mythology Of The Mesopotamian Civilization

Jean Bottero the author of Ancient Religion in Mesopotamia, mentions how the Sumerians had practiced the religious belief along with the very first writing system. Bottero believes the Sumerians seem to had a strong relationship with supernatural personalities that formed their own nature and culture. The Sumerians created the Gods because of the documents found were all written in Sumerian languages according to the canonical lists of gods. Therefore, Bottero proved that these numerous number of gods were all established by the Sumerians. However, the Sumerians’ gods were absorbed by more powerful individuals and certainly the powerful gods created myths for the people to put into records.

The ancient Mesopotamia, the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Indus Valley, and the ancient China are known as the four great major ancient civilizations in human history. Each of the unique culture and society that the ancient civilization developed were the sources of the extensive knowledge of philosophy, science, literature, art and other aspects of today’s human civilization. The existent of the myths and the epics found in the ancient civilization sites are the sign of human primary form of culture, in which it explained human beings through conquer the nature transform into the process of the material and spiritual civilization. The oldest and earliest mythical narrative poems of ancient Mesopotamia “Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative” written by Babylonians, is undoubtedly the crystallization of Sumerian culture. From the content of the story, one can see ancient Sumerian’s early civilization, society, and religion culture. Comparing this poem to modern plays such as “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, this ancient narrative epic still has an important historical and cultural value so far.

Just like everything else, this belief system took development. It was not significantly impacted by the Sumerians, Akkadians,Gutians, Kassites, Hurrians, Aramaeans, or Chaldeans coming into the area. It was more impacted by the needs of the area and people. They visualized the gods as humans and gave each one a specific function. Around the second and first millennia, personal religion became important, and the concept of sin and forgiveness were brought to the table.

In Mesopotamia you can learn all about their religion and beliefs. Mesopotamians are polygamist which means they believe in many gods. Some of their gods are Aursh god of air, Anu god of heaven and sky, lord of constellations also father of the gods. They also believe in Enik god of the Abzu, crafts, water, intelligence, mischief and creation and divine ruler of the Earth and its humans. Nanna is the god of the moon, Utu god of the sun, Ereshkigal goddess of the underworld, Inanna goddess of fertility, love and war, Nabu god of wisdom and writing, Tammuz god of vegetation, Nanshe goddess of social justice and fish, Ninurta god of agriculture, Ninlil goddess of air. The mesopotamian didn’t just believe in gods they believed in demons created

In both cultures, the gods are neither omniscient of, nor omnipresent in the mortal realm. Gilgamesh can slay Humbaba, “before Enlil the foremost hears what we [Enkidu and Gilgamesh] do!” , for the same reason Achilles must wait twelve days for a response from Zeus when Zeus is away feasting with the Aethiopians (Epic of Gilgamesh 5.186). The gods are no aware of the actions of every human, and honestly, they could not care less. Beyond their pet favorites, the Mesopotamian and Greek gods share a disturbing lack of concern for humans.

It was interesting to me that many religions have some of the same things in them for example the great flood with Utnapishtum; this story resembles Noah and the Ark which comes from the Christian bible. As I continue to learn about religions I find that most religions explain the same thing, for example how the earth was created, why we have sin, and why certain things are the way they are. I also thought it was interesting seeing how the religions would mention each other in their teachings for example, the bible quoting that Babylon was a wicked city that came up in the article. The Mesopotamian religion has many gods, it seemed like gods for everything from the sea to the underworld it reminded me of Greek gods/ religion. I found that

Can you identify key cultural themes expressed through the myths and poems of Mesopotamia and Egypt? How do the mythopoeic system of thought and their respective environments establish those themes?

