The Encyclopedia of World Religions

290 S Mesopotamian religions

“Enuma Elish” tells how the world came to be. One story attributes human sickness and disease to a drunken argument between the god Enki and the goddess Ninhursaga. The story of Atrahasis is equally pessimistic about the place of human beings in the world. The gods did not wish to work, it says, so they killed a god, mixed its blood with dirt, and made human beings. But human beings were too noisy for Enlil, so he tried to kill them off with a great FLOOD . He failed, but only because Ea—Akkadian for Enki—told Atrahasis to build an ark. When the flood came, Atrahasis, his family, and representa tive animals entered the ark and were saved. PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATION The Mesopotamians thought that their gods lived in heaven, but they also felt that the gods dwelled on Earth in image form. These images were kept in special buildings known as temples. It was there that much of Mesopotamian RITUAL took place. Two kinds of rituals were performed at the temples. In daily rituals the needs of the gods were met. Priests would change the image’s clothes according to a regular schedule. They also placed food in front of the image at meal times for it to eat. When the god was finished, the food would be distributed among the priests themselves and perhaps the king. A second kind of ritual comprised the festi vals that occurred throughout the year, such as the New Year’s ritual. On these occasions the sacred image was brought outside the temple, and people besides priests would take part in the celebration. Some influential scholars have called the festivals sacred dramas. They have identified several differ ent dramas: the sacred marriage, death, the jour ney, ritual plowing, and ritual combat. Not all Mesopotamian worship centered on images in city temples. Individuals had their per sonal gods, whom they thought of as parents. They worshipped these gods daily on altars at home. In addition, Mesopotamians were particularly inter ested in learning the will of the gods. They believed that at times gods appeared to them in dreams.

importance by Assur, god of Assyria, and Marduk, god of Babylon. The Mesopotamians developed a rich litera ture. It explored some topics that are still profound today. The story of G ILGAMESH tells of a powerful king who is disturbed by the fact that all people, himself included, must die. A poem known as

The hero Gilgamesh, holding a serpent in one hand, with a lion cub tucked under his arm (Bonomi, Nineveh and Its Palaces, 1875 [after Bottal])