Here a God, There a God: An Examination of the Divine in Ancient Mesopotamia
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Michael B. Hundley
Abstract
Much ink has been spilled on the examination of Mesopotamian conceptions of the divine in the past, and the topic has received renewed attention in the present. The following article offers yet another synthetic analysis of the Mesopotamian divine sphere, amassing in one place a vast array of data and the scholarly assessments of that data. More particularly, after examining what constitutes a god in ancient Mesopotamia and the essential and characteristic qualities of Mesopotamian deities, the article attempts to sort the divine sphere, focusing on the relationship between the various beings that populate the divine world and between a single deity and its various aspects. However, although synthetic, the present contribution offers several new insights.Most prominently, it posits the concept of divine constellations as a model for understanding Mesopotamian deities, in which the major Mesopotamian deities are presented as a constellation of aspects that may be treated as (semi-)independent beings or as a unity depending on the context.
© 2014 Akademie Verlag GmbH, Markgrafenstr. 12-14, 10969 Berlin.
Articles in the same Issue
- 10.1524/aof.2013.inhalt
- Zu einigen unveröffentlichten Bo-Tafeln
- Koordinierte singularische Nomina im Hethitischen und ihr Kongruenzverhalten
- A Sculpted Slab with an Inscription of Sargon II Mentioning the Rebellion of Yau-bi’di of Hamath
- Bitten und Danken in Briefen Zur Deutung der Wendung ana appi šūṣû
- Here a God, There a God: An Examination of the Divine in Ancient Mesopotamia
- The Queens of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
- The Signs TA and DA in Old Hittite: Evidence for a Phonetic Difference
- Votive Inscriptions of Ur-Bau, Gudea, Sîn-kāšid and Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur from the Princeton University Library Collection
- Killing and Skinning Animals in the Ur III Period: The Puzriš-Dagan (Drehem) Office Managing of Dead Animals and Slaughter By-products
- Calculating Percentages of Battle Casualties: On the Reliability of Assyrian Annals and Reliefs from the 9th Century B.C.
Articles in the same Issue
- 10.1524/aof.2013.inhalt
- Zu einigen unveröffentlichten Bo-Tafeln
- Koordinierte singularische Nomina im Hethitischen und ihr Kongruenzverhalten
- A Sculpted Slab with an Inscription of Sargon II Mentioning the Rebellion of Yau-bi’di of Hamath
- Bitten und Danken in Briefen Zur Deutung der Wendung ana appi šūṣû
- Here a God, There a God: An Examination of the Divine in Ancient Mesopotamia
- The Queens of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
- The Signs TA and DA in Old Hittite: Evidence for a Phonetic Difference
- Votive Inscriptions of Ur-Bau, Gudea, Sîn-kāšid and Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur from the Princeton University Library Collection
- Killing and Skinning Animals in the Ur III Period: The Puzriš-Dagan (Drehem) Office Managing of Dead Animals and Slaughter By-products
- Calculating Percentages of Battle Casualties: On the Reliability of Assyrian Annals and Reliefs from the 9th Century B.C.
