Unformatted Attachment Preview
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 30
19/11/2013 10:08
2
The Ancient Near East
Power and Social Order
THINKING AHEAD
2.1 Describe the relationship between the gods and the peoples of Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria.
2.2 Explain how the Epic of Gilgamesh reflects the relationship between the gods and the people.
2.3 Distinguish between the culture of the Hebrews and the other cultures of the ancient Near East.
2.4 Discuss how the art and architecture of Neo-Babylonia and Persia reflect the ambitions of their leaders.
I
n September 1922, British archeologist C. Leonard Woolley boarded a steamer, beginning a journey that would take
him to southern Iraq. There, Woolley and his team would
discover one of the richest treasure troves in the history of
archeology in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. Woolley
concentrated his energies on the burial grounds surrounding the city’s central ziggurat, a pyramidal temple structure
consisting of successive platforms with outside staircases and
a shrine at the top (Fig. 2.1). Digging there in the winter of
1927, he unearthed a series of tombs with several rooms,
many bodies, and masses of golden objects (Fig. 2.2)—vessels, crowns, necklaces, statues, and weapons—as well as
jewelry and lyres made of electrum and the deep-blue stone
lapis lazuli. With the same sense of excitement that was felt
by Jean-Marie Chauvet and his companions when they first
saw the paintings on the wall of Chauvet Cave, Woolley
was careful to keep what he called the “royal tombs” secret.
On January 4, 1928, Woolley telegrammed his colleagues in
Latin. Translated to English, it read:
I found the intact tomb, stone built, and vaulted over with bricks
of queen Shubad [later known as Puabi] adorned with a dress in
which gems, flower crowns and animal figures are woven. Tomb
magnificent with jewels and golden cups.
—Woolley
Fig. 2.2 Vessel in the shape of an ostrich egg, from
the Royal Cemetery of Ur. ca. 2550 bce. Gold, lapis lazuli,
red limestone, shell, and bitumen, hammered from a single
sheet of gold and with geometric mosaics at the top and
bottom of the egg. Height 53⁄4”, diameter 51⁄8”. University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,
Philadelphia. Museum object #152071. The array of materials
came from trade with neighbors in Afghanistan, Iran, Anatolia,
and perhaps Egypt and Nubia.
Fig. 2.1 The ziggurat at Ur (present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq). ca. 2100 bce. The best preserved and most fully
restored of the ancient Sumerian temples, this ziggurat was the center of the city of Ur, in the lower plain
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Listen to the chapter audio on MyArtsLab
31
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 31
19/11/2013 10:08
THE CULTURES OF MESOPOTAMIA,
3200–612 bce
When Woolley’s discovery was made public, it was worldwide news for years.
Archeologists and historians were especially excited by
Woolley’s discoveries, because they opened a window onto
the larger region we call Mesopotamia, the land between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Ur was one of 30 or 40
cities that arose in Sumer, the southern portion of Mesopotamia (Map 2.1). In fact, its people abandoned the city
more than 2,000 years ago, when the Euphrates changed its
course away from the city.
Over the centuries other cultures would vie for control
of the region, chief among them the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. By 612 bce, the Assyrian Empire would
fall to Nabopolassar, first king of Babylonia, and a second
Neo-Babylonian culture would arise, only to fall, in turn,
to the Persians. Throughout almost the entire era, a very
different culture, that of the Hebrews, coexisted with the
major Mesopotamian powers, sometimes peacefully, often
not. This chapter outlines the social and political forces
that came to define these Mesopotamian cultures.
What was the nature of the relationship
between the gods and the peoples of Sumer,
Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria?
The peoples of Mesopotamia were almost totally dependent
on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for their livelihoods. By
irrigating the lands just outside the marshes on the riverbanks, the conditions necessary for extensive and elaborate
communities such as Ur began to arise: People dug canals
and ditches and cooperated in regulating the flow of water
in them, which eventually resulted in crops that exceeded
the needs of the population. These could be transformed
into foodstuffs of a more elaborate kind, including beer.
Evidence indicates that over half of each grain harvest
went into producing beer. Excess crops were also traded
by boat with nearby communities or up the great rivers
A N AT O L I A
Caspian
T U R K E Y
Sea
gr
Ti
is
M
O
Assur
N
a
D
AA
Babylon
SUM
YL
ER
Girsu
le
Ni
u
n
Susa
t
a
Lagash
Ur
Eridu
DEA
rs
modern-day
coastline
Pe
A R A B I A
Uruk
AL
o
I
s
S A U D I
CH
M
n
JORDAN
ON
s
i
Dead
Sea
BAB
o
A
I R A Q
r
Tell Asmar
IA
CAN
Z
g
M
KA
A
AK
T
BA
ASSYRIA
Sippar
Jerusalem
I R A N
Nineveh
Kalhu
O
LE
S
P
s
Sea
te
Mediterranean
ra
SYRIA
ph
NON
Eu
E
ia
n
G
250 km
250 miles
Fertile area of early
agriculture
lf
u
Red
Sea
Map 2.1 Major Mesopotamian capitals, ca. 2600–500 bce.
32 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 32
19/11/2013 10:08
CONTEXT
Timeline of Ancient Near Eastern Empires and Cultures
The Hebrews
Persia
Neo-Babylonia
Assyria
Babylon
Akkad
Sumer
330 bce
520 bce
600 bce
1595 bce
1800 bce
2200 bce
2350 bce
4000 bce
to the north, where stone, wood, and metals were available in exchange. As people congregated in central locations to exchange goods, cities began to form. Cities such
as Ur became hubs of great trading networks. With trade
came ideas, which were incorporated into local custom
and spawned newer and greater ideas in turn. Out of the
exchange of goods and ideas, then, the conditions were in
place for great cultures to arise.
After agriculture, first among these was metallurgy,
the science of separating metals from their ores and then
working or treating them to create objects. The technology probably originated in the Fertile Crescent to the north
about 4000 bce, but as it spread southward, the peoples of
Mesopotamia adopted it as well.
This new technology would change the region’s social
organization, inaugurating what we have come to call the
Bronze Age. Metallurgy required the mining of ores, specialized technological training, and skilled artisans. Although
the metallurgical properties of copper were widely understood, technicians discovered that by alloying it with tin
they could create bronze, a material of enormous strength
and durability. Bronze weapons would transform the military and the nature of warfare. Power consolidated around
the control and mastery of weaponry, and thus bronze
created a new military elite of soldiers dedicated to protecting the Sumerian city-states from one another as they vied
for control of produce and trade. The city-states, in turn,
spawned governments ruled by priest-kings, who exercised
power as intermediaries between the gods and the people.
In their secular role, the priest-kings established laws that
contributed to the social order necessary for maintaining
successful agricultural societies. The arts developed largely
as celebrations of the priest-kings’ powers. In order to keep
track of the production and distribution of goods, the costs
of equipping the military, and records relating to enforcing
laws and regulations, writing—perhaps the greatest innovation of the Bronze Age—developed. If agricultural production served to stimulate the creation of urban centers,
metallurgy made possible the new military cultures of the
city-states. The arts served to celebrate these new centers
of power, and writing, which arose out of the necessity of
tracking the workings of the state, would come to celebrate
the state in a literature of its own.
Sumerian Ur
Ur is not the oldest city to occupy the southern plains of
Mesopotamia, the region known as Sumer. That distinction
belongs to Uruk, just to the north, which by around 3200
bce was probably the largest settlement in the world. But
the temple structure at Ur is of particular note because it
is the most fully preserved and restored. It was most likely
designed to evoke the mountains surrounding the river valley, which were the source of the water that flowed through
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 33
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 33
19/11/2013 10:08
the two rivers and, so, the source of life. Topped by a sanctuary, the ziggurat might also have symbolized a bridge
between heaven and earth. Woolley, who supervised the
reconstruction of the first platform and stairway of the ziggurat at Ur (Fig. 2.3), speculated that the platforms of the
temple were originally not paved but covered with soil and
planted with trees, an idea that modern archeologists no
longer accept.
Visitors—almost certainly limited to members of the
priesthood—would climb up the stairs to the temple on top.
They might bring an offering of food or an animal to be sacrificed to the resident god—at Ur, it was Nanna or Sin, god
of the moon. Visitors often placed in the temple a statue
that represented themselves in an attitude of perpetual
prayer. We know this from the inscriptions on many of the
statues. One, dedicated to the goddess Tarsirsir, protector
of Girsu, a city-state across the Tigris and not far upstream
from Ur, reads:
Fig. 2.3 Reconstruction drawing of the ziggurat at Ur (present-day
Muqaiyir, Iraq). ca. 2100 bce. British archeologist Sir Leonard Woolley
undertook reconstruction of the ziggurat in the 1930s (see Fig. 2.1). In his
reconstruction, a temple on top, which was the home of the patron deity
of the city, crowned the three-tiered platform, the base of which measures
140 by 200 feet. The entire structure rose to a height of 85 feet. Woolley’s
reconstruction was halted before the second and third platforms had been
completed.
To Bau, gracious lady, daughter of An, queen of the holy
city, her mistress, for the life of Nammahani … has dedicated as an offering this statue of the protective goddess of
Tarsirsir which she has introduced to the courtyard of Bau.
May the statue, to which let my mistress turn her ear, speak
my prayers.
