Foreword

Note: This post was originally designed and therefore cross-posted to the Ancient Near East Research Society

The aim of this post is to sum up the most important points made in Georges Roux' "Ancient Iraq" 6th chapter, in order to provide people material for their research. This is entirely written in the poster's own words, but because it conveys the work of a single author (with exceptions: when, for instance, the poster is clearly aware that informations are outdated, but those will be clearly indicated in the text as the poster's input), it does not qualifies as original research.

Happy Reading!

Please, do not post new messages here. You can take your comments either in the Reading Rooms or Courtyard areas.

Gods of Sumer (based on ch. 6 "The Gods of Sumer")

The Sumerian civilization lasted much longer than the nation, both before and after as the Sumerian culture finds, as we've seen, its roots in prehistoric Iraq, and will be carried over by the nations that will succeed it in the region. It particularly applies to sumerian religion: the whole sumerian society's center was the temple, and religion permeated all aspects of everyday life, from the King who was merely ruling in the name of his God, to the most humble of farmers, and that holds true long after Sumer is no more

Our written sources are various types of texts found in mainly three centers, Nippur, Assur and Nineveh. They were either Sumerian or, later, translations of sumerian texts; although not all originals have been found, it seems like an obvious deduction based on the fact that the gods and mythological stories described can be recognized in other media from Early Dynastic or even earlier, on the cylinder-seals (see The Origins of the Sumerian Civilization), or simply in the succession of temples built on above the other from the Ubaid period onwards. There was a manifest religious unity throughout Mesopotamia in historic times, even though cities maintained their own "patron-god". But it is most probable that in prehistoric times, each city developed individually, and it is only with time that it evolved until the different "schools" reached a concensus of sorts that will then apply in the whole of Mesopotamia for millenia. The resulting common pantheon reflected the human society, the heavens, the earth and the netherworld populated by hundreds of Gods (a number that will diminish in time, yet never come anywhere near monotheism) subject to the same qualities, flaws and passions as mortal men, but also endowed with immortal life and powers far beyond the latter.

Those gods belonged to a hierarchy that is difficult for us to establish with certainty; what seems clear though is that at its top can be placed the three gods An, Enlil and Enki/Ea. An was the embodiement of the power of the sky, standing above all else, his word law in the disputes he would arbitrate. But he had little interest in earthly affairs and therefore remained this distant figure, later replaced as "supreme" god by Enlil, whose main temple was Nippur (An's main temple was found in Uruk). Enlil was the Lord of the Air (that we breath), of the heaven that seperated the sky from the earth, and therefore made him, in a way, more "accessible", closer to man; it comes therefore as no surprise that, while An remained on his throne high above, Enlil became the god of Sumer, the one in the name of which the Kings would act, and that until, much later, he will be replaced by Marduk, the god of Babylon. But of the three, it is Enki with which we are more familiar, even though there's a bit of confusion over his name: indeed, Enki would mean "Lord of the Earth", yet we know for sure that Enki was in fact ruling over the waters, but also was the God of intelligence (represented by his "broad ears"), technics, sciences and arts, as well as the patron of magicians. He puts his intelligence at the service of Enlil and ordered the world, even being at the origin of man's creation and saving him from the Flood

Besides those gods could be found a horde of goddesses, even if their importance didn't go beyond that of "wife of a god". However, some played an important part in Sumerian religion, and none more than the goddesses Ninhursag and Inanna. Inanna, in particular, was the goddess of carnal love, but rarely manifested any tenderness towards lovers she discarded rapidly, with the exception of Dumuzi. She was prone to violent bursts of anger, turning her progressively into an equally powerful figure of war. Dumuzi was the god both of the herd and flocks and of vegetation and its cycle, and the Sumerians devised a ceremony held on New Year's day to secure the reproduction of cattle and the renewal of plants, during which the King, standing for Dumuzi and a priestess for Inanna, consummated their union. The lovers play also the central role in the famous myth of "Inanna's descent to the Netherworld". While the New Year tradition, long carried over in several cities on top of Uruk, where the practice originiated, stopped being performed after the 18th century BC, resulting in the demotion of Dumuzi in the sumerian pantheon, the myth of Inanna's descent will be revived during the last centuries BC and will reemerge in the Greek mythology as the myth of Adonis

