Sumerians: A History From Beginning to End

by Henry Freeman

Sumerian thinkers did not have an exaggerated confidence in man and destiny, as they were firmly convinced that man was fashioned from clay and created to serve gods. Sumerians thought that uncertainty was most common in man’s life and that they were haunted by insecurity. As a result of not knowing what the gods might bestow on man, they invested little comfort or belief in free will. In other words, by accepting their dependent status on the gods, then the individual feared his god, but had more confidence in the gods overall than her or she had in earthly matters. Since man would die despite his or her guardian angel, the Sumerians figured they had good reason to be anxious and perplexed about death and the world below. Sumerian ideas about death consumed their myths and arts. For one thing, they had a gloomy view of the underworld, according to Harriet Crawford in “Sumer and the Sumerians.” Based on evidence, there is the impression that their condition in the underworld reflected their social status on earth, not their virtue.