Mesopotamian Literature In Contemporary Setting

This volume lays theoretical and methodological groundwork for the analysis of Mesopotamian literature. A comprehensive first chapter by the editors explores critical contemporary issues in Sumerian and Akkadian narrative analysis, and nine case studies written by an international array of scholars test the responsiveness of Sumerian and Akkadian narratives to diverse approaches drawn from literary studies and theories of fiction. Included are intertextual and transtextual analyses, studies of narrative structure and focalization, and treatments of character and characterization. Works considered include the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic and many other Sumerian and Akkadian narratives of gods, heroes, kings, and monsters.

This collection of articles is the result of the second meeting of the Mesopotamian Literature Group (Groningen), held in Groningen from 12 till 14 July 1993. The topics treated by these scholars from six countries range from theoretical issues to specific analyses, from broad structures to linguistic textures, including metaphorical language as well as phonic features; also, various poetical techniques and strategies are studied. The interest is more in the questions that are raised than in the answers given, and the matter of legitimization of our theoretical bases runs throughout most contributions, this being the aim of the Group.

The last fifty years have seen a dramatic increase of interest in the wisdom literature of the Bible, as scholars have come to appreciate the subtlety and originality of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes as well as of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon. Interest has likewise grown in the wisdom literatures of the neighboring cultures of Canaan, Egypt, and especially Mesopotamia. To help readers understand the place of biblical wisdom within this broader context, including its originality and distinctiveness, this volume offers a collection of essays by Assyriologists and biblicists on the social, intellectual, and literary setting of Mesopotamian wisdom; on specific wisdom texts; and on key themes common to both Mesopotamian and biblical culture. --From publisher's description.

This anthology translates and discusses texts authored by women of ancient Mesopotamia.

This book initiates the reader into the study of Akkadian literature from ancient Babylonia and Assyria. With this one relatively short volume, the novice reader will develop the literary competence necessary to read and interpret Akkadian texts in translation and will gain a broad familiarity with the major genres and compositions in the language. The first part of the book presents introductory discussions of major critical issues, organized under four key rubrics: tablets, scribes, compositions, and audiences. Here, the reader will find descriptions of the tablets used as writing material; the training scribes received and the institutional contexts in which they worked; the general characteristics of Akkadian compositions, with an emphasis on poetic and literary features; and the various audiences or users of Akkadian texts. The second part surveys the corpus of Akkadian literature defined inclusively, canvasing a wide spectrum of compositions. Legal codes, historical inscriptions, divinatory compendia, and religious texts have a place in the survey alongside narrative poems, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enuma elish, and Babylonian Theodicy. Extensive footnotes and a generous bibliography guide readers who wish to continue their study. Essential for students of Assyriology, An Introduction to Akkadian Literature will also prove useful to biblical scholars, classicists, Egyptologists, ancient historians, and literary comparativists.

Basing himself on a careful study of all hitherto published (and some unpublished) Old-Babylonian literary texts - roughly 270 different compositions of all literary genres - Dr. Wasserman systematically leads the reader to a number of insightful conclusions regarding distinctive style and outstanding features of the Old-Babylonian literary system (as opposed to everyday texts, such as letters). The three opening chapters - Hendiadys, Tamyīz, and Damqam-īnim - are mainly concerned with syntax, but also connections with inalienability, a semantic issue. Chapter four and five, Merismus and Simile, focus on semantics (though also including word order). The last chapter, Rhyming Couplets, is fully devoted to form, with elaborations on such semantic problems as performative speech acts. The concluding pages delineate the contours of the Old-Babylonian literary system; genres and 'genre-families', the dichotomy between oral and written traditions, and the distinction between learned and popular literature. With a detailed catalogue of all known literary Old-Babylonian compositions.

Daniel Lowery commences this work by suggesting that history is a subjective enterprise—it is controlled by those who record it. The power of the present decides what is counted as history, and how the rest of us are told about the past shapes our view of it and, concomitantly, our outlook for the future. In this sense, then, history fundamentally shapes the future. Few questions are more basic to human existence than Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my place in this world? The earliest chapters of Genesis have oriented hearers and readers for millennia in their attempts to address these concerns. And so, in several respects, Genesis shapes the future. In this study, Lowery sets out to understand more accurately ancient Near Eastern language and claims about origins, specifically claims found in Gen 1–11. He uses Gen 4:17–22 as a test case representing the Hebrew tradition explaining how the world came to be civilized. Lowery observes that this passage serves a function within the larger narrative of Gen 1–11 akin to other ancient Near Eastern traditions of civilized beginnings. Moreover, it occupies a place in the overarching “narrative of beginnings” corresponding to what we find elsewhere throughout the ancient world. Lowery focuses mainly on Mesopotamia, leaving other cultures for later study. This study aims to demonstrate that much of the language of Gen 1–11 is similar in many ways to its Mesopotamian counterparts. More explicitly, here is an exploration of the nature of the language and terms of Gen 1–11 to ascertain what truths it communicates and how it communicates them. At its core, this is a study of the genre and generic claims of protohistory as found in Gen 1–11.

Takayoshi Oshima analyses the two most important Babylonian wisdom texts: Ludlul Bel Nemeqi (also known as the Babylonian Job or the Babylonian Righteous Sufferer) and the so-called Babylonian Theodicy. On the basis of the hitherto published as well as newly available, unpublished cuneiform manuscripts, the author establishes a new critical text for each poem and gives an English translation. He offers detailed philological and critical notes to the texts, discussing both the textual and the interpretive issues evoked by individual words and passages. In addition, however, each poem is preceded by a lengthy discussion of its origins, intention, and plot, as well as by more general considerations of its cultural and historical background, including short but important observations on the relationship to Old Testament wisdom literature.

The scholarly world first became aware of the myth of Adapa and the South Wind when it was discovered on a tablet from the El-Amarna archive in 1887. We now have at our disposal six fragments of the myth. The largest and most important fragment, from Amarna, is dated to the 14th century B.C.E. This fragment of the Adapa myth has red-tinted points applied on the tablet at specific intervals. Izre’el draws attention to a few of these points that were missed in previous publications by Knudtzon and Schroeder. Five other fragments were part of the Assurbanipal library and are representative of this myth as it was known in Assyria about seven centuries later. The discovery of the myth of Adapa and the South Wind immediately attracted wide attention. Its ideology and its correspondence to the intellectual heritage of Western religions precipitated flourishing studies of this myth, both philological and substantive. Many translations have appeared during the past century, shedding light on various aspects of the myth and its characters. Izre’el unveils the myth of Adapa and the South Wind as mythos, as story. To do this, he analyzes the underlying concepts through extensive treatment of form. He offers an edition of the extant fragments of the myth, including the transliterated Akkadian text, a translation, and a philological commentary. The analysis of poetic form that follows leads to understanding the myth as a piece of literature and to uncovering its meanings. This study therefore marks a new phase in the long, extensive research into this Mesopotamian myth.