Sara Jane Blumenschine

Ashley Malmstrom

Michelle Nock

ENGL 208

Dr. Martin

03 September 2008

Ancient Mesopotamia Presentation

            The surviving art and artifacts of ancient Mesopotamia reveal a rich culture that had practical as well as philosophical and spiritual concerns.

            Displaying their views on humankind and their relation to the natural and to the divine, the Sumerian creation account tells how and why humans were first created. “The Creation of Ulligara and Zalgarra,” which has been dated to 800 B.C.E., describes the  gods as having finished the physical creation and asking one another, “What [else] shall we create?” (Leonard 77). The gods decide to slay the Lamga gods and mingle their blood with clay to create man, whose fate is to serve the gods (Leonard 78). This sacrificial creation story reflects the Sumerian’s orientation to the cosmic order. In the Sumerian mind, man was solely a servant. In turn, the structure of this cosmogony informs many ancient Mesopotamian practices, including religion, politics, social order, education, literature, and art. 

            Ancient Mesopotamians had a polytheistic religion, and each city was built around a temple dedicated to the local patron deity (Stein). Their religious concerns being central to their lives, also affected their political ideology. The Mesopotamian government consisted of an absolute monarchy, whose kings were considered intermediaries between the human and the divine. Consequently, the laws established by the king were considered divine decrees, a famous example being Hammurabi’s code (Stein). The Epic of Gilgamesh reflects these political assumptions. Gilgamesh is described as two thirds god and one third man (Lawall 13). As their cosmogony described, man was created for service to the gods. Thus, in order to have the right to rule, a king had to have a claim to semi-divinity. However, this did not entitle him to be a tyrant. The narrator in Gilgamesh states, “Yet the king should be a shepherd to his people” (Lawall 13). While the king possessed the divine right to rule, ancient Mesopotamians held to some modern notions of justice and equality.

            The cosmogony also informed the structure of their society. Ancient Mesopotamia had an agrarian economy, and social classes reflected this. While most people were farmers, there were also merchants, politicians, and priests (Stein). Within this society, roles were often defined by one’s gender. Women had no independence, and society viewed them solely in terms of their relation to men, whether that be as daughter, wife, or mistress. Having no sovereignty in marriage, a woman had to “fulfill her expected duties” or face divorce (Duiker 11). However, women were not completely mistreated. Gilgamesh displays a wide spectrum of assumptions about women, from the civilizing sexuality of the harlot, to the wisdom of Ninsun, to the cruelty of Ishtar (Lawall). From these portraits, it would seem that women had some power and social mobility within ancient Mesopotamian society. Gilgamesh also paints a picture of the male gender. Man is portrayed as a mixture of the human, divine, and animal. Moreover, images of male potency, such as axes, swords, timber, and bulls, permeate the epic (Lawall). Although males are most closely associated with power, the imagery in Gilgamesh that embodies immortality, the flower, as well as the serpent that steals the flower, are both images of female power (Lawall). By associating the elusiveness of immortality with women, ancient Mesopotamians conceived of women as not only powerful, but also beautiful, desirable, mysterious, and deceptive.

            The Mesopotamian cosmogony also set the standard for education and literature. In line with their assumption that humans are servants, most people did not receive an education. Thus, the ability to write was associated with power and prestige. Scribes not only used their services for business transactions, but also to record literature (Lawall 3). The development of the complex cuneiform writing system allowed the birth of literature (Lawall 3), which most often took shape as epic verse, such as Gilgamesh. The literature of ancient Mesopotamia deals with not just practical, but abstract concepts such as the human experience, mortality, and spirituality.

            Many of the practical as well as philosophical concerns of Mesopotamian literature are also present in their art and architecture, which reflected “both their love and fear of. . . natural forces, as well as their military conquests” (History). Clay, the same substance out of which man was created, was an essential material for their society, and was used to form bricks for structures. Their structures were not only functional, but also ornate. Mesopotamians “invent[ed] the arch and the dome and construct[ed] some of the largest brick buildings in the world” (Duiker 9). Their creativity was also expressed in their sculptures, carvings, and painted pottery (History). Thus, Mesopotamians embellished the functional items in their daily lives with beauty and expressions of their worldview.  As expressed by their creation account, ancient Mesopotamians possessed a unique worldview, and through their art explored they some of the same political, social, philosophical, and spiritual concerns we still have today.

Works Cited

Duiker, William J. and Jackson J. Spielvogel. The Essential World History. 3^rd ed. U.S.:

Thomson, 2008. Print.

Mesopotamian Art and Architecture. History. Web. 2 September 2009.

http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=26304.

Lawall, Sarah and Maynard Mack. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2^nd ed. v.A. NY:

Norton, 2002. 3-41. Print.

Leonard, Scott and Michael McClure. Myth and Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology.

Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004. 36, 75-79. Print.

Stein, Gil. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago: Teacher Resource Center. U of

Chicago. Web. 2 September 2009.