Mesopotamian Religion

Mesopotamian Religion, also known as Assyro-Babylonian religion, included a series of belief systems of the early civilizations of the Euphrates valley. The development of the religion of this region was not only important in the history of the people who practiced it, but also strongly influence the semitic peoples from who the Hebrew religion tradition evolved. Moreover, many of the older Mesopotamian religious ideas worked their way west through Assyrian and Canaanite tradition into the Greek and Roman culture as well. This article examines the period of c. 3500 B.C.E. to c. 300 C.E.

Early Mesopotamian Religion

As outsiders looking in on an ancient civilization whose diverse religious traditions died out long ago, scholars have struggled to construct a comprehensive picture of Mesopotamian religion without resorting to a great deal of speculation. This problem led one expert in the field, A. Leo Oppenheim, to conclude that a history of Mesopotamian religion "should not be written".

Although many early Mesopotamian religious temples and monuments have been discovered, texts and inscriptions are relatively rare. Among the religious texts that have been discovered, three types have been identified: prayers, rituals, and mythologies. Temples and monuments also tell us something of the religious culture and practice, while icons and other art elaborate on religious ritual and mythology.

There is evidence that religious temples and rituals played an important part in Mesopotamian life quite early, preceding even the advent of writing. Temples normally occupied the central and highest ground in a settlement. They possessed the town's most sophisticted and high-quality artifacts.

Uruk

Fragment of a bull sculpture from Uruk, c. 3000 B.C.E.

Uruk was one of the oldest and most important cities of ancient Sumer. According to the Sumerian king list, Uruk was founded by Enmerkar, who brought the official kingship with him. In the epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, he is also said to have constructed the famous temple called E-anna, dedicated to the worship of Inanna (the later Ishtar). Uruk was also the capital city of probably historical king Gilgamesh, hero of the famous Epic of Gilgamesh. According to the Bible (Genesis 10:10), Erech (Uruk) was the second city founded by Nimrod in Shinar.

The White Temple of Uruk contained several separate shrines within the confines of its walls, which measured 400 by 200 meters. In addition to temples, the stepped-stone towers known as ziggurats were also common. One of these is no doubt the basis for the biblical stoy of the Tower of Babel.

There are some reasons for believing that the original seat of the worship of Anu, the Sumerian god of heaven (or sky) was also in Uruk. Anu remained more or less a distant deity during the various periods of the Babylonian-Assyrian religion, and took little part in the active cult of the temples. Various other deities were associated with other cities.

The impact of Hammurabi

This diorite head is believed to represent king Hammurabi

A sharp distinction can be made between the pre-Hammurabic age and the post-Hammurabic age. Before 1700 B.C.E., there were a number of religious centers in addition to Uruk: Nippur, Kutha (Cuthah), Ur, Sippar, Shirgulla (Lagash), Eridu, and Agade. Each tended to honor a specific god was looked upon as the chief deity around whom were gathered a number of minor deities and with whom there was invariably associated a female consort. The period around 1700 B.C.E., when Hammurabi effected the union of the Euphratean states, marks the beginning of a new epoch in the religion of the Euphrates valley. In the post-Hammurabic period, the pantheon assumed distinct shapes. The deity Marduk began to emerge as the central and supreme deity, though by no means the only god. Paralleling the centralization of political administration, the gods of the chief religious centers, together with those of the minor local shrines, formed a group around Marduk.

Despite a decided progress toward a monotheistic conception of divine government of the universe, the recognition of a large number of gods and their consorts by the side of Marduk remained firmly embedded doctrine in the Babylonian religion, as it did in the Assyrian religion. An important variation, however, was that the role of the head of the pantheon in Assyria was held by Assur rather than Marduk.

