Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers, is often called the first civilization in history, attributed with the invention of writing as well as some of the earliest cities and empires to ever exist. This culture played a major role in the ancient world and also came to have a huge influence on later developments in history.

The ancient Mesopotamians also had a very rich and developed religious tradition, one whose gods and architecture is very famous to the historically interested, but which is often also sensationalized and misrepresented. It is a rich world that is definitely worth exploring, and that's exactly what we're going to do in this episode. Based on archaeology and scholarship, what can we know about religion in ancient Mesopotamia? A religious tradition that was not only significant in its own time and place, but which also came to play a major role in some of the key features of the Abrahamic religions.

[Laughter] [Applause]

Whether or not it's true that Mesopotamia was the first civilization in history, it's clear that it stretches very far back in history, which makes it very significant. Not to mention the fact that this civilization lasted for basically three millennia, and that's something we need to have in mind from the beginning. We are dealing with a "quote-unquote" culture or religion that lasted for a very long time, and which, like all religions and cultures, changed and evolved over time, especially when we're talking about thousands of years. So, while many of the features of Mesopotamian religion may carry across for much of that period, we should always remember that many other features would change and vary, not only across time, but also at any given point in time. Different people understood and practiced the religion in different ways. So, what we'll try to do here is give a broad overview of some of the most general characteristics of this tradition, with some more particular examples.

When we talk about Mesopotamia, we are talking about the region which is today essentially equivalent to modern Iraq. The Greek name for this region, Mesopotamia, means literally "the land between the two rivers," referring to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Mesopotamian civilization, even though it organized itself in various different empires and political structures, was essentially always based here. The earliest known periods of Mesopotamian civilization was referred to as the land of Sumer and Akkad, which represents two general people groups that occupy the region. By Akkadian, or the people of Akkad, we mean a Semitic people who mostly inhabited the northern parts of Mesopotamia, possibly its original population relatively speaking, and which spoke the Akkadian language, the earliest known Semitic language. The Sumerians, however, which in this period occupy the southern parts of Mesopotamia, are even more mysterious. Many believe, including mythical stories from that time, that they arrived in the region from some other unknown location, perhaps sometime in the 4th millennium BC. They spoke a non-Semitic language and seem to have brought with them a complex culture, including religious beliefs and practices. It is this meeting of the Sumerian and Akkadian cultures, their influence on each other and co-mingling, that resulted in the Mesopotamian civilization. Writing was invented in this context, and Sumerian, the language, was basically the only language that was written, being the kind of official language in this earliest period. But as time went by, the Akkadian Semitic population would vastly outnumber the Sumerians, who basically fizzled out, resulting in that from some time in the third millennium BC, Akkadian became the officially spoken language. But even though these Sumerians didn't remain as such and their language wasn't spoken, it survived as a common written language in sacred writings, or by the educated, kind of similar to how Latin functioned in Europe for much of history. This becomes important for our sources on the religion and culture of this civilization, because a lot of the documents relating to these topics were written in Sumerian. And even if that language, for most of that history, wasn't a spoken language, we can also see traces of this in the names of the many gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon, who often carry both Sumerian and Akkadian names. So, for example, the Sumerian Inanna was also called Ishtar in Akkadian, and this can become a little confusing to people when these names are sort of used interchangeably without any further explanation.

Throughout the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, Mesopotamia saw the rise and fall of several political entities. Sargon of Akkad, at the very end of the 3rd century, founded the Akkadian Empire, perhaps the earliest in history. Later, Hammurabi established the great Babylonian Empire, making the city of Babylon a major cultural center, a position that it would hold for the rest of Mesopotamia's history. The Babylonians were later also challenged by the mighty Assyrians in the north, and even though dynasties rose and fell, the empire was never remaining stable. This is perhaps the most famous image of ancient Mesopotamia: Babylonia in the south and Assyria in the north, both of which would have great empires, consume each other, and generally have a very uneven relationship. But they are still considered to have been part of a unified "quote-unquote" Mesopotamian civilization for most of history. Akkadian was the official language in the whole region, and most importantly for this episode, they shared essentially the same religious tradition.