Fig. 2.4 Dedicatory statues, from the Abu Temple, Tell Asmar, Iraq. ca. 2900–2700 bce. Marble, alabaster, and gypsum,
height of tallest figure, approx. 30". Excavated by the Iraq Expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago,
February 13, 1934. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The wide-eyed appearance of these figures is
probably meant to suggest they are gazing in perpetual awe at the deity.
34 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 34
19/11/2013 10:08
A group of such statues, found in 1934 in the shrine
room of a temple at Tell Asmar, near present-day Baghdad,
includes seven men and two women (Fig. 2.4). The men
wear belted, fringed skirts. They have huge eyes, inlaid with
lapis lazuli (a blue semiprecious stone) or shell set in bitumen. The single arching eyebrow and crimped beard (only
the figure at the right is beardless) are typical of Sumerian
sculpture. The two women wear robes. All figures clasp their
hands in front of them, suggestive of prayer when empty
and of making an offering when holding a cup. Some scholars believe that the tallest man represents Abu, god of
vegetation, due to his especially large eyes, but all of the
figures are probably worshipers.
Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia Although power struggles among the various city-states dominate Mesopotamian history, with one civilization succeeding another,
and with each city-state or empire claiming its own particular divinity as chief among the Mesopotamian gods,
the nature of Mesopotamian religion remained relatively
constant across the centuries. With the exception of the
Hebrews, the religion of the Mesopotamian peoples was
polytheistic, consisting of multiple gods and goddesses connected to the forces of nature—sun and sky, water and storm,
earth and its fertility (see Context, page 36). We know many
of them by two names, one in Sumerian and the other in
the Semitic language of the later, more powerful Akkadians.
A famous Akkadian cylinder seal (Fig. 2.5), an engraved
cylinder used as a signature by rolling it into a wet clay
tablet in order to confirm receipt of goods or to identify
ownership, represents many of the gods. The figures are
recognizably gods because they wear pointed headdresses
with multiple horns, though the figure on the left, beside
the lion and holding a bow, has not been definitively identified. The figure with two wings standing atop the scaly
mountain is Ishtar, goddess of love and war. Weapons rise
from her shoulders, and she holds a bunch of dates in her
hand, a symbol of fertility. Beneath her, cutting his way
through the mountain so that he can rise at dawn, is the
sun god, Shamash. Standing with his foot on the mountain
at the right, streams of water with fish in them flowing from
his shoulders, is Ea, god of water, wisdom, magic, and art.
Behind him is his vizier, or “burden-carrier.”
To the Mesopotamians, human society was merely part
of the larger society of the universe governed by these gods
and a reflection of it. Anu, father of the gods, represents the
authority, which the ruler emulates as lawmaker and -giver.
Enlil, god of the air—the calming breeze as well as the violent storm—is equally powerful, but he represents force,
which the ruler emulates in his role as military leader. The
active principles of fertility, birth, and agricultural plenty
are those of the goddess Belitili, while water, the life force
itself, the creative element, is embodied in the god Ea, or
Enki, who is also god of the arts. Both Belitili and Ea are
subject to the authority of Anu. Ishtar is subject to Enlil,
ruled by his breezes (in the case of love) and by his storm
(in the case of war). A host of lesser gods represented natural phenomena, or, in some cases, abstract ideas, such as
truth and justice.
The Mesopotamian ruler, often represented as a priestking, and often believed to possess divine attributes, acts
as the intermediary between the gods and humankind. His
ultimate responsibility is the behavior of the gods—whether
Ea blesses the crop with rains, Ishtar his armies with victory, and so on.
The Royal Tombs of Ur Religion was central to the people of
Ur, and the cemetery discovered by Woolley tells us a great
deal about the nature of their beliefs. Woolley unearthed
some 1,840 graves, most dating from between 2600 and
2000 bce. The greatest number of graves were individual
burials of rich and poor alike. However, some included
a built burial chamber rather than just a coffin and contained more than one body, in some cases as many as 80.
Fig. 2.5 Cylinder seal impression and the Seal of Adda. Akkadian. ca. 2200–2159 bce. Greenstone,
height 11⁄2". © The Trustees of the British Museum. The two-line inscription at the left identifies the seal’s
owner as Adda, a scribe.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 35
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 35
19/11/2013 10:08
CONTEXT
Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses
Name
Symbol
An/Anu
Enlil
Utu/Shamash
Father of the gods,
god of the sky
horned
cap
horned
cap
horned
horned
cap
cap
horned
cap
horned
cap
solar disk
solar disk
disk
solar
Inanna/Ishtar
Role
solar disk
solar disk
solar disk
solar disk
star
God of the air and storm;
later replaces Anu as
father of the gods
Sun god, lord of truth
and justice
Goddess of love and war
star
star
Ninhursag /Belitili
Enki/Ea
Marduk
star
star
star
star
‘omega’
symbol
‘omega’
‘omega’
symbol
symbol
‘omega’
‘omega’
symbol
symbol
‘omega’
symbol
‘omega’
symbol
goat-fish
goat-fish
goat-fish
goat-fish
goat-fish
goat-fish
goat-fish
Mother Earth
God of water, lord of
wisdom, magic, art
Chief god of Babylon
spade
spade
spade
spade
spade
These multiple burials, andspade
the evidence of elaborate burspade of a king or queen’s court
ial rituals, suggest that members
accompanied the ruler to the grave. The two richest burial sites, built one behind the other, are now identified as
royal tombs, one belonging to Queen Puabi, the other to
an unknown king (but it is not that of her h
usband, King
Meskalamdug, who is buried in a different grave).
In the grave of either the unknown king or Queen Puabi
(records are confusing on this point) were two lyres, one
of which today is housed in Philadelphia (Fig. 2.6), the
other in London (Fig. 2.7). Both are decorated with bull’s
heads and are fronted by a panel of narrative scenes—that
is, scenes representing a story or event. Although originally
made of wood, which rots over time, these objects were able
Fig. 2.6 Soundbox panel front of the lyre from Tomb 789 (alternatively
identified as the unknown king’s or Puabi’s tomb), from the cemetery
at Ur (present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq). ca. 2600 bce. Wood with inlaid
gold, lapis lazuli, and shell, height approx. 121⁄4". University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. Museum object
#B17694 (image #150848). The meaning of the scenes on the front of this lyre
has always puzzled scholars. On the bottom, a goat holding two cups attends
a man with a scorpion’s body. Above that, a donkey plays a bull-headed lyre
held by a bear, while a seated jackal plays a small percussion instrument. On
the third level, animals walking on their hind legs carry food and drink for a
feast. In the top panel, a man with long hair and beard, naked but for his belt,
holds two human-headed bulls by the shoulders.
36 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 36
19/11/2013 10:08
forms that decorate these lyres represents a funerary banquet in the realm
of the dead. They are related, at least
thematically, to events in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which we will
discuss later in the chapter. This suggests that virtually every element of
the culture—from its music and literature to its religion and politics—
was tied in some way to every other.
The women whose bodies were found
under the two lyres may have been
singers and musicians, and the placement of the lyres over them would
indicate that the lyres were put there
after the celebrants died.
Such magnificent musical instruments indicate that music was
important in Mesopotamian society.
Surviving documents tell us that music
and song were part of the funeral ritual, and music played a role in worship
Fig. 2.7 Lyre from Tomb 789 (alternatively identified as the unknown king’s or Puabi’s tomb),
at the temple, as well as in banquets
from the cemetery at Ur (present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq). ca. 2600 bce. Gold leaf and lapis lazuli over
and festivals. Indeed, a fragment of a
a wood core, height 441⁄2". Restored 1971–72. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
poem from the middle of the third millennium bce found at Lagash indicates
to be saved in their original form due to an innovation of
that Sumerian music was anything but funereal. It is music’s
Woolley’s during the excavation. He ordered his workers to
duty, the poet says,
tell him whenever they came upon an area that sounded
To fill with joy the Temple court
hollow. He would fill such hollows (where the original
And chase the city’s gloom away
wood had long since rotted away) with wax or plaster, thus
The heart to still, the passions calm,
preserving, in place, the decorative effects on the object’s
Of weeping eyes the tears to stay.
outside. It seems likely that the mix of animal and human
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 37
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 37
19/11/2013 10:08
One of Woolley’s most important discoveries in the Royal
Cemetery was the so-called Royal Standard of Ur (Fig. 2.8).
Music plays a large part here, too. The main panels of this
rectangular box of unknown function are called “War” and
“Peace,” because they illustrate, on one side, a military victory and, on the other, the subsequent banquet celebrating
the event, or perhaps a cult ritual. Each panel is composed
of three registers, or self-contained horizontal bands, within
which the figures stand on a ground line, or baseline.
At the right side of the top register of the “Peace” panel
(the lower half of Fig. 2.8), a musician plays a lyre, and
behind him another, apparently female, sings. The king, at
the left end, is recognizable because he is taller than the
others and wears a tufted skirt, his head breaking the register line on top. In this convention, known as social perspective, or hieratic scale, the most important figures are
represented as larger than the others. In other registers on
the “Peace” side of the Standard, servants bring cattle, goats,
Fig. 2.8 Royal Standard of Ur, front (“War”) and back (“Peace”) sides, from Tomb 779, cemetery at
Ur (present-day Muqaiyir, Iraq). ca. 2600 bce. Shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone, originally on a wooden
framework, height 8", length 19". © The Trustees of the British Museum. For all its complexity of design, this
object is not much bigger than a sheet of legal paper. Its function remains a mystery, though it may have served
as a pillow or headrest. Woolley’s designation of it as a standard was purely conjectural.
