What did people in ancient civilizations believe that their gods and goddesses would do for them?

In ancient civilizations, people did not understand why the sun would rise everyday, why the crops would grow ever year (or why there was a drought and the crops did not grow), and other mysteries of nature. The only explanation they had was the gods and goddesses made things like that happen. They believed that worshiping the various deities would please them and they would make everyday things happen as a result. Many people in ancient times also believed the gods and goddesses would protect them from bad luck, disease or tragedy. Additionally, ancient people believed in an afterlife (like we do today) and wanted to go the spiritual world, where the deities lived.

Rituals and ways to worship the gods and goddesses involved singing songs of praise to them, chanting prayers to them, carrying amulets for protection, having a home shrine with statues of the deities, marking the body with ceremonial designs (usually in clay, but also in tattoos) that showed devotion to a certain god or goddess, and sacrificing animals or grains to the deity. Human worshipers hoped that these activities would impress the god or goddess, who would reward the worshiper with health and long life.