This document provides an overview of ancient Mesopotamian civilization and religion. It discusses how the Sumerians established the first civilization in Mesopotamia due to irrigation of fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It describes Sumerian cities, religion centered around temples called ziggurats, and myths like the Enuma Elish creation myth and the Epic of Gilgamesh featuring the hero Gilgamesh. The document examines the environmental challenges faced and solutions developed in early Mesopotamian society.

1. What The Water Gave Us
The Religion of Ancient Mesopotamia
Mythology In Art & Literature
Professor Will Adams
Valencia College

2. Mesopotamia: land between
the rivers

3. The Impact of Geography
 The first true civilization,
Sumer, was discovered in
Mesopotamia, which means
“land between the rivers.”
 The Fertile Crescent is an arc of
land stretching from the
Mediterranean Sea to the
Persian Gulf, spanned by the
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers, which
yielded rich soil and abundant
crops.
 The first Sumerian cities
emerged in southern
Mesopotamia around 3,200
B.C.

4. Why Was Sumeria the First
Civilization?
 The Sumerians defined what constitutes a “civilization” today:
1. They built complex, advanced cities.
2. They employed specialized workers.
3. They designed complex social institutions, like centralized
government & religion.
4. They began the first system of record-keeping or writing
(cuneiform), which allowed history and literature to develop.
5. They developed advanced technologies like the wheel, sail, & plow.
6. They mastered agriculture, allowing them to create a surplus of
food, which led to trade.
7. Trade led to contact with outside cities and societies.
8. That ultimately led to cultural diffusion: the process of a new idea
or product spreading from one culture to another.

5. Disadvantages of the
Environment
 The northern Fertile Crescent is
hilly and rainy in the winter,
while the south is flat, arid, &
dry year-round.
 The South receives little rain, but
receives a lot of silt (material
deposited by rivers, good for
crops) from annual flooding, but
flooding is unpredictable.
 Irrigation could manage the
flooding, but it was difficult to
build.
 Villages clustered in open plains,
which provide no natural
barriers for protection.

6. Early Solutions to Problems
 Food: By 5000 B.C.E.,
Mesopotamian resources were
running out, so people
moved to the plains &
established Sumerian city-
states.
 Protection: Sumerians built
city walls using mud bricks to
keep out enemies.
 To get natural resources,
Sumerians traded their grain,
cloth, and crafted tools for
the stone, wood, & metal
they needed.

7. The Invention of Irrigation
 To make sure there was enough
silt, farmers had to control the
water supply, thus inventing
irrigation.
 Irrigation ditches carried water to
the fields,
 This allowed for a surplus of
crops.
 The ditches took cooperation to
complete (leaders to plan &
labors and supervisors to build).
 The project created a need for
laws to settle disputes over how
land and water should be
distributed.

8. The City-States of Sumer
 Recognizable cities first
arose around 3,000 B.C.
 The first cities were Eridu,
Ur, & Uruk.
 Each city was surrounded
by barley and wheat fields.
 As cities grew, so did their
control of the surrounding
land.
 These large, city-governed
areas are called city-states.

9. The Sumerian Cityscapes
 Sumerian city-states were
surrounded by sun-dried
brick walls with gates.
 Within the walls were
inhabitants’ houses & large
government buildings (also
mud brick).
 Each city-state shared a
similar culture & history with
the others, but each had a
different government.
 There was no Sumerian
“nation”.

10. Kingship and Religion Linked
 Each city-state king’s power
was enhanced & supported
by Sumerian religion.
 Sovereignty (right to rule)
was believed to be divinely
ordained.
 Sumerian kings & priests
acted as the gods’
interpreters.
 They told the people what
the gods wanted them to do
through augury (examining
the organs of a slain sheep).
 The gods were worshipped
at huge temples called
ziggurats.

11. The Mountains of God
 Ziggurats were built of many
layers of mud bricks in the
shape of a tiered pyramid.
 The mountain shape was
powerful because of the
rivers’ constant flooding &
the belief that the gods
resided on mountaintops.
 The cella (chapel) at the top
served as the god’s home &
was beautifully decorated.
 Inside was a room for
offerings of food & goods.
 One of the largest ziggurats
ever built was the Ziggurat
at Ur, built c. 2,100 B.C.E.

12. Ancient Sumerian Religion
 Ancient Sumerians were
polytheistic (believing in
multiple gods).
 The Sumerian pantheon
consisted of a hierarchy of
roughly 300 gods.
 These gods were immortal,
all-powerful, and used
humans as servants.
 Sumerians built temples
called ziggurats (mountains
of god) & gave sacrifices to
please the gods.
 Sumerians did believe in the
concept of a “soul” or
personal life-force.
 The ancient Sumerians
believed that the souls of
their dead went to a “land
of no return”.
 Their view of the afterlife
was not at all optimistic.
 They saw the land of the
dead as a gloomy, dark
place, existing somewhere
between the earth’s crust
and sea.