View the Closer Look for the Royal Standard of Ur on MyArtsLab
38 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 38
19/11/2013 10:08
sheep, and fish to the celebration. These represent the
bounty of the land and perhaps even delicacies from lands
to the north. (Notice that the costumes and hairstyles of
the figures carrying sacks in the lowest register are different from those in the other two.) This display of consumption and the distribution of food may have been intended
to dramatize the power of the king by showing his ability to
control trade routes.
On the “War” side of the Standard, the king stands in the
middle of the top register. War chariots trample the enemy
on the bottom register. (Note that the chariots have solid
wheels; spoked wheels were not invented until approximately 1800 bce.) In the middle register, soldiers wearing
leather cloaks and bronze helmets lead naked, bound prisoners to the king in the top register, who will presumably
decide their fate. Many of the bodies found in the royal
tombs were wearing similar military garments. The importance of the Royal Standard of Ur is not simply as documentary evidence of Sumerian life but as one of the earliest
examples we have of historical narrative.
Akkad
At the height of the Sumerians’ power in southern Mesopotamia, a people known as the Akkadians arrived from the
north and settled in the area around present-day Baghdad.
Their capital city, Akkad, has never been discovered and
in all likelihood lies under Baghdad itself. Under Sargon I
(r. ca. 2332–2279 bce), the Akkadians conquered virtually
all other cities in Mesopotamia, including those in Sumer,
to become the region’s most powerful city-state. Sargon
named himself “King of the Four Quarters of the World”
and equated himself with the gods, a status bestowed
upon Akkadian rulers from Sargon’s time forward. Legends
about Sargon’s might and power survived in the region
for thousands of years. Indeed, the legend of his birth
gave rise to what amounts to a narrative genre (a class or
category of story with a universal theme) that survives to
the present day: the boy from humble origins who rises to a
position of might and power, the so-called “rags-to-riches”
story.
As depicted on surviving clay tablets, Sargon was an
illegitimate child whose mother deposited him in the
Euphrates River in a basket. There, a man named Akki
(after whom Akkad itself is named) found him while drawing water from the river and raised him as his own son.
Such stories of abandonment, orphanhood, and being a
foundling raised by foster parents were to become a standard feature in the narratives of mythic heroes.
Although the Akkadian language was very different
from Sumerian, through most of the third millennium
bce—that is, until Sargon’s dynastic ambitions altered the
balance of power in the region—the two cultures coexisted
peacefully. The Akkadians adopted Sumerian culture and
customs (see Fig. 2.5) and their style of cuneiform writing, a script made of wedge-shaped characters (see Closer
Look, pages 40–41), although not their language. In fact,
Fig. 2.9 Head of an Akkadian Man, from Nineveh
(present-day Kuyunjik, Iraq). ca. 2300–2200 bce.
Copper alloy, height 141⁄8". Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
many bilingual dictionaries and Sumerian texts with Akkadian translations survive. The Akkadian language was
Semitic in origin, having more in common with other
languages of the region, particularly Hebrew, Phoenician,
and Arabic. It quickly b ecame the common language of
Mesopotamia, and peoples of the region spoke Akkadian,
or dialects of it, throughout the second m
illennium bce and
well into the first.
Akkadian Sculpture Although Akkad was arguably the
most influential of the Mesopotamian cultures, few Akkadian artifacts survive, perhaps because Akkad and other
nearby Akkadian cities have disappeared under Baghdad
and the alluvial soils of the Euphrates plain. Two impressive sculptural works do remain, however. The first is the
bronze head of an Akkadian man (Fig. 2.9), found at Nineveh. It was once believed to be Sargon the Great himself,
but many modern scholars now think it was part of a statue
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 39
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 39
19/11/2013 10:08
CLOSER LOOK
W
riting first appeared in the middle of the fourth
millennium bce in agricultural records as pictograms—pictures that represent things or concepts—etched into clay tablets. For instance, the sign for
“woman” is a pubic triangle, and the more complicated idea
of “slave” is the sign for “woman” plus the sign for “mountains”—literally, a “woman from over the mountains”:
woman
mountains
slave
Early pictogram for donkey
In the cuneiform tablet opposite,
the sign for “donkey” (below)
is apparent everywhere. It
represents a later, abstracted
version of the earlier pictogram
(literally “picture-writing”) above.
Such abstracted signs came into
use not long after 2400 bce and
replaced the earlier pictograms.
Pictograms could also represent concepts. For instance,
hatred
friendship
the signs for “hatred” and “friendship” are, respectively, an
“X” and a set of parallel lines:
woman
mountains
hatred
slave
friendship
Later cuneiform pictogram of donkey
Beginning about 2900 bce, most writing began to look
more linear, for it was difficult to draw curves in wet clay.
So scribes adopted a straight-line script made with a wedgeshaped stylus, or writing tool, cut from reeds. The resulting impressions looked like wedges. Cuneiform writing was
named from the Latin cuneus, “wedge.”
By 2000 bce, another significant development in the
progress of writing had appeared: Signs began to represent
not things but sounds. This phonetic writing liberated the
sign from its picture. Previously, they had been linked, as if,
in English, we represented the word belief with pictograms
for “bee” and “leaf.”
stylus
View the Closer Look for cuneiform writing in Sumer on MyArtsLab
40 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 40
19/11/2013 10:08
Cuneiform Writing in Sumer
Something to Think About …
What is it about this “document” that
underscores the necessity of writing
in the development of a civilization?
Sumerian clay tablet from Lagash (present-day Tello,
Iraq). ca. 2360 bce. Musée du Louvre, Paris. This tablet is an
economic document detailing the loan of donkeys to, among
others, a farmer, a smith, and a courier.
These stars are the Sumerian sign
for “god.” They sometimes have
many more points than the eight
seen here.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 41
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 41
19/11/2013 10:08
Materials & Techniques
Lost-Wax Casting
At about the same time that cuneiform script was adopted, Mesopotamian culture also began to practice metallurgy, the process of
mining and smelting ores. At first, copper was used almost exclusively; later, an alloy of copper and tin was melted and combined to
make bronze. The resulting material was much stronger and more
durable than anything previously known.
Because sources of copper and tin were mined in very different
regions of the Middle East, the development of trade routes was a
1
2
3
necessary prerequisite to the technology. While solid bronze pieces
were made in simple molds as early as 4000 bce , hollow bronze
casts could produce larger pieces and were both more economical and lightweight. The technology for making hollow bronze casts
was developed by the time of the Akkadians, in the second millennium bce . Called lost-wax casting, the steps involved in this
technique are illustrated below.
4
5
6
A positive model (1), often created with clay, is used to make a negative mold (2). The mold is coated with wax, the wax shell is
filled with a cool fireclay, and the mold is removed (3). Metal rods, to hold the shell in place, and wax rods, to vent the mold, are
then added (4). The whole is placed in sand, and the wax is burned out. Molten bronze is poured in where the wax used to be (5).
When the bronze has hardened, the whole is removed from the sand and the rods and vents are removed (6).
Watch a video about the technique of lost-wax bronze casting on MyArtsLab
of Sargon’s grandson, Naramsin (ca. 2254–2218 bce). It
may be neither, but it is certainly the bust of a king. Highly
realistic, it depicts a man who appears both powerful and
majestic. In its damaged condition, the head is all that survives of a life-size statue that was destroyed in antiquity. Its
original gemstone eyes were removed, perhaps by plundering soldiers, or possibly by a political enemy who recognized
the sculpture as an emblem of absolute majesty. In the fine
detail surrounding the face—in the beard and elaborate
coiffure, with its braid circling the head—it testifies to the
Akkadian mastery of the lost-wax casting technique, which
originated in Mesopotamia as early as the third millennium
bce (see Materials & Techniques, above). It is the earliest
monumental work made by that technique that we have.
The second Akkadian sculpture we will look at is the
Stele of Naramsin (Fig. 2.10). A stele is an upright stone slab
carved with a commemorative design or inscription. (The
word is derived from the Greek for “standing block.”) This
particular stele celebrates the victory of Sargon’s grandson
over the Lullubi in the Zagros Mountains of eastern Mesopotamia sometime between 2252 and 2218 bce. The king,
as usual, is larger than anyone else (another example of
social perspective or hierarchy of scale). The Akkadians,
in fact, believed that Naramsin became divine during the
course of his reign. In the stele, his divinity is represented
by his horned helmet and by the physical perfection of
his body. Bow and arrow in hand, he stands atop a mountain pass, dead and wounded Lullubians beneath his feet.
Another Lullubian falls before him, a spear in his neck. Yet
another seems to plead for mercy as he flees to the right.
Behind Naramsin, his soldiers climb the wooded slopes of
the mountain—here represented by actual trees native to
the region.
The sculptor abandoned the traditional register system
that we saw in the Royal Standard of Ur and set the battle scene on a unified landscape. The lack of registers and
the use of trees underscore the reality of the scene—and by
implication, the reality of Naramsin’s divinity. The divine
and human worlds are, in fact, united here, for above Naramsin three stars (cuneiform symbols for the gods) look on,
protecting both Naramsin, their representative on earth,
and his troops. Both the copper head of the Akkadian king
and the Stele of Naramsin testify to the role of the king in
Mesopotamian culture, in general, as both hero and divinity. If the king is not exactly a supreme god, he behaves
very much like one, wielding the same awe-inspiring power.
