In the ancient societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia religious beliefs played a significant role in the daily life of these cultures. In these civilizations religion can be seen in everything from government to social classes of citizens. Important to these societies were their leaders divine right to rule bestowed to them from the gods. The religions of both Mesopotamia and Egypt were both classified as polytheistic, meaning that they believed in many different gods. This was in direct contrast to the Hebrews and their monotheistic beliefs. While these cultures all inhabited the same region they developed individual styles of religious beliefs.
Ancient Egyptian life was centered around religion with practices and ceremonies permeating to many of the daily activities preformed by citizens. Egypt's leader was the pharaoh who was viewed by the people of Egypt as a living god with divine authority over Egypt. The Egyptians had many gods and they preformed rituals daily to keep in good favor with them. They also believed in an afterlife, which stressed that upon death an Egyptian would go before Osiris and be judged how they lived their
…show more content…
They believed that their gods owned all of the cities in the Empire and each one had a patron god. The gods not only owned cities, they were believed to give divine authority to the king and his government. The government and religion were inseparable because government authority was consider to be a direct link to the gods. Religious authority also entered into the social classes of this ancient society with the upper class being composed of government officials and religious priests. The upper class being completely composed of religious authority caused government policy to basically be religious policy. The belief that government had divine authority caused Mesopotamian society to revolve around