So, in all this, what was the religion of the ancient Mesopotamians? Well, at its core, it was a polytheistic religion, which means that it involved many different deities, myths about those deities, and rituals aimed at keeping the relationship between humans and those deities on good terms. It is therefore a religious tradition that is very familiar and similar to other polytheistic religions in antiquity. So, if you know a thing or two about ancient Egyptian religion, or ancient Greek religion, and ancient Arabian religion, perhaps you will recognize a lot of things here too. And just as in all those societies, religion and the religious cult was an essential part of life and society. To the ancient Mesopotamians, it was essential for the very maintenance of the world and its order, for the health of the individual and a society, and as is usually the case, it was essential for the state and for the king or emperor, whose authority and legitimacy often rested on his connection to the gods or his role as supervisor of the cult. Religion, in other words, was an integral part of every aspect of life, running through the very veins of Mesopotamian society.

Because we can't talk to the people who lived this tradition or directly be in that context, we can never grasp the full extent of what this religion was. Since it is in essence an extinct tradition, we have to rely on historical sources from that period, sources thus from millennia ago. This means archaeological finds like temples and buildings, or other objects, but above all, it means writings and documents that refer to religious practice or sentiment in some way. We have hymns and prayers to the gods, which give us some idea of how these things functioned. But this also means that we are limited to the perspectives of only one section of the population: the elites, mostly, because they were the ones that had the ability to read and write these things down. Not only that, but we're also limited to the particular things that they thought were important to write down and document, which in many cases might have been the least important things when it comes to their religious tradition. In short, we are limited when it comes to our understanding of Mesopotamian religion because of the limits of our sources. But we still have enough to be able to reconstruct somewhat of a picture of what this religious tradition looked like. We're going to begin by looking at its mythological aspects, namely the gods, divine beings, and the stories told about them and the world. Even though my opinion is that the core of religions are in their practical aspect, I think it could be beneficial to start here and then move our way down to the praxis.

The Mesopotamian pantheon consisted of an innumerable amount of deities, each one more fascinating than the next. Some of them were possibly of Sumerian origin, others from the Semitic culture, who were often also blended and syncretized with each other. The words used for their equivalent of our "god" or "deity" were dingir in Sumerian and ilu in Akkadian, which shows you the similarity of Akkadian to other Semitic languages like Aramaic, Hebrew, or Arabic. The gods were the creators of the universe and also ruled over it and everyone in it. They inspired great reverence from the peoples in the region, being seen and depicted essentially through metaphors of kingship and rule. Just like the kings and emperors ruled over the people in his kingdom, the gods were kings of all of the universe and all of mankind. It was the duty of the human being to obey the will of the divine sovereigns and to worship them. This was a religion where the gods were transcendent, standing above everything in the so-called "on high" or heaven, and humans were their servants. The gods were heavenly rulers of the world, not divinities that inhabited it, at least not in the later developed periods. There is no concept of gods residing in the hearts or souls of human beings in that way, or in objects of the world necessarily, although the gods were considered to be able to reside in a statue or image, as we will see later. The gods were depicted and described in anthropomorphic ways, just like in Greek religion, for example. The stories about the gods depict them as rather human-like, having emotions, getting angry, sometimes being petty, or acting in questionable ways. Also, similar to kings, the gods belonged to a kind of divine dynasty, all being related and part of the same family essentially. To name or go through all of the gods here would be impossible because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them. But again, similar to other polytheistic religions, the different gods were often associated with things like natural phenomena or other human concepts. For example, Shamash in Akkadian, or Utu in Sumerian, was the god of the sun; Nanna, or Sin, was the god of the moon; Enki was the god of wisdom, and so on. It does not appear that there was a direct correspondence here, though, like in Egyptian religion, where the gods were often literally identified as these natural phenomena. Instead, the Mesopotamian gods were divine beings in control of these aspects of the world, although there are probably exceptions to this too, as always. The gods were also usually associated with a particular locale or city and seen as the patron deity of that city. So, the god An, or Anu, and Inanna, Ishtar, were the patron deities of the city Uruk, which is often considered the first true city in history. Enki was the patron deity of the city Eridu. Sin was the god of Ur. Ashur was the god of the city Ashur. You get the idea. These cities would be the main center of worship for these gods, and here is a clear example of how the religion could vary: you would encounter a different kind of cult or religious focus depending on which city you were in, even though they all belonged to the same general system.