Babylon
The Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia for just 150
years, their rule collapsing not long after 2200 bce.
For the next 400 years, various city-states thrived
locally. No one in Mesopotamia matched the Akkadians’ power until the first decades of the eighteenth
century bce, when Hammurabi of Babylon (r. 1792–
1750 bce) gained control of most of the region.
42 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 42
19/11/2013 10:08
coming from his shoulders. The god is much larger than
Hammurabi; in fact, he is to Hammurabi as Hammurabi,
the patriarch, is to his people. If Hammurabi is divine, he is
still subservient to the greater gods. At the same time, the
phallic design of the stele, like such other Mesopotamian
steles as the Stele of Naramsin, asserts the masculine prowess
of the king.
Fig. 2.10 Stele of Naramsin, from Susa (present-day Shush, Iran).
ca. 2254–2218 bce. Pink sandstone, height approx. 6'6". Chuzeville/Musée du
Louvre, Paris. This work, which was stolen by invading Elamites around 1157
bce, as an inscription on the mountain indicates, was for centuries one of the
most influential of all artworks, copied by many rulers to celebrate their own
military feats.
View the Closer Look for the Stele of Naramsin on MyArtsLab
The Law Code of Hammurabi Hammurabi imposed order on
Babylon where laxness and disorder, if not chaos, reigned.
A giant stele survives, upon which is inscribed the so-called
Law Code of Hammurabi (Fig. 2.11). By no means the first
of its kind, though by far the most complete, the stele is a
record of decisions and decrees made by Hammurabi over
the course of some 40 years of his reign. Its purpose was to
celebrate his sense of justice and the wisdom of his rule.
Atop the stele, in sculptural relief, Hammurabi receives the
blessing of Shamash, the sun god; notice the rays of light
Fig. 2.11 Stele of Hammurabi, from Susa (present-day Shush, Iran).
ca. 1760 bce. Diorite, height of stele, approx. 7', height of relief, 28". Musée
du Louvre, Paris. Like the Stele of Naramsin, this stele was stolen by invading
Elamites and removed to Susa, where, together with the Stele of Naramsin, it
was excavated by the French in 1898.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 43
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 43
19/11/2013 10:08
Below the relief, 282 separate “articles” cover both sides
of the basalt monument. One of the great debates of legal
history is the question of whether these articles actually
constitute a code of law. If by code we mean a comprehensive, systematic, and methodical compilation of all aspects
of Mesopotamian law, then they do not. This code is
instead selective, even eccentric, in the issues it addresses.
Many of its articles seem to be “reforms” of already existing
law, and as such they define new principles of justice.
Chief among these is the principle of talion—an eye for
an eye, a tooth for a tooth—which Hammurabi introduced
to Mesopotamian law. (Sections of earlier codes from Ur
compensate victims of crimes with money.) This principle
punished the violence or injustice perpetuated by one free
person upon another, but violence by an upper-class person
on a lower-class person was penalized much less severely.
Slaves (who might be either war captives or debtors)
enjoyed no legal protection at all—only the protection of
their owner.
The code tells us much about the daily lives of Mesopotamian peoples, including conflicts great and small. In
rules governing family relations and class divisions in Mesopotamian society, inequalities are sharply drawn. Women
are inferior to men, and wives, like slaves, are the personal
property of their husbands (although protected from the
abuse of neglectful or unjust husbands). Incest is strictly
forbidden. Fathers cannot arbitrarily disinherit their sons—
a son must have committed some “heavy crime” to justify
such treatment. The code’s strongest concern is the maintenance and protection of the family, though trade practices
and property rights are also of major importance.
The following excerpts from the code, beginning with
Hammurabi’s assertion of his descent from the gods and his
status as their favorite (Reading 2.1), give a sense of the
code’s scope. But the code is, finally, and perhaps above all,
the gift of a king to his people, as Hammurabi’s epilogue, at
the end of the excerpt, makes clear:
R E A DI N G 2 .1
from the Law Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760
bce)
When the august god Anu, king of the Anunnaku
deities, and the god Enlil, lord of heaven and earth, who
determines the destinies of the land, allotted supreme
power over all peoples to the god Marduk, the firstborn
son of the god Ea, exalted him among the Igigu deities,
named the city of Babylon with its august name and
made it supreme exalted within the regions of the world,
and established for him within it eternal kingship whose
foundations are as fixed as heaven and earth, at that time,
the gods Anu and Bel, for the enhancement of the wellbeing of the people, named me by my name, Hammurabi,
the pious prince, who venerates the gods, to make justice
prevail in the land, to abolish the wicked and the evil, to
prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to rise like
the Sun-god Shamash over all humankind, to illuminate
the land. …
1. If a man accuses another man and charges him with
homicide but cannot bring proof against him, his accuser
shall be killed. …
8. If a man steals an ox, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, or a
boat—if it belongs either to the god or to the palace, he
shall give thirtyfold; if it belongs to a commoner, he shall
replace it tenfold; if the thief does not have anything to
give, he shall be killed. …
32. If there is either a soldier or a fisherman who is taken
captive while on a royal campaign, a m
erchant redeems
him, and helps him get back to his city—if there are
sufficient in his own estate for the redeeming, he himself
shall redeem himself: if there are not sufficient means
in his estate to r edeem him he shall be redeemed by
his city’s temple; if there are not sufficient means in his
city’s temple to redeem him, the palace shall redeem him;
but his field, orchard, or house shall not be given for his
redemption. …
143. If [a woman] is not circumspect, but is wayward,
squanders her household possessions, and disparages
her husband, they shall cast that woman into the water. …
195. If a child should strike his father, they shall cut off
his hand.
196. If an awilu [in general, a person subject to law]
should blind the eye of another awilu, they shall blind
his eye. …
197. If he should break the bone of another awilu, they
shall break his bone. …
229. If a builder constructs a house for a man but does
not make his work sound, and the house he constructs
collapses and causes the death of the householder, that
builder shall be killed. …
282. If a slave should declare to his master, “You are not
my master,” he (the master) shall bring charge and proof
against him that he is indeed his slave, and his master
shall cut off his ear. …
These are the decisions which Hammurabi, the
able king, has established, and thereby has directed
the land along the course of truth and the correct
way of life.
I am Hammurabi, noble king …
May any king who will appear in the land in the future, at
any time, observe the pronouncements of justice that I have
inscribed upon my stele. May he not alter the judgments
that I rendered and verdicts that I gave, nor remove my
engraved image. If that man has discernment, and is
capable of providing just ways for his land may he heed the
pronouncements I have inscribed upon my stele, may the
stele reveal for him the traditions, the proper conduct, the
judgments of the land that I rendered, the verdicts of the
land that I gave and may he, too, provide just ways for all
humankind in his care. …
I am Hammurabi, king of justice. …
Consequences of the Code Even if Hammurabi meant only
to assert the idea of justice as the basis for his own divine
rule, the stele established what amounts to a uniform code
throughout Mesopotamia. It was repeatedly copied for over
a thousand years, long after it was removed to Susa in 1157
44 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 44
19/11/2013 10:08
bce with the Naramsin stele, and it established the rule
of law in Mesopotamia for a millennium. From this point
on, the authority and power of the ruler could no longer
be capricious, subject to the whim, fancy, and subjective
interpretation of his singular personality. The law was
now, at least ostensibly, more objective and impartial. The
ruler was required to follow certain prescribed procedures.
But the law, so prescribed in writing, was now also much
less flexible, hard to change, and much more impersonal.
Exceptions to the rule were few and difficult to justify.
Eventually, written law would remove justice from the discretion of the ruler and replace it with a legal establishment
of learned judges charged with enacting the king’s statutes.
The Assyrian Empire
With the fall of Babylon in 1595 bce to a sudden invasion
of Hittites from Turkey, the entire Middle East appears to
have undergone a period of disruption and instability. Only
the Assyrians, who lived around the city of Assur in the
north, managed to maintain a continuing cultural identity. Over the centuries, they became increasingly powerful until, beginning with the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (r.
883–859 bce), they dominated the entire region.
Ashurnasirpal II built a magnificent capital at Kalhu
(present-day Nimrud), on the Tigris River, surrounded by
nearly 5 miles of walls, 120 feet thick and 42 feet high. A
surviving inscription tells us that Ashurnasirpal invited
69,574 people to celebrate the city’s dedication. The entire
population of the region, of all classes, probably did not
exceed 100,000, and thus many guests from throughout
Mesopotamia and farther away must have been invited.
Assyrian Art Alabaster reliefs decorated many of the walls
of Ashurnasirpal’s palace complex, including a depiction
of Ashurnasirpal II Killing Lions (Fig. 2.12). The scene uses
many of the conventions of Assyrian pictorial representation. For instance, to create a sense of deep space, the
sculptor used the device of overlapping, which we first
encountered in prehistoric cave paintings (see Fig. 1.1
in Chapter 1). This is done convincingly where the king
stands in his chariot in front of its driver, but less so in the
case of the horses drawing the chariot. For instance, there
are three horse heads but only six visible legs—three in
front and three in back. Furthermore, Assyrian artists never
hid the face of an archer (in this case, the king himself) by
realistically having him aim down the shaft of the arrow,
which would have the effect of covering his eye with his
hand. Instead, they drop the arrow to shoulder level and
completely omit the bowstring so that it appears to pass
(impossibly) behind the archer’s head and back.
