Fate, Destiny & the Allotted Lot
Each life came with a 'lot' the gods had fixed — yet a decree, unlike blind fate, can be read in advance and begged to change.
Mesopotamians believed each person and thing received a 'destiny' (shimtu) — a lot decreed by the gods that shaped one's character, station, and the day of one's death. To 'go to one's fate' was an idiom for dying. Yet destiny was not blind fate: it was a decree, issued by gods who could in principle confirm, postpone, or alter it, and which the diviner might read in advance and the worshipper might plead to change. This tension — between a fixed allotment and a divine decree open to appeal — runs through the whole of Mesopotamian piety, divination, and prayer.
Key passages(20)
An adab to An for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta E)
A šir-namgala to Ninisina for Lipit-Eštar (Lipit-Eštar E)
A šir-namgala (?) to Inana for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta A)
A praise poem of Sîn-iddinam (Sîn-iddinam A)
A prayer to An for Rīm-Sîn (Rīm-Sîn C)
A prayer to Enki for Ḫammu-rābi (Ḫammu-rābi B)
A prayer to Nanna for Rīm-Sîn (Rīm-Sîn G)
An adab to Enlil for Būr-Suen (Būr-Suen B)
A prayer to Asarluḫi for Ḫammu-rābi (Ḫammu-rābi D)
An adab to Ninurta for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta C)
A prayer to Nanna for Rīm-Sîn (Rīm-Sîn E)
A tigi to Enki for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta B)
An adab to Nanna for Išme-Dagan (Išme-Dagan M)