Now, even though we can't do a rundown of all the gods, it is true that the pantheon had a kind of built-in hierarchy, and some gods were more important and prominent than others. In particular, there were a few gods that were the most common and powerful throughout Mesopotamian history. There was Anu, the father and founder of the divine dynasty. He is the source, literally the ancestor of all the other gods, and thus, in some ways, he is the highest god of them all, also associated with the sky and heaven. Enlil was, for much of history, the most powerful god. He was the son of Anu, and at some point appears to have inherited or taken over the role as the ruler of all the gods and the universe, thus making him the center of worship and the chief god for much of the religious cult. Enlil was also the god associated with air and with the city of Nippur. Enki, or Ea, another son of Anu, was the wisest and most active of the gods. He would become very important for various creation myths and played a particularly central role in the creation and fashioning of the human being. Inanna, or Ishtar, was the most powerful and prominent female goddess, often representing the female divine as lady or mother of the gods in general, but also more specifically as a particular goddess associated with things like love, sex, and war, and around which there are fascinating mythological stories. There is also the aforementioned Shamash, or Utu, the god of the sun, and Sin, Nanna, the god of the moon. But as I've said, things also change and evolve. For example, in the second millennium, with the establishment of the Babylonian Empire, another new god was exalted to the point of even eventually replacing Enlil as the chief god. This god was Marduk. Marduk was the son of Enki and would take on many of the roles that other gods had had previously. He became associated with creation and concepts like justice and agriculture. He would remain the patron deity of the city of Babylon and is called at its center in this most significant of Mesopotamian cities in the classical era. Similarly, in the Assyrian Empire, the god Ashur took on a similar role as the most important god, which had its center of worship in the Assyrian capital named after him. So, as you can tell, there's a lot of variety and diversity here, but these are some of the most central and recurring gods and deities in this religious tradition, and we will get to know them, as well as other gods, a bit more deeply as the discussion goes on.

Not only is there a general hierarchy among the gods in this way, but they are also sometimes divided into groups. There is often talk about two general groups of gods: the Anunnaki and the Igigi. This topic and the difference between these categories is a very difficult one. Scholars disagree on the relationship between them and what they signify. The Anunnaki, as the name suggests, are gods who are descendants of the older deities Anu and Ki, the goddess of earth. In some of the earliest sources, these appear to be the highest gods, ruling over that other group of deities, the Igigi, who are kind of like their servants. But later in history, these names seem to have been reversed for some reason, the Igigi serving as the high gods and vice versa. At other times, they seem to be used synonymously. I'm not going to pretend like I have the answer to this question; it is one that confuses scholars and historians who are actual experts on this topic, and so I am in no position to speak on it in that way. Just know that these categories exist, and that the relationship between them is very uncertain. But regardless, all these gods are part of a rich and vast mythological tradition which spans across the millennia of Mesopotamian civilization. Myths about the origins of the gods, and subsequently of the whole universe, are just as fascinating as usual and deserve to be explored here. The gods created the world as we know it; that is indisputable to the Mesopotamians. But who created the gods? Or, more accurately, where did the gods come from?

Now, when it comes to mythology, things are very complicated. One thing that many people often get wrong is the very nature of mythological stories. In our religious culture in the West, which is so hugely influenced by the Abrahamic religions in particular, we are used to the idea that there is a definite version of events when it comes to creation or religious history, that there is a story that each religion sort of adheres to. And this is simply not true. Myths, by their nature, are fluid; they are always changing and adapting, being retold by people who may perhaps reformulate certain aspects to fit certain contexts. Myths are in motion. There is never just one version of a particular story or myth, and there wasn't supposed to be, really. The fact that things could be conceived in different ways was not seen as detrimental to the truths of these stories. This is true of the Greek myths, it's true of Egyptian mythology, and it is true in Mesopotamia as well. So, as we go on to explore various myths and stories about the creation of the world or the gods, we don't have just one account; we have many different accounts that can sometimes drastically differ, sometimes fundamentally different from each other. For example, probably the most famous and complete account of creation and theogony in this culture comes from the Enuma Elish, meaning literally "When on High," but often going under the title "The Epic of Creation." Which was discovered in 1849 and probably dates to sometime in the 7th century BC in Babylonia. This is just a rather late source, but it tells a relatively complete account, one which has become standard in retelling some of the central myths, and which I'll be relying on to a major degree here too. But it should always be kept in mind that this is only one version of events, and I will also be giving some contrary examples from other mythological stories.

