Unrealistic and Impractical

After reading chapter 7 of Age of Empires, I was quite confused and shocked by the extravagance of the religious rituals conducted daily by the clergy and king in Babylonia. In King Hammurabi of Babylon, I had originally conceived that everyone - the clergy and the common populace - was greatly involved in worshiping the diverse pantheon of gods. Van De Mieroop explained that including all the local gods of the different cities it was King Hammurabi's way of unifying his conquered territories, by appeasing the locals in letting them worship their own gods. However, Johannes states that "people's participation in worship was expressed only when certain ceremonies were held" (174). From reading chapter 7, I got the impression that worshiping was mainly exclusive to the elite, and this seemed to go against what I had understood from reading Van De Mieroop's book.

Also, Johannes details all the extravagant and complicated rituals that the clergy did everyday for the gods. On top of conducting four meal offerings everyday to the gods, the clergy also built statues, moved the statues around to other places, and conducted rituals concerning the gods' orders and wishes. And he also explains that the king's involvement in these rituals was crucial. Taking all these statements into consideration then, it seems as though the clergy and the king were extremely preoccupied by serving the gods on a daily basis. How they got anything else done seems absurd to me. Perhaps Johannes interpreted the inscriptions a little too literally, and maybe the tablets described the events in exaggeration in order to appear as if the clergy was doing an outstanding job in serving the gods.