3 - Composite Beings and Sexy God-Kings

Summary

Chapter three examines Mesopotamian conceptions of human nature. I argue that Mesopotamians viewed the human as a composite nondivine-divine space. Having been created from slain deities, the physical body participated in the divine nature. For some Mesopotamians, participation in the divine state was not wholly positive. The aspect of the deities that influenced them to rebel in heaven in fact formed part of the body’s constitution. Thus humanity’s propensity to disrupt the ordered cosmos stemmed from its share in the divine nature. The human was also conceived as a microcosm of the temple. As a microcosm of the cosmos, the temple was originally created to be the meeting point between divine and nondivine. Likewise, the deities created the human self as a physical space in which they could install themselves. The human was therefore a physical embodiment of the divine on a general level, just like the temple, and like the cosmos before that. Divine embodiment in a human context was clearest in ideas surrounding the royal self. The king participated in the divine nature to the point that, like true deities, he could install himself within multiple bodies at the same time.