Sumerian religion
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Sumerian religion was the
Overview
Before the beginning of kingship in Sumer, the city-states were effectively ruled by theocratic priests and religious officials. Later, this role was supplanted by kings, but priests continued to exert great influence on Sumerian society. In early times, Sumerian temples were simple, one-room structures, sometimes built on elevated platforms. Towards the end of Sumerian civilization, these temples developed into ziggurats—tall, pyramidal structures with sanctuaries at the tops.
The Sumerians believed that the
, the son of the An and Ki.The major deities in the Sumerian pantheon included An, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the god of wind and storm, AnKi Enki, the god of water and human culture,
Sumerian religion heavily influenced
Worship
Written cuneiform
Sumerian myths were passed down through the oral tradition until the invention of writing (the earliest myth discovered so far, the Epic of Gilgamesh, is Sumerian[dubious ] and is written on a series of fractured clay tablets). Early Sumerian cuneiform was used primarily as a record-keeping tool; it was not until the late Early Dynastic period that religious writings first became prevalent as temple praise hymns[5] and as a form of "incantation" called the nam-šub (prefix + "to cast").[6] These tablets were also made of stone clay or stone, and they used a small pick to make the symbols.
Architecture
In the Sumerian city-states, temple complexes originally were small, elevated one-room structures. In the early dynastic period, temples developed raised terraces and multiple rooms. Toward the end of the Sumerian civilization,
Priesthood
Until the advent of the
Deified kings
Some cities in Sumer had periods where their kings were worshipped as gods, and occasionally, these times spread to all cities in the region.[10]
Ceremony
During the Third Dynasty of Ur, the Sumerian city-state of Lagash was said to have had sixty-two "lamentation priests" who were accompanied by 180 vocalists and instrumentalists.[11]
Cosmology
The Sumerians envisioned the universe as a closed dome surrounded by a primordial saltwater sea.
Creation story
The main source of information about the Eridu Genesis is the prologue to the epic poem
Heaven
The ancient Mesopotamians regarded the sky as a series of domes (usually three, but sometimes seven) covering the
Afterlife
The
The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry
The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the
Pantheon
Development
It is generally agreed that Sumerian
During the middle of the third millennium BC, Sumerian society became more urbanized.[16]: 178–179 As a result of this, Sumerian deities began to lose their original associations with nature and became the patrons of various cities.[16]: 179 Each Sumerian city-state had its own specific patron deity,[16]: 179 who was believed to protect the city and defend its interests.[16]: 179 Lists of large numbers of Sumerian deities have been found. Their order of importance and the relationships between the deities has been examined during the study of cuneiform tablets.[26]
During the late 2000s BC, the Sumerians were conquered by the
Major deities
The majority of Sumerian deities belonged to a classification called the Anunna ("[offspring] of
Enlil was the god of air, wind, and storm.[27]: 108 He was also the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon[27]: 108 [28]: 115–121 and the patron deity of the city of Nippur.[29]: 58 [30]: 231–234 His primary consort was Ninlil, the goddess of the south wind,[31]: 106 who was one of the patron deities of Nippur and was believed to reside in the same temple as Enlil.[32] Ninurta was the son of Enlil and Ninlil. He was worshipped as the god of war, agriculture, and one of the Sumerian wind gods. He was the patron deity of Girsu and one of the patron deities of Lagash. "Sumerian cities each had their own gods but acknowledged the supremacy of...Enlil."[33]
Enki was god of freshwater, male fertility, and knowledge.[20]: 75 His most important cult center was the E-abzu temple in the city of Eridu.[20]: 75 He was the patron and creator of humanity[20]: 75 and the sponsor of human culture.[20]: 75 His primary consort was Ninhursag, the Sumerian goddess of the earth.[20]: 140 Ninhursag was worshipped in the cities of Kesh and Adab.[20]: 140
Nammu was a goddess representing the primeval waters (Engur), who gave birth to An (heaven) and Ki (earth) and the first deities; while she is rarely attested as an object of cult, she likely played a central role in the early cosmogony of Eridu, and in later periods continued to appear in texts related to exorcisms.[41] An was the ancient Sumerian god of the heavens. He was the ancestor of all the other major deities[42] and the original patron deity of Uruk.
Most major gods had a so-called sukkal, a minor deity serving as their vizier, messenger or doorkeeper.[43]
Legacy
Akkadians
The Sumerians had an ongoing linguistic and cultural exchange with the Semitic
Babylonians
The
Hurrians
The Hurrians adopted the Akkadian god Anu into their pantheon sometime no later than 1200 BC. Other Sumerian and Akkadian deities adapted into the Hurrian pantheon include Ayas, the Hurrian counterpart to Ea; Shaushka, the Hurrian counterpart to Ishtar; and the goddess Ninlil,[45] whose mythos had been drastically expanded by the Babylonians.[citation needed]
Parallels
Some stories recorded in the older parts of the Hebrew Bible bear strong similarities to the stories in Sumerian mythology. For example, the biblical account of
Genealogy of the Sumerian deities
An | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Uraš | Ḫaya | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ninsar | Ninlil | Enlil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ninkurra | Uraš | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Utu | Ninkigal married Nergal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Meškiaĝĝašer | Lugalbanda | Ninsumun | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Enmerkar | Gilgāmeš | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Urnungal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
See also
- Ancient Semitic religion – Polytheistic religions of the Semitic peoples
- Babylonian religion – Religious practices of Babylonia
- Mes – Sumerian name given to the laws of the gods
- Mesopotamian myths – Myths and religious texts originating in Mesopotamia
- Religions of the ancient Near East – Overview of ancient religious practices in the modern-day Middle East
- Sumerian literature – 18th–17th century BCE writings
- Zuism – Icelandic modern Pagan new religious movement
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External links
- Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, on Oracc
- Sumerian Hymns from Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum at Project Gutenberg (Transcription of the book from 1908)
- The Ekur: Sumerian Reconstructionist Ceremonial Magick