ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN RELIGIONS

MESOPOTAMIA Polytheist

Pessimistic

Over 3600 gods (duplication of gods in various city-states)

Enuma Elish a key religious text

Epic of Gilgamesh also contains religious elements

Dismal afterlife

EARLY GODS—SPECIFIC TO NATURAL PHENOMENA

Goddess of rainstorms, 18th-17thc BCE, Oriental Institute, Chicago

God of the four winds, 18th-17thcBCE, Oriental Institute, Chicago

GUARDIANS--LAMASSU

Khorsabad Palace, Neo-Assyrian Period (Sargon II), Oriental Institute, Chicago

THE DEVOTED

Votive, Priest?, Oriental Institute, Chicago

EGYPT Polytheist

Optimistic

Unified list of gods (like unified political organization)

Book of the Dead

Mummies at British Museum

Glorious afterlife

MILBANK PAPYRUS-BOOK OF THE DEAD

Oriental Institute, Chicago

THE STORY OF OSIRIS, ISIS, HORUS

Osiris, Hunefer Papyrus, British Museum

Isis and Horus, Brooklyn Museum

Horus, Source Unknown

JUDAISM Monotheist

Ethics Prophets

The Tanakh

Sefer Torah, Cologne Germany, (Wikipedia Commons)

ZOROASTRIANISM Monotheist

Ahuramazda

Dualist Ethics

Zend Avesta

Influential for early Christianity

Zoroastrian Tomb, Wikipedia Commons