The gods existed long before the universe did. While the great Anu is the father of the current divine dynasty, he himself had many ancestors, gods who stretched back since long before any universe. At this point, there existed only the gods, as far back as the Mesopotamians could conceive. Even before the line of the divine couples, they thought there existed a divine principle called Nammu, the Lady of the Gods, the mother who gave birth to the universe. This principle was conceived of as a kind of sea or watery substance, in the words of the scholar Jean Bottéro, "quotes simultaneously a supernatural figure, place and matter." It was believed to be of a watery nature, marine. It is placed beyond the ancestors of Anu, as if it was a matter of an individual theogony, even earlier than the oldest divinities. Other later accounts, which don't necessarily have to contradict the first, instead tell of two massive waters: sea or salty water called Tiamat, and fresh water called Apsu. These two divine forces coupled, so to say, and gave birth to the first gods. We then often see a very long line of gods, a dynasty stretching for various lengths, but always being really, really long, until we reach Anu. There seems to have been the idea that the gods kind of developed over time in a teleological sense, that the earliest gods were kind of incomplete or imperfect, getting better over time until we finally reach Anu, who is the perfected form of divinity, and who subsequently founded the current dynasty of gods that then fashioned the universe. As we then get to the actual creation of the world as we know it, only after the existence of the god Anu and his offspring, things get even more diverse. There are so many different versions of how this happened, with different gods serving as the main figure. There is no conception of a creation *ex nihilo* in this religion, that is, a creation from nothingness. The universe is fashioned from what is already there. In some accounts, there existed an original spheric chaotic mass, then heaven and earth were separated from each other, creating the universe. "Court in those days, those ancient days, in those nights, those ancient nights, in those years, those ancient years, after 'on high' had been moved away from below, after 'below' had been separated from 'on high', after Anu had carried off 'on high', after Enlil had carried off 'below', then heaven and earth." The gods Anu and Ki, as a married couple, essentially have sex and produce all the vegetation. In other parts of the world, another account describes the god Enlil as ejaculating into the earth to fertilize it. Others give the wise god Enki, or Ea, a central role as creator. But again, the most complete and famous account comes from "The Epic of Creation." If you remember, this story was written in Akkadian and in the Babylonian Empire in the 7th century BC, which is when the god Marduk had become exalted as the chief god. It is as natural that in this account, Marduk plays the decisive role in the creation of the world. In "The Epic of Creation," it is told how Marduk saves the other gods from destruction when Tiamat, the great primitive universal mother, wanted them annihilated. Marduk then defeats Tiamat and creates the world from her remains, from her body. "Quote: He split her in two like a fish for drying; half of her he set up and made as a cover heaven, spreading the other half of her as cover he established the earth. After he had completed his task inside Tiamat, he spread his net; let all within escape. He formed the something of heaven and netherworld, tightening their bond." Regardless of the story you follow, the world was created by the gods; that much is certain. And the Mesopotamian picture of the cosmos was basically one of a sphere, the upper part of which was known as the "on high," as we saw on the quotes, which can roughly be called or translated as heaven, where the gods reside, and the lower part of which was called the "below," where some lesser gods reside, them where all ghosts or souls will go after death. Right in the middle of the sphere, separating heaven and below, are two great seas, basically at the opposite ends of which are enormous mountains that held up the firmament of heaven. And in the middle of this central part of the cosmos is the earth, the place where humans reside. Furthermore, at the center of this earth is Mesopotamia, and at least according to the Babylonians, at the very center of Mesopotamia, and thus of the world, is the city of Babylon itself. This general cosmology helps us better grasp some of the concepts in Mesopotamian religion, and indeed, the human being would come to play a central role in the purpose of this creation.