13. The Enuma Elish
Enuma Elish is the name of a Babylonian epic on 7
clay tablets discovered in the 19th century first in
Nineveh, in the library of king Ashurbanipal; then
in Ashur, the old capital of Assyria; then Kish and
Uruk, Mesopotamian cities.
Enuma Elish means “when on high”, and is the
opening phrase of the epic: “When on high the
heaven had not yet been named, and below the
earth had not yet been called by a name (ie. to
exist) ...”
The epic tells of the origin of the gods, the world,
and the humans.

14. The Enuma Elish: Tablets 1-3
 The epic begins with 3 watery gods, respectively fresh water,
mist, salt water: Apsu (male begetter god), Mummu, and
Tiamat (female goddess of birth).
 They swirl together in one “immense, undefined mass in
which were contained all the elements of which afterward
the universe was made”.
 Young gods are produced by them, but soon these godlets
are creating havoc in heaven: “moving and running about in
the divine abode”.
 Apsu gets fed up and declares “their way has become painful
to me, by day I cannot rest, by night I cannot sleep; I will
destroy them and put an end to their way, that silence be
established, and then let us sleep!”
 Tiamat is horrified.

15. The Enuma Elish: Tablets 1-3
Although the young gods are bothersome, she
does not want her offspring to be destroyed.
The young gods find out about Apsu’s plan,
and one clever young god named Ea
(elsewhere Enki) takes action.
He concocts an incantation to make Apsu fall
asleep, and then he kills him and Mummu, and
makes out of Apsu’s corpse the earth.
Ea and his wife Damkina then give birth to
Marduk, the wisest of the gods, the sun god.

16. The Enuma Elish: Tablets 1-3
Tiamat becomes exceedingly agitated, rushing
about day and night.
At the advice of some of the gods, she puts
together an army to avenge the death of her
husband Apsu, making monsters and dragons.
The younger gods are afraid, and powerless
before Tiamat.
She must be quietened, but how?
Finally Marduk steps forward as the champion.
The gods have a banquet and get drunk.

17. The Enuma Elish: Tablets 4-5
After this they erect a throne on which Marduk
sits, and in a solemn speech, the gods appoint
Marduk chief god: “we have granted thee
kingship over the entire universe” (this seems to
have been an innovation of Hammurabi, c.
1750 BCE), and he was given the power to
destroy or create by his word.
In a fierce battle, Marduk kills Tiamat, the
watery dragon, crushes the dragons underfoot,
and consigns the gods who joined Tiamat to
prison.

18. The Enuma Elish: Tablets 4-5
He cut Tiamat in two and made part of her the
sky and part the subterranean waters, sealing
up the waters in each with bars and guards.
Then he gave rulership of the three domains—
the sky, the land, the watery abyss—to the gods
Anu, Enlil, and Ea.
He set up the constellations, and established the
calendar (12 months) by the heavenly bodies

19. The Enuma Elish: Tablets 4-5
He then made the moon and the sun to
establish day and night, and seemingly a seven-
day sabbath.
Then out of parts of Tiamat he made the
physical world: clouds filled with water (her
spittle), rivers (her tears), mountains (her
breasts).
Marduk is then proclaimed king and patron of
the sanctuaries, and his palace on earth will be
in Babylon.

20. The Enuma Elish: Tablets 6-7
 Finally, Marduk decides to fashion “man” out of blood
and bone to serve the gods so that the gods can rest.
 The god who instigated the rebellion (Kingu) is killed and
Ea uses his blood to fashion mankind.
 The summary statement at the end of this assumes that
previously some of the gods had to do the work: “he
imposed the service and let free the gods”.
 The gods build a shrine for Marduk in Babylon and at a
banquet “they confirmed him (Marduk) in dominion over
the gods of heaven and earth”.
 Finally, in Tablet 7, Marduk’s 50 names are expounded.

21. The Purpose of The Enuma
Elish
 It is not primarily a creation story: very little of the content is about creation.
 Also, much more important than the creation of humans is the creation of the
gods: theogony.
 The vast majority of the content is praising the attributes and deeds of Marduk,
and his establishment as the chief god with his temple at Babylon.
 It is not too difficult to discern the purpose of Enuma Elish:
 (1) to establish Marduk’s supremacy as the head of the Babylonian pantheon.
 (2) to establish Babylon’s preeminence over all the cities in the country.
 Although we have the epic attested only in its Babylonian form, it is obvious
that the myth was originally Sumerian: most of the names besides Marduk are
Sumerian rather than Semitic names.
 The Babylonians inherited the gods of the Sumerians, with Enlil (the god of
earth) generally as the chief god.
 In the 18th c. BCE, Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) not only produced a very
influential code of laws, but also effected a religious reform by asserting that
Marduk was the chief god.
 The city of Babylon also rose to prominence during this period (first Babylonian
dynasty, (1894-1595 BCE).

