Changing Religion and Politics

From our previous studies, it is evident that ideological power was prominent in ancient Mesopotamian societies because religion was such a dominant aspect of the Mesopotamian culture. In chapter 7 of Age of Empires, Joannes explores in more depth the actual religion of Babylonia and its variations. In a polytheistic religion, with a system incorporating tens of different gods, variation and disagreement is surely bound to happen. But we can interpret the variation of beliefs as more than just chance, rather a reflection of changing political agendas. In the section “Evolutions” Joannes discusses some of these differences. As each city in Mesopotamia gave emphasis to its specific god in the temple, the prominence of different gods in the religion shows the power of certain cities. Babylon was possible the most dominant city in the region politically and consequently Marduk, being the “king-god of Babylon” was most commonly known as the chief god in the religion. It is not surprising, that as the political environment changed over centuries, Marduk’s primacy was challenged. For example, Joannes points out the when, “Babylon had been incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire” the importance of Babylon politically and Marduk religiously had both lessened and “local traditions” regained their importance. This reaffirms the concept that religion can be used as a means of gaining political power, and is supported by the fact that religions have changed throughout history as political forces change.