Centuries before Julius Caesar, Galileo, Aristotle, Socrates and Albert Einstein; There was an ancient civilization born out of nowhere. They settled on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, known as the fertile ridge of Mesopotamia. These settlers became known as the Sumerians. The Sumerians were an agricultural society that lived off their crops and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to trade goods. So, when asked the terrible question “Why did they exist?” » The Sumerians believed that they existed to serve their gods through worship and dedicated work. Through Sumerian literature, architecture, and artwork, the Sumerians made their purpose known. Subsequently, the belief that humans existed to serve the gods influenced much Sumerian literature. Stories such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Poem of Atrahasis, and The Enuma Elish all describe this belief. For example, the poem Atrahasis, a creation story of a young god, Enki, who is awakened from his nights sleep by his mother who tells him that he will create servants for the gods who will then breed more of them. So he shapes the clay into the form of a human and, with the help of Niamh and the goddesses, shapes the faces of the gods. Also, among the creation stories was the tale of Enuma Elish. The Enuma Elish is a story that explains how the Earth and the Cosmos were created. In the tale, the two gods (Anu and Tiamat) created lesser gods to create the universe. Things go well until there finally is a war between the gods. Then the god Marduk rises. Marduk kills the goddess Tiamat; with his severed body, Marduk is able to create Earth and the cosmos. Then Marduk later creates humanity to serve as servants to the gods. With divine creation of hum...... middle of paper ......is-king controls food and trade routes. On the war side, the three registers represent the king leading his troops to war and the army trampling its enemy and bringing back prisoners for the king. Through the art of Sumerian culture, it is evident that the Sumerians were heavily involved in their religious practices. To conclude, the terrible Sumerian answer to this terrible question was the belief that the human race was created to serve the gods. They attached this belief to every aspect of their culture. The Sumerians showed this belief in their creation stories of their literature, as shown in the "Poem of Atrahasis" and the poem "Enuma Elish", the massive ziggurats of their architecture and their remaining works of art. The Sumerians sincerely believed in their gods and would do anything for their gods. In their culture, their religion was held to the highest standards..