Mesopotamia Case Essay

HISTORY OF MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION The name Mesopotamia, is a Greek name which means the land between the rivers, refers to the geographic region which lies near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and non to any particular civilization. The land of Mesopotamia is made fertile by the irregular and often violent flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. While these floods aided agricultural endeavors by adding rich foul to the soil every year, it took a tremendous amount of hu gentlemans gentleman labor to successfully irri introduction the land and to protect the young plants from the surging flood wets. devoted the combination of fertile soil and the need for organized human labor, perhaps it is not surprising that the first civilization developed in Mesopotamia. Sumerians were the first settlers in Sumeria. By c.3500 BCE, the Sumerians had developed many of the features that characterized subsequent civilizations. Cuneiform was a system of report established by the Sumerians whic h became the dominant system of writing in Mesopotamia for over 2000 years.Mesopotamia is widely recognized as one of the regions in the Near East first experiencing the developmental transition to hydraulic and urban civilization, duly celebrated as a cradle of civilization and the eastern segment of the Fertile Crescent.Mesopotamian religion is the religious beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, which were noted the first developed civilizations and religions and later of their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians. (Lindemans, 2007). In general terms, it constitutes the greater part of what is now Iraq, eastern Syria, and south-eastern Turkey. The deities of Sumer were usually associated with aspects of nature, such as fertility of the fields and livestock. Among the most important of the many Mesopatamian gods were Anu, the god of heaven Enki the god of water and Enlil, the earth god. Deities were often associated with particular cities.Astral deities such a s Shamash and Sin were also worshipped. The Mesopatamians ar skilled astrologers who studied the movements of heavenly bodies. Priests also determined the volition of the gods through the observation of omens, especially by reading the entrails of sacrificed animals. The king functioned as the chief priest, presiding at the new-year festival held in spring, when the kingship is renewed and the triumph of the theology over the powers of chaos was celebrated.In Mesopotamia, each city state had its own god who owned it, and although other gods were admitted, they were always subordinate to the city god. Everyone had to belong to a temple, whatever rank they had in society. If they belonged to the temple of Marduk, they considered themselves the people of the beau ideal Marduk. The god was the lord and the people served him as slaves or at least as servants. leave of everyones produce belonged to the god and had to be brought as a sacrifice. The land itself belonged to the god and h ad to be leased from him. God postulate never been any comfortably at signing agreements so the contracts were signed on his behalf by the priests.The main festival in Mesopotamia was the New Year Festival held in spring or in autumn. Its signifi shagce was the renewal of the land through the sprouting of new buds or the end of the summer scorching. The Sumerian drama focused on Dumuzi or Tammuz, the creative power of Spring while the Goddess was Inanna, the fertility of nature.The drama went this way the earth goddess conceived a handsome word of honor who later became her lover and begat the next word of honor a ritual performed by the king and his consort or the head priest and priestess in a ritual coupling. The son died and everyone wailed but the new son was born and everyone rejoiced. In the tropics the vegetation died in the summer heat but in northern climates it died with the onset of frost, so the times were not inescapably the same.(Amytas, 2002) In an article of Sumerian Religion it was said that reincarnation is a concept suitable for Mesopotamians because it was so real and explicit that it was not worth account the striking obvious. The Mesopotamians, took painstaking notes of the coming of the sunrise and sunset every day, the return of the seasons, the planets and the stars, always revolving and returning to chartered points in the skies. Thus, they did believe that everything was cyclic, and probably considered emotional state and conclusion as such as well (cited in Adapa).MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHOLOGYThe two following stories are one of the descent and ascent stories of Mesopotamian Religion(Amytas, 2002) Descents to the infernal region are a constant theme in Mesopotamia and tell about the triumph of the spirit over desire, wrong doings or guilt. Descent stories always contain the pattern that one should not venture to the Land of No Return, that the laws of Great infra cannot be changed and it designs the foremost. Nevertheless, In anna descended to meet Her other Self, the Great Judge and Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, and She who is the yellowish brown and Beloved resurfaced as the vision of triumphant humanity that transcends all deaths.Enlil descended after having raped Ninlil, who immediately took subjects in her hands and went down after Him to conquer Her costly back, achieving major growth along the process herself from maiden to Consort of Lord Air. Even Enlil, the most important of the young Anunnaki gods, had to undergo punishment for a amazing act in the most romantic and intense of all descent stories.However, Ninlil, as the Beloved and Hardest Judge Enlil could have ever had, flew after him for the rescue to