ere given to them by their gods, things such as building the Ziggurats. However, there was pessimism in their view of their own living conditions. They felt that the condition of their civilization was not improving and would not improve in the future because of the harshness of their gods. Another example of how the Sumerians felt about their gods came from The Epic of Gilgamesh. The gods brutally punished Enkidu, causing him death, because he aided Gilgamesh in killing the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba. This is portrayed in a quote by Anu, a Sumerian god, Because they have killed the Bull of Heaven, and because they have killed Humbaba who guarded the cedar mountain one of the two must die. Since Gilgamesh was part god, the gods chose to kill Enkidu, the full human. This demonstrates how merciless the Sumerians portrayed their gods.Egyptian geography was more promising than that of the Sumerians. The land on both sides of the Nile was very fertile, due to annual flooding. The flooding was very predictable which helped the Egyptians see the universe as a well ordered system. This resulted in an early sense of nationalism among the Egyptians, which was very different from that of the Sumerian civilization.Due to the expansive geography of Egypt, the people were very spread out. Some tribes settled into Upper Egypt and others closer to the Mediterranean Sea in Lower Egypt. Each individual tribe worshipped its own gods. These gods were often portrayed as animals. This suggests a close relationship between gods and nature in Egyptian life. For example, the god Thoth is portrayed as an ibis and Amon a ram with curled horns. This often resulted in the people seeing their god in every individual of the species. Although the Egyptians had man different tribes believing in many gods they did have four main theories of creation (cosmogonies). The four main cosmogonies were: the Heliopolitan cosmogony, Memphite cosmogony, Hermopol...