The scene is also a synoptic view, that is, it depicts several consecutive actions at once: As soldiers drive the lion
toward the king from the left, he shoots it; to the right, the
same lion lies dying beneath the horses’ hooves. If Assyrian artists seem unconcerned about accurately portraying
the animals, that is because the focus of the work is on the
king himself, whose prowess in combating the lion, traditional symbol of power, underscores his own invincibility. And it is in the artists’ careful balance of forms—the
relationship between the positive shapes of the relief figures and the negative space between them—that we sense
the importance placed on an orderly arrangement of parts.
This orderliness reflects, in all probability, their sense of the
orderly character of their society.
Fig. 2.12 Ashurnasirpal II Killing Lions, from the palace complex of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu (present-day
Nimrud, Iraq). ca. 850 bce. Alabaster, height approx. 39". © The Trustees of the British Museum. The repetition
of forms throughout this relief helps create a stunning design. Notice especially how the two shields carried by the
soldiers are echoed by the chariot wheel and the king’s arched bow.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 45
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 45
19/11/2013 10:08
Cultural Propaganda Rulers in every culture and age have
used the visual arts to broadcast their power. These reliefs
were designed to celebrate and underscore for all visitors to
Ashurnasirpal’s palace the military prowess of the Assyrian army and their king. They are thus a form of cultural
propaganda, celebrating the kingdom’s achievements even
as they intimidate its potential adversaries. In fact, the
Assyrians were probably the most militant civilization of
ancient Mesopotamia, benefactors of the invention of iron
weaponry. By 721 bce, the Assyrians had used their iron
weapons to conquer Israel, and by the middle of the seventh century bce, they controlled most of Asia Minor from
the Nile Valley to the Persian Gulf.
The Assyrians also used their power to preserve Mesopotamian culture. Two hundred years after the reign of Ashurnasirpal, Ashurbanipal (r. 668–627 bce) created the great
library where, centuries later, the clay tablets containing
the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, discussed later in this chapter, were stored. Its still partially intact collection today
consists of 20,000 to 30,000 cuneiform tablets containing
approximately 1,200 distinct texts, including a nearly
complete list of ancient Mesopotamian rulers. Each of its
many rooms was dedicated to individual subjects—history
and government, religion and magic, g eography, science,
poetry, and important government materials.
As late as Ashurbanipal’s reign, reliefs of the lion hunt
were still a favored form of palace decoration, but those
depicted in his palace at Nineveh, in what is now northern
Iraq, reveal that the lions were caged and released for the
king’s hunt, which was now more ritual than real, taking
place in an enclosed arena. The lions were sacrificed as an
offering to the gods. In one section of the relief, Ashurbanipal, surrounded by musicians, pours a libation, a liquid
offering to the gods, over the dead animals as servants bring
more bodies to the offering table. This ritual was implicit
in all kingly hunts, even Ashurnasirpal’s hunt of 200 years
earlier, for in his pursuit and defeat of the wild beast, the
ruler masters the most elemental force of nature—the cycle
of life and death itself.
The Assyrian kings represented their might and power
not only through the immense size of their palaces and the
decorative programs within, but also through massive gateways that greeted the visitor. Especially impressive are the
gateways with giant stone monuments, such as those in Iraq
at the Khorsabad palace of Sargon II (r. 721–705 bce), who
named himself after Sargon of Akkad. These monuments
(Fig. 2.13) are composites, part man, part bull, and part
eagle, the bull signifying the king’s strength and the eagle
his vigilance. The king himself wears the traditional horned
crown of Akkad and the beard of Sumer, thus containing
within himself all Mesopotamian history. Such composites,
especially in monumental size, were probably intended to
amaze and terrify the visitor and to underscore the ruler’s
embodiment of all the forces of nature, which is to say,
his embodiment of the very gods.
MESOPOTAMIAN LITERATURE
How does the Epic of Gilgamesh portray
the relationship between the gods and the
people?
Sumerian literature survives on nearly 100,000 clay tablets
and fragments. Many deal with religious themes in the form
of poems, blessings, and incantations to the gods.
The Blessing of Inanna
Fig. 2.13 Human-Headed Winged Bull, one of a pair from the entrance
to the palace of Sargon II, Khorsabad, Iraq. ca. 720 bce. Limestone,
height approx. 13'10". Musée du Louvre, Paris. Seen from a three-quarter
view, as here, this hybrid beast that guarded the palace entrance has five
legs. He stands firmly before you when seen from the front, and seems to
stride by you when seen from the side.
One particularly interesting Sumerian religious work is
The Blessing of Inanna (Reading 2.2). It recounts the myth
of the goddess Inanna, here depicted as a young girl from
Uruk who decides to visit Enki, the god of wisdom. Inanna
travels south to Eridu, the chief seaport of Sumer, where
Enki lives. Apparently taken with Inanna, Enki offers a
series of toasts, each time bestowing upon her one of his
special powers, including the highest powers of all:
46 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 46
19/11/2013 10:08
The Epic of Gilgamesh
R EAD IN G 2 .2
The Blessing of Inanna (ca. 2300
bce)
Enki and Inanna drank beer together.
They drank more beer together.
They drank more and more beer together.
With their bronze vessels filled to overflowing,
With the vessels of Urash, Mother of the Earth
They toasted each other; they challenged each other.
Enki, swaying with drink,
toasted Inanna: “In the name of my power!
In the name of my holy shrine!
To my daughter Inanna I shall give
The high priesthood! Godship!
The noble, enduring crown! The throne of kingship!”
Inanna replied: “I take them!”
Having gathered all 80 of Enki’s mighty powers, Inanna
piles them all into her boat and sails back upriver. The
drunken Enki realizes what he has done and tries to recover
his blessings, but Inanna fends him off. She returns to Uruk,
blessed as a god, and enters the city triumphantly, bestowing now her own gifts on her people, who subsequently
worship her. Enki and the people of Eridu are forced
to acknowledge the glory of Inanna and her city of
Uruk, assuring peace and harmony between the two
competing city-states.
The Sumerians worshiped Inanna as the goddess
of fertility and heaven. In this tale, she and Enki
probably represent the spirits of their respective cities and the victory of Uruk over Eridu. That Inanna
appears in the work first as a mere mortal is a classic
example of anthropomorphism, endowing the gods
and the forces of nature that they represent with
humanlike traits. The story has some basis in
fact, since Uruk and Eridu are the two oldest
Mesopotamian cities, and surviving literary
fragments suggest that the two cities were
at war sometime after 3400 bce.
One of the great surviving manuscripts of Mesopotamian
culture and the oldest story ever recorded is the Epic of
Gilgamesh. It consists of some 2,900 lines written in Akkadian cuneiform script on 11 clay tablets, none of them
completely whole (Fig. 2.14). It was composed sometime
before Ashurbanipal’s reign, possibly as early as 1200 bce,
by Sinleqqiunninni, a scholar-priest of Uruk. This would
make Sinleqqiunninni the oldest known author. We know
that Gilgamesh was the fourth king of Uruk, ruling sometime between 2700 and 2500 bce. (The dates of his rule
were recorded on a clay tablet, the Sumerian King List.)
Recovered fragments of his story date back nearly to his
actual reign, and the story we have, known as the Standard
Version, is a compilation of these earlier versions.
The work is the first example we have of an epic, a long,
narrative poem in elevated language that follows characters of a high position through a series of adventures, often
including a visit to the world of the dead. For many literary scholars, the epic is the most exalted poetic form. The
Read the document The Epic of Gilgamesh on MyArtsLab
Fig. 2.14 Fragment of Tablet 11 of the Epic of Gilgamesh, containing the Flood
Story. From the Library of Ashurbanipal, Nineveh (present-day Kuyunjik, Iraq). 2nd
millennium bce. © The Trustees of the British Museum. This example, which is relatively
complete, shows how difficult it is to reconstruct the Gilgamesh epic in its entirety.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 47
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 47
19/11/2013 10:08
central figure is a legendary or historical figure of heroic
proportion, in this case the Sumerian king Gilgamesh.
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (see Chapter 4) had been considered the earliest epics, until late in the nineteenth century, when Gilgamesh was discovered in the library of King
Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, believed to be the first library of
texts in history systematically collected and organized.
The scope of an epic is large. The supernatural world of
gods and goddesses usually plays a role in the story, as do
battles in which the hero demonstrates his strength and
courage. The poem’s language is suitably dignified, often
consisting of many long, formal speeches. Lists of various
heroes or catalogs of their achievements are frequent.
Epics are often compilations of preexisting myths and
tales handed down generation to generation, often orally,
and finally unified into a whole by the epic poet. Indeed,
the main outline of the story is usually known to its audience. The poet’s contribution is the artistry brought to
the subject, demonstrated through the use of epithets,
metaphors, and similes. Epithets are words or phrases that
characterize a person (for example, “Enkidu, the protector of herdsmen,” or “Enkidu, the son of the mountain”).
Metaphors are words or phrases used in place of another to
suggest a similarity between the two, as when Gilgamesh is
described as a “raging flood-wave who destroys even walls
of stone.” Similes compare two unlike things by the use of
the word “like” or “as” (for example, “the land shattered
like a pot”).
