#ninurta

Mesopotamian Religion: Daily Life as a Form of Worship

Mesopotamian religion was central to the people's lives. Humans were created as co-laborers with their gods to hold off the forces of chaos and to keep the world running smoothly. As in ancient Egypt, the gods were honored daily for providing humanity with life and sustenance, and people were expected to give back through works that honored the gods.

It was understood that, in the beginning, the world was undifferentiated chaos and that order was established by the gods. The gods had separated the sky from the earth, the land from the water, saltwater from freshwater, plants from animals, and this order needed to be maintained. As the gods had many different responsibilities, humans were created to help them in the operation of the world. The meaning of life, therefore, was to live in accordance with this understanding, and so one's daily life would be a form of worship.

Every city had a temple complex clearly visible from afar for its ziggurat, the monumental architecture most closely associated with Mesopotamia, which was usually topped by a temple or shrine, elevating the officiant closer to the gods. The gods were understood as inhabiting their own realm but also living in the temple, in the statues created in their images in every city. This belief was already firmly in place by the time of the Uruk period (circa 4100-3100 BCE) and developed fully during the Early Dynastic period (circa 2900-2350/2334 BCE).

Although Mesopotamian religion changed in focus and the names of the deities over the centuries, the central understanding of the relation between humanity and the gods did not. As late as circa 650, the people of Mesopotamia still adhered to the belief that they were the gods' co-workers who assisted in the maintenance of order. This paradigm only changed after 651 with the invasion of the Muslim Arabs and the new monotheistic religious model of Islam.

Mesopotamian Creation Myth

According to the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish (meaning "When on High"), life began after an epic struggle between the elder gods and the younger. In the beginning, there was only water swirling in chaos and undifferentiated between fresh and bitter. These waters separated into two distinct principles: the male principle, Apsu, which was freshwater, and the female principle, Tiamat, saltwater. From the union of these two principles, all the other gods came into being.

These younger gods were so loud in their daily concourse with each other that they came to annoy the elders, especially Apsu, and, on the advice of his vizier, he decided to kill them. Tiamat, however, was shocked at Apsu's plot and warned one of her sons, Ea, the god of wisdom and intelligence. With the help of his brothers and sisters, Ea put Apsu to sleep and then killed him. Out of the corpse of Apsu, Ea created the earth and built his home; though, in later myths, "the Apsu" came to mean the watery home of the gods or the realm of the god Enki.

Tiamat, upset now over Apsu's death, raised the forces of chaos to destroy her children herself. Ea and his siblings fought against Tiamat and her allies, her champion, Quingu, the forces of chaos, and Tiamat's creatures, without success until, from among them, rose the great storm god Marduk. Marduk swore he would defeat Tiamat if the gods would proclaim him their king. This agreed to, he entered into battle with Tiamat, killed her, and from her body, he created the sky. He then continued on with the act of creation to make human beings from the remains of Quingu as helpmates to the gods.

According to scholar D. Brendan Nagle:

Despite the gods' apparent victory, there was no guarantee that the forces of chaos might not recover their strength and overturn the orderly creation of the gods. Gods and humans alike were involved in the perpetual struggle to restrain the powers of chaos, and they each had their own role to play in this dramatic battle. The responsibility of the dwellers of Mesopotamian cities was to provide the gods with everything they needed to run the world.

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here a sketch of the God NINURTA I made while attending my lectures of archaeology of Western Asia ❤️❤️

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Mesopotamian_Warfare/

With the scarcity of resources often driving the movement of people, conflict between groups is nearly inevitable. As people began to settle, competition for resources became competition for land, minerals, or bragging rights, these conflicts became larger and more drawn out. War deities often became connected to the 'one true god' of monotheistic religions, whether they were originally war gods or became syncretized with them, leading to the idea of a 'holy war'. There are many feminine war deities, several of which are associated with love or sex as well as war. Some deities of war were invoked to hold back war and some to bring victory. War was sometimes viewed as the various gods fighting each other through the avatars of the armies, especially among city-states.

By PHGCOM (2007), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3122874

One of the oldest attested warrior gods we know of is Ninurta 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒅁, also known as Ninĝirsu 𒀭𒎏𒄈𒋢. He was the god of law, agriculture, healing, hunting, scribes, and war in early Sumer, centered in Nippur, and syncretized with gods through the Roman Saturn. He can cause and heal human illness through his control over demons, which were thought to be the cause of illness. He took the position of warrior god as Mesopotamia became more militarized and battles became more common. He might have been the inspiration for Nimrod the 'mighty hunter' in the book of Genesis, though that is a subject of debate, as is the possibility that he might be Nisroch in the Book of Kings.

By The Walters Art Museum - This image has been extracted from another file, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88510374

Ninurta is one of the oldest deities of the Sumerians and was the son of Enlil, the chief god and god of the air, earth, and storms. He was syncretized early with Ninĝirsu, who was worshiped in Girsu, or they might have been the same god with local dialectal variations in his name. His fierce reputation made him especially popular with the Assyrians with many kings having names that incorporate Ninurta's name. He was moved to the Assyrian capital of Kalhu (Nimrud) under the reign if Shalmaneser III (reigned 859-824 BCE).

By Anonymous (Mesopotamia) - Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18804095

The only god with more myths than Ninurta is Inanna, thus exemplifying his position in the Sumerian pantheon. In one, known as Lugal-e, which means 'O king!', Ninurta confronts a demon, Asag, the personification of winter cold and sickness, who has been poisoning the rivers and making people sick. Asag has an army of stone warriors to protect him and Ninurta. Ninurta destroys Asag's armies and uses the stones to create mountains that cause all the rivers to flow into the Tigris and Euphrates, allowing for irrigation and agriculture. His mother, Ninmah, came down to congratulate him and he dedicates the mountains to her, renaming her Ninhursag, which means 'Lady of the Mountain'. This exemplifies Ninurta's dual role as warrior and agriculture god.

By editor Austen Henry Layard , drawing by L. Gruner - 'Monuments of Nineveh, Second Series' plate 5, London, J. Murray, 1853, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18217886

I know there's Sharur which means Smasher of Thousands but what about the other big numbers like Smasher of Tens, Thousands etc? Can I get a translation please? 🥺

Silim! Sharur 𒊹𒃡 is the name of a divine weapon owned by the god Ninurta, derived from ur 𒃡 "to destroy, mow down, erase, clear away" and shar 𒊹, literally the number 3,600 but also used to mean "a lot, totality, all". The Sumerian number system operated very differently from our own, but you could presumably swap in other round numbers, as in uur 𒌋𒃡 "smasher of ten", ngeshur 𒁹𒃡 "smasher of sixty", shargalur 𒐲𒃡 "smasher of 216,000".

Il y a une petite quinzaine, je suis allé avec Julien et Katie, au Louvre-Lens pour une expo temporaire : “Animaux Fantastiques”. Une très belle expo ! Ici des hydres et des serpents :

stèle "kudurru" - le "bashmu", serpent venimeux de la Mer Primordiale - Irak, 1200 av. J-C.

les 2 suivantes : amphore , Héraklès, avec Athéna et Iolaos, et l'Hydre de Lerne - Athènes, 530 av. J-C.

sceau-cylindre, Ninurta contre les serpents "Bashmu" - OU bien - Marduk contre Tiamat - Irak, 900-600 av. J-C.

orthostate - Teshup, dieu hittite de l'Orage et Tasmishu combattant le serpent marin Hedammu - Aslantepe, Turquie, 1200 av. J-C.