World Religions, Sixth Edition Warren Matthews Chapter Seven: Ancient Religions of Iraq and Iran This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

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