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Divine Power In Ancient Mesopotamia

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According to the documents, it can be inferred that in the ancient Egyptian religious system, the divine powers were seen as saviors and kings that would bring prosperity to Egypt as well as rule over and guide mankind. The Egyptians would worship them out of love and gratitude so long as the gods catered to mankind’s agenda. On the other hand, in ancient Mesopotamia, the divine powers appeared to be extremely formidable and were worshipped out of fear by mankind as there would be deadly repercussions if any human dared to defy Mesopotamian gods. Both of the religious systems used the features of the natural environment as embodiments of their gods.
A key element of the relationship between the divine powers in the two religious systems and humanity was the way the divine powers were portrayed by mankind. In ancient Mesopotamia, the divine powers were described as “destructive storms and evil winds”, “seven gods of universal sway” and “seven evil gods”, this shows that the Mesopotamians used characteristics of nature to represent their gods. In addition, these descriptive features have quite negative connotations associated with them; they lead us to believe that these gods were extremely powerful, nefarious, and dominant, as a result, mankind would worship them out of great fear. In the Mesopotamian religious system humans referred to themselves as ‘servants’, “O lord, do not cast aside thy servant!”, this shows that …show more content…

In addition, mankind referred to themselves as servants to the gods so this shows that mankind did not have a high status in the eyes of the gods. In the Egyptian religious system, mankind worshipped them out of love so long as they were getting their needs fulfilled. Mankind was also valued a lot more in the Egyptian religious system as they were seen as the children of the sun god’s

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