Perhaps most important, the epic illuminates the development of a nation or race. It is a national poem, describing a people’s common heritage and celebrating its cultural
identity. It is hardly surprising, then, that Ashurbanipal
preserved the Epic of Gilgamesh. Just as Sargon II depicted
himself at the gates of Khorsabad in the traditional horned
crown of Akkad and the beard of Sumer, containing within
himself all Mesopotamian history, the Epic of Gilgamesh preserves the historical lineage of all Mesopotamian kings—
Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. The tale
embodies their own heroic grandeur, and thus the grandeur
of their peoples.
The poem opens with a narrator guiding a visitor (the
reader) around Uruk. The narrator explains that the epic
was written by Gilgamesh himself and was deposited in the
city’s walls, where visitors can read it for themselves. Then
the narrator introduces Gilgamesh as an epic hero, two
parts god and one part human. The style of the following
list of his deeds is the same as in hymns to the gods (Reading 2.3a):
R E A DI N G 2 .3 a
from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet I
(late 2nd millennium bce)
Supreme over other kings, lordly in appearance,
he is the hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild bull.
He walks out in front, the leader,
and walks at the rear, trusted by his companions.
Mighty net, protector of his people,
raging flood-wave who destroys even walls of stone! …
It was he who opened the mountain passes,
who dug wells on the flank of the mountain.
It was he who crossed ocean, the vast seas, to the rising
sun,
who explored the world regions, seeking life.
It was he who reached by his own sheer strength the
Utnapishtim, the Faraway,
who restored the cities that the Flood had destroyed! …
Who can compare to him in kingliness?
Who can say like Gilgamesh: “I am King!”?
After a short break in the text, Gilgamesh is described as
having originally oppressed his people. Hearing the pleas
of the people for relief, the gods create a rival, Enkidu, to
challenge Gilgamesh (Reading 2.3b):
R EA D IN G 2.3b
from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet I
(late 2nd millennium bce)
Enkidu
born of Silence, endowed with the strength of Ninurta.
His whole body was shaggy with hair,
he had a full head of hair like a woman. …
He knew neither people nor settled living. …
He ate grasses with the gazelles,
and jostled at the watering hole with the animals.
Enkidu is, in short, Gilgamesh’s opposite, and their confrontation is an example of the classic struggle between
nature, represented by Enkidu, and civilization, represented
by Gilgamesh. Seduced by a harlot (see Reading 2.3, page
63), Enkidu loses his ability to commune with the animals
(i.e., he literally loses his innocence), and when he finally
wrestles Gilgamesh, the contest ends in a draw. The two
become best friends.
Gilgamesh proposes that he and Enkidu undertake a
great adventure, a journey to the Cedar Forest (either in
present-day southern Iran or Lebanon), where they will kill
its guardian, Humbaba the Terrible, and cut down all the
forest’s trees. Each night on the six-day journey to the forest, Gilgamesh has a terrible dream, which Enkidu manages
to interpret in a positive light. As the friends approach the
forest, the god Shamash informs Gilgamesh that Humbaba
is wearing only one of his seven coats of armor and is thus
extremely vulnerable. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter
the forest and begin cutting down trees, Humbaba comes
roaring up to warn them off. An epic battle ensues, and
Shamash intervenes to help the two heroes defeat the great
48 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 48
19/11/2013 10:08
guardian. Just before Gilgamesh cuts off Humbaba’s head,
Humbaba curses Enkidu, promising that he will find no
peace in the world and will die before his friend Gilgamesh.
In a gesture that clearly evokes the triumph of civilization
over nature, Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down the tallest of
the cedar trees to make a great cedar gate for the city of
Uruk.
At the center of the poem, in Tablet VI, Ishtar, goddess
of both love and war, offers to marry Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh
refuses, which unleashes Ishtar’s wrath. She sends the Bull
of Heaven to destroy them, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay
it instead (Reading 2.3c):
R EAD IN G 2 .3 c
from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VI
(late 2nd millennium bce)
A Woman Scorned
… When Gilgamesh placed his crown on his head, Princess
Ishtar raised her eyes to the beauty of G
ilgamesh.
“Come along, Gilgamesh, be you my husband,
to me grant your lusciousness.1
Be you my husband, and I will be your wife.
I will have harnessed for you a chariot of lapis
lazuli and gold,
with wheels of gold …
Bowed down beneath you will be kings, lords,
and princes.
The Lullubu people2 will bring you the produce of the
mountains and countryside as tribute.
Your she-goats will bear triplets, your ewes twins,
your donkey under burden will overtake the mule,
your steed at the chariot will be bristling to gallop,
your ox at the yoke will have no match.”
Gilgamesh addressed Princess Ishtar saying:
“Do you need oil or garments for your body?
Do you lack anything for food or drink?
I would gladly feed you food fit for a god,
I would gladly give you wine fit for a king …
[You are] a half-door that keeps out neither breeze nor
blast,
a palace that crushes down valiant warriors,
an elephant who devours its own covering,
pitch that blackens the hands of its bearer,
a waterskin that soaks its bearer through,
limestone that buckles out the stone wall,
a battering ram that attracts the enemy land,
a shoe that bites its owner’s feet!
Where are your bridegrooms that you keep forever? …
You loved the supremely mighty lion,
yet you dug for him seven and again seven pits.
You loved the stallion, famed in battle,
yet you ordained for him the whip, the goad,
and the lash,
Literally “fruit.”
The Lullubu were a wild mountain people living in the area of present-day
western Iran. The meaning is that even the wildest, least controllable of
peoples will recognize Gilgamesh’s rule and bring tribute.
ordained for him to gallop for seven and seven hours,
ordained for him drinking from muddied waters,3
you ordained for his mother Silili to wail continually.
You loved the Shepherd, the Master Herder,
who continually presented you with bread
baked in embers,
and who daily slaughtered for you a kid.
Yet you struck him, and turned him into a wolf,
so his own shepherds now chase him
and his own dogs snap at his shins.
You loved Ishullanu, your father’s date gardener,
who continually brought you baskets of dates,
and brightened your table daily.
You raised your eyes to him, and you went to him:
‘Oh my Ishullanu, let us taste of your strength,
stretch out your hand to me, and touch our “vulva.”’4
Ishullanu said to you:
‘Me? What is it you want from me? …’
As you listened to these his words
you struck him, turning him into a dwarf(?),5 …
And now me! It is me you love, and you will ordain for
me as for them!”
Her Fury
When Ishtar heard this
in a fury she went up to the heavens,
going to Anu, her father, and crying,
going to Antum, her mother, and weeping:
“Father, Gilgamesh has insulted me over and over,
Gilgamesh has recounted despicable deeds
about me,
despicable deeds and curses!”
Anu addressed Princess Ishtar, saying:
“What is the matter? Was it not you who provoked King
Gilgamesh?
So Gilgamesh recounted despicable deeds about you,
despicable deeds and curses!”
Ishtar spoke to her father, Anu, saying:
“Father, give me the Bull of Heaven,
so he can kill Gilgamesh in his dwelling.
If you do not give me the Bull of Heaven,
I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat
down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!”
Anu addressed Princess Ishtar, saying:
“If you demand the Bull of Heaven from me,
there will be seven years of empty husks for the land
of Uruk.
Have you collected grain for the people?
Have you made grasses grow for the animals?”
Ishtar addressed Anu, her father, saying:
“I have heaped grain in the granaries for the people,
I made grasses grow for the animals,
Horses put their front feet in the water when drinking, churning up mud.
This line probably contains a word play on hurdatu as “vulva” and “date palm,”
the latter being said (in another unrelated text) to be “like the vulva.”
5 Or “frog”?
1
3
2
4
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 49
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 49
19/11/2013 10:08
in order that they might eat in the seven years of empty
husks.
I have collected grain for the people,
I have made grasses grow for the animals. …”
When Anu heard her words,
he placed the nose-rope of the Bull of Heaven in her hand.
Ishtar led the Bull of Heaven down to the earth.
When it reached Uruk …
It climbed down to the Euphrates …
At the snort of the Bull of Heaven a huge pit opened up,
and 100 Young Men of Uruk fell in.
At his second snort a huge pit opened up,
and 200 Young Men of Uruk fell in.
At his third snort a huge pit opened up,
and Enkidu fell in up to his waist.
Then Enkidu jumped out and seized the Bull of Heaven by
its horns.
The Bull spewed his spittle in front of him,
with his thick tail he flung his dung behind him (?).
Enkidu addressed Gilgamesh, saying:
“My friend, we can be bold(?) …
Between the nape, the horns, and … thrust your
sword.”
Enkidu stalked and hunted down the Bull of Heaven.
He grasped it by the thick of its tail
and held onto it with both his hands (?),
while Gilgamesh, like an expert butcher,
boldly and surely approached the Bull of Heaven.
Between the nape, the horns, and … he thrust his sword.
…
Ishtar went up onto the top of the Wall of Uruk-Haven,
cast herself into the pose of mourning, and hurled her
woeful curse:
“Woe unto Gilgamesh who slandered me and killed the
Bull of Heaven!”
When Enkidu heard this pronouncement of Ishtar,
he wrenched off the Bull’s hindquarter and flung it in her
face:
“If I could only get at you I would do the same to you!
I would drape his innards over your arms!” …
Gilgamesh said to the palace retainers:
“Who is the bravest of the men?
Who is the boldest of the males?
—Gilgamesh is the bravest of the men,
the boldest of the males!
