The function of gender in Mesopotamian mythology starting with the male gender is that men were always looked at with great appreciation in that they were granted the rights and capabilities to be in government. The roles of men in this mythology varied from being kings and fathers or even political rule makers. As a result, these roles that males played, gave them the highest sense of command in their Mesopotamian civilization. To add, on page 69 in Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia, men were the heads of their households in Mesopotamia because this mythology was patriarchal. “For the most part, the father as the head of the family retained both possession of and control over land for life.” Since they were the heads of their households, men also had land which they were the owners of for their entire life and this expresses them as playing a prominent role. Since men were the heads of their households, women were seen as playing a less prominent role in the household. Instead, they would be seen as being a housemaid. In Mesopotamian mythology, religion was very important because Mesopotamians believed that the gods influenced how they lived their human lives.
A well-known male god in Mesopotamian mythology is Marduk, who was the chief god of Babylon. Marduk was an important god during this time because he was the most powerful god of Babylon. The female gender is a bit different due to the different influences that both cultures of Sumer and Babylon had on the female gender and the way they treated women. The female gender was treated with more respect under the rule of the Sumerians in comparison to the Babylonians, who treated women poorly. Sumerian women had roles in their society that were different from males. Women’s roles consisted of being wives and mothers for most of the time but there were other roles that women played which were them being priestesses and housemaids. The gender roles of women changed however under the rule of the Babylonians. The leader of the Babylonians at the time was Hammurabi who was a significant king of Old Babylon. The Babylonians had strict rules during the time, which made for the gender roles of women to quickly change. This was shown since women were starting to be considered as property of their husbands and the sense of liberty that they once had while the Sumerians were in command, was now lost. Even though women were treated this way under the Babylonians, a well-known female goddess in Mesopotamia is Tiamat. Tiamat was the Babylonian she-dragon of chaos and was a strong female goddess who had a life-giving force which is shown when she mingles with Apsu and gives birth to Lahmu and Lahamu.
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Essay on Mesopotamia Gender Roles.
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