22. The Epic of Gilgamesh

23. Gilgamesh: King of Legend
 Gilgamesh is on the Sumerian king-list
as one of Uruk’s earliest kings – in the
realm of myth.
 He features in several Sumerian myths
& in one long poem, the Epic of
Gilgamesh.
 This poem is the most popular piece
of literature in Mesopotamia, found in
many different languages and versions
across 2,500 years. We discovered it
in about 1920.
 There are two major versions: we are
reading the Nineveh version, compiled
by a priest in about 800-700 BCE.

24. The Epic Begins
“I shall tell the land of the one who learned all things,
of the one who experienced everything, I shall teach
the whole. He searched lands everywhere. He found
out what was secret and uncovered what was hidden,
he brought back a tale of times before the flood. He
had journeyed far and wide, weary and at last
resigned.”
“He built the wall of Uruk. . . One square mile is the
city, one square mile is its orchards, one square mile is
its clay pits, as well as the open ground of Ishtar’s
temple.”

25. Gilgamesh: King of Legend
 Gilgamesh is the son of Lugulbanda
and the goddess Ninsun – and he is
2/3 god, 1/3 human. but like all
humans he is destined to die.
 As the poem begins, he is king of
Uruk, busy building his city ever
greater.
 When the epic opens, Gilgamesh,
though “perfect in splendor, perfect in
strength” is causing problems at home.
 His excess energy (in building,
exploration, and sex – everything in
fact) is causing tension among his
people, who pray to the gods for
relief.

26. The King Meets His Match
 The gods create Enkidu, a hairy
wild man, and place him in the
forest near Uruk.
 He lives like an animal, startling
the locals.
 They send to Gilgamesh, who
suggests that they tame him by
sending him a woman to sleep
with.
 The woman (called Shamhat, a
cult name of Ishtar) sleeps with
him – converting him to
humanity. Enkidu decides to
go to Uruk.

27. The King Meets His Match
 Gilgamesh dreams about
him, and his mother
Ninsun interprets the
dreams.
 When the two men meet
– at a celebration of Ishtar
– they fight to a standstill,
then become fast friends.
 They decide to go on a
quest to free the Cedar
Forest of Humbaba.

28. A Heroic Adventure
Ellil destined Humbaba
to keep the cedar
forest safe, to be the
terror of people
So the heroes represent
culture in their battle
against nature.
Everyone advises
against it!

29. A Heroic Adventure
 Ninsun prays to Shamash:
“Why did you single out
my son Gilgamesh and
impose a restless spirit on
him? He faces an unknown
struggle, he will ride along
an unknown road.”
 She adopts Enkidu as her
son, and entreats him to
watch after Gilgamesh.
 The heroes depart.

30. Questions to Consider
 What does Gilgamesh have in common with such
heroes as Simba, Luke Skywalker, Moses, Harry Potter
or Frodo from The Lord of the Rings?
 Is his story (so far) essentially different from theirs in
some ways?
 You’re hearing the poem in fragmentary form so this
may be hard to tell but . . . are there essential
differences in how this story is told, compared to, say,
other historical or modern epics?

31. A Heroic Adventure
 When Enkidu touches
the gates of the Cedar
forest, he feels a
supernatural cold and
debility, and at first can
barely continue.
 Then Gilgamesh has
terrible dreams of
destruction, which
Enkidu interprets in a
favorable light.

32. A Heroic Adventure
 The heroes battle Humbaba,
who asks for mercy.
 But Enkidu urges Gilgamesh to
kill the monster, despite the
gods’ possible displeasure.
 Humbaba cries out:
“Neither one of them shall
outlive his friend! Gilgamesh and
Enkidu shall never become old
men!”
 The heroes defeat Humbaba,
and return to Uruk in
triumph.

33. The Goddess Ishtar Emerges
 In Uruk, the goddess Ishtar
approaches Gilgamesh to
become her lover:
“Come to me, Gilgamesh, and
be my lover! Bestow on me
the gift of your fruit! You can
be my husband, I can be your
wife. I shall have a chariot of
lapis lazuli and gold harnessed
for you . . . kings, nobles and
princes shall bow down
beneath you.”