She at whom we flung the hindquarter of the Bull of
Heaven in anger,
Ishtar has no one that pleases her …”
R eading 2.3d
from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet X
(late 2nd millennium bce)
My friend … Enkidu, whom I love deeply, who went
through every hardship with me,
the fate of mankind has overtaken him.
Six days and seven nights I mourned over him
and would not allow him to be buried
until a maggot fell out of his nose.
I was terrified by his appearance,
I began to fear death, and so roam the wilderness.
The issue of Enkidu, my friend, oppresses me,
so I have been roaming long trails through the w
ilderness.
How can I stay silent, how can I be still?
My friend whom I love has turned to clay.
Am I not like him? Will I lie down, never to getup again?
Dismayed at the prospect of his own mortality, Gilgamesh embarks on a journey to find the secret of eternal
life from the only mortal known to have attained it, Utnapishtim, who tells him the story of the Great Flood. Several
elements of Utnapishtim’s story deserve explanation. First
of all, this is the earliest known version of the flood story
that occurs also in the Hebrew Bible, with Utnapishtim in
the role of the biblical Noah. The motif of a single man
and wife surviving a worldwide flood brought about by the
gods occurs in several Middle Eastern cultures, suggesting a
single origin or shared tradition. In the Sumerian version,
Ea (Enki) warns Utnapishtim of the flood by speaking to
the wall, thereby technically keeping the agreement among
the gods not to warn mortals of their upcoming disaster.
The passage in which Ea tells Utnapishtim how to explain
his actions to his people without revealing the secret of the
gods is one of extraordinary complexity and wit (Reading
2.3e). The word for “bread” is kukku, a pun on the word
for “darkness,” kukkû. Similarly, the word for “wheat,” kibtu,
also means “misfortune.” Thus, when Ea says, “He will let
loaves of bread shower down, / and in the evening a rain
of wheat,” he is also telling the truth: “He will let loaves
of darkness shower down, and in the evening a rain of
misfortune.”
R eading 2.3e
But Gilgamesh and Enkidu cannot avoid the wrath of
the gods altogether. One of them, the gods decide, must
die, and so Enkidu suffers a long, painful death, attended by
his friend, Gilgamesh, who is terrified (Reading 2.3d):
from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI
(late 2nd millennium bce)
Utnapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying:
“I will reveal to you, Gilgamesh, a thing that is hidden,
a secret of the gods I will tell you!
Shuruppak, a city that you surely know,
situated on the banks of the Euphrates,
that city was very old, and there were gods inside it.
The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the
Flood. …
50 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 50
19/11/2013 10:08
Ea, the Clever Prince, was under oath with them
so he repeated their talk to the reed house:
‘Reed house, reed house! Wall, wall!
Hear, O reed house! Understand, O wall!
O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu:
Tear down the house and build a boat!
Abandon wealth and seek living beings!
Spurn possessions and keep alive human beings!
Make all living beings go up into the boat.
The boat which you are to build,
its dimensions must measure equal to each other:
its length must correspond to its width,
Roof it over like the Apsu.’
I understood and spoke to my lord, Ea:
‘My lord, thus is your command.
I will heed and will do it.
But what shall I answer the city, the populace, and the
Elders?’
Ea spoke, commanding me, his servant:
‘… this is what you must say to them:
“It appears that Enlil is rejecting me
so I cannot reside in your city,
nor set foot on Enlil’s earth.
I will go … to live with my lord, Ea,
and upon you he will rain down abundance,
a profusion of fowls, myriad fishes.
He will bring you a harvest of wealth,
in the morning he will let loaves of bread shower down,
and in the evening a rain of wheat.”’ …
I butchered oxen for the meat(?),
and day upon day I slaughtered sheep.
I gave the workmen(?) ale, beer, oil, and wine, as if it were
river water,
so they could make a party like the New Year’s F
estival. …
The boat was finished. …
Whatever I had I loaded on it:
whatever silver I had I loaded on it,
whatever gold I had I loaded on it.
All the living beings that I had I loaded on it,
I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat,
all the beasts and animals of the field and the c raftsmen I
had go up. …
I watched the appearance of the weather—
the weather was frightful to behold!
I went into the boat and sealed the entry. …
Just as dawn began to glow
there arose on the horizon a black cloud.
Adad rumbled inside it. …
Stunned shock over Adad’s deeds overtook the h
eavens,
and turned to blackness all that had been light.
The … land shattered like a … pot.
All day long the South Wind blew …,
blowing fast, submerging the mountain in water,
overwhelming the people like an attack.
No one could see his fellow,
they could not recognize each other in the torrent.
The gods were frightened by the Flood,
and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu.
The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer
wall.
Ishtar shrieked like a woman in childbirth. …
Six days and seven nights
came the wind and flood, the storm flattening the land.
When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,
the flood was a war—struggling with itself like a woman
writhing (in labor).
The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind (and) flood stopped
up.
I looked around all day long—quiet had set in
and all the human beings had turned to clay!
The terrain was flat as a roof.
I opened a vent and fresh air (daylight?) fell upon the side
of my nose.
I fell to my knees and sat weeping,
tears streaming down the side of my nose.
I looked around for coastlines in the expanse of the sea,
and at twelve leagues there emerged a region (of land).
On Mt. Nimush the boat lodged firm,
Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing no sway.”
When the gods discover Utnapishtim alive, smelling his
incense offering, they are outraged. They did not want
a single living being to escape. But since he has, they
grant him immortality and allow him to live forever in
the F araway. As a reward for Gilgamesh’s own efforts,
Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh of a secret plant that will give
him perpetual youth. “I will eat it,” he tells the boatman
who is returning him home, “and I will return to what I
was in my youth.” But when they stop for the night, Gilgamesh decides to bathe in a cool pool, where the scent
of the plant attracts a snake who steals it away, an echo
of the biblical story of Adam and Eve, whose own immortality is stolen away by the wiles of a serpent—and their
own carelessness. Broken-hearted, Gilgamesh returns home
empty-handed.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the first known literary work
to confront the idea of death, which is, in many ways, the
very embodiment of the unknown. Although the hero
goes to the very ends of the earth in his quest, he ultimately leaves with nothing to show for his efforts except
an understanding of his own, very human, limitations. He
is the first hero in Western literature to yearn for what he
can never attain, to seek to understand what must always
remain a mystery. And, of course, until the death of his
friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh had seemed, in his self-confident
confrontation with Ishtar and in the defeat of the Bull of
Heaven, as near to a god as a mortal might be. In short, he
embodied the Mesopotamian hero-king. Even as the poem
asserts the hero-king’s divinity—Gilgamesh is, remember,
two parts god—it emphasizes his humanity and the mortality that accompanies it. By making literal the first words of
the Sumerian King List—“After the kingship had descended
from heaven”—the Epic of Gilgamesh acknowledges what
many Mesopotamian kings were unwilling to admit,
at least publicly: their own, very human, limitations,
and their own powerlessness in the face of the ultimate
unknown—death.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 51
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 51
19/11/2013 10:08
THE HEBREWS
What cultural traits distinguish the
Hebrews from other cultures in the
ancient Near East?
The Hebrews (from Habiru, “outcast” or “nomad”) were
a people forced out of their homeland in the Mesopotamian basin in about 2000 bce. According to their tradition, it was in the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
that God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
It was there that Noah survived the same great flood that
Utnapishtim survived in the Epic of Gilgamesh. And it
was out of there that Abraham of Ur led his people into
Canaan, in order to escape the warlike Akkadians and the
increasingly powerful Babylonians. There is no actual historical evidence to support these stories. We know them
only from the Hebrew Bible—a word that derives from the
Greek, biblia, “books”—a compilation of hymns, prophecies, and laws transcribed by its authors between 800 and
400 bce, some 1,000 years after the events the Hebrew
Bible describes. Although the archeological record in the
Near East confirms some of what these scribes and priests
wrote, especially about more contemporaneous events, the
stories themselves were edited and collated into the stories we know today. They recount the Assyrian conquest
of Israel, the Jews’ later exile to Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar
in 587 bce, and their eventual return to Jerusalem after the
Persians conquered the Babylonians in 538 bce. The stories
represent the Hebrews’ attempt to maintain their sense of
their own history and destiny. But it would be a mistake to
succumb to the temptation to read the Hebrew Bible as an
accurate account of the historical record. Like all ancient
histories, passed down orally through generation upon generation, it contains its fair share of mythologizing.
The Hebrews differed from other Near Eastern cultures in that their religion was monotheistic—they worshiped a single god, whereas others in the region tended
to have gods for their clans and cities, among other things.
According to Hebrew tradition, God made an agreement
with the Hebrews, first with Noah after the flood, later
renewed with Abraham and each of the subsequent patriarchs (scriptural fathers of the Hebrew people): “I am God
Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you. The land which I
gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will
give the land to your descendants after you” (Genesis 35:
11–12). In return for this promise, the Hebrews, the “chosen people,” agreed to obey God’s will. “Chosen people”
means that the Jews were chosen to set an example of a
higher moral standard (a light unto the nations), not chosen in the sense of favored, which is a common misunderstanding of the term.
Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible, tells the
story of the creation of the world out of a “formless void.”
