Language families:
1. Semitic language:
- Akkadian
- Amorite
- Hebrew
- Phoenician
- Arabic
- Egyptian
2. Indo-European languages:
- Sanskrit
- Hittie
- Persian
- Greek
- Latin and the languages derived from it
- Slavic languages
- Celtic
- Germanic languages
- Armenian
3. Languages of unknown families:
- Sumerian
- Kassite
CHAPTER 5 - RELIGION
Major Mesopotamian gods:
Sumerian Babylonian Major cult centres Function
sky god, air, wind,
An Anu Uruk
king of the world
city god, head of the
— Marduk Babylon
Babylonian pantheon
goddess of sexual
Inanna Ishtar Uruk
love and warfare
city god, head of the
— Ashur Assur
Assyrian pantheon
god of inflicted death,
Meslamtaea Nergal Cutah
war and plague
Major Egyptian gods:
Frequent represen-
God Function Major centre cult
tation
Ra sun god and creator Heliopolis falcon with sun disk
man crowned with
Amon the hidden one (?) Thebes
two high plumes
king of the under- mummiform man with
Osiris Abydos
world crown
Isis sister and spouse of Philae woman with throne as
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, Frequent represen-
God Function Major centre cult
tation
Osiris, goddess of
motherhood and crown
magic
sky god embodied by
Horus Memphis falcon
the king
god of aggression and man with head of
Seth Ombos
chaos phantasy animal
god of burial and
Anubis Abydos jackal
mummification
- most religions of the ancient Near East were polytheistic (different gods were wor-
shipped)
- people back then believed that each force of nature represented a divine
power and the cosmos had originated when primeval gods had risen from a
divine primeval sea; they had given birth to new gods and the process had re-
peated itself for many generations
- gods were personifications of cosmic phenomena (sun, moon, stars, earth)
- the cosmos was believed to be unstable and monstrous forces tried to destroy
the gods
- myths - stories of gods explaining natural phenomena and the origin of the world
are distinctive features of the religions of the ancient Near East; the annual death
and rebirth of the vegetation were also explained
- the death of the cereal grain — the death of a god
- vegetation’s stagnated growth during the hot, dry period of the year — a god spent
part of the year in the underworld
- every city had its own supreme god who was venerated in specific rites [the
chief god of a city also became the state god and the supreme god of the pantheon)
- Nippur (Sumerian) —> Enlil
- Babylon —> Marduk
- Egypt —> Ra
- Assyria —> Ashur
- religion was not a distinctive sphere of life but it was integrated in political
structures and social life
- polytheistic religion are flexible & accept foreign gods into their pantheons (ei-
ther as new or through identification with existing gods)
- at the beginning the gods were represented as anthropomorphic beings & were en-
dowed with human characteristics
- in Egypt the gods were portrayed as animals or hybrids
- the gods were worshipped (via serving meals, offerings, rituals) to obtain their favor
and to ensure that they would maintain world order and the fertility of the land
- the king played an important part in religious activities, some even served double
function as a kings and the high priest (even if they were not the highest priests,
they regarded themselves as the supreme god’s principal servants whose task was
to win gods’ favor)
- building temples, taking part in rituals, the king of Babylonia had to participate in
the New Year’s festival, Sumerian kings had to fuck the city god’s high priestess to
secure the fertility of the land —> in order to win gods’ favor
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, - the king of Western Asia were rarely regarded as divine
- the kings of Hittie kings were believed to become gods after death
- in Egypt the king was regarded as a divine institution (statues of the king were ven-
erated in cults)
- in Mesopotamia the kings had superhuman qualities
- private people prayed to the gods but we know way less about such individual forms
of worship
- humans could find out what the gods had in store for them by: studying the stars,
the livers of sacrificed animals, flight of birds
- Egyptians believed that life would continue in the same way after death pro-
vided the body remained intact —> they took great pains to preserve the bodies of
the deceased by mummifying them
- Mesopotamians thought of life after death as a bleak prospect —> the deceased
went to a dismal area inside the earth where and unpleasant time awaited them
- The Epic of Gilgamesh:
- one of the earliest masterpieces of world literature
- composed in Babylonia
- written in Babylonian cuneiform script
- comprises of 11 clay tablets
- based on a collection of Sumerian epics about Gilgamesh (probably passed down
orally)
- recounts the adventures of Gilgamesh (the king of Uruk) who sets out to seek im-
mortality
- Gilgamesh is a tyrannical king who allows no woman to marry as a virgin, the gods
therefore create a wild man (Enkidu) who is supposed to bring him into line, how-
ever, they become friends not long after their 1st encounter; the epic tells us how
they plan to acquire eternal fame by defeating the demon
- henotheism / monolatry —> form of religion; people place their confidence in one
of the gods of a pantheon and regard all the other gods as powerless beings; it was
to be found in early Israel
- monotheism —> worshipping only one god and denying the existence of other
gods; generally not tolerating the worship of other gods; the sky, earth, sun and
moon are not gods; very rare in antiquity
- Akhenaten —> made the sun god Aten his patron god and tried to suppress the
cult of the former supreme god Amon; all representations and every mention of
Amon removed (its hard to tell if it was a truly monotheistic form of religion);
changed his name from Amenhotep (“Amon has mercy”) to Akhenaten (“agreeable
to Aten”); neglected other gods altogether; he claimed to be the sole intermediary
between Aten and his people; the king was now truly divine; his views were too rev-
olutionary for most Egyptians, therefore, after his death they quickly reverted to
their old traditions
- people of Israel — monotheistic, worship of Yahweh
- the Persian religion preached prophet Zarathustra & approached monotheism to
some extent
- it was transmitted orally
- the world was governed by 2 principles: good & bad
CHAPTER 6 - ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
- agriculture (crop cultivation & animal husbandry) formed the basis of economy
- landed property was the principal from of wealth
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