Mesopotamian religion has been very interesting to study so far. certain aspects of it's structure are hard to conceptualize to someone outside of their mythological traditions. before i go too far, however, i have to say that this is not a polished, finished research report - as I've read about the beliefs of the Mesopotamians, i realize that I'm really only scratching the surface of a very complex polytheistic belief system. having said that, let's jump right in-
"in the beginning" as Christians would say, there was a watery chaos. from this chaos emerged Taimat and Abzu, who then created the four creator gods, The highest of the 4 gods was the sky-god An, the over-arching bowl of heaven. Next came Enlil who could either produce raging storms or act to help man. Nin-khursag was the earth goddess. The 4th god was Enki, the water god and patron of wisdom. there is a marked difference in the nature of these gods and the god of Christianity. while we may see god as influencing the weather,to Mesopotamians, enlil didn't control the weather, enlil was the weather. the Mesopotamians believed that their gods were continuously present with them (notably, this phrase sounds familiar to Christians, but is meant in a MUCH more literal way) these four gods were supported by a host of 50 advisor gods, each having their own role in the universe. however, the lines between god and spirit and transcendent presence were blurred to the point that while An was the highest god, the flowers in the field or the thunder accompanying the storm or the stream by your village could in its own sphere, be a god.
this fluidity of definition - a wide open canon - bears a close relationship to the oral nature of their belief system. I'm not going to try to guess which led to the other - stories of things experienced leading to social lore of gods of nature, or belief in the presence of gods all around them leading to stories shared around fires of the actions of the gods witnessed in their lives. the continual conversation between the young and the old, the community coming together to share these stories, forming a series of rites and rituals over time. the method of transmission in this case definitely affected the content of that knowledge.
how do you think the method of transmission of our religious beliefs affects the content thereof? and how does that compare to other modern religions? or to the religions you are studying?
In the Ancient Greek religion, live animal sacrifices was a very important ritual. When they sacrificed animals, they were paying tribute to and supposedly receiving protection from whichever god they were worshipping. Being that they believed in so many gods, they would need to coordinate which god was in control of what. The oral transmission of which animal to sacrifice to which god and in which way seemed to have changed from one part of Greece to another. For example, the military-driven Spartans and the democratically-minded Athenians likely talked about the goddess of war AND wisdom, Athena, differently. The differing social identities fed differing opinions of the same god(s).
ReplyDeleteAncient Persian religion is actually quite similar. (I have yet to dig into Zoroastrianism--it seems it came a bit later in ancient Persian history.)
ReplyDeleteHerodotus notes that building altars and temples and statues was foolish to the Persians, as they worshipped the elements directly. If you wanted to appease the sky god, you went to the top of a mountain to make your sacrifice. Simple.
I imagine those that lived this early religion did it however they were taught by their family to do it. Later on a sort of priestly class--one sense of the phrase "the Magi"--would be deeply involved in the rituals, though my brief delve into Herodotus and Schoeler indicated some uncertainty as to their exact role in Persian society.