The Mesopotamian religion is not a simple set of anecdotal ideas in history.The Semitic peoples (Assyrians, Syrians, Hebrews, Phoenicians, etc.) preserved, with nuances, much of the Sumerian religious background : the names, attributes, and myths of the great divinities.
Marduk pursues Anzu (Wikimedia Commons)
The Mesopotamian gods
There were undoubtedly many gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon .Even it is difficult to know if the same god was not named in different ways according to, for example, the city in which he was worshiped.
However, in that endless deities that later cite the classical texts, some figures that are the result of the fusion of Sumerian gods and other Semitic peoples stand out: Anu : god of heaven, Enlil , god of the earth, and Ea , god of the waters and of the underground world.
To the great natural phenomena corresponded other gods, also universal for these peoples., Sin , was the god of the moon, Abbot , the god of storm and rain that brought abundance, and Shamash the god Sun, of central role for life, truth and justice.
But in Mesopotamia some gods stood out with an exceptional destiny: the goddess Istar and the god Marduk.
Istar (or Ishtar) , the goddess of love and fertility, was at the same time the goddess of war, which speaks of a divinity that is actually the product of two different original beliefs: one Sumerian, and another Semitic.
In the first millennium, Istar was practically the central divinity, and sometimes referred to as "the principal of s gods, the lady of the peoples, the ruler of heaven and earth ».
Old representation of Ishtar (Wikimedia Commons)
The popularity that reached Marduk is due to other reasons: god of Babylon, became the first of the gods when Hammurabi , king of Babylon, prevailed in all Mesopotamia.
However, when the political preponderance of Babylon collapsed the cult of Marduk did not decline, and continued to be respected in the temples of Mesopotamian cities.
The Mesopotamic religion was, therefore, fundamentally polytheistic But in the course of the centuries I evolved enough that order and clarity were affirmed in it.The scribes and priests organized the pantheon of gods , simplifying and ranking it, although never arriving at a monotheistic way of thinking.
The Mesopotamians definitely conceived a polytheistic system whose coherence would not exist until the arrival of the Greeks.
Yes well these gods were represented with anthropomorphic figures, the Mesopotamian religion was always characterized by emphasizing the abysmal distance that separated the nature of the gods from that of men.
Temples and rites
The gods lived far from the world of men, but they also resided in the statues that had been dedicated to them.These representations were treated as the gods themselves.
As the most powerful sovereigns could only inhabit palaces, the word that designates the temple simply meant " house ".The temples (the ziggurat ) were the houses par excellence, the most beautiful and richest that may exist.
Reconstructed facade of a ziggurat in Iraq (Wikimedia Commons)
The Mesopotamian temple , built and maintained by the same sovereign, was a gigantic institution, which not only dealt with the religious aspects of the city.
Rich, and abundantly provided with goods, the temple effortlessly maintained a large clergy and secured the development of knowledge, preserving the most precious texts of the Mesopotamian culture .
There God was maintained, and treated as a living being: food was offered, jewels, dresses and sacrifices.As a sovereign, he sometimes left his abode to appear among men during the great celebrations .The tradition has left us the memory of dazzling parties that were held in Babylon in honor of Marduk, in New Year.
This religious world, infinitely complex in its representations, vehicle in addition to politics, was interpreted very differently.It did not mean the same for simple men who for the restricted circle of temple theologians.
For the vast majority, the religious life represented a set of rites and acts that allowed them to live safely and peacefully The gods were too powerful and far away.Gods satisfied in everything As much as possible, the men then struggled to enjoy the only good they were sure of: the present life with its material joys.
The legendary hero Gilgamesh
As was the case with the vast majority of contemporary, the inhabitants of the Mesopotamia region used myths and legends to explain the creation of the world, natural phenomena and some main aspects of their social ordering.The stories related to gods, goddesses and heroes of The Mesopotamian mythology that has reached us is very significant, but none of them has reached the importance of the great legendary hero Gilgamesh.
The adventures of Gilgamesh have survived until today through what is known as ' Gilgamesh Poem ', the first poem in the history of Humanity that has been known so far.This poem was found in the spectacular library of Ninive, where more than 20.0 were found 00 tablets in cuneiform writing that presented information of all kinds, including stories of religious belief.The vast majority of the tablets found there are currently preserved in the British Museum, including tablets that tell the adventures of Gilgamesh.
According to this epic, Gilgamesh was a king of Uruk who was born from the union of the goddess Ninsun and the priest Lillah.At first, Gilgamesh was a tyrannical king who oppressed his people and that He was poorly regarded for his lustful and violent behavior.The inhabitants of Uruk begged the gods to free them from their yoke and, attending to their supplications, the goddess Aruru created clay from Enkidu, a creature capable of challenging Gilgamesh in combat.and defeat him.However, after embarking on the fight, both characters have a close friendship.Together, they begin a journey in search of glory, living several adventures until, after the murder of the Bull of Heaven, the gods decide that Gilgamesh has to pay for his death and decide to kill Enkidu.
The epic of Gilgamesh deals with important issues such as fear of death, the constant search for immortality, the love, friendship and the qualities of good governance, among other issues.Yes, Gilgamesh and E nkidu appear as heroes who perform a lot of hazanas and move in a world in which gods and humans coexist .The myth of Gilgamesh survived and we find other references to him in later cultures.For example, in the Qumran scroll known as the 'Book of the Giants' the names of Gilgamesh and Humbaba are mentioned, which are identified as two giants before the Flood and the name of Gilgamesh has also survived in some Middle Eastern cultures as a reference to a demon before the times, among other examples.
Finally, the influence of the great «Epic of Gilgamesh» can be seen in other great written works, such as Homer's or the Old Testament itself, which bears important similarities to the episode of the Epic where the facts related to the Universal Flood are recounted.Once the myth has been rediscovered in the contemporary age, the events therein have inspired a large number of movies, books, plays and even songs, such as the work of Philip Roth 'The Great American Novel' or Robert Silverberg's books 'King Gilgamesh' and 'The land of the living', among many others examples that reveal its influence today.
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