The rise of Marduk

The jurisdiction of this chief god was limited to the extent of political control of the district exercised by the deity's capital city. Earlier, at Nippur, and later in Ur, attempts were made to group the deities associated with the most important religious centers into a regular pantheon. Teh goddess Inanna (or Ishtar) in particularly came to be widely honored, as did male counterparts to the goddess such as Enlil and Enki. However, movements toward widespread recognition and unity lacked the enduring quality of Hammurabi's policy to raise Marduk—the patron deity of the future capital, Babylon—to the head of the Babylonian pantheon. Associated with Marduk was his female consort Sarpanit, who may have been identified with Ishtar/Inanna in the popular imagination. Grouped around this pair, as princes around a throne, were the chief deities of the older religious centers:Ea and Damkina of Eridu; Nabu and Tashmit of Borsippa; Nergal and Allatu of Kutha; Shamash of Sippar; Sin and Ningal of Ur, as well as other deities who locations are unknown.

In this process of accommodating ancient prerogatives to new conditions, the attributes belonging specifically to the older gods was transferred to Marduk, who thus became an eclectic and many-faceted power, taking on the traits of Enlil (wind, rain, fertility), Enki/Ea (intelligence, water), Shamash (the sun), Nergal (underworld), Adad (storm), and Sin (the moon). The epic mythology contained in the text of the Enuma Elish describes remarkably the legendary version of Marduk's rise to power over the older gods.

Scholars theorize that the older incantations, associated with Ea, were re-edited so as to give to Marduk the supreme power over demons, witches and sorcerers. The hymns and lamentations, composed for the cult of Enlil, Shamash, and Adad were transformed into paeans and appeals to Marduk. Meanwhile, the ancient myths arising in the various religious and political centers underwent a similar process of adaptation to changed conditions. As a consequence, their original meaning was obscured by the as all mighty deeds and acts—originally symbolic of the change of seasons or of occurrences in nature—were assigned to the supreme head of the entire Babylonian pantheon.

Besides the chief deities and their consorts, various minor ones, representing, likewise, patron gods of less important localities, were added at one time or another to the court of Marduk. Thus the Enuma Elish closes with a list of (a thousand???) divine titles by which Marduk would henceforth be known after his great victory. However, these lesser deities still retained, for the most part, their independence—for example, Anu was still the god of the high heavens, and Ishtar still symbolized fertility and vitality in general.

The triads

Anu's unique position as the chief god of the highest heavens was always recognized in the theological system developed by the priests, which found an expression in making him the first figure of a triad, consisting of Anu, Enlil and Ea, among whom the priests divided the three divisions of the universe, the heavens, the earth with the atmosphere above it, and the watery expanse respectively.

File:Babylon relief.jpg

Detail of the reconstructed Ishtar Gate

This systematization of the pantheon, after the days of Hammurabi, did not seriously interfere with the independence of the goddess, Ishtar. She was frequently associated with Marduk, and still more closely with the chief god of Assyria, the god Assur (Assur occupied in the north the position accorded to Marduk in the south). Ishtar was sometimes spoken of as Assur's consort. The belief persisted that, as the source of all life, Assur stood apart.

By the side of the first triad, consisting of Anu, Enlil and Ea —disconnected in this form entirely from all local associations — we encounter a second triad composed of Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar. As the first triad symbolized the three divisions of the universe — the heavens, earth and the watery element — so the second represented the three great forces of nature — the sun, the moon and the life-giving power. At times Ishtar also appears in hymns and myths as the general personification of nature. A seventh great Sumerian deity, the mother goddess Ninhursag/Ninmah, seems to have declined in popularity as Ishtar's popularity increased.

The rivalry between Assur and Marduk

Originally the patron god of the city of Assur, when this city became the centre of a growing and independent district, Assur was naturally advanced to the same position in the north that Marduk occupied in the south. The religious predominance of the city of Babylon served to maintain for Marduk, recognition even on the part of the Assyrian rulers, who, in the political side likewise, conceded to Babylonia the form at least of an independent district even when, as kings of Assyria, they exercised absolute control over it. They appointed their sons or brothers governors of Babylonia, and in the long array of titles that the kings gave themselves, a special phrase was always set aside to indicate their mastery over Babylonia. "To take the hand of Bel-Marduk" was the ceremony of installation which Assyrian rulers recognized equally with Babylonians as an essential preliminary to exercising authority in the Euphrates valley.

