Religion and Humanity in Mesopotamian Myth and Epic

Religion and Humanity in Mesopotamian Myth and Epic
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date: 22 December 2022
phenomena were interpreted as divine messages. While outside of the scope of this study, wisdom 
literature, lamentations, incantations, and divination and ritual texts, as well as funerary 
inscriptions, also provide abundant information about the conception of human and divine 
relations in ancient Mesopotamia.
Overview
Religion and humanity intersect in a variety of ways in Mesopotamian myth and epic.
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 The term 
“religion” has been the focus of much philological discussion,
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 but it remains difficult to define 
clearly, and providing a definition of “Mesopotamian religion” is similarly problematic.
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In 
Bottéro’s definition, “religion” is considered as something imprecise and instinctive, which 
causes us to reach beyond ourselves, involving an “undefined order of things” which are 
necessary for a sense of completeness.
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 The wide-ranging, poetic, and intricate nature of 
Bottéro’s definition, particularly in terms of its focus on completeness, holds significance for the 
interdependent and complicated relationships between the human and divine spheres. However, 
defining “Mesopotamian religion” remains complex; our sources tell us what it was believed the 
gods did (primarily in myths and epics), what it was believed the gods were like (primarily myths, 
epics, and hymns), and what humans were expected to do with respect to the gods (primarily 
rituals). They do not go beyond this into a description of inner religious feelings, and attempts to 
infer feelings from the evidence risk the anachronistic imposition of modern notions. Therefore, 
ancient Mesopotamian religion has to be defined as a combination of what ancient 
Mesopotamians said about the gods, including of course the deities’ relation to humans, and what 
humans did in response.
The study of religion in the ancient world is a rich and rapidly developing field. Religion in 
literature, as in broader Mesopotamian culture, can be public or private, personal or communal. 
Two elements of humanity and religion will be considered here: the interconnected relationships 
among humans, heroes, and the divine in myth and epic, and reflections on the human condition 
in these works. The aim is to give an overview of a number (but by no means all) of significant 
literary works in the “genre” of myth and epic as they relate to religion and humanity. The broad 
scope of the subject means that a complete survey of the topic is beyond reach here, and there are 
many aspects that would benefit from consideration at greater length. Instead, a foundation is 
provided for considering the extremely intricate nature of the human condition, and its 
relationship to the divine, found in Mesopotamian narrative, so as to provide a basis for further 
study and cross-cultural comparison.