The Sumerian Deities : Religion

Sumerians were creative inventors in their city-state of Sumer and made a lot of advancements and inventions that impacted. What the Sumerians did also helped their society and today’s society. It changed our world to come to be what it is today. Since Sumer is a place that lived long ago, its history and actions made up what our generation and life is like today.

Generally within textbooks on Western civilization it tells us about how the Sumerians began organized agriculture, domesticated wheat and such animals as the horse and donkey, initiated urban living by building cities, and invented writing and the wheel. The Sumerians, apparently, initiated human civilization 6000 years ago. Nevertheless, European (white) written textbooks do not recognize them like they

The others acknowledge Aruru for her great powers and responsibility, and then simply command her to perform a task. “You, Aruru, created the boundless human race, now create what Anu commanded” (The Epic of Gilgamesh 101). She is expected to, and never asked to; create life on command, just to make others happy, as if it were her only purpose. This could be a parallel to how men view women: solely as baby makers. Regardless, Aruru does as she is told and creates Enkidu from clay. It is implied that women are only good at a certain job, making it seem as if their ability to procreate is all that matters. This kind of belief also shows that women were mostly seen as sex machines for men, for their use and convenience. Women were viewed as replaceable; their jobs were to be mothers, wives, or harlots. Women were controlled, and those who were unable to be controlled were deemed as dangerous.

She went to live on earth and gave birth to Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The twins wanted to get revenge. They challenged the gods to a game and won. The brothers sacrificed themselves and the gods were amazed. The gods were defeated making one brother the sun and making one brother the moon, starting the beginning of time.

During 3000 BC, Sumerian was the first cyclical empire, even though they came to a fall the Sumerian people made an impact on Western Civilization. This empire kept history alive, but never forgotten. The wheel was one of their many inventions which are still used today for cars, and manual labor like wheel barrels and lawnmowers. The epic poem Gilgamesh is still a book read today in English classes. This epic poem is inspiring and was an actual historical figure. The Sumerians contributed several ideas, the first organized religion temples and priests. The Sumerians also gave us the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, which was a story about a river dividing itself into 4 river heads, two of the four being the Tigris and the Euphrates River. The water supply was an accommodating way of trade. The Sumerians were the first international traders. They also invented writing, the Sumerians wrote of cuneiform blocks, now student can write on paper but it was a start being able to write thoughts down. The Sumerians had countless clever ideas; they also invented the potter’s wheel, which was used for making pottery to store food and goods. The plow was used for farming and the sailboat was used for traveling up or down the river, for trading or

Egyptian Mythology’s creation started with Nu, the dark and swirling chaos before time. Eventually, Atum rose from Nu and created a hill for himself to stand on. He had one eye that would see everything, but was very lonely. Soon after, Atum brought Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of mist and moisture into life. They gave birth to Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky. Nut would give birth to the sun every night before sunset so the sun would shine through the day, and die at night.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is generally regarded as the greatest literature about tales of a great king. The Epic of Gilgamesh served to show us a lot of things. The time period of BCE is very blurry, and this story attempts to describe many different things in not only Sumerian beliefs, but also Sumerian's culture as a whole. Like many stories from BCE the truth itself is questionable, even though a lot of the information is fact. The factual information that Gilgamesh teaches us about Sumerian Civilization is that had had many craftsman and artistic skills, and also a strong belief in Gods.

Evolutions of civilizations can occur because of differences in people’s religion, culture, or geographic setting of the settlement. The relationship between the world of the gods and that of men was perceived differently by the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Hebrew ancient civilizations. This is demonstrated by the way each group viewed the process of creation. They had different thoughts on the creation of their gods, the universe and of man. This essay will discuss the relationship between humans and their gods in three different ancient civilizations: Sumerian, Egyptian and Hebrew.

One of the most important inventions was cuneiform. (Doc.1)It was created by the Sumerians over 5000 years ago (Doc.1). It was the world's first Language.(Doc.1) Sumerians invented this writing system to keep track of business dealings, records (Doc. 1) and religious activity (OI). It

The polytheistic religion of the Sumerian contrasted with the monotheistic religion of the Hebrews. The people of Sumeria worshipped thousands of gods, and each city-state adopted a god as their protector (Hunt, Martin, Rosenwein & Smith, 2013, p.10). Moreover, the Sumerian built ziggurats, a temple tower, to please their gods (Hunt,

The Sumerians created a civilization located in the Fertile Crescent, or Mesopotamia, which is located in the Middle East. The legendary ruler of the Sumerians, Hammurabi, was famous for his set

The religions of the Greek, Ute, and Hawaiian cultures strive to attribute Gods for the forces of the natural world around them, bridging the gap between their understanding of their world and the effect on them. For instance, the Ute Great Spirit Manitou infused life into the world, and all things in it, thus populating the world of the Ute. There were mountains, trees, deer and of course the bear to rule them all. Also, Hawaiians believe that Kumulipo the male, and Po’ele the female, born from darkness and in turn gave birth to many more Gods like Kane-i-ka-wai-ola diminishing darkness, Pohaha night coming into dawn. The Greek Goddess Eurynome laid the great egg that hatched the world with all of its creatures and plants. These myths

The Sumerians were the most successful ancient civilization because they created the first written language. For example, without the Sumerians, we humans would not have the invention of writing. Their writing was called cuneiform. Cuneiform is when they took a stylus and imprinted writing on clay tablets. The Sumerians would sometimes also imprint on wax, stone, and metal.

Kronos, the son of Uranus and Gaea. Uranus, father sky, king of the skies known by the Romans as Caelus. Gaea is known an symbolized as the earth, and as the mother of everything. She was one of the few, along with Tartarus and Eros, who were the first three immortals within the creation of the earth. As for Cronus's father, he was the former ruler of the sky, before his son Cronus. In fact Uranus was very afraid of his own children,

Out of all my other sources, Jacobsen’s book is the most general and brief. This book covers the history of Mesopotamian religion from the fourth to second millennium BCE. There is no focus on a singular deity in this work. Jacobsen identifies three key phases that the roles of Mesopotamian deities underwent: providers, rulers, and parents (Jacobsen 1976, 20). Clearly, this is reflective of broad developments that the society went through at the time – establishment of agriculture, of the state, and of the individual. When discussing gods acting as providers, Jacobsen dedicates a chapter in analyzing a long myth, dating back to the fourth millennium BCE, about how Inanna and her husband, Dumuzi, met and lived together as a divine couple (Jacobsen 1976, 25-26). Their personalities and ideas they represent are discussed here. Additionally, Jacobsen also mentions precise cities in Sumer that Inanna and Dumuzi were looked to as their main deities – these include Uruk, Bad-tibira, Umma, and Zabalam (Jacobsen 1976, 25). This is useful in providing more historical and geographical context.