Marduk and Assur became rivals only when Babylonia gave the Assyrians trouble; and when in 689 B.C.E., Sennacherib, whose patience had been exhausted by the difficulties encountered in maintaining peace in the south, actually besieged and destroyed the city of Babylon, he removed the statue of Marduk to Nineveh as a symbol that the god's rule had come to an end. His grandson, Assur-bani-pal, with a view of reestablishing amicable relations, restored the statue to the temple E-Saggila, in Babylon and performed the time-honoured ceremony of "taking the hand of Bel" as a symbol of his homage to the ancient head of the Babylonian pantheon.

But for the substitution of Assur for Marduk, the Assyrian pantheon was the same as that set up in the south, though some of the gods were endowed with attributes which differ slightly from those which mark the same gods in the south. The war-like nature of the Assyrians was reflected in their conceptions of the gods, who thus became little Assurs by the side of the great protector of arms, the big Assur. The cult and ritual in the north likewise followed the models set up in the south. The hymns, composed for the temples of Babylonia, were transferred to Assur, Calah, Harran, Arbela, and Nineveh in the north; and the myths and legends also wandered to Assyria, where, to be sure, they underwent certain modifications. To all practical purposes, however, the religion of Assyria was identical with that practised in the south.

Chronology

There can be considered to have been four periods in the development of the Babylonian-Assyrian religion:

1. the oldest period from c. 3500 B.C.E. to the time of Hammurabi (c. 1700 B.C.E.)
2. the post-Hammurabic period in Babylonia
3. the Assyrian period (c. 1365 B.C.E.) to the destruction of Nineveh in 612 B.C.E.
4. the neo-Babylonian period, beginning with Nabopolassar (625 B.C.E.– 605 B.C.E.), the first independent ruler under whom Babylonia inaugurates a new though short-lived era of power and prosperity, which ends with Cyrus's conquest of Babylon and Babylonia in 539 B.C.E., though since the religion proceeds on its undisturbed course for several centuries after the end of the political independence, we might legitimately carry this period to the Greek conquest of the Euphrates valley (331 B.C.E.), when new influences began to make themselves felt which gradually led to the extinction of the old cults.

In this long period of c. 3500 to c. 300 B.C.E., the changes introduced after the adjustment to the new conditions, produced by Hammurabi's union of the Euphratean states, are of a minor character. As already indicated, the local cults in the important centres of the south and north maintained themselves despite the tendency towards centralization, and while the cults themselves varied according to the character of the gods worshipped in each centre, the general principles were the same and the rites differed in minor details rather than in essential variations.

Astral theology

An important factor which thus served to maintain the rites in a more or less stable condition was the predominance of what may be called the astral theology as the theoretical substratum of the Babylonian religion, and which is equally pronounced in the religious system of Assyria. The essential feature of this astral theology is the assumption of a close link between the movements going on in the heavens and occurrences on earth, which led to identifying the gods and goddesses with heavenly bodies — planets and stars, besides sun and moon — and to assigning the seats of all the deities in the heavens.

The personification of the two great luminaries — the sun and the moon — was the first step in the unfolding of this system, and this was followed by placing the other deities where Shamash and Sin had their seats. This process, which reached its culmination in the post-Hammurabic period, led to identifying the planet Venus with Ishtar, Jupiter with Marduk, Mars with Nergal, Mercury with Nabu, and Saturn with Ninurta.

The system represents a harmonious combination of two factors, one of popular origin, the other the outcome of speculation in the schools attached to the temples of Babylonia. The popular factor is the belief in the influence exerted by the movements of the heavenly bodies on occurrences on earth — a belief naturally suggested by the dependence of life, vegetation and guidance upon the two great luminaries. Starting with this belief the priests built up the theory of the close correspondence between occurrences on earth and phenomena in the heavens. The heavens presenting a constant change even to the superficial observer, the conclusion was drawn of a connection between the changes and the everchanging movement in the fate of individuals and of nature as well as in the appearance of nature.