gravel him back to the Heights Above, to become Enlils partner in all levels. All of them faced awesome trials and returned back to the Heights after achieving much ameliorate and growth. It is therefore clear that returns from the Underworld, despite all warnings against venturi ng over there, can be achieved, but only by the triumph of the spirit, by conquering ones own weaknesses, by a necessary loss to achieve a major growth.In the myth of Adapa, Adap ascends to the Heavens to meet Anu so that he could rid himself in front of the Skyfather for having been disrespectful to the South Wind. Adapa is the proto-Solomon, the sage and the priest-king of Eridu. He refuses immortality to come back to the Middleworld instead of remaining with the Great Gods in the Great Above, as Anu had given him the opportunity to stay there by eating and drinking from the table of the gods. Adapa refuses the offering, because Enki, Adapas personal god, had warned him not to, if Adapa did not want to die.A possible implement for this passage is the following in the end Adapa understood that he would have eventually eternal life after living a full life in the physical world, and not in the moment he had been offered the gift by Anu. He did not need eternal life when he was of fered it by Anu, because he was needed on earth, he was the priest-king the foundation of the state which was universe built in Eridu, the place where kingship descended from the heavens. Again, it is a Mesopatamian ascent story with a return, whose closed book show the cycle and the link between heaven and earth, the Great Above and the Great Below not as opposite worlds, but matching complements, in a never-ending cycle.PHOENICIAN LETTERS(Amytas, 2007) The Phoenician Letters is a piece of mystery teachings in a written form from a keep in line to a devoted acolyte in the Mesopotamian tradition, a sort of retro-Caballa. It involves 10 letter, each involving a god/goddess (Rimon-Adad, Nabu, Ishtar, Nergal, Shamash, Marduk, Anu, Enlil, Ea-Enki, Sin-Nana) by the master to the acolyte exchanged during the period of two years.The letters cover the training of a future-priest king by a master kept unknown up to the last letter. The quotations on the chapter of Nergal on the next carv e up are about reincarnation, the Eternal Return. Notice that the piece of metal that is left from the burning of what should be burnt may refer to that part of matter in us that is primeval and without blemish, the seed of the Great Mother that they all carry within, represented by the metal attributions of Mesopotamians deities, or the imperishable in them, their Personal Gods.On Ishtar, But Ishtar is all this and more. She is the rebornKnow, o Prince, that death is the source of life, life is the cause of death. Dumuzi her lover must die in order to live. She is the rhythm, and all rhythms have an end, this is death, all have a beginning (pages 34-35).On Nergal There are many forms of heroism. There is that form that represents a magnificent stupidity, where the hero achieves nothing, saving neither his people nor his own life, but taking with him down into death as many of the enemy as possible. He will fight in the underworld that battle which he did not win, for it is sad that as a man dies, all that he has done is presented to him, to see if he regrets his actions or not.If he regrets and pines for the things that he failed to do or the errors he has made, then this is a weight he must carry into his next time of living (Lishtars emphasis). Herein is the tale of justice the assessors of hell visit upon each man his crimes, and according as he loves them or hates them, he will be attracted to the same events, time without end, till the actions of his life be without blemish (page 41).CREATION OF MAN (and WOMAN) SUMERIAN VERSIONEnki, the Magician, and Ninhursag, the Earth Mother, create humankind from the fertile waters of the Abzu and a pinch of clay, breathing into the mix the spirit of a slain god. It is in the myth that the spirit of the slain god resonates in each and every being as a drumbeat, life force, to remind them of its sacrifice. According to Amytas, the myth was a wondrous metaphor that shows incarnation as a gift from Divine cognizance be stowed upon all humankind, all that lives and breathes. The bond that was thus established between heaven and earth from the beginning of Sumerian religion, whereby from this moment on humankindis called upon to continue for the gods the whole works of existence and faithful servants. This metaphor shows the truth all initiates have experiences from times immemorial. Spirit can only incarnate through love, the same way we can only ascend to the heights of religious and visionary experience by giving spiritual body to our souls design. Slain in this context may very well mean the necessary loss to achieve higher consciousness, the disrobing and vulnerability needed to enter both Great Above and the Depths Below enforced. Furthermore, the myth of the Creation of Man and Woman can be interpreted according to the Sumerians as the never-ending miracle of spirit entering matter and for those of them who live their lives in the light of the Mesopotamian tradition.From the beginning of Su merian Religion, from the creation of man and cleaning woman it is therefore present the everlasting bond between matter and spirit. As concluded by Amytas, the part of us who belongs to the everlasting spirit will be then confronted by our life achievements and judged by the Annunaki of the Underworld. These deities will be the judges of our souls and decide when we are ready to return from the Land of No Return. It is for all these reasons that we suggest that the Eternal Return might have been a core understated normal of Mesopotamian religion.THE BABYLON AND ITS PEOPLEMany