"Mesopotamian religion was central to the people's lives. Humans were created as co-laborers with their gods to hold off the forces of chaos and to keep the world running smoothly. As in ancient Egypt, the gods were honored daily for providing humanity with life and sustenance, and people were expected to give back through works that honored the gods. It was understood that, in the beginning, the world was undifferentiated chaos and that order was established by the gods."
"Every city had a temple complex clearly visible from afar for its ziggurat, the monumental architecture most closely associated with Mesopotamia, which was usually topped by a temple or shrine, elevating the officiant closer to the gods. The gods were understood as inhabiting their own realm but also living in the temple, in the statues created in their images in every city."
"Although Mesopotamian religion changed in focus and the names of the deities over the centuries, the central understanding of the relation between humanity and the gods did not. As late as circa 650, the people of Mesopotamia still adhered to the belief that they were the gods' co-workers who assisted in the maintenance of order. This paradigm only changed after 651 with the invasion of the Muslim Arabs and the new monotheistic religious model of Islam."
Mesopotamian religion positioned humans as partners with gods whose role was to establish and maintain cosmic order against primordial chaos. The gods separated sky from earth, land from water, saltwater from freshwater, and plants from animals, creating an ordered cosmos that required continuous upkeep. Humans were created to assist the gods in operating the world, making everyday labor and offerings a form of worship. Cities centered on temple complexes and ziggurats where cult statues housed divine presence and received offerings. The co-laborer relationship persisted across centuries until the Arab Muslim conquest and the spread of Islam after 651.
Read at World History Encyclopedia
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