Gilgimesh essays

Gilgimesh essays Mesopotamias Religious Activities With Mesopotamian civilization dating back as far as 3500 B. C. E. the typical resident exhibited many qualities. However, their main qualities were based on religion. The book, The Epic of Gilgimesh describes how religion played a very important role in the Mesopotamian society. They thought that humans were put onto this earth in order to serve God. Religion was the relevance of their apparent Mesopotamian religion in The Epic of Gilgimesh when it described the great flood. Religion was an important part of their everyday life. The Mesopotamians were Polytheistic, which means they had many gods. Their gods were thought to have control over nature and the environment around them. People saw the gods as having human characteristics. The Epic of Gilgamesh relates to the polytheistic belief because there are many human like gods that are described in the story. Since the presence of their gods were so closely felt people would build temples for them. "Priest became full-time specialists, running the temples and performing the astronomical calculations of the dates for normal flooding, which were needed to manage the irrigation systems." (Stearns, 33) Citizens of Mesopotamia would also visit those temples and leave food and gifts. They believed that the food and gifts would please the gods and grant themselves good fortune. This shows what a major part religion played in Mesopotamian life. We know from many ancient Mesopotamian sources, in Sumerian and in Akkadian, that the Babylonians believed the purpose of the human race to be the service of the gods. (Gilgamesh xxxvii) Before humans ever existed Gods use to have to plant and field their own food and perform all the labor. The Gods would dig rivers and waterways in order to irrigate the fields. Even the rivers Tigris and Euphrates were their work. (Gilgamesh xxxvii) The Gods grew tired of always ...