her into a waterskin. The Sumerians, as well as later Mesopotamian peoples, believed that all mortals went to the same afterlife: Kur, a cold, dark, cavern deep beneath the earth. Kur was miserable for all people and a person's actions during life had no impact whatsoever on how he or she would be treated in the afterlife.

The idea of a final readjustment beyond the grave, which would rectify the sharp contrast so often observed between the conduct and the fortune of men,