Discuss the basic features of Mesopotamian culture as reflected in its literature and art

What will be an ideal response?

Whereas many early cultures venerated female divinities, ancient civilizations gradually came to give primacy to male deities. In the Sumerian The Babylonian Creation, humankind's earliest cosmological myth, Marduk's destruction of the Great Mother Tiamat reflects the shift from matriarchy to patriarchy in the polytheistic history of the ancient world. Some of the earliest literature from Sumer celebrates the colorful "Queen of Heaven" known as Inanna (or Ishtar), goddess of chaos and love, associated with fertility, the moon, and the planet Venus, and we can see her in various ancient statues and figures from the area.
Human life was much more precarious in ancient times, and the theme of human vulnerability and the search for everlasting life are the central motifs in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world's first epic.
When powerful Sumerians died, they were often buried with many carved figurines, which reveal the Sumerians sense of awe in the face of the divine. Carved out of soft stone, alabaster, and marble, some of these cult images may represent the gods, but it is more likely that they are votive (devotional) figures that represent the townspeople of Tell Asmar in the act of worshiping their local deities. Their enlarged eyes, inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli, and black limestone, convey the impression of dread and awe, visual testimony to the sense of human apprehension in the face of divine power. These images also express the insecurity of a people whose vulnerability was an ever-present fact of life.