Ancient Mesopotamia Religion

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Religion played an important role in the lives of the ancient Mesopotamians. Their idea of how man was created, which is mentioned in the Epic of Atrahasis, ends with humans being the ones who take the god’s work load. Also their cities and society was heavily influenced by their belief of living breathing gods.

The epic starts with a view on how the conception of man took place. How “mortal man” arose through a compromise with the lesser gods, in which the humans would “bear the yoke… bear the load of the gods!” Their belief is based on humanity being the servants to the gods. That because the “The [lesser] gods' load was too great, The work too hard, the trouble too much,” humanity was created in order to take over the burden, and serve …show more content…
Due to the perceived closeness of the gods, in each city the gods would have their own homes or ziggurats the temples were even more important than the palace due to it being the place in which offerings were made to the gods and prayers were made to ask for prosperity or good health. Each city had it’s own patron god who was worshipped in the ziggurat. The ziggurat was a city inside of the city, which had it’s own craftsmen and farmers. The temple was basically the spiritual center of the city, in which even the ruler relied on, while the palace represented the more political power. The rulers were the representatives of the gods and ruled on behalf on the orders of the gods. The rulers depend on their advisors and priests to perform divination practices in order to figure out what the leader should do. Their belief almost mimics that of the Chinese’s mandate of heaven. In which both the rulers have the blessing of the gods and work for the gods. Except that the mesopotamians didn’t glorify their ancestors, and instead venerated their gods. Their religion is more on the belief that their gods are actually alive and living with them, because of it, their religion is a bigger part of their life, as their life revolves around pleasing the
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