The stories about and surrounding the creation of the human being are fascinating, and it is here that we find some of those really strong similarities with the Bible. So, as I retell these myths, see if you can spot where those similarities are the most obvious. The most famous account of human creation comes from a beautiful epic poem called the Atrahasis, named after its titular hero. It was written in Old Babylonia sometime in the 18th to 17th centuries BC. That poem tells the story like this: Before human beings, the Anunnaki, the high gods, had made the Igigi group of gods their servants, working and toiling for them, tending the fields on earth, etc. But because the Igigi were gods and immortal, they basically were able to go on strike and oppose the oppressive situation, destroying the tools used for work, etc. As a solution to this situation, the wise god Enki decided that they should create a new creature, a new being, one that was mortal and could take the place of the Igigi as servants. And so it was that the human being was fashioned from clay, as well as the blood and flesh of some of those other Igigi gods, and began to serve their function as workers for the gods, essentially. But at this time, humans could live for a very long time, like for tens and even hundreds of thousands of years, and there existed no such thing as illnesses, and these things, the reproductive possibilities were thus almost limitless, and very soon there were a whole lot of human beings. So many, in fact, that the great god Enlil became annoyed with all the noise that humans were making. For this reason, in his anger, he decided to have them all annihilated, thus representing the most extreme example of a grumpy old neighbor in history. He tried various ways of killing off the humans, the most decisive and final of these was that he sent a great flood that would get rid of them once and for all. But that other god, the wise Enki, was distraught over this. He didn't want to let the whole purpose of creating humans go to waste, which would put the gods back in that predicament from before. So he decided to save humankind by allowing the titular character Atrahasis to survive the flood by putting him and his family in an unsinkable boat, along with what they needed to restore the fauna of the world afterwards. And it is after this, as a result of endless action and annoyance, that Enki came up with another solution: they would now limit the lifespan of humans so that they wouldn't live so long, and created things like disease to combat them from multiplying too much. I don't need to tell you this, but this is obviously identical to the story of Noah and the Ark in the Bible, and many scholars believe that that biblical story originally comes from these Mesopotamian myths. Indeed, the flood myth shows up in various sources in Mesopotamia, with the main human character having different names, but the basic narrative remaining the same. We also saw other similarities to the Abrahamic accounts, like the fashioning of the human being from clay. Even in a topic like the afterlife, we can see similarities.

In general, the ancient Mesopotamians seem to have accepted death as an inevitable part of life. This can be clearly seen in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the most famous piece of literature from the Mesopotamian civilization and often considered the oldest work of literature in history. In this work, the hero Gilgamesh goes on a long journey to find the secrets to immortality, only in the end to, spoiler alert, realize that it is basically impossible. In the anthropology of this religion, the human being was thought to have a kind of ghost that lived on after the death of the physical body, which would then travel to the underworld called Aralu, where you would spend all of eternity, regardless of how you lived your life. This is practically identical to the notion of Sheol as the ultimate destiny for all souls after death in the Hebrew Bible. But that is the basic story about the creation of the world and the human being. The purpose of human life is to serve the gods. Humans were created as workers, essentially, to work for the gods and make sure they were comfortable, so to say. The gods are monarchs who rule over all the world and all human beings, and who are in control of all events and forces. But exactly how were humans supposed to serve the gods? What did they do to fulfill this purpose of their creation? This is where we get to the practical aspects of the religion.

The religious cult of ancient Mesopotamia was primarily centered on the temple. There were temples and shrines located all across the region, dedicated to the different gods, and in which ritual activity took place. Primarily in the great cities, there was usually one major temple complex dedicated to the patron god of that city. For example, there was the E-Abzu temple in Eridu, dedicated to the god Enki. There was the E-kur temple in Nippur, dedicated to Enlil. And in the Babylonian period, there was the massive E-temen-anki complex in Babylon, dedicated to Marduk. These temples were massive complexes that basically served at the very heart of the city. It consisted of various different buildings with different functions, including a more sacred shrine or holy of holies, where the image of the god or gods were contained. Probably the most famous and spectacular aspect of the temple complexes were the large towers known as the ziggurat. These were towers with ascending platforms connected by a stairwell with a platform on the top. Historians are a bit unsure exactly how these towers functioned and what their purpose was, but the famous ancient Greek historian Herodotus reports that there was a shrine at the very top of the ziggurat where rituals took place, and this seems to be corroborated by Mesopotamian accounts too. In a tablet from the Seleucid period, at the very end of classical Mesopotamian civilization, we find a description of the liturgy in the temple: "Quote: At the first arrival of night, on the roof of the high chamber of the ziggurat, at the moment when the stars of Anu, the greatest in heaven, appear, and in Urus, a major of unto, the greatest in heaven, hymns will be sung." End of quote. The most famous ziggurat is probably that in Babylon, dedicated to Marduk, which seems to have been the largest. Some estimates suggest that it may have towered at 90 meters high, or about 300 feet, which is pretty crazy to think about. Some have argued there is this ziggurat in Babylon that is referred to as the Tower of Babel in the Bible.

