Fate, Destiny & the Allotted Lot

Mesopotamians believed each person and thing received a 'destiny' (shimtu) — a lot decreed by the gods that shaped one's character, station, and the day of one's death. To 'go to one's fate' was an idiom for dying. Yet destiny was not blind fate: it was a decree, issued by gods who could in principle confirm, postpone, or alter it, and which the diviner might read in advance and the worshipper might plead to change. This tension — between a fixed allotment and a divine decree open to appeal — runs through the whole of Mesopotamian piety, divination, and prayer.