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In The Exegetical Terminology of Akkadian Commentaries Uri Gabbay offers the first detailed study of the well-developed set of technical terms found in ancient Mesopotamian commentaries. Understanding the hermeneutical function of these terms is essential for reconstructing the ancient Mesopotamian exegetical tradition. Using the exegetical terminology attested in the large corpus of Akkadian commentaries from the first millennium BCE, the book addresses the hermeneutics of the commentaries, investigates the scholastic environment in which they were composed, and considers the relationship between the terminology of commentaries and the divine authority of the texts they elucidate. The book concludes with a comparative study that traces links between the terminology used in Akkadian commentaries and that used in early Hebrew exegesis.

Assyro-Babylonian literature --- Akkadian literature --- Babylonian literature --- Criticism, Textual

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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.

Assyro-Babylonian literature. --- Marduk (Babylonian deity) --- Akkadian literature. --- Akkadische Literatur. --- Ashurbanipal. --- Assurbanipal. --- Marduk. --- Sanherib. --- Sennacherib. --- Gods, Assyro-Babylonian --- Akkadian literature --- Babylonian literature --- Iraq --- Assyria --- Irak --- Rāfidayn, Bilād --- Bilād al-Rāfidayn --- Republic of Iraq --- Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah --- History --- Kings and rulers. --- Assyro-Babylonian literature --- Kings and rulers in literature. --- History and criticism.

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In Bodies of Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia Matthew Rutz explores the relationship between ancient collections of texts, commonly deemed libraries and archives, and the modern interpretation of titles like ‘diviner’. By looking at cuneiform tablets as artifacts with archaeological contexts, this work probes the modern analytical categories used to study ancient diviners and investigates the transmission of Babylonian/Assyrian scholarship in Syria. During the Late Bronze Age diviners acted as high-ranking scribes and cultic functionaries in Emar, a town on the Syrian Euphrates (ca. 1375-1175 BCE). This book’s centerpiece is an extensive analytical catalogue of the excavated tablet collection of one family of diviners. Over seventy-five fragments are identified for the first time, along with many proposed joins between fragments.

Divination --- Omens --- Assyro-Babylonian religion. --- Assyro-Babylonian literature. --- Cuneiform tablets --- History --- BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Divination / Fortune Telling --- BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Divination / General --- BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Prophecy --- Portents --- Prodigies (Omens) --- Signs (Omens) --- Superstition --- Signs and symbols --- Augury --- Soothsaying --- Occultism --- Worship --- Tablets, Cuneiform --- Clay tablets --- Cuneiform writing --- Religion, Assyro-Babylonian --- Religions --- Akkadian literature --- Babylonian literature

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The world's oldest work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh recounts the adventures of the semimythical Sumerian king of Uruk and his ultimately futile quest for immortality after the death of his friend and companion, Enkidu, a wildman sent by the gods. Gilgamesh was deified by the Sumerians around 2500 BCE, and his tale as we know it today was codified in cuneiform tablets around 1750 BCE and continued to influence ancient cultures-whether in specific incidents like a world-consuming flood or in its quest structure-into Roman times. The epic was, however, largely forgotten, until the cuneiform tablets were rediscovered in 1872 in the British Museum's collection of recently unearthed Mesopotamian artifacts. In the decades that followed its translation into modern languages, the Epic of Gilgamesh has become a point of reference throughout Western culture.In Gilgamesh among Us, Theodore Ziolkowski explores the surprising legacy of the poem and its hero, as well as the epic's continuing influence in modern letters and arts. This influence extends from Carl Gustav Jung and Rainer Maria Rilke's early embrace of the epic's significance-"Gilgamesh is tremendous!" Rilke wrote to his publisher's wife after reading it-to its appropriation since World War II in contexts as disparate as operas and paintings, the poetry of Charles Olson and Louis Zukofsky, novels by John Gardner and Philip Roth, and episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Xena: Warrior Princess.Ziolkowski sees fascination with Gilgamesh as a reflection of eternal spiritual values-love, friendship, courage, and the fear and acceptance of death. Noted writers, musicians, and artists from Sweden to Spain, from the United States to Australia, have adapted the story in ways that meet the social and artistic trends of the times. The spirit of this capacious hero has absorbed the losses felt in the immediate postwar period and been infused with the excitement and optimism of movements for gay rights, feminism, and environmental consciousness. Gilgamesh is at once a seismograph of shifts in Western history and culture and a testament to the verities and values of the ancient epic.

Assyro-Babylonian literature. --- Ancient History & Classical Studies. --- LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical. --- Akkadian literature --- Babylonian literature --- Gilgamesh --- Gilgamesh. --- Epic of Gilgamesh --- Ghilgameš --- Gilgamesch --- Gilgamesz --- Gilgāmish --- Guilgamesh --- Ishtar and Izdubar --- Ishtar (Assyro-Babylonian epic) --- Izdubar --- Jiljāmish --- Kilkāmish --- Sha naqba imura --- Influence. --- Adaptations.

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Thus Speaks Ishtar is a collection of essays about prophets and prophecy in the ancient Near East during the “Neo-Assyrian Period.” This was the time when some of Israel’s greatest prophets emerged, and we also have from the same general period a number of prophetic texts found on the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. The book examines the basic idea of prophecy and how this is shaped by the way we study the subject, and it then presents a number of fresh insights on a range of prophetic topics. These include the relationship between Israelite and other forms of prophecy in Assyria and Egypt and the relationship between what prophets said and the written forms in which their words were passed on. Other topics of contemporary interest include what these prophetic texts have to say about the environment, the place of intercession in Israelite and Assyrian religion, and whether the message of the trailblazing Israelite prophets of the eighth century was basically about judgment and community ruin or about hope and community well-being.

Prophecy --- Prophets --- Assyro-Babylonian literature --- Akkadian literature --- Babylonian literature --- Forecasting --- Minor prophets --- Prophethood --- Seers --- Persons --- Comparative studies --- Judaism --- Relation to the Old Testament --- Assyria --- Assur (Kingdom) --- Asshur (Kingdom) --- Religion --- Prophétie --- Prophètes --- Littérature assyro-babylonienne --- Judaïsme --- Relation avec l'Ancien Testament --- Assyrie --- Religion. --- Wahrsagen. --- Ägypten (Altertum) --- Israel (Altertum) --- Assyrien. --- Mantik --- Zukunftsdeutung --- Wahrsagung --- Wahrsagerei --- Außersinnliche Wahrnehmung --- Divination --- Hellsehen --- Prophetie --- Orakel --- Zweites Gesicht --- Assyrisches Reich --- Reich Assur --- Assyrer