To the Sumerians, the earth (really Mesopotamia and little beyond that) was surrounded by mountains and lying on a terrestrial ocean; above and below where two hemisphere, the former represented the sky seperated from the earth by the sky, and below was the Netherworld. This world was surrounded by the primeval sea of the goddess Nammu. Sumerians generally (although different myths were also in existance) represented the process of the genesis of the world as the forceful separation of the earth and heaven by a third party; this vision was carried over by Assyria and Babylonia, but in the most famous text on the subject that we have recovered, the babylonian poem Enuma elish, we realize that the myth has, by then, acquired more depth as it this genesis is considered as an end (and not as a beginning) and the result of a cosmic battle between the dual nature of things. At the beginning, Apsu (fresh waters), Tiammat (salty waters) and Mummu (clouds) were forming one confused mass from which emerged the first gods as the sun rose and land began to appear above the waters: Lahmu and Lahamu for the silt, Anshar and Kishar for the horizons, and then Anu and, finally, Enki. From then numerous lesser deities were born, but the noise were disturbing the primeval deities which designed to kill them all. But the gods heard of their plan, paralyzed Mummu and slain Apsu. But Tiammat was still alive and wanted to exert revenge; she created an army of dragons and terrifying serpents, at the head of which stood Kingu, one of her sons. The gods decided that Kingu should be put to death, but none dared to carry on this decree until Marduk, son of Enlil, accepted, at the condition that he should be made the king of the gods. So frightening was his appearance when he met alone with Tiamat's army that the latter disbanded; Kingu was captured and Tiamat slain, her body split in two which were placed above (the sky) and beneath the earth.

After having set the course of the astral bodies, Marduk, at his father's suggestion, spilled Kingu's blood to create mankind. If that tale isn't rational, it nonetheless accounts for many things in the mind of the inhabitant of Mesopotamia: how the world that he's familiar with came to be (this vision of salty waters merging with fresh ones and clouds, from which land emerges at the same time than the sun, is actually something anyone can witness on the sea-shores of Iraq), the way Marduk came to become such a powerful god, the wicked nature of man, born from the blood of an evil god, the reason why man's rightful place is as a servant of the gods and why this epic poem must be recitated every year by the priests, as Chaos always looms on the horizon, ready to wage war against the gods again

We have already mentioned the hierarchy to which the gods, deities and spirits belong. While the king of Babylon was "answered" directly to Marduk, in lower social classes people would turn to lesser gods and deities, or even to their own "guardian angel" or "personal god". They would turn to these superior beings for help but also serve them, this servitude being an essential duty. But to attract the good favors of the gods, to secure good fortune, wealth and happiness, people had also to live a "good life", the definition of which very much followed roughly the same guidelines than Christians centuries, or even millenia later. However, no matter how obedient and fervent in their worship of the gods, one thing that could not be granted to them was immortality, even when this theme has, at all times, obsessed man in Mesopotamia. From what we know, hell or the Netherworld was very much a loose concept, but its description, most of the time, is that of a dreadful place, even if the sun shines there for a while before rising above the horizon. Also, while illnes, missfortune and sorrow where said to be the result of sin, something easily committed given the tight rules surrounding man in Mesopotamia, nonetheless sometimes the gods' judgements and punishements appear, at best, incomprenhensible. This leads to a kind of pessimism that's very much part of the babylonian character. But in the end, this is very much dictated by the violent nature of their environment, where rivers could bring both fortune and destruction, where summers could be too hot and winters too dry, leading Babylonians, and others before them, to live a life devoid of any certainty, as they couldn't even rely on the cycle of nature. Their world was always this close to falling into chaos again, and only through a decree of the gods could stability be maintained for yet another year, explaining the devotion and the importance of religion in their lives