I.                   Sumerian and Egyptian Religion

A.   What is religion?

1.     All people have a sense that something is not right with world

2.     Something is missing, there is a void

3.     Answers the fundamental questions

B.   Five aspects

1.     Cosmology – way to look at world

2.     Worship Forms – Express worship to divine

3.     Deities – What were they worshipping

4.     Practice – What you believe is all well and good

5.     Mythology – Stories and Legends

C.   Cosmology - What people believe about the nature of the universe and reality in which they live

1.     Sumerians

a)    Their explanation

(i)                            The earth was a flat round disk

(ii)                         No idea world was round

(iii)                       Heavens was an inverted bowel made of tin

(iv)                        Sun, moon, and stars made up of glowing air

(v)                           Sun visited the underworld every night but the moon only went there once a month

(vi)                        How they explained universe and objects of nature

b)    Pessimistic World View

(i)                            Negative way to look at things

(ii)                         Always found problems

(iii)                       Felt world was unpredictable and they were ay mercy of gods

(iv)                        Could be destroyed by wrong ritual

(v)                           Comes from unpredictable floods

(vi)                        Expressed in many Proverbs

c)     Afterlife

(i)                            Not a developed thought

(ii)                         Did not know what would happen

(iii)                       Everyone ended up in shadowy world where everyone made of clay and dust

(iv)                        Believed in spiritual world filled by both gods and demons

2.     Egypt

a)    Their explanation

(i)                            Reality composed of different gods and goddesses

(ii)                         Sky was a goddesses, Nut

(iii)                       Earth was god Geb

b)    Optimistic World View

(i)                            Due to Nile Floods being predictable

c)     Afterlife

(i)                            Very developed concept of afterlife

(ii)                         During old kingdom only Pharaoh had an afterlife

(iii)                       Later on it was extended to every one else

(iv)                        Had to pass weighing of the heart before entering afterlife

(v)                           Have you led an ethical and moral life

(vi)                        Deny doing certain things

(vii)                      Afterlife was a glorified version of person’s actual life

D.   Worship Forms – How do people worship

1.     Wrote songs and poems of praise to their deities    

2.     Hymns to Utu – Sumerian sun god

3.     Hymns to Re – Egyptian sun god

E.   Deities

1.     Some similarities – Utu and Re; Enli and Stau; Damuzi and Osiris; Inanan and Isis

2.     Sumerians believed that Utu descended to underworld to judge the dead

3.     Many Egyptians believed that Re created the world

a)    Believed that Re rolled across the sky in his barge to enter the underworld

4.     Sumerians believed that Enlil created and separated the sky and earth to make room for life

5.     Shu – Egyptian  god separated Nut from Gel to make life possible

6.     Sumerians believed that Danuzi was killed by demon hands and temp resurrect to wife Innamu

7.     Osiris Egyptian god of fertility was murdered by evil brother Seth and was repaired by Isis but remained in underworld

F.    Practice

1.     Different

2.     Sumerians believed ritual could save people by appeasing the gods

3.     Egypt was ritualistic but also ethical

4.     Proper ritual not enough in Egypt

5.     Even Pharaoh was to follow Ma’at

G.  Mythology

1.     Very similar