The temples were thought to be the houses of the god. It was, in a way, like a shelter for the god, in which he or she would be provided with all they needed for a comfortable existence. The temple complex included many buildings, apartments, and more for the god and his consort or his family. It was almost like a city within the city, with its own dedicated personnel. There were cooks that lived in the temple whose job it was to provide food for the gods, and there were, of course, a dedicated class of priests, both men and women, who performed rituals on a daily basis. These priests served the god as part of their profession, but otherwise seem to have led regular lives, getting married and other such mundane things, although there are examples of certain groups of priestesses or priests living more secluded, almost cloistered lives as well. Again, the gods were thought to reside in these houses; they were represented and kind of embodied in the cultic statues which stood in the most sacred rooms of the temple. It was believed that the gods were in some way literally present in these divine images, and the latter was thus treated like the actual god. Thus, the duties of the priest and temple personnel was to make sure that the deity embodied in the image housed in the shrine led a comfortable life. This included the ritual of feeding the gods multiple times every day. Animals would be sacrificed, and all other kinds of food and drink was prepared by the cook and presented to the gods by the priests. The drinks were likely poured as libations to the god, and the food, once it had been offered to the god, was probably distributed to temple personnel afterwards, and perhaps to charity as well. They would also clothe the god in various adorned clothing, clean the gods through bathing, and in general, treat them like you would treat a king or queen. The recurring metaphor through which the Mesopotamians understood their relationship to the gods, we can see again the very strong anthropomorphism of the deities. Regardless of how the most exalted theologies conceived of the gods as such, they were depicted, described, and treated in strongly anthropomorphic ways, like human royals that ruled over the universe. They even had social lives of a sort. The statue of a god could go on trips to other cities to visit other gods. This was done through portable houses or palanquins, in which they would be carried from one location to another.

As you might have noticed from some of the examples and quotes, there is sometimes reference to god in singular or focus on a specific god, and this is true. Words we often use in these contexts, like polytheism or monotheism, can often get pretty blurry and can fail to properly present the complexity of these religious traditions. We have already explored this topic in the context of ancient Egypt in a previous episode, and much the same can be said here. Now, there is no trace of anything like a strict monotheism, or even the idea of a singular divine essence of which the others are part, as in the Egyptian tradition. But in ancient Mesopotamia, there is indeed often a single god that is at the core of worship. As we saw, different cities focused on a particular deity, but beside that, there was usually also a single god that was seen as the supreme deity and the focus of worship throughout the land. For most of history, that god was Enlil, but in the Babylonian period, it gradually turned to Marduk, the patron god of the city of Babylon. Furthermore, most people seemed to have had a personal god that their devotions were dedicated to. In other words, we see in ancient Mesopotamia a tendency towards what is known as henotheism: the primary worship of a supreme god without the exclusion of other gods from existence. This can be an important factor to have in mind to better understand the religious sentiments of this culture and of many others in antiquity.

In addition to these quantum mundane aspects of temple practice, such as feeding and cleaning, the priests also performed more elaborate rituals and liturgies. Again, animal sacrifice seems to have played a major role, but only in so far as it served as the meal for the gods, right, as food for the gods. But in relation to this, the priest would also say prayers, sing hymns praising the gods, and play music. Indeed, music seemed to have played a major role in the temple liturgy, with various instruments like flutes, lutes, and drums being used to accompany the hymns and rituals. The hymns and prayers of the Mesopotamians were highly reverential and praising. For example, a Sumerian hymn from the end of the third millennium begins like this: "Quote: O well-born, O well-born, O king whom Enlil has named, O well-born, O well-born Ninurta, whom Enlil has named, I wish to celebrate your name, O my king Ninurta, your man, your man, I wish to celebrate your name. You make the speckled barley grow in the fields, you fill the pool with carp and perch, you make the reeds and rush grow in the cane fields, you fill the forest with wild grazers, you make the tamarisks grow on the steps, you garnish gardens and vineyards with honey and wine, and you will grant the place a longer life."

