[PDF] Sumerian Gods And Their Representations eBook

Author : Douglas R. Frayne
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 745 pages
File Size : 43,43 MB
Release : 2021-02-12
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1646021274

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From the tragic young Adonis to Zašhapuna, first among goddesses, this handbook provides the most complete information available on deities from the cultures and religions of the ancient Near East, including Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam. The result of nearly fifteen years of research, this handbook is more expansive and covers a wider range of sources and civilizations than any previous reference works on the topic. Arranged alphabetically, the entries range from multiple pages of information to a single line—sometimes all that we know about a given deity. Where possible, each record discusses the deity’s symbolism and imagery, connecting it to the myths, rituals, and festivals described in ancient sources. Many of the entries are accompanied by illustrations that aid in understanding the iconography, and they all include references to texts in which the god or goddess is mentioned. Appropriate for both trained scholars and nonacademic readers, this book collects centuries of Near Eastern mythology into one volume. It will be an especially valuable resource for anyone interested in Assyriology, ancient religion, and the ancient Near East.

Author : Britannica Educational Publishing
Publisher : Britannica Educational Publishing
Page : 115 pages
File Size : 16,82 MB
Release : 2014-01-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 1622751620

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Mesopotamian religion was one of the earliest religious systems to develop with—and in turn influence—a high civilization. Followed by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, Mesopotamian religion and mythology reflected the complexities of these societies and has been preserved in remnants of their cultural, economic, and political institutions. This absorbing volume provides a glimpse of the cradle of civilization by examining Mesopotamian religious and mythological beliefs as well as some of the many gods and goddesses at the core of their stories and also looks at epics—such as that of Gilgamesh—and other aspects of Mesopotamian life.

Author : Jeremy Black
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 437 pages
File Size : 27,52 MB
Release : 2004-11-25
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 0199263116

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Sumerian is the oldest written language of ancient Iraq, first written down some 5000 years ago. Its literature, encompassing narrative myths, lyrical hymns, proverbs, and love poetry, provides a stimulating insight into the world's first urban civilization. Written in clear, accessible English, these translations are the most comprehensive collection of the world's first literature.

Author : Thorkild Jacobsen
Publisher : Eisenbrauns
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 33,69 MB
Release : 2002
Category : History
ISBN : 1575060612

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Providing a scholar's salute to a teacher, colleague, and friend, the contributors of this new volume honor the memory of Thorkild Jacobsen with essays on Mesopotamian history, culture, literature, and religion. Contributors include: Tzvi Abusch, John Huehnergard, Bendt Alster, Jeremy Black, Miguel Civil, Jerrold S. Cooper, M. J. Geller, Stephen A. Geller, Samuel Greengus, William W. Hallo, Wolfgang Heimpel, Jacob Klein, W. G. Lambert, Jack M. Sasson, Ake W. Sjoberg, Piotr Steinkeller, H. L. J. Vanstiphout, and Claus Wilcke.

Author : Jeremy Black
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 18,11 MB
Release : 1992-05-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780292707948

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Ancient Mesopotamia was a rich, varied and highly complex culture whose achievements included the invention of writing and the development of sophisticated urban society. This book offers an introductory guide to the beliefs and customs of the ancient Mesopotamians, as revealed in their art and their writings between about 3000 B.C. and the advent of the Christian era. Gods, goddesses, demons, monsters, magic, myths, religious symbolism, ritual, and the spiritual world are all discussed in alphabetical entries ranging from short accounts to extended essays. Names are given in both their Sumerian and Akkadian forms, and all entries are fully cross-referenced. A useful introduction provides historical and geographical background and describes the sources of our knowledge about the religion, mythology and magic of "the cradle of civilisation".

Author : Samuel Noah Kramer
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 35,77 MB
Release : 2010-09-17
Category : History
ISBN : 0226452328

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The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums B.C. This book is an unparalleled compendium of what is known about them. Professor Kramer communicates his enthusiasm for his subject as he outlines the history of the Sumerian civilization and describes their cities, religion, literature, education, scientific achievements, social structure, and psychology. Finally, he considers the legacy of Sumer to the ancient and modern world. "There are few scholars in the world qualified to write such a book, and certainly Kramer is one of them. . . . One of the most valuable features of this book is the quantity of texts and fragments which are published for the first time in a form available to the general reader. For the layman the book provides a readable and up-to-date introduction to a most fascinating culture. For the specialist it presents a synthesis with which he may not agree but from which he will nonetheless derive stimulation."—American Journal of Archaeology "An uncontested authority on the civilization of Sumer, Professor Kramer writes with grace and urbanity."—Library Journal

Author : Tallay Ornan
Publisher : Saint-Paul
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 30,92 MB
Release : 2005
Category : History
ISBN : 9783525530078

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This book analyzes the history of Mesopotamian imagery form the mid-second to mid-first millennium BCE. It demonstrates that in spite of rich textual evidence, which grants the Mesopotamian gods and goddesses an anthropmorphic form, there was a clear abstention in various media from visualizing the gods in such a form. True, divine human-shaped cultic images existed in Mesopotamian temples. But as a rule, non-anthropomorphic visual agents such as inanimate objects, animals or fantastic hybrids replaced these figures when they were portrayed outside of their sacred enclosures. This tendency reached its peak in first-millennium Babylonia and Assyria. The removal of the Mesopotamian human-shaped deity from pictorial renderings resembles the Biblical agenda not only in its avoidance of displaying a divine image but also in the implied dual perception of the divine: according to the Bible and the Assyro-Babylonian concept the divine was conceived as having a human form; yet in both cases anthropomorphism was also concealed or rejected, though to a different degree. In the present book, this dual approach toward the divine image is considered as a reflection of two associated rather than contradictory religious worldviews. The plausible consolidation of the relevant Biblical accounts just before the Babylonian Exile, or more probably within the Exile - in both cases during a period of strong Assyrian and Babylonian hegemony - points to a direct correspondence between comparable religious phenomena. It is suggested that far from their homeland and in the absence of a temple for their god, the Judahite deportees adopted and intensified the Mesopotamian avoidance of anthropomorphic picorial portrayals of deities. While the Babylonian representations remained confined to temples, the exiles would have turned a cultic reality - i.e., the nonwritten Babylonian custom - into a written, articulated law that explicity forbade the pictorial representation of God.

Author : Theodore J. Lewis
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 1097 pages
File Size : 27,2 MB
Release : 2020
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0190072547

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Introductory Matters -- The History of Scholarship on Ancient Israelite Religion : A Brief Sketch -- Methodology -- El Worship -- The Iconography of Divinity : El -- The Origin of Yahweh -- The Iconography of Divinity : Yahweh -- The Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as Warrior and Family God -- The Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as King and Yahweh as Judge -- Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as Holy.