Počátky asyrského náboženství

Abstract

This paper takes up the issue of the beginning of Assyrian religion which we find in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The author has focused on two main Assyrian deities of this period, Ashur and Ishtar. We keep at our disposal only a few sources of information relevant to the beginning of the Assyrian religion. We know well the Ishtar Temple in the city Ashur, and we have some inscriptions, also mostly from the city Ashur. On the basis of these sources, we can take different views of the matter. One theory says that the origin of the god Ashur is in the homonymic deification of city. This conclusion is possible, but not the only one. One theory, presented first in this paper, says that the cult of the god Ashur came from a region outside Mesopotamia. It seems that the Assyrian religion contained elements both unique to Assyria, and similar to that of Southern Mesopotamia.