34. The Goddess Ishtar Emerges
 But Gilgamesh scornfully
rejects her:
“You are a door that can’t
keep out winds and gusts,
a palace that rejects its
own warriors, a waterskin
which soaks its carrier . . .
which of your lovers lasted
forever? Which of your
paramours went to
heaven?”

35. The Bull of Heaven Descends
 Enraged, Ishtar sends the Bull
of Heaven to ravage Uruk.
 Gilgamesh & Enkidu kill it,
and when Ishtar reviles
them, Enkidu also insults her,
even throwing the “thigh” of
the bull in her face.
 Inanna calls together the
women to mourn the bull –
a type scene related to
fertility ritual.

36. Enkidu has a Nightmare
Enkidu then has a terrible nightmare:
“The gods were in council last night. And Anu said
to Enlil, “As they have slain the Bull of Heaven, so
too have they slain Humbaba: One of them must
die.” Enlil replied, “Let Enkidu die, but let Gilgamesh
not die.”
Then heavenly Shamash said, “Was it not according
to your plans?” But Enlil turned in anger to
Shamash: “You accompanied them daily, like on of
their comrades.”

37. The Death of Enkidu
 Enkidu gets sick and over 12
days, he dies.
 He curses the hunter and the
prostitute who found him and
made him human, but Shamash
persuades him not to curse the
prostitute.
 Gilgamesh mourned bitterly for
Enkidu his friend, and roved
the open country.
“Shall I die too? Am I not like
Enkidu? Grief has entered my
innermost being.”

38. The Quest for Immortality
 Gilgamesh travels to the ends
of the earth, through the dark
mountain, the pathways of
Shamash:
“When he had gone one double-
hour, thick is the darkness, there is
no light; he can see neither behind
him nor ahead of him… When he
had gone seven double hours,
thick is the darkness, there is no
light… At the nearing of eleven
double-hours, light breaks out. At
the nearing of twelve double-
hours, the light is steady.”

39. The Quest for Immortality
 He meets Siduri, the
(female) innkeeper, to
whom he pours out his
troubles. She directs him
to Utnapishtim, and
adds:
“As for you, Gilgamesh, let
your belly be full, Make
merry day and night. Of
each day make a feast of
rejoicing. Day and night
dance and play!”

40. The Journey to Dilmun
 With the help of the
boatman Urshanabi,
Gilgamesh travels across the
water to Dilmun, the land
at the edge of time . . .
 He cuts 60 saplings for
poles, and as each enters
the waters, it is eaten away.
 He finally uses his tattered
clothing for a sail and
arrives exhausted to
Utnapishtim.

41. The Journey to Dilmun
“I crossed uncrossable mountains. I
travelled all the seas. No real sleep has
calmed my face. I have worn myself
out in sleeplessness; my flesh is filled
with grief.”

42. The Journey to Dilmun
 Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh:
 How Ea told him to build a
huge ark because a flood was
coming.
 How he built the amazing
thing, how he & his family
alone of all mortals were
saved from the Flood.
 How Ishtar mourned the
dead.
 And how he and his wife
came to Dilmun, to live as
immortals.

43. The Test of Immortality
 Utnapishtim offers
Gilgamesh a way to
become immortal:
“Test yourself! Don't sleep for
six days and seven nights."
 But as soon as Gilgamesh
sits down, he falls asleep.
 He sleeps for seven days
and nights
 Each day, Utnapishtim’s
wife puts a loaf of bread
beside him.

44. The Test of Immortality
 Gilgamesh says to him:
“As soon as I was ready to fall
asleep, right away you touched
me and roused me."
 But Utnapishtim shows him the
loaves, & Gilgamesh realizes
that he has failed his test.
 Utnapishtim gives Gilgamesh a
“consolation prize”: a
rejuvenating plant.
 But on the way home, a snake
takes it from him.

45. The Hero Returns Home
 Urshanabi accompanies
Gilgamesh home, & when
they reach the city,
Gilgamesh proudly points it
out to him:
“Go up onto the wall of Uruk,
and walk around! Inspect it . .
. One square mile is the city,
one square mile is its orchards,
one square mile is its clay pits,
as well as the open ground of
Ishtar’s temple.”

46. The Moral of the Story
“The story's quiet close belies the significance of
Gilgamesh's return. He is back where he started but a
changed man, his description of Uruk here suggesting in the
context a new acceptance of the meaning of the city in his
life, an embracing rather than a defiance of the limits it
represents… the king has evolved from a hubristic,
dominating male into a wiser man, accepting the
limitations that his mortal side imposes…[and] his essential
kinship with all creatures who must die .”
- Thomas van Nortwick

47. To Be Continued...