Why Is Religion So Important To The Ancient Mesopotamians

Religion was very important to the ancient Mesopotamians. They believed in gods, goddesses, and demons. The ancient mesopotamians also believed in the Netherworld, their version of the afterlife. The people of Mesopotamia believed that their world was controlled by gods, goddesses, monsters and demons. The mesopotamians were polytheistic, they believed in hundreds of gods. They also believed that gods created demons, good and bad. The people of ancient mesopotamia believed that by worshiping the other worldly beings they kept them happy. They believed that if the other worldly beings were unhappy horrible things would happen. In the center of every city there was a temple for the patron of the city. The ancient mesopotamians also had many ziggurats, which they used as temples.
Their personal god received a great deal of their worship time and attention, but no one god was more important than another. Most ancient Mesopotamians believed in the Netherworld, Their version of the afterlife. Ancient Mesopotamians visualised the netherworld as a shadowy version of life on earth. They believed it to be the opposite of the heavens, however it wasn’t hell.The Mesopotamian netherworld was neither a place of punishment nor reward. Rather, it was the only otherworldly destination for dead spirits whose bodies and graves or cult statues had received proper ritual care.The Mesopotamians did not view physical death as the ultimate end of life. The dead continued an animated existence in the form of a spirit, designated by the Sumerian term gidim and its Akkadian equivalent, eṭemmu. The eṭemmu is best understood as a ghost. The eṭemmu was not immediately transported to the netherworld after bodily death, but had to undergo an arduous journey in order to reach it. Proper burial and mourning of the corpse was essential for the