practice of exorcism was) and fi nd the right ritual to pay for
the particular off ense.
Sometimes the immediate cause of evil was thought
to be a curse put on a person by a witch. Th e exorcists be-
lieved that a witch might be a person the patient had met
in his daily life; at the same time, a witch was more like a
demon than a human being. Witches lived either in the life-
less desert or among the dead in cemeteries. Th ey could fl y
across the world in the space of a single night and had super-
natural bodies that allowed them to enter a house through
a locked door. Th is image of the witch as human and not
human at the same time, a member of the community and
a supernatural monster, was infl uential not only in Greece
and Rome but also among later Christian societies. Witch-
craft was outlawed in Mesopotamian law codes, but there
is no certain instance of anyone known to have practiced
witchcraft or of the prosecution of anyone for the crime of
witchcraft ; it served rather as an explanation for misfortune
aft er the fact.
THE LEVANT
Th e Levant (including parts of modern-day Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan, and Israel-Palestine), received many cultural infl u-
ences from Mesopotamia and Egypt. Libraries from cities on
the border of the Levant and Mesopotamia, such as Ebla (de-
stroyed ca. 2225 b.c.e.) and Mari (destroyed 1759 b.c.e.), tell
us something about communication between the two areas.
But the peoples of the Levant nevertheless made some of their
own contributions as well. Th e Levantine storm god was a
model for the Babylonian Marduk. Th e Levant was especially
important for transmitting Near Eastern ideas and practices
to Greece and to modern religions such as Judaism, Christi-
anity, and Islam.
One distinctive feature of the religion of the Levant was
the role of the storm god. While the fertility of the land in
Mesopotamian came from the two great rivers, the Mediter-
ranean coast was dependent on rain from thunderstorms
coming in off the sea during the winter. Crops could then be
planted and harvested in the spring. Summer was a dead time
of the year when crops would not grow. As a consequence, the
storm god was the most important fi gure in the Levantine
pantheon, whether called, Hadad (Syrian), Yahweh (Israelite),
by any other local name, or simply Lord (Baal).
Baal/Hadad’s myth must have varied tremendously
from city to city and tribe to tribe. We are fortunate to know
it in detail from the version current in Ugarit, a city on the
northern coast of present-day Syria. Th e city was destroyed
about 1200 b.c.e., preserving the library of Ilimiku, the chief
priest. Th e myth’s three parts concern Baal’s struggle for cos-
mic supremacy in succession to his grandfather El, who cre-
ated the universe but no longer took a very active role in its
governance. In the fi rst part Baal defeats Yam, the god of the
sea, together with his sea monsters Leviathan and Behemoth.
Compare this to the winter thunderstorms to be seen at night
over the Mediterranean from the Syrian coast.
Th e second part of the myth concerns the building of
Baal’s house. First, Baal must obtain permission from Ash-
erah, El’s wife. Th en the house is built in the sky by the craft s-
man god Kothar-wa-Hasis. Th is “house” corresponds both to
Baal’s temple in Ugarit and to his dwelling place on Mount
Saphon just outside the city.
In the third part of the myth Baal is dragged down to
the land of the dead by its ruler Mot, but he is rescued by
his sister, the virgin warrior Anat. She defeats Mot by a pro-
cess identical to harvesting grain: she reaps him, winnows
him, grinds him, and sows him back into the ground. Baal
then returns triumphantly to heaven. It is not hard to see this
episode in relation to the agriculturally dead Mediterranean
summers, whose drought is defeated by the return of the win-
ter thunderstorms.
In later times the traditional gods were worshipped un-
der Greek and Roman names at prominent temples in the
Levant, and their cults also spread throughout the Roman
Empire. Local Levantine gods continued to thrive until the
time of the Islamic conquest of the Near East in the seventh
century c.e..PERSIA
Persia (modern-day Iran), a country of Indo-European cul-
ture and language like Greece or Rome, conquered the Near
East in the sixth century b.c.e. and, in particular, acted as
the sponsor of Judaism in the return from the Babylonian
captivity. Th e Persian religion was based on a text called
the Avesta, written by the prophet Zoroaster (sometimes
rendered as Zarathustra) and his disciples. Th e date span
of Zoroaster’s lifetime is unknown; while some scholars
believe he lived around 1400 b.c.e., this remains specula-
tive. Zoroastrianism is a “dualistic” religion. Th e prophet
Zoroaster taught that the world was the scene of warfare be-
tween God (Ahura Mazda) and an evil power (Ahriman or
Angra Mainyu) that wished to destroy the cosmic order. In
the end god would triumph, and all the people who had ever
lived would be resurrected (brought back to life) and judged
with reward or punishment according to whether they had
followed god or his enemy. Zoroaster also thought that the
gods worshipped by other peoples were the demonic agents
of Ahriman. It was believed that Zoroaster would be reborn
at the end of time to play a vital role in the fi nal triumph of
good over evil.
Ahura Mazda was symbolized by light, so the main form
of worship in Zoroastrianism was the maintenance of fi re
altars whose fl ames might be kept continuously burning for
centuries. Th e priests who tended these fi res and carried out
other religious functions were called magi. Th ey a lso kept Z o-
roastrian religious texts alive through memorization—these
texts were written down only in later times when the very
existence of the religion was threatened by the Islamic con-
quest of Persia in the seventh century c.e. Th e word magician
comes from their name, because Greeks and Romans saw
them as the embodiment of everything foreign and improperreligion and cosmology: The Middle East 843