he duty of all people. Another pillar was to use horror and terror to control people. Mesopotamian literature was often pessimistic and doubtful of the Gods. In The Epic of Gilgamesh the society is in search of a religious basis for human action, but the main focus of the story is the negligence of eternal life and the defeat of the hero in search of immortality. Lastly, the Sumerians could not get a grasp on nature. With their dependence upon irrigation from the Tigris and Euphrates that constantly faced flash floods and the Euphrates changed course rapidly causing salty soil, not to mention the droughts. There animosity towards the Gods was the basis of their cruelty. Through the Enuma Elish, the Mesopotamian creation account, we see that humans are slaves to the Gods, in every regard.Just like the Sumerians, the Egyptians were polytheistic, but they differed in many areas. Egyptians had pharaohs that ruled the kingdom of Egypt. These pharaohs were Egypts God-Kings (Adler, 24). The pharaoh was not like the Gods, but instead was a God, a God who chose to live on Earth for a time (Adler, 24). The pharaohs will was law and his wisdom was all-knowing (Adler, 24). The people of Egypt had to carry out his wishes or the Gods might not bless the land. Originally, Egyptians were angered about the afterlife. They thought that it was only for the pharaoh and the upper-class, but soon it was democratized to be a place for the commoners. The afterlife was sacred and, therefore, restricted. By about 1000 B.C.E., most Egyptians believed in a scheme of eternal reward or punishment for their ka (the life-essence that could return to life, given the correct preparation, even after death of the physical body), which hd to submit Last Judgment by Osiris (Adler. 27). There heaven was seen as a circle around the sun where there was no work and no suffering (Adler, 28). Hell came about during the New Kingdom, when things began to go roughly (Adler, 28). ...
