Eden Grimberg

Dr. mills
Humanities: Ancient civilizations
December 2, 2016
Comparative essay: Ancient Mesopotamia and Greece

When civilizations improve and work together, they become religions. Mesopotamia and Greece
are two different cultures who practiced religion in different areas and therefore show that
religion has played a very big role in ancient society. Both ancient religions had many ideas
about how to worship gods. In the Mesopotamian religion, worship was straightforward.

When civilizations improve and work together, they become religions. The Mesopotamians
would give out to all food and drinks daily when there are special occasions like feasts. The feast
that they celebrated the most was new years festivals. These celebrations were held by the priests
who also took care of the good wealth that is believed to be packed in the temples that the
Mesopotamians used.

When civilizations improve and work together, they become religions. Schools in Mesopotamia
were very similar to schools in Egypt. Only boys attended and they studied to be scribes.
Discipline was more strict in Mesopotamia than in Egypt. For example, the way Mesopotamia
disciplined was, they were whipped. In Egypt, they communicated more although they still beat
the children as a form of discipline. The schools in Mesopotamia would learn a form of picture
writing called cuneiform. Cuneiform was hundreds of wedge shaped characters that are pressed
into clay tablets with a stylus. Some characters were syllabus while others were representing
whole words. Everything looked like points and triangles.

When civilizations improve and work together, they become religions. Just like today in Greece,
parents had to pay for their children to go to school. The fees were low because the teachers were
slaves and either got paid a little, or didn't get paid. These underpaid teachers were sent boys
from the age of 6 to 14. Each boy had their own servant which was called a paidagogo, to watch
after them. If a boy was late to class, his paidagogo would likely get whipped for not getting the
boy to class on time. The boy would get hit as well. In India, school was taught at home.
Between the ages of 8 and 12, the boys would get sent out to a guru. The guru would treat the
boy like his son and give him free education. In exchange, the boy would do household chores
for the guru.

When civilizations improve and work together, they become religions. Most boys who attended
Egyptian temple schools studied to become scribes. The was not an easy task, considering that
hieroglyphics, the egyptian form of picture writing, had more than 2 thousand characters to be
memorized. Plus, scribes had to learn a type of cursive, called hieratic, for everyday business and
writing letters. If he did very good, he was promised a good job and a good life.

When civilizations improve and work together, they become religions. I think it is impressive
and telling that so many different religions with unique traits can all relate whether it is with
school or with architecture. I disagree with certain things in this passage but that just made it
more understandable and enjoyable. Thank you for reading.