Читать книгу Art History For Dummies - Jesse Bryant Wilder - Страница 86

The Sumerians had oodles of gods — a sun god named Shamash; Enlil, the god of the wind; Anu, the king of gods; and Ishtar, the goddess of desire, to name a few. Each city also had a local god who acted as its spokesperson in the assembly of the gods, kind of a like a senator in the United States. As spokesperson, the local god made sure the leading gods (like the god of the sun and the god of floods) granted special privileges to their town.

Sumerian people could petition their local god indirectly (like writing a letter to your senator) by going through the priest-king, or they could do it more directly by commissioning a statue of themselves and having it placed in the temple.