Tapınak

(İng. temple)

Göndermeler

Diğer

“There he is!” the hunter exclaimed. “That is the savage man I have brought you to see! As soon as he sees you, he will approach you. Do not be afraid, for I am certain he will not hurt you. Let him get to know you, and teach him what it is to be a human being.” Enkidu was fascinated by the woman, and he spent six days and seven nights with her. He forgot the grassy plain where he had been born, the hills where he had roamed, and the wild animals that had been his companions. Later, when he was ready to rejoin the wild beasts of the plain, they sensed that Enkidu was now a human being. Even the gazelles drew away from him in fright. Enkidu was so surprised by their change in behavior that, at first, he stood completely still. When he tried to rejoin them, he found that he could no longer run with the speed of a gazelle. He was no longer the wild man that he had been. However, he had gained something in return for the speed that he had lost, for he now possessed greater understanding and wisdom. He returned to the woman, sat down at her feet, and looked into her face attentively. The priestess said, “Enkidu, when I look upon you now, I can see that you have become wise like one of the heavenly gods. Why do you still want to roam over the grassy plains with the wild beasts? Leave this wild country to the shepherds and the hunters, and come with me. Let me take you into the strong-walled city of Uruk, to the marketplace and to the sacred Temple of Anu and Ishtar. In Uruk you will meet the mighty King Gilgamesh. He has performed great heroic deeds, and he rules the people of the city like a wild bull. You will love him as you love yourself.”

All three foci of high culture depended on the condition of agriculture. The basis of temple and court was agrarian in that their wealth and power presupposed chiefly arrangements concerning agricultural production. The market depended on agriculture less directly than did temple or court, for the traders brought goods from afar subject to other hazards than that of the local weather, and (provided there were sufficient stored savings) sold their goods in lean years as in fat. Yet, in the long run, the merchants too depended on the state of agriculture and their profits presupposed the peasants' surplus. Even when, as in Syria, mercantile city-states arose which depended primarily on distant trading by sea and land, their trade depended so intimately on the agrarian societies about them that both morally and materially they too lived ultimately from the peasants. Even the pastoralists, including the desert nomads, who depended on the agriculturists for much of their food and goods, were part of the same social complex. Accordingly, the type of social order which was introduced into the agricultural regions (and the areas dependent on them) with the rise of cities may be called agrarian-based or (to be more comprehensive) agrarianate citied society. (I say 'citied', not 'urban', because the society included the peasants, who were not urban though their life reflected the presence of cities.)

Phoenician temples (at least those consecrated to ‘Ashtart) employed guards, servants, barbers, scribes, musicians, butchers, bakers, a ‘water master’, a ‘sacrificer’ and sacred prostitutes.