As proven throughout all time periods in history, our ability as humans to function in a society is heavily dependent on organization, regulations, and cooperation amongst the individuals in a community. Even some of the most ancient civilizations such as the Mesopotamians who existed roughly between 5000-3500 BC kept certain set laws enabling them to construct a well ordered society. The Code of Hammurabi consisted of nearly 300 rules or more appropriately, “if and then” statements relating to crimes and their various punishments. The ancient Mesopotamians had a good sense of unlawful acts and although some disciplines were drastic most of them had equal retribution. For instance, the second law that was engraved on the eight-foot tall stela

The Mesopotamian religion has not a large amount of information uncovered. There are both archaeological and textual data that has been found on religious beliefs of the early Sumerian civilization survive. The typical temples were constructed of mud bricks and adorned with buttresses and many small cones of different colors. On the inside there was a niche for the image of the deity right in front of an offering table. The early sanctuaries were simple in their style but the later new temples contained spacious courts, which were rooms for attendant priests and a ziggurat. There were three types of textual materials that have been discovered: prayers, descriptions of the rituals conducted by priests, and mythological literature. Prayers were always associated with specific rites to be performed by the person offering the prayers or by a priest attached to the sanctuary. The prayers would consist of invocations to the gods, requests for assistance, and expressions of gratitude for past favors or for dangers averted. There was a rule, that the worshipers did not emphasize such spiritual or moral topics as death, survival, and contact with the divine. The discovered mythological literature is difficult for present day readers to understand and the extent to which such myths reflect early religious beliefs is unknown. In its beginning, Mesopotamian religion expressed harmony between humanity and the natural powers on which it depended on survival. The Sumerians have

The early Mesopotamian religions, as all folklores, depicted the activities of nature as those of divine beings and goddesses. These were brought into being by four maker divine beings, who were thus made by Tiamat and Abzu, customized (or humanized, maybe) powers which emerged from a primordial disorder. There was a sky-god, An, Enlil a tempest/climate god, an earth god named Nin-kharsag and a water god named Enki. You see the same or varieties of these and other lesser divine beings and goddesses all through Mesopotamian history from the soonest urban areas through the considerable realms of Babylon and Assyria. Sumerian culture being Mesopotamian a similar essential convictions apply-a level earth encompassed via oceans from which the universe

Expectedly, the term Bronze Age refers to a period in time when bronze was the primary metal used to create tools and weapons. At the time it was discovered that by adding copper and tin, a stronger sharp alloy metal could be created. Therefore bronze became popular and commonly used for weaponry and household items. During the Bronze Age (3000-1200 B.C.), also known as the Age of Metals, three innovations came about in Mesopotamia and Egypt metallurgy, writing,  and construction (Matthews, Noble, & Platt, 2014, p.6).

Much like tens of thousands of years ago, religion is still a central component of our lives today. Some of the most popular religions today are Christianity and Judaism, both based on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and both based in the Near East. Because of cultural assimilation within the region, it would only be logical for the religions of today to share some similarities of those established in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Sculpture: Very few of their sculptures are around today, but the most famous is the Woman of Willendorf, which is thought to have a connection to fertility.

Mesopotamia, an area that lies in the Modern-Day Iraq, is home to one of the earliest civilizations who settled in an area called the fertile crescent. It is considered the birthplace of civilization, the inventors of cities and modern life. In the book, the Author (Gwendolyn Leick) focus lies in studying and presenting the information on the ancient cities of Eridu, Uruk, Shuruppak, Akkad, Ur, Nippur, Sippar, Ashur, Nineveh and lastly Babylon. Leick describes the history of the cities, what people have discovered there, the influence it had on the societies living there, etc. Leick gives the reader an insight into the Mesopotamian society, the Assyrian society and other insights, in a way that really helps one understand his view on how civilization began in that area.

However, Gilgamesh is really searching for life and power. He wants to rule over everything and become the most powerful being. Once he makes it to Utnapishtim, he is told that immortality is not for him. But in finding this out, he discovers his "life" and realizes that it is not only about living forever and being the most powerful, but rather about the quality of ones life and how it is spent. 1 Through this, Gilgamesh overcomes his fear of the Darkness of religion. But for the Mesopotamians, there was still a high level of fear to the people as they did not want to do anything to cause the gods to be distraught. Everything they did was to pacify the gods and was in line with what they believed that the gods wanted or what would please them. Not only were the gods part of their religion, but the different law codes were a key factor in religion. The "Code of Hammurabi", one of the biggest and most popular law codes in history, shows us the impact of the law's on the Mesopotamians religion and culture. (but the law code is their religion -- reword??) It shows us the importance that the religious beliefs had on the Mesopotamians. When Hammurabi put his code of laws into place, he used the power