The Neo-Assyrian Myth of Ištar's Descent and Resurrection PDF Download

Author: Pirjo Lapinkivi
Publisher: State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts
ISBN: 9789521013331
Category : Akkadian language
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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"Critical edition of the 'Descent of Iéstar to the Netherworld'"--p. v.

Author: Mehmet-Ali Ataç
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521517907
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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In this book, Mehmet-Ali Ataç argues that the palace reliefs of the Neo-Assyrian Empire hold a meaning deeper than simple imperial propaganda.

Author: Avraham Faust
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192578715
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The Neo-Assyrian empire — the first large empire of the ancient world — has attracted a great deal of public attention ever since the spectacular discoveries of its impressive remains in the 19th century. The southwestern part of this empire, located in the lands of the Bible, is archaeologically speaking the best known region in the world, and its history is described in a plethora of texts, including the Hebrew Bible. Using a bottom-up approach, Avraham Faust utilises this unparalleled information to reconstruct the outcomes of the Assyrian conquest of the region and how it impacted the diverse political units and ecological zones that comprised it. In doing so, he draws close attention to the transformations the imperial take-over brought in its wake. His analysis reveals the marginality of the annexed territories in the southwest as the empire focused its activities in small border areas facing its prospering clients. A comparison of this surprising picture to the information available from other parts of the empire suggests that the distance of these provinces from the imperial core is responsible for their fate. This sheds new light on factors influencing imperial expansion, the considerations leading to annexation, and the imperial methods of control, challenging old conventions about the development of the Assyrian empire and its rule. Faust also examines the Assyrian empire within the broader context of ancient Near Eastern imperialism to answer larger questions on the nature of Assyrian domination, the reasons for its harsh treatment of the distant provinces, and the factors influencing the limits of its reach. His findings highlight the historical development of imperial control in antiquity and the ways in which later empires were able to overcome similar limitations, paving the way to much larger and longer-lasting polities.

Author: Debra Scoggins Ballentine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199370265
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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There are many ancient West Asian stories that narrate the victory of a warrior deity over an enemy, typically a sea-god or sea dragon, and his rise to divine kingship. In The Conflict Myth and the Biblical Tradition, Debra Scoggins Ballentine analyzes this motif, arguing that it was used within ancient political and socio-religious discourses to bolster particular divine hierarchies, kings, institutions, and groups, as well as to attack others. Situating her study of the conflict topos within contemporary theorizations of myth by Bruce Lincoln, Russell McCutcheon, and Jonathan Z. Smith, Ballentine examines narratives of divine combat and instances of this conflict motif. Her study cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries as well as constructed time periods, focusing not only on the Hebrew Bible but also incorporating Mesopotamian, early Jewish, early Christian, and rabbinic texts, spanning a period of almost three millennia - from the eighteenth century BCE to the early middle ages CE. The Conflict Myth and the Biblical Tradition advances our understanding of the conflict topos in ancient west Asian and early Jewish and Christian literatures and of how mythological and religious ideas are used both to validate and render normative particular ideologies and socio-political arrangements, and to delegitimize and invalidate others.

Author: Michael Nathanson
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1491823089
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 765

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From the preface: The intent of this work is to inquire whether 1. the events recounted in the Bibles narratives (collectively herein referred to as master narrative) are based in any Ancient Near Eastern historical reality. 2. the authors of the Bibles master narrative and its readers, including the founders and citizens of the state of Israel, can claim that reality as their own 3. the Bibles pseudohistorical master narrative disguises the geopolitical agenda of its authors in an apocalyptic/eschatological and theological cloak. From the Interval Synthesis: The importance of the Bibles narratives lies in the clues they hold regarding who their authors were and when they wrote them. The answer to why they took upon themselves to write these narratives require postbiblical contextualization that will bestow on them the meaning they deserve. What follows in the remaining chapters provides this context. From the Concluding Synthesis: Absent corroborative evidence, not in the least competing contemporaneous, or earlier secular prose narratives, the origins, ethnicity and culture of the Israelites, and their actions prior to the establishment of the Omride monarchy, as depicted in the master narrative, is fictive. The time before present of the Jews in Syro-Palestine cannot be traced as far back as the glorious and heroic Davidic and Solomonic monarchic period of the Bible. Rather, the historically verifiable, albeit less glamorous, late-Persian/Greco-Roman (postbiblical) period is the terminus a quo of Jewish history.

Author: Thomas L. Thompson
Publisher:
ISBN: 0786739118
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Since the eighteenth century, scholars and historians studying the texts of the Bible have attempted to distill historical facts and biography from the mythology and miracles described there. That trend continues into the present day, as scholars such as those of the "Jesus Seminar" dissect the Gospels and other early Christian writings to separate the "Jesus of history" from the "Christ of faith." But with The Messiah Myth, noted Biblical scholar Thomas L. Thompson argues that the quest for the historical Jesus is beside the point, since the Jesus of the Gospels never existed.Like King David before him, says Thompson, the Jesus of the Bible is an amalgamation of themes from Near Eastern mythology and traditions of kingship and divinity. The theme of a messiah-a divinely appointed king who restores the world to perfection-is typical of Egyptian and Babylonian royal ideology dating back to the Bronze Age. In Thompson's view, the contemporary audience for whom the Old and New Testament were written would naturally have interpreted David and Jesus not as historical figures, but as metaphors embodying long-established messianic traditions. Challenging widely held assumptions about the sources of the Bible and the quest for the historical Jesus, The Messiah Myth is sure to spark interest and heated debate.

Author: Eckart Frahm
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118325230
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
A Companion to Assyria is a collection of original essays on ancient Assyria written by key international scholars. These new scholarly contributions have substantially reshaped contemporary understanding of society and life in this ancient civilization. The only detailed up-to-date introduction providing a scholarly overview of ancient Assyria in English within the last fifty years Original essays written and edited by a team of respected Assyriology scholars from around the world An in-depth exploration of Assyrian society and life, including the latest thought on cities, art, religion, literature, economy, and technology, and political and military history

Author: Donald A. Mackenzie
Publisher: Masterlab
ISBN: 837991161X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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This volume deals with the myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria, and as these reflect the civilization in which they developed, a historical narrative has been provided, beginning with the early Sumerian Age and concluding with the periods of the Persian and Grecian Empires. Over thirty centuries of human progress are thus passed under review. Keywords: myth, legend, ancient, religion, classic

Author: Stephen M. Trzaskoma
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 1624664997
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description
This new edition of Anthology of Classical Myth offers selections from key Near Eastern texts—the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish), and Atrahasis; the Hittite Song of Emergence; and the flood story from the book of Genesis—thereby enabling students to explore the many similarities between ancient Greek and Mesopotamian mythology and enhancing its reputation as the best and most complete collection of its kind.

Author: Ilan Stavans
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780199913701
Category : Hispanic Americans
Languages : en
Pages :

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"An emerging field of study that explores the Hispanic minority in the United States, Latino Studies is enriched by an interdisciplinary perspective. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, demographers, linguists, as well as religion, ethnicity, and culture scholars, among others, bring a varied, multifaceted approach to the understanding of a people whose roots are all over the Americas and whose permanent home is north of the Rio Grande. Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies offers an authoritative, trustworthy, and up-to-date intellectual map to this ever-changing discipline."--Editorial page.