To read the signs of the heavens was therefore to understand the meaning of occurrences on earth, and with this accomplished, it was also possible to foretell what events were portended by the position and relationship to one another of sun, moon, planets and certain stars. Myths that symbolized changes in season or occurrences in nature were projected on the heavens, which were mapped out to correspond to the divisions of the earth.

All the gods, great and small, had their places assigned to them in the heavens, and facts, including such as fell within the domain of political history, were interpreted in terms of astral theology. So completely did this system in the course of time sway men's minds that the cult, from being an expression of animistic beliefs, took on the colour derived from the "astral" interpretation of occurrences and doctrines. It left its trace in incantations, omens and hymns, and it gave birth toastronomy, which was assiduously cultivated because a knowledge of the heavens was the very foundation of the system of belief unfolded by the priests of Babylonia and Assyria.

"Chaldaean wisdom" became, in the classical world, the synonym of this science, which in its character was so essentially religious. The persistent prominence which astrology continued to enjoy down to the border-line of the scientific movement of our own days, and which is directly traceable to the divination methods perfected in the Euphrates valley, is a tribute to the scope and influence attained by the astral theology of the Babylonian and Assyrian priests.

As an illustration of the manner in which the doctrines of the religion were made to conform to the all-pervading astral theory, it will be sufficient to refer to the modification undergone in this process of the view developed in a very early period which apportioned the control of the universe among the three gods Anu, Enlil and Ea. Disassociating these gods from all local connections, Anu became the power presiding over the heavens, to Enlil was assigned the earth and the atmosphere immediately above it, while Ea ruled over the deep. With the transfer of all the gods to the heavens, and under the influence of the doctrine of the correspondence between the heavens and the earth, Anu, Enlil and Ea became the three "ways" (as they are called) on the heavens.

The "ways" appear in this instance to have been the designation of the ecliptic circle, which was divided into three sections or zones — a northern, a middle and a southern zone, Anu being assigned to the first, Enlil to the second, and Ea to the third zone. The astral theology of the Babylonian-Assyrian religion, while thus bearing the ear-marks of a system devised by the priests, succeeded in assimilating the beliefs which represented the earlier attempts to systematize the more popular aspects of the religion, and in this way a unification of diverse elements was secured that led to interpreting the contents and the form of the religion in terms of the astral-theological system.

Religious practice and rituals

The most noteworthy outcome of this system in the realm of religious practice was, as already intimated, the growth of an elaborate and complicated method of divining the future by the observation of the phenomena in the heavens. It is significant that in the royal collection of cuneiform literature, made by King Assur-bani-pal of Assyria (668 – 626 B.C.E.) and deposited in his palace at Nineveh, the omen collections connected with the astral theology of Babylonia and Assyria form the largest class.

There are also indications that the extensive texts dealing with divination through the liver of sacrificial animals, which represents a more popular origin than divination through the observations of the heavens, based as it is on the primitive view which regarded the liver as the seat of life and of the soul, were brought into connection with astral divination. Less influenced by the astral-theological system are the old incantation texts which were gathered together into series. In these series we can trace the attempt to gather the incantation formulae and prayers produced in different centres, and to make them conform to the tendency to centralize the cult in the worship of Marduk and his consort in the south, and of Assur and Ishtar in the north. Incantations originally addressed to Ea of Eridu, as the god of the watery element, and to Nusku, as the god of fire, were transferred to Marduk.

This was done by making Ea confer on Marduk as his son, the powers of the father, and by making Nusku, a messenger between Ea and Marduk. At the same time, since the invoking of the divine powers was the essential element in the incantations, in order to make the magic formulae as effective as possible, a large number of the old local deities are introduced to add their power to the chief ones; and it is here that the astral system comes into play through the introduction of names of stars, as well as through assigning attributes to the gods which clearly reflect the conception that they have their seats in the heavens. The incantations pass over naturally into hymns and prayers. The corinexion between the two is illustrated by the application of the term shiptu, "incantation," to the direct appeals to the gods, as well as by the introduction, on the one hand, of genuine prayers into the incantations and by the addition, on the other hand, of incantations to prayers and hymns, pure and simple.

