Flooding and drought occurred often because there uncontrollable rivers. The weather conditions in Mesopotamia were tough, not very different from nowadays. There was rain just in a certain time of the year, and there were long periods during the year without rain. All these conditions made life difficult in the area. The area of Mesopotamia has mountain ranges in the north, area that was home for tribes.
Those tribes often attacked southern neighbours and return to hide in the mountains. At times, attacks were followed by intentions of settling down.
This obviously made the place an unsecured area to live. The communities inhabiting in those areas must have suffered many wars, not just from the tribes of these mountains, but also from nomad tribes, like the Semites and other communities, whom shared the same location and fought for its control.
The geographical conditions and the amount of communities having to share the fertility of the river surroundings made Mesopotamia an uneasy region to live. Obviously, all these events did had an impact on the cosmology of the civilisations inhabiting Mesopotamia.
This was reflected on their religion, their view of life and death, their pessimism. The Mesopotamians were polytheists and the Gods were very much related to natural disasters. In fact, they believed that Gods were responsible for all natural reactions. The King was a servant of the Gods.
He had to serve, to offer to the Gods for the stability of his country. Gods would bring this stability at their will and humans had no much confidence that order would be maintained at all times.
As I said, changes were happening all the time and disasters occurred often. The King was just a servant so was below the Gods, in another league, and on a relationship of inequality towards them. How were religious beliefs similar in Mesopotamia and Egypt? How were they different? The Egyptians were said to have a optimistic view of the world through their religion, while the Mesopotamians were pessimistic?
What do the words optimist and pessimist mean? He travels to the ends of the earth to find a man, Utanapishti, whom he knows to have obtained it. You will not find the eternal life you seek. Nonetheless, Gilgamesh eventually reaches Utanapishti, who tells him that his own immortality was granted as a unique and exceptional situation.
Gilgamesh finds the plant but a snake steals it, and so returns home having realised that all his efforts were futile. He then resolves to live life without giving the pursuit of immortality much thought.
The only answer, hinted by Siduri, is that it is because the gods kept immortality for themselves. But the message is clear, like Gilgamesh no individual will escape death. This renders the advice of the previous author even more disheartening, given that it is now suggested that it could make no difference — but such is the nature of Mesopotamian literature. The divine sphere consisted of fickle gods. Overnight they could grant victory to the enemy or cause destruction without provocation.
It opens with a description of how An and Enlil issued decrees that caused the Sumerian gods to abandon their cities, which were later destroyed. Who can overturn it? It is the command of An and Enlil. Who can oppose it? What more can we add to it? During this time, their enemies, the Gutians and the Elamites, also attacked Sumer and Ur.
Urim was given kingship but it was not an eternal reign — who has ever seen a reign of kingship that would take precedence forever? Eventually, however, Suem intercedes once more for the city of Ur, and Enlil agrees to restore it. At no point in the lament is there a reason provided for the destruction of Sumer and Ur.
Enlil gives no explanation other than the idea that no reign lasts forever, and it is only restored because of the intercession of his son. This lament reflects the resentful Mesopotamian mentality surrounding the nature of their gods; they believed them to be unkind, acting without reason, and cryptic in their motives. There are also smaller incidents that express how people were afflicted in the face of divine abandonment and injustice. In the text Monologue of the Righteous Sufferer , the character is ill and finds none of his gods willing to help him despite the fact that he is pious:.
Demons were viewed as being either good or evil. Evil demons were thought to be agents of the gods sent to carry out divine orders, often as punishment for sins. They could attack at any moment by bringing disease, destitution, or death. Demons could include the angry ghosts of the dead or spirits associated with storms. Some gods played a beneficent role to protect against demonic scourges. A deity depicted with the body of a lion and the head and arms of a bearded man was thought to ward off the attacks of lion-demons.
Pazuzu, a demonic-looking god with a canine face and scaly body, possessing talons and wings, could bring evil, but could also act as a protector against evil winds or attacks by lamastu -demons. Rituals and magic were used to ward off both present and future demonic attacks and counter misfortune.
Demons were also represented as hybrid human-animal creatures, some with birdlike characteristics. Although the gods were said to be immortal, some slain in divine combat had to reside in the Underworld along with demons. There the spirits of the dead gidim dwelt in complete darkness with nothing to eat but dust and no water to drink. The Underworld was ruled by Eresh-kigal, its queen, and her husband Nergal, together with their household of laborers and administrators.
From about the middle of the third millennium B. Statues of the gods were mainly fashioned out of wood, covered with an overleaf of gold, and adorned with decorated garments. Texts refer to chests, the property of the god, filled with gold rings, pendants, rosettes, stars, and other types of ornaments that could adorn their clothing.
Statues were not thought to be actual gods but were regarded as being imbued with the divine presence. Being humanlike, they were washed, dressed, given food and drink, and provided with a lavishly adorned bedchamber. Deities could also be represented by symbols or emblems. Some divine symbols, such as the dagger of the god Ashur or the net of Enlil, were used in oath-taking to confirm a declaration. Divine symbols appear on stelae and naru boundary stones representing gods and goddesses.
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