MESOPOTAMIA THORKILD JACOBSENCHAPTER V MESOPOTAMIA: THE COSMOS AS A STATE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT IN EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 'N PASSING from ancient Egypt to ancient Mesopotamia, we are leaving a civilization whose enduring monuments still stand, ‘proud pyramids of stone proclaiming man's sense of sovereign power in his triumph over material forces.” We are moving on to a civilization whose monuments perished, whose cities—in the words of the prophet—“have become heaps.” There is scant re- minder of ancient grandeur in the low gray mounds which repre- sent Mesopotamia’s past. Ir is altogether fitting that this should be so. Ie suits the basic moods of the two civilizations. Were the Egyptian to come back today, he would undoubtedly take heart from the endurance of his pyramids, for he accorded to man and to man's tangible achieve- ments more basic significance than most civilizations have been willing to do. Were the Mesopotamian to return, he could hardly feel deeply disturbed that kis works have crumbled, for he always knew, and knew deeply, that as for “mere man—his days are num- bered; whatever he may do, he is but wind.” To him the center and meaning of existence always lay beyond man and his achieve- ments, beyond tangible things, in intangible powers ruling the universe. How the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian civilizations came to acquire these very different moods—one trusting, the other dis- trusting, man's power and ultimate significance—is not an easy question. The “mood” of a civilization is the outcome of processes s0 intricate and so complex as to defy precise analysis, We shall therefore merely point to a single factor which would seem to have played a considerable role—the factor of environment. Chapters ji-iv have already stressed the active role of the environment in shaping the outlook of early Egypt. Egyptian civilization arose in compact country where village lay reassuringly close to village, 125126 THE INTELLECTUAL ADVENTURE OF ANCIENT MAN the whole ringed around and isolated by protecting mountain bar- riers. Over this sheltered world passed every day a dependable, never failing sun, calling Egypt back to life and activity after the darkness of night; here rose every year the trusty Nile to fertilize and revivify the Egyptian soil. It is almost as though Nature had deliberately restrained herself, as though she had set this secure valley apart so that man could disport himself unhindered. Ie is small wonder that a great civilization arising on such a scene should be filled with a sense of its own power, should be deeply impressed with its own—with human—accomplishments. Chapter iv defined the attitude of early Egype as “a frontier spirit of visible accomplishments, of the first suecess in a new line. There was a youthful and self-reliane arrogance, because there had been no setbacks. Man was enough in himself. The gods? Yes, they were off there somewhere, and they had made this good world, to be sure; but the world was good because man was himself master, without need for the constant support of the gods.’ ‘The experience of Nature which gave rise to this mood found direct expression in the Egyptian notion of the cosmos. The Egyp- tian cosmos was eminently reliable and comforting. It had—to quote chapter ii—'reassuring periodicity; its structural frame- ‘work and mechanics permitced the reiteration of life through the rebirth of life-giving elements.” ‘Mesopotamian civilization grew up in an environment which was signally different. We find there, of course, the same great cosmic rhythms—the change of the seasons, the unwavering sweep of sun, moon, and stars—but we also find an element of force and violence which was lacking in Egypt. The Tigris and the Euphrates are not like the Nile; they may rise unpredictably and fitfully, breaking man's dikes and submerging his erops. There are scorch- ing winds which smother man in dust, threaten to suffocate him; there are torrential fains which turn all firm ground into a sea of mud and rob man of his freedom of movement: all travel bogs down. Here, in Mesopotamia, Nature stays not her hand; in her fall might she cuts across and overrides man's will, makes him feel to the fall how slightly he matters. ‘The mood of Mesopotamian civilization reflects this. Man is