It was the responsibility of human beings to keep the gods happy. As we saw, this was in fact the very purpose behind their creation, and this wasn't limited only to the temple cults and the priests. Regular people also practiced devotion in various ways, it seems, even though we know much less about this because they were rarely in a position to write things down, so we don't hear much from these people. But in one account, a father is giving advice to his son on how to live a properly pious life and thus reap the rewards, and it sounds like this: "Quote: Every day worship your god; sacrifice and benediction are the proper accompaniment of incense. Present your free will offering to your god, for this is proper toward the gods. Prayer, supplication, and prostration, offer him daily, and you will get your award. Then you will have full communion with your god. Reverence begets favor, sacrifice prolongs life, and prayer atones for guilt." We can see that a regular day for a well, at least a pious everyday person, would include giving offerings to the god, as well as prayers, prostrations, and possibly other modes of worship. Because even though the religious cult was primarily centered in the temple, it was also something that all of society took part in. There would be recurring festivals on set points during the year, which would involve more elaborate rituals involving the gods. Mythical stories about the gods could be sort of recreated in an almost theatrical way, using the images and statues of the deities. For example, there's one festival about the marriage between two gods, and in this festival, the two images of those gods would be brought together, they would have the marriage ceremony, and then they would both be placed in the sort of bedchamber overnight so that they could, uh, consummate their marriage, so to say. So, these kinds of festivals took place, and this involved the city and would most likely have involved a very festive atmosphere, not just in the temple, but in the whole city, and perhaps in the whole country.

The maintenance and worship of the gods were not only thought to keep order in the universe, but also to society and the kingdom itself. Just like in other ancient cultures, like in ancient Egypt, where the pharaoh's connection to the gods were essential for his legitimacy and role as pharaoh, the Mesopotamian royals also legitimized their rule based on their connection to the cult. In fact, the king was seen as the general supervisor of the whole cult. He was responsible for the cults and that the gods were provided with all that they needed, which obviously gives him legitimacy as leader. The kings always made sure to emphasize that they were servants of the gods and dedicated to serving them, and thus upholding order in the world and society. Going back to our friend Jean Bottéro, "quotes: The kings willingly glorify themselves, notably in their dedicatory and commemorative inscriptions for their zeal in religious behavior, frequently taking the titles of curators and servants of the sanctuaries." End of quote. Indeed, the annual New Year celebration in Babylon would culminate in a scene where the king was literally dragged by his ear by one of the priests into the sanctuary of Marduk, and then made to kneel and say prayers of praise, sort of emphasizing his role as servant, that he was serving the god. It was obviously a very direct way of connecting political rule with the religious cult in order to legitimize the king through ritualizing. The historian Piotr Michalowski writes, "quotes: Mesopotamian kings, similar to monarchs in many other times and cultures, were first and foremost mediators between the mundane and transcendent orders. Brute force aside, all other royal attributes derived from this function." End of quote.

The patronage of a god was a significant factor in the empire or kingdom. It seems that the earliest cities in Mesopotamia essentially grew from places of worship of particular gods, which expanded and became more powerful. And these locales and cults eventually were systematized into a single system. We can also see this kind of phenomenon very clearly in the exalting of Marduk to chief god in association with the rise of Babylonia. Marduk had been the local patron god of the city of Babylon previously, but was a relatively insignificant god. Enlil was always the supreme god at this time. But as Babylon grew into an empire under people like Hammurabi, suddenly Marduk became increasingly exalted as the supreme god in various texts and myths from this time. It makes complete sense when you think about it: by making the god associated with your capital city the most powerful god, this legitimized your rule and empire. It gave the Babylonians the authority to rule, since they, in a way, represented the most powerful of the gods. And we also see a similar situation in Assyria with the god Ashur. It was after all the gods that were in control of everything, including who was and wasn't king. And because the gods were in control of everything, they also knew the future, the parts of their plan that hadn't happened yet.

