E-ApilIshtar

Welcome to my home in Uruk. Although this is a Sumerian city dedicated to the goddess Inanna, this is where I belong. Please, come in and allow me to offer you some refreshments. I hope you are comfortable.

In times past, Mesopotamians worshipped in open-air sanctuaries, private chapels located in domestic homes, or small and separate chapels in the residential quarters of a town. The main vein of all religious life, however, was the temple.

In Sumeria, as in most Mesopotamian cultures, the temple (e in Sumeria and bitu “house” in Akkadian) was no less than the earthly home of the gods. Each perspective deity lived in his or her abode in the form of a cult statue. This statue was not the actual god, but was imbued with the divine presence.

There were different classes of priests and priestesses at the temples. These classes ranged from “high priest/priestess”, all the way down to courtyard sweepers. There seem to have been two main types; the administrative priest and the religious specialists who dealt with particular areas of the temple. While it is unclear if there were fixed distinctions between the sacerdotal clergy and the administrative clergy, there is a group called the “anointed” and others called “enterers of the temple”. This seems to suggest that certain areas of the shrines had restricted access. Generally, priestesses were in service of female deities, with the notable exception of the en, a chaste high priestess of some of the Sumerian gods.