Sacrifice & Feeding the Gods

At the heart of Mesopotamian cult lay the care and feeding of the gods. The cult-image in the temple was bathed, clothed, and presented with lavish meals twice daily; festivals brought greater offerings, processions, and music. Humanity had, after all, been created to relieve the gods of labor and to provision them — so sacrifice was not an extra but the very reason for human existence in the mythic logic. When the Flood cut off offerings, the myths say, the hungry gods 'gathered like flies' over the first sacrifice afterward. Right offering kept the gods present, fed, and favorable.