And aside from the fact that the religious practices already mentioned were meant to maintain and keep the gods happy, there were also other religious practices that were aimed more at the benefits of humans themselves, what Jean Bottéro refers to as the sacramental cult. This included various things that would fall under our category of occult sciences, such as various forms of magic and, primarily, divination. The gods could communicate messages about future events directly to human intermediaries, the latter thus being equivalent to the prophets of the Israelite religion. Through these prophets, who were probably just random regular people, the gods would communicate certain things to the king or to society. But it was also believed that the writings or intentions of the gods could be read in creation itself. It is for this reason that divination became a very prominent practice in Mesopotamia, with various techniques. Professional diviners could find out things about the future, a future that in this culture wasn't set in stone, but could be changed by turning to the gods. But the kind of divination that was most famous and strongly associated with the ancient Babylonians in particular was what we would call astrology. The stars and heavenly bodies were considered to contain signs that could be interpreted to learn the future and the workings of the gods. Indeed, while it doesn't seem like the Mesopotamians saw the stars as literal gods, as would become common later in antiquity, the stars were given important roles as kind of symbols for the gods. A certain star or constellation could be associated with a particular deity. For all of these reasons above, astrology and the interpretations of the heavenly vaults became very important to the Mesopotamians. They developed a very sophisticated tradition of astronomy and astrology, which would greatly influence later movements in later antiquity, even as the Mesopotamian civilization proper had disappeared. We see people who engage in astrology, essentially tracing that whole practice back to the Babylonians, to the Mesopotamians. This practice was intimately connected to religion and with the gods.

There is an absolutely beautiful prayer which encapsulates the religious nature and importance of astrological divination, which goes like this: "Quote: The nobles are in deep sleep, the bars of the doors are lowered, the bolts are in place. Also the ordinary people do not utter a sound, their always open doors are locked. The gods and goddesses of the country, Shamash, Sin, Adad, and Ishtar, have gone home to heaven to sleep. They will not give decisions or verdicts tonight. Night has put on her veil, the palace is quiet, the countryside does not utter a sound. Only the lonely traveler calls to the god for protection, and even the one for whom the divine decision is sought remains asleep. Shamash, the just judge, the father of the underprivileged, has likewise gone to his bedchamber. May the great gods of the night, shining firestar, heroic Ira, bowstar, yolk star, wagon goat star, goat fish star, serpent star, stand by and put a propitious sign on the extra of the lamb I am blessing now for the extispacy I'll perform tomorrow." A very poetic prayer that paints just an amazing picture.

We can probably explore these more occult aspects of Mesopotamian culture and religion more deeply in future episodes. This was a culture that was inhabited by various supernatural beings that could hurt human beings or make was the source of evil, essentially what we would refer to as demons today. These demons would be the cause of much evil and bad behavior in the world, and there were exorcistic rituals and practices that developed in order to make these demons go away with the help of the gods. And it is also likely that the prominence of these kinds of creatures in this culture also influenced the prominence of similar creatures in later religious traditions and cultures as well. There are even things like witchcraft and other fascinating stuff that we haven't had a time to cover today.

Needless to say, the religion of ancient Mesopotamia had long-lasting effects. The great civilization, as we know it, essentially died out around the turn of the Common Era, after being conquered and ruled by Alexander the Great and the Seleucids, as well as the Achaemenid Persians. But it's also precisely in this meeting with the wider world that this culture came to have such a major impact on other religions in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. It was a tradition that stretched back for thousands of years to the very beginnings of human civilization and was of course respected for that very reason. Traces of their beliefs and practices can be seen in later cultures and religions of the region, from Greek philosophy to the astral religions that would appear here. And as we have seen, probably even into some of the core features and stories from the Bible and the Abrahamic religions. To understand the history of religion and human thought in general, one cannot leave out the Mesopotamians. And I hope I have now given you enough reason to understand why. I hope this episode has been informative and interesting.

I would like to give a special shout out and thanks to all of my patrons who keep this channel going. I would not be able to do any of this without you guys, and I am deeply indebted and and so thankful for all of your support. If anyone else out there wants to become a patron, it really is the best way to support this channel and what we do here. Um, if you want to become a patron, you want to support this channel, then I will leave links to that stuff in the description and probably also in a pinned comment, so you can check it out there. For now, that's all we're going to talk about today about Mesopotamian religion, but it's surely a topic that we will return to at some point to dive deeper into some of its particularities and all those juicy details and tradition. It really is such a fascinating topic. But until then, I will see you next time.

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