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World Religions, Sixth Edition
Warren Matthews
Chapter Seven:
Ancient Religions of Iraq and Iran
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Mesopotamian History – Succession
of Empires
 Minimal evidence for life in Mesopotamia prior to 4000 BCE
 Since then, the empires have been, respectively:
 Sumerian
 Akkadian
 Assyrian
 Babylonian
 Chaldean
 Persian (under Cyrus the Great)
 Greek (under Alexander the Great)
 Romans
The Ancient Cradle of Civilization –
City-States of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamian Religion and Deities
 Earliest known deities were agricultural and related to each other
through marriage
 Dumuzi and Inanna
 In third millennium, deities reconceived
 No longer restricted exclusively to city-states
Mesopotamian Deities
 Domain extended to wide-ranging cosmic phenomenon
 An – god of the sky
 Enlil – god of the weather necessary for good agriculture
 Ninhursaga – goddess over births of animals and sovereigns
 Enki – god of fresh water
 Celestial deities
 Sin – good of the moon
 Shamash – good of the sun
 Ishtar – goddess of the planet Venus
Ishtar Gate, the Eighth Fortified Gate
in Babylon, Built in 575 BCE
Babylonian Creation Accounts
 Tiamat (salt water) and Apsu (fresh water) had offspring
 Angered by and seeking to kill them, Apsu was killed by the god Enki
 The god Marduk responded to Taimat’s rage by killing Tiamat and
creating the universe out of her corpse
 Ishtar, fertility goddess and wife to Tammuz, descends to the
underworld annually, during which time vegetation suffers, and
resulting in the annual change of seasons
 The Epic of Gilgamesh tells of the search for immortality
Mesopotamian Life
 Life depended upon the success of the farm
 Had uncertain and variable weather
 Depended upon the river flow
 Local “power” controlled those variables
 Life depended upon keeping those local “powers” favorable
 Worship created favor
 Local powers were hierarchical
 Mesopotamian religion was highly polytheistic
 Worship involved the characteristics of those “powers”
 Participation in “powers” invoked them
 Sacrifice invoked “powers”
Mesopotamian Life
 Life existed in city states
 Family was the center of life
 Religion meant placating the “powers” and seeking their favor
 Personal worship of sacrifice and ritual
 Communal worship of temple drama and honoring the royalty
 Gods inhabited images housed in temples, fed and cared for by
priests
 Festivals included dramas re-enacting accounts of deities
 Rulers were accountable to deities
Mesopotamian Worldview
 Diversity of universe symbolized by not one god but many gods
 Earliest gods of agricultural people represented forces of nature
 Gods of autonomous cities preceded those of the larger states
 Priests provided food for gods, treated them as living people
 Concepts of deities changed over many centuries
 Came to believe that life on land occurred when salt waters were
divided from fresh waters
Iranian Religion
 Reflected in the religions of India
 Aryans who arrived in India had lived in Persia, the region of Iran
 Aryan deities in Vedas reflect some beliefs and practices there
 Worshiped Ahuras (lords) and Devas (shining ones of heavens)
The Assyrian and Persian Empires
Zoroastrianism
 The Gathas (hymns) of the Avesta (book of the law)
 Ahura Mazda served by six Amesha Spentas, moral messengers
 Humans were exhorted to emulate the Amesha Spentas and
denounce the evil god Angra Mainyu
 After death, all people were judged based their success in having
lived moral lives
 Those who succeeded were sent to Ahura Mazda, but those who
failed were sent to Angra Mainyu
Life of Zarathustra
 Dates of his life disputed, but had an orthodox religious upbringing
 Grew up in a noble family in ancient Iran, but left his family and wife
at age twenty
 In a visionary religious experience he responded to Vohu Manah, the
personification of Good Thought, who summoned him to come to the
court of the god Ahura Mazda
 Observed that the struggle between Ahura Mazda and the evil god
Angra Mainyu could be aided by humans deciding to live moral lives
Life of Zarathustra
 Subsequent visions over the course of a decade were given to
Zarathustra by Ahura Mazda’s angels
 Seeking to enlist followers, Zarathustra’s first major success came
with his conversion of the Persian King Vishtaspa
 Went on to preach for many decades until his death
Zoroastrian Sacred Flame in Baku,
Azerbaijan
Later Zoroastrian History
 Zoroastrianism attained international reach by the empire-building of
Persian sovereigns
 The Magi priestly group aided the worldwide spread of Zoroastrian
ideas
 Differing emphases emerged and gave rise to one another
 Mani developed a dualistic portrait of the cosmos
 An ongoing struggle between a good spiritual principle and an evil
material principle
Later Zoroastrian History
 Zurvanism returned to a more monotheistic vision that posited a
single principle of time that stood above both Ahura Mazda and
Angra Mainyu
 Other gods came to be recognized by Zoroastrians, including:
 Anahita – a fertility mother goddess
 Haoma – a deity who received animal sacrifice
 Mithra – a god of light
Ahura Mazda, at the Ruins of
Persepolis, Residence of Persian King
Zoroastrian Worldview
 World is regarded as good, clean, created by Ahura Mazda for the
pleasure of people
 People constituted by two separate elements – the soul and the body
 People held morally accountable to live in accordance with the laws
of Ahura Mazda, though human freedom allowed them to violate
these laws
 Burial rituals intended to keep the air, fire, and water free of
contamination
Zoroastrian Worldview
 People die once, and each soul has to cross the Chinvat Bridge of
judgment to enter paradise
 No reincarnation involved
 At the frashokeriti, evil will be vanquished, creation renewed, and a
new earthly life for the good will be instituted
 Adherents are born into the tradition and seek no converts
 Zoroastrians numbers are dwindling in the modern world