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Ancient Mesopotamia Research Paper

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The ancient Mesopotamians lived in a polytheistic environment, meaning they worshipped many different gods and goddesses. They believed that their gods heavily influenced everything that happened within their lives. The meaning of life back then was to actually live in harmony or become one with the gods. In ancient Mesopotamia, each city had their own god or goddess. At the center, a large temple stood which was dedicated to that certain god or goddess. It is said that they looked like steep pyramids with a flat top. To the sides, there would be small shrines that were dedicated to the other gods. It started out with the Sumerians which, in time, heavily influenced the Babylonian and Assyrian religion. In an ancient Mesopotamian myth, called Enuma Elish, it is said that life began after much confrontation between the elder and younger gods. Before creation began, the salt and fresh water was mixed together. These waters separated the …show more content…
This civilization had many of the same gods that Babylon did, with the same names, such as Ea. The primary god of Assyria was Ashur (Assur), who was the god of war, and was married to Ishtar, the goddess of love and war. Ashur was the god of the first capital city, which coincidentally, was called Ashur. He is sometimes shown riding a snake-dragon, and his symbols were a winged disc, as well as the bow and arrow. Some of the other gods were Ishtar, which was the Assyrian version of Inanna. Originally she was from Uruk in Sumerian civilization, and quite prominent in Babylon. There was also Shamash, the Assyrian version of Utu. He is the god of the sun, as well as justice and the law. Ancient mythology explains that every day, he rides around the world in a chariot. It says he is served by people that were a combination of man and scorpion. All of these gods and many more were extremely important to Assyrian culture, and all over

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