Experiencing Power, Generating Authority

Experiencing Power, Generating Authority PDF Author: Jane A. Hill
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1934536644
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Get Book Here

Book Description
Experiencing Power, Generating Authority offers a cross-cultural comparison of the cosmic ideology and political structure of kingship in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Experiencing Power, Generating Authority

Experiencing Power, Generating Authority PDF Author: Jane A. Hill
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1934536644
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Get Book Here

Book Description
Experiencing Power, Generating Authority offers a cross-cultural comparison of the cosmic ideology and political structure of kingship in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Dynasty

Dynasty PDF Author: Jeroen Frans Jozef Duindam
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198809085
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book Here

Book Description
Combining history and anthropology in a global examination of families and power, this book connects medieval kings and queens to contemporary family business empires. Its sweeping overview of five millennia of rulership uncovers recurring predicaments of bloodline succession, and sheds light on divergence and change in dynastic practice.

Living Forever

Living Forever PDF Author: Hussein Bassir
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
ISBN: 1617979627
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Get Book Here

Book Description
Self-presentation is the oldest and most common component of ancient Egyptian high culture. It arose in the context of private tomb records, where the character and role of an individual—invariably a well-to-do non-royal elite official or administrator—were presented purposefully: published by inscription and image, to a contemporary audience and to posterity. Living Forever: Self-presentation in Ancient Egypt looks at how and why non-royal elites in ancient Egypt represented themselves, through language and art, on monuments, tombs, stelae, and statues, and in literary texts, from the Early Dynastic Period to the Thirtieth Dynasty. Bringing together essays by international Egyptologists and archaeologists from a range of backgrounds, the chapters in this volume offer fresh insight into the form, content, and purpose of ancient Egyptian presentations of the self. Applying different approaches and disciplines, they explore how these self-representations, which encapsulated a discourse with gods and men alike, yield rich historical and sociological information, provide examples of ancient rhetorical devices and repertoire, and shed light on notions of the self and collective memory in ancient Egypt.

Envisioning the Past Through Memories

Envisioning the Past Through Memories PDF Author: Davide Nadali
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474223982
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Get Book Here

Book Description
Memory is a constructed system of references, in equilibrium, of feeling and rationality. Comparing ancient and contemporary mechanisms for the preservation of memories and the building of a common cultural, political and social memory, this volume aims to reveal the nature of memory, and explores the attitudes of ancient societies towards the creation of a memory to be handed down in words, pictures, and mental constructs. Since the multiple natures of memory involve every human activity, physical and intellectual, this volume promotes analyses and considerations about memory by focusing on various different cultural activities and productions of ancient Near Eastern societies, from artistic and visual documents to epigraphic evidence, and by considering archaeological data. The chapters of this volume analyse the value and function of memory within the ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian societies, combining archaeological, textual and iconographical evidence following a progression from the analysis of the creation and preservation of both single and multiple memories, to the material culture (things and objects) that shed light on the impact of memory on individuals and community.

Ishtar

Ishtar PDF Author: Louise M. Pryke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317506642
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 487

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ishtar is the first book dedicated to providing an accessible analysis of the mythology and image of this complex goddess. The polarity of her nature is reflected in her role as goddess of sexual love and war, and has made her difficult to characterise in modern scholarship. By exploring this complexity, Ishtar offers insight into Mesopotamian culture and thought, and elucidates a goddess who transcended the limits of gender, divinity and nature. It gives an accessible introduction to the Near Eastern pantheon, while also opening a pathway for comparison with the later Near Eastern and Mediterranean deities who followed her.

