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Mood/outlook was profoundly pessimistic Projected this negative outlook to the gods and the afterlife Pantheon o Anu = sky god, head of pantheon o Inana = fertility/mother earth Most beloved god; life depended on fertility o Enlil = sky/storm/war god Role of Temple o Center of religious society o Built to imitate sacred mountains = intersection of heaven and earth Enters Hebrew culture: temple “mount” and “mountain of the Lord's house” o “Ziggurat” = Akkadian “high place” o 5 outgrowths of the temple Writing (cuneiform) Literature (religious myths) School Mathematics (accounts of temple donations, etc.) Weights/measures and a lunar calendar Sargon I o Created Mesopotamian empire o Story about being put in a reed basket on the river, taken out by the “drawer of water,” favored by the goddess Ishtar, becomes a king (sounds like Moses) Gudea of Lagash o Apex of the Ur III Dynasty o A great temple-builder o Refers to his own reign as “the shepherding of the people” = first instance of this idea
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