Greek mythology played a monumental role in the structural development of ancient Greece, not only as a society, but as individuals. Surprisingly, their religion was not exactly one of originality. In fact, their religion was loosely based on the religions of earlier cultures. It bears many striking similarities to some of the oldest religions recorded in history. Ancient Greek religion is a type of polytheism called “monarchical polytheism.” That is, they believe in many different gods and deities, but there is one supreme ruler above them all. In order to fully understand how similar the mythological systems of religions have been over the years, you need to look back to the earliest recorded civilizations. Polytheism dates back to Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian religions, around the 4th millennium BC and perhaps before that. The Mesopotamian people were “polytheists but they were also henotheists”. They had a structural hierarchy of deities, with some gods being superior to others. The early Mesopotamian gods, like the ancient Greek gods, “had many similarities to humans and were anthropomorphic.” Not only did they look like humans, but they often behaved like humans as well. They ate, slept and even consumed alcohol, which made them feel the effects of drunkenness. Another thing that both religions have in common is the fact that most of the gods and goddesses in Mesopotamian religion were related to each other. It was a sort of “family” of deities. Their gods were labeled the same as the Greek gods. They had the 4 creator gods: the god of the sky, who was also the God of gods and ruler of their sky, then the god of storms, the god of the earth, and the god of... middle of paper ... ...through the Christian and Muslim eras until around 800 CE. The patron of this particular city was the God Enlil. “Enlil legitimized the reign of kings and presided over pacts. » Many of the ancient kings of Mesopotamia sent offerings and prayed at this sanctuary. The two most popular and famous patron cities of ancient Greece were Athens and Sparta. Works Cited Gordon, Cyrus. The ancient Near East. 3rd edition, revised. WW Norton and Company, Inc., New York, 1965. Bottero, Jean. (2001). Religion in ancient Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bottero, Jean. (2001) 37. Religion in ancient Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Nagle, D. Brendan. The ancient world: readings in social and cultural history. Prentice Hall 2001 Mark, Joshua J. February 22, 2011. Mesopotamian Religion. http://www.ancient.eu.com/Mesopotamian_Religion/