Much Ado about Marduk

Much Ado about Marduk PDF Author: Jennifer Finn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501504983
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
Scholars often assume that the nature of Mesopotamian kingship was such that questioning royal authority was impossible. This volume challenges that general assumption, by presenting an analysis of the motivations,methods, and motifs behind a scholarly discourse about kingship that arose in the final stages of the last Mesopotamian empires. The focus of the volume is the proliferation of a literature that problematizes authority in the Neo-Assyrian period, when texts first begin to specifically explore various modalities for critique of royalty. This development is symptomatic of a larger discourse about the limits of power that emerges after the repatriation of Marduk's statue to Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in the 12th century BCE. From this point onwards, public attitudes toward Marduk provide a framework for the definition of proper royal behavior, and become a point of contention between Assyria and Babylonia. It is in this historical and political context that several important Akkadian compositions are placed. The texts are analyzed from a new perspective that sheds light on their original milieux and intended functions.

The Shape of Stories

The Shape of Stories PDF Author: Gina Konstantopoulos
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900453976X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book Here

Book Description
How were narratives composed in the ancient Near East? What patterns and principles, constraints and considerations guided the shaping of cuneiform stories? The study of narrative structures has emerged as a promising approach to the textual heritage of the cuneiform world. Engaging with practically any ancient text—whether literary, historical, or religious—requires some understanding of the narrative forms that shaped their content. This volume gives researchers the tools to better understand those form, illustrating each approach to narrative analysis with a case study from the cultures of the ancient Near East: Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hittite.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh PDF Author: Sophus Helle
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300262590
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
A poem for the ages, freshly and accessibly translated by an international rising star, bringing together scholarly precision and poetic grace Gilgamesh is a Babylonian epic from three thousand years ago, which tells of King Gilgamesh’s deep love for the wild man Enkidu and his pursuit of immortality when Enkidu dies. It is a story about love between men, loss and grief, the confrontation with death, the destruction of nature, insomnia and restlessness, finding peace in one’s community, the voice of women, the folly of gods, heroes, and monsters—and more. Millennia after its composition, Gilgamesh continues to speak to us in myriad ways. Translating directly from the Akkadian, Sophus Helle offers a literary translation that reproduces the original epic’s poetic effects, including its succinct clarity and enchanting cadence. An introduction and five accompanying essays unpack the history and main themes of the epic, guiding readers to a deeper appreciation of this ancient masterpiece.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh PDF Author: Louise M. Pryke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317506707
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Get Book Here

Book Description
Gilgamesh focuses on the eponymous hero of the world’s oldest epic and his legendary adventures. However, it also goes further and examines the significance of the story’s Ancient Near Eastern context, and what it tells us about notions of kingship, animality, and the natures of mortality and immortality. In this volume, Louise M. Pryke provides a unique perspective to consider many foundational aspects of Mesopotamian life, such as the significance of love and family, the conceptualisation of life and death, and the role of religious observance. The final chapter assesses the powerful influence of Gilgamesh on later works of ancient literature, from the Hebrew Bible, to the Odyssey, to The Tales of the Arabian Nights, and his reception through to the modern era. Gilgamesh is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking to understand this fascinating figure, and more broadly, the relevance of Near Eastern myth in the classical world and beyond.

Narratives of Dependency

Narratives of Dependency PDF Author: Elke Brüggen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111381919
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 473

Get Book Here

Book Description
Given that strong asymmetrical dependencies have shaped human societies throughout history, this kind of social relation has also left its traces in many types of texts. Using written and oral narratives in attempts to reconstruct the history of asymmetrical dependency comes along with various methodological challenges, as the 15 articles in this interdisciplinary volume illustrate. They focus on a wide range of different (factual and fictional) text types, including inscriptions from Egyptian tombs, biblical stories, novels from antiquity, the Middle High German Rolandslied, Ottoman court records, captivity narratives, travelogues, the American gift book The Liberty Bell, and oral narratives by Caribbean Hindu women. Most of the texts discussed in this volume have so far received comparatively little attention in slavery and dependency studies. The volume thus also seeks to broaden the archive of texts that are deemed relevant in research on the histories of asymmetrical dependencies, bringing together perspectives from disciplines such as Egyptology, theology, literary studies, history, and anthropology