COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE FUNCTION OF GODDESSES IN MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATIONS, ELAM, IRAN, INDIA, GREECE AND EGYPT
Abstract
In various myths of history, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and ancient Iran, goddesses entered the sacraments of the people, which have been named in some of the ancient texts. So that, in Mesopotamian mythology and in one of the ancient Sumerian texts, the goddess "Ishtar" or " Sumerian Inanna" is mentioned parallel to Anahita of Iran, as the goddess of war and love, which represents the political and social value of women in that Mesopotamian community of that time. In the myths of Greece, Egypt and ancient India there was also a belief in the rearing and fertility of the woman. On the other hand, some other goddesses who were the messenger of spring, blooming, love, purity of the earth and heaven, were worshiped, and some statues of them are also remained. It should be mentioned that the goddesses in various ancient societies had different functions, depending on the geographical location and the time and place in which they were located, their purity and worship was changed. Since there were political, economic, cultural, and religious relations in those days, it was natural for the goddesses of the associated territories to have different forms, and it was even possible to be worshiped and to allocate certain places for worship in those territories, which is applicable to Mesopotamia and Elam. In this research process, it is tried to use the descriptive, analytical and comparative studies to explore the goddesses in Elam, Mesopotamian, Iranian, Indian, Greek and Egyptian civilizations. It is inferred from this text that there were similar goddesses with the same functions that were worshiped by the people, and they were called when needed.
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