scholars believe the first great historian, Herodotus, a Greek who traveled widely over the ancient world several centuries before the hold of Chris, visited the city of Babylon in its decline. He has left a description of the city but, because he could not speak Babylonian, his remarkable statements must come largely from the lips of the guides. The gather was,Herodotus says, twice or thrice as bountiful as in other lands, the ears of wheat and barley growing to a phenomenal size. Rich groves of cover trees waved in the breeze all over the plain and so expert were the food growers that from the fruit of the palm they got bread, wine and honey. From their scattered villages they looked with pride toward Babel the Greeks called it Babylon or the gate of the God.They had no physician. Marriage, he says, was by purchase or auction sale. His most famous statement about the morals of ancient Babylon is to the effect that every woman had once in her life to prostitute herself in what Herodotus calls the court of Venus, meaning the court of the temple of the goddess Ishtar. There she was compelled to stand until some man threw her a coin, saying, the goddess Mylitta prosper thee, and taking her forth to his couch. (Shirlie)On the contrary, in regard to its morals and its women he totally misunderstood his informants. There was no auction of wives in Babylon, and there was no such law as the prostitution of every woman at the temple of Ishtar. By that time, Ishtar was a patroness of virtue and the chief haunt of sinners. Women had in ancient Babylon a position of respect and prestige scarcely lower than they have won in modern times and the law of familiar purity was most drastically enforced upon both sexes.The Babylonian code of laws was compiled by King Hammurabi. This code was found carved on a unforgiving diorite column seven feet high in the ruins of Susa in 1901. A conqueror of Babylon about 1100 BC had stolen it and carried it off to the hills. On the upper part of it is a prefigure of Hammurabi in an attitude of worship before the sun-god, Shamash. The king says he made the code himself. Babylon, supposed to have been a sink of iniquity, in which chastity was unknown, an practice session followed the clauses of the next paragraph in the Hammurabi Code of four constant of gravitation years ago.MESOPOTAMIAN CONCEPTS OF DISEASE AND HEALINGMesopotamian d iseases are often blamed on pre-existing pot liquor gods, ghosts, etc. Each spirit corresponds or is responsible for a specific disease. For example, Hand of God X, of the stomach corresponds to what is called a disease of stomach. A get of diseases simply were identified by names, bennu for example. Also it was recognized that various organs could simply malfunction create illnesses. Mesopotamian uses plants as treatment for diseases although this cannot be relative for witching(prenominal) purposes. In addition, specific offerings are made to a particular god or ghost when it was considered to be a causative factor, but these offerings are not indicated in the medical texts, and must have been found in other texts.There two distinct types of professional medical practitioners in Mesopotamia, the ashipu known as the sorcerer and the asu which may be referred to as the physician. The ashipu diagnoses the ailment. In the case of internal diseases, this most often meant that the a shipu determined which god or demon was causing the illness. The ashipu also attempted to determine if the disease was the result of some error or sin on the part of the patient. The phrase, the Hand of was used to indicate the overlord entity responsible for the ailment in question, who could then be propitiated by the patient.The ashipu could also attempt to cure the patient by means of charms and spells that were designed to entice away or drive out the spirit causing the disease. On the other hand, asu is the specialist in herbal remedies and deals with were often classifiable as empirical applications of medication. For example, when treating wounds the asu relied on three fundamental techniques washing, bandaging and making plasters on which appear in the worlds oldest known medical document (c. 2100 BCE).CONCLUSIONMesopotamian religion in accordance with my research clearly implies that it is the foundation of many religions since, Sargon, who founded the Babylon and created the first Mesopotamian empire, lived over two thousand years before Christ and even a thousand years before the presumed time of Moses of the Christian bible. One example would be the comparison in the story of Moses one of the clay tablets covered with the cuneiform writing of the Babylonians and Assyrians refers to Sargon, the great king.His mother bore him in secret. After the birth she made a little ark or boat of reeds or rushes, coated it with pitch, which is natural there. She move the baby in it and she set it afloat on the river, doubtless expecting it to die but hoping it might be saved. The child was destined to be a the right way leader and the gods took care of him. A water-carrier found the ark and reared the child, until the goddess Ishtar saw and fell in love with the youth, and made him king over the land.To sum it all up, learning mans history always is a very interesting subject, its like being transported to a different world where oneself could be alienated. For me it would not matter because the most important thing is that you have respect to all men regardless of their religion.BibliographyWilliams, Tyler. Ideas of Origins and Creation in Ancient Mesopatamia. 2007Lindemans, M.F. Mesopotamian Mythology. 2007Amytas, Voluptua. Sumerian Religion and the Eternal Return. 2002Shirlie. God or Goddess? The Son Gods. 1999http//www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/jmchttp//www.archaeowiki.org/Mesopotamia