Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
In the Garden of the Gods : Models of Kingship from the Sumerians to the Seleucids, Electronic book text Book

In the Garden of the Gods : Models of Kingship from the Sumerians to the Seleucids Electronic book text

Electronic book text

Item not Available

Description

Examining the evolution of kingship in the Ancient Near East from the time of the Sumerians to the rise of the Seleucids in Babylon, this book argues that the Sumerian emphasis on the divine favour that the fertility goddess and the Sun god bestowed upon the king should be understood metaphorically from the start and that these metaphors survived in later historical periods, through popular literature including the Epic of GilgameA and the Enuma EliA .

The author s research shows that from the earliest times Near Eastern kings and their scribes adapted these metaphors to promote royal legitimacy in accordance with legendary exempla that highlighted the role of the king as the establisher of order and civilization.

As another GilgameA and, later, as a pious servant of Marduk, the king renewed divine favour for his subjects, enabling them to share the Garden of the Gods .

Seleucus and Antiochus found these cultural ideas, as they had evolved in the first millennium BCE, extremely useful in their efforts to establish their dynasty at Babylon.

Far from playing down cultural differences, the book considers the ideological agendas of ancient Near Eastern empires as having been shaped mainly by class- rather than race-minded elites."

Information

Other Formats

Save 2%

£114.00

£111.35

Item not Available
Item not Available
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information