The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

Babylonia and Assyria were two great eastern empires before which all the states of Syria and Palestine fell. About their history, we learn partially from the bible and the contemporary monuments that have been written in cuneiform characters, deciphered recently.

Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking Semitic state based in central-southern Mesopotamia. Its major capital city was Babylon, which expanded in the first half of the 18th century B.C. 

Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic kingdom and empire of the Ancient Near East. It was based on the Upper Tigris River, in northern Mesopotamia.

Until the middle of the 19th century, there weren’t many sources from which we could learn in depth about these two empires. This counts especially for the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians. There were no records to give a glimpse at religious as and customs of these two kingdoms. The two main, direct sources are the Old Testament and Herodotus.

Having in mind this lack of sources, the author has written this book.

Among the other topics, in this book you will read about:

• The Land and the People
• The Old Babylonian Pantheon
• Babylonian Gods 
• The Assyrian Pantheon
• The Religious Literature of Babylonia
• The Magical Texts
• The Prayers and Hymns
• Penitential Psalms
• The Cosmology of the Babylonians
• The Zodiacal System of the Babylonians
• The Gilgamesh Epic
• Myths and Legends
• The Views of Afterlife