In another division of the religious literature of Babylonia which is largely represented in Assur-bani-pal's collection - the myths and legends - tales which originally symbolized the change of seasons, or in which historical occurrences are overcast with more or less copious admixture of legend and myth, were transferred to the heavens, and so it happens that creation myths, and the accounts of wanderings and adventures of heroes of the past, are referred to movements among the planets and stars, as well as to occurrences or supposed occurrences on earth.

The ritual alone, which accompanied divination practices and incantation formulae and was a chief factor in the celebration of festival days and of days set aside for one reason or the other to the worship of some god or goddess or group of deities, is free from traces of the astral theology. The more or less elaborate ceremonies prescribed for the occasions when the gods were approached are directly connected with the popular elements of the religion. Animal sacrifice, libations, ritualistic purification, sprinkling of water, and symbolical rites of all kinds accompanied by short prayers, represent a religious practice which in the Babylonian-Assyrian religion, as in all religions, is older than any theology and survives the changes which the theoretical substratum of the religion undergoes.

Ethics

On the ethical side, the religion of Babylonia more particularly, and to a less extent that of Assyria, advances to noticeable conceptions of the qualities associated with the gods and goddesses and of the duties imposed on man. Shamash, the sun-god, was invested with justice as his chief trait, Marduk is portrayed as full of mercy and kindness, Ea is the protector of mankind who is grieved when, through a deception practised upon Adapa, humanity is deprived of immortality. The gods, to be sure, are easily aroused to anger, and in some of them the dire aspects predominated, but the view becomes more and more pronouüced that there is some cause always for the divine wrath. Though, in accounting for the anger of the gods, no sharp distinction is made between moral offences and a ritualistic oversight or neglect, yet the stress laid in the hymns and prayers, as well as in the elaborate atonement ritual prescribed in order to appease the anger of the gods, on the need of being clean and pure in the sight of the higher powers, the inculcation of a proper aspect of humility, and above all the need of confessing one's guilt and sins without any reserve — all this bears testimony to the strength which the ethical factor acquired in the domain of the religion.

This factor appears to less advantage in the unfolding of the views concerning life after death. Throughout all periods of Babylonian-Assyrian history, the conception prevailed of a large dark cavern below the earth, not far from the Apsu— the fresh water abyss encircling and flowing underneath the earth — in which all the dead were gathered and where they led a miserable existence of inactivity, amid gloom and dust. Occasionally a favoured individual was permitted to escape from this general fate and placed in a pleasant island. It would appear also that the rulers were always singled out for divine grace, and in the earlier periods of the history, owing to the prevailing view that the rulers stood nearer to the gods than other mortals, the kings were deified after death, and in some instances divine honours were paid to them even during their lifetime.

Later influence

The influence exerted by the Babylonian-Assyrian religion was particularly profound on the Semites, while the astral theology affected the ancient world in general, including the Greeks and Romans. The impetus to the purification of the old Semite religion to which the Hebrews for a long time clung in common with their fellows — the various branches of nomadic Arabs — was largely furnished by the remarkable civilization unfolded in the Euphrates valley and in many of the traditions, myths and legends embodied in the Old Testament; traces of direct borrowing from Babylonia may be discerned, while the indirect influences in the domain of the prophetical books, as also in the Psalms and in the so-called "Wisdom Literature", are even more noteworthy.

Even when we reach the New Testament period, we have not passed entirely beyond the sphere of Babylonian-Assyrian influences. In such a movement as early Christian gnosticism, Babylonian elements — modified, to be sure, and transformed — are largely present, while the growth of an apocalyptic literature is ascribed with apparent justice by many scholars to the recrudescence of views, the ultimate source of which is to be found in the astral-theology of the Babylonian and Assyrian priests.

See also

• Alaha
• Babylonia and Assyria
• Mesopotamian mythology

This article was originally based on content from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. Update as needed.

ja:バビロニア神話

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