It describes God’s creation of the world and all its creatures,
and his continuing interest in the workings of the world,
an interest that would lead, in the story of Noah, to God’s
near-destruction of all things. It also posits humankind as
easily tempted by evil. It documents the moment of the
introduction of sin (and shame) into the cosmos, associating these with the single characteristic separating humans
from animals—knowledge. And it shows, in the example of
Noah, the reward for having “walked with God,” the basis
of the covenant. (See Reading 2.4, pages 63–65, for two
selections from Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve and the
story of Noah.)
Moses and the Ten Commandments
The biblical story of Moses and the Ten Commandments
embodies the centrality of the written word to Jewish culture. The Hebrew Bible claims that in about 1600 bce,
drought forced the Hebrew people to leave Canaan for
Egypt, where they prospered until the Egyptians enslaved
them in about 1300 bce. Defying the rule of the pharaohs,
the Jewish patriarch Moses led his people out of Egypt.
According to tradition, Moses led the Jews across the Red
Sea (which miraculously parted to facilitate the escape) and
into the desert of the Sinai peninsula. (The story became
the basis for the book of Exodus.) Most likely, they crossed
a large tidal flat, called the Sea of Reeds; subsequently, that
body of water was misidentified as the Red Sea. Unable to
return to Canaan, which was now occupied by local tribes
of considerable military strength, the Jews settled in an arid
region of the Sinai desert near the Dead Sea for a period
of 40 years, which archeologists date to sometime between
1300 and 1150 bce.
In the Sinai desert, the Hebrews forged the principal
tenets of a new religion that would eventually be based on
the worship of a single god. There, too, the Hebrew god supposedly revealed a new name for himself—YHWH, a name
so sacred that it could neither be spoken nor written. The
name is not known and YHWH is a cipher for it. There
are, however, many other names for God in the Hebrew
Bible, among them Elohim, which is plural in Hebrew,
meaning “gods, deities”; Adonai (“Lord”); and El Shaddai,
literally “God of the fields” but usually translated “God
Almighty.” Some scholars believe that this demonstrates
the multiple authorship of the Bible. Others argue that the
Hebrews originally worshiped many gods, like other Near
Eastern peoples. Still other scholars suggest that God has
been given different names to reflect different aspects of his
divinity, or the different roles that he might assume—the
guardian of the flocks in the fields, or the powerful master of all. Translated into Latin as “Jehovah” in the Middle
Ages, the name is now rendered in English as “Yahweh.”
This God also gave Moses the Ten Commandments, carved
onto stone tablets, as recorded in Deuteronomy 5:6–21.
Subsequently, the Hebrews carried the commandments in
a sacred chest, called the Ark of the Covenant (Fig. 2.15),
which was lit by seven-branched candelabras known as
52 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 52
19/11/2013 10:08
Fig. 2.15 Menorahs and Ark of the Covenant, wall painting in a Jewish catacomb, Villa Torlonia,
Rome. 3rd century ce. 3'11" × 5'9". Two menorahs (seven-branched candelabras) flank each side of the Ark.
The menorah is considered a symbol of the nation of Israel and its mission to be “a light unto the nations”
(Isaiah 42:6). Instructions for making it are outlined in Exodus 25:31–40. Relatively little ancient Jewish art
remains. Most of it was destroyed as the Jewish people were conquered, persecuted, and exiled.
menorahs. The centrality to Hebrew culture of these written
words is even more apparent in the words of God that follow the commandments (Reading 2.4a):
R eading 2 .4 a
from the Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy 6:6–9
6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in
your heart.
7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when
you are at home and when you are away, when you lie
down and when you rise.
8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an
emblem on your forehead,
9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on
your gates.
Whenever the Hebrews talked, wherever they looked,
wherever they went, they focused on the commandments
of their God. Their monotheistic religion was thus also
an ethical and moral system derived from an omnipotent
God. The Ten Commandments were the centerpiece
of the Torah, or Law (literally “instructions”), consisting of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy. (Christians would later incorporate
these books into their Bible as the first five books of the
Old T
estament.) The Hebrews considered these five books
divinely inspired and attributed their original authorship to
Moses himself, although, as we have noted, the texts as we
know them were written much later.
The body of laws outlined in the Torah is quite different from the code of Hammurabi. The code was essentially
a list of punishments for offenses; it is not an ethical code
(see Fig. 2.11 and Reading 2.1). Hebraic and Mesopotamian laws are distinctly different. Perhaps because the
Hebrews were once themselves aliens and slaves, their law
treats the lowest members of society as human beings. As
Yahweh declares in Exodus 23:6: “You will not cheat the
poor among you of their rights at law.” At least under the
law, class d istinctions, with the exceptions of slaves, did
not exist in Hebrew society, and punishment was levied
equally. Above all else, rich and poor alike were united for
the common good in a common enterprise, to follow the
instructions for living as God provided.
After 40 years in the Sinai had passed, it is believed that
the patriarch Joshua led the Jews back to Canaan, the Promised Land, as Yahweh had pledged in the covenant. Over the
next 200 years, they gradually gained control of the region
through a protracted series of wars described in the books
of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings in the Bible, which
together make up a theological history of the early Jewish
peoples. The Jews named themselves the Israelites, after
Israel, the name that was given by God to Jacob. The nation
consisted of 12 tribes, each descending from one of Jacob’s
12 sons. By about 1000 bce, Saul had established himself
as King of Israel, followed by David, who as a boy rescued
the Israelites from the Philistines by killing the giant Goliath with a stone thrown from a sling, as described in First
Samuel, and later united Israel and Judah into a single state.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 53
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 53
19/11/2013 10:08
IC
IA
SYRIA
PH
OE
N
The United Monarchy
under David and Solomon,
c.1100 BCE
AR
AM
Sidon
HA
B
Damascus
Tyre
M e di te r ranean
ZO
ARAM
Sea of
Galilee
M
-DA
AS
CU
S
Samaria
Jordan
ISRAEL
Sea
AMMON
Jericho
PHILISTIA
Jerusalem
Gaza
Beer Sheeba
Dead
Sea
Although women were their husbands’ possessions, the
Hebrew Scriptures provide evidence that women may have
had greater influence in Hebrew society than this patriarchal structure would suggest. In one of the many texts later
incorporated into the Hebrew Bible and written during
Solomon’s reign, the “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s” (as Chapter 1, Verse 1 of this short book reads), the
woman’s voice is particularly strong. It is now agreed that
the book is not the work of Solomon himself, but rather a
work of secular poetry, probably written during his reign.
It is a love poem, a dialogue between a man (whose words
are reproduced here in regular type) and a younger female
lover, a Shulamite, or “daughter of Jerusalem” (whose voice
is in italics) (Reading 2.4b). This poem of sexual awakening takes place in a garden atmosphere reminiscent of Eden,
but there is no Original Sin here, only fulfillment:
MOAB
JUDAH
R eading 2.4b
from the Hebrew Bible, Song of Solomon
4:1–6, 7:13–14
EDOM
EGYPT
100 km
100 miles
Map 2.2 The United Monarchy of Israel under David and Solomon,
ca. 1100 bce.
Kings David and Solomon, and Hebrew Society
King David reigned until 961 bce. It was he who captured
Jerusalem from the Canaanites and made it the capital of
Israel (Map 2.2). As represented in the books of Samuel,
David is one of the most complex and interesting individuals in ancient literature. A poet and musician, he is author
of some of the Psalms. Although he was capable of the most
deceitful treachery—sending one of his soldiers, Uriah, to
certain death in battle so that he could marry his widow,
Bathsheba—he also suffered the greatest sorrow, being
forced to endure the betrayal and death of his son Absalom.
David was succeeded by his other son, Solomon, famous for
his fairness in meting out justice, who ruled until 933 bce.
Solomon undertook to complete the building campaign
begun by his father, and by the end of his reign, Jerusalem
was, by all reports, one of the most beautiful cities in the
Near East. A magnificent palace and, most especially, a
splendid temple dominated the city. First Kings claims that
Yahweh himself saw the temple and approved of it.
The rule of the Hebrew kings was based on the model
of the scriptural covenant between God and the Hebrews.
This covenant was the model for the relationship between
the king and his people. Each provided protection in return
for obedience and fidelity. The same relationship existed
between the family patriarch and his household. His wife
and children were his possessions, whom he protected in
return for their unerring faith in him.
The Song of Songs
(translated by Ariel and Chana Bloch)
How beautiful you are, my love,
My friend! The doves of your eyes
looking out
from the thicket of your hair.
Your hair
like a flock of goats
bounding down Mount Gilead. …
Your breasts are two fauns
twins of a gazelle,
grazing in a field of lilies.
An enclosed garden is my sister, my bride,
A hidden well, a sealed spring. …
Awake, north wind! O south wind, come,
breathe upon my garden,
let its spices stream out.
Let my lover come into his garden
and taste its delicious fruit. …
Let us go early to the vineyards
to see if the vine has budded,
if the blossoms have opened
and the pomegranate is in flower.
There I will give you my love …
rare fruit of every kind, my love,
I have stored away for you.
So vivid are the poem’s sexual metaphors that many
people have wondered how the poem found its way into
the Scriptures. But the Bible is frank enough about the
attractions of sex. Consider Psalms 30:18–19: “Three things
I marvel at, four I cannot fathom: the way of an eagle in
the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship in
the heart of the sea, the way of a man with a woman.” The
54 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 54
19/11/2013 10:08
Song of Songs is full of double-entendres, expressions that
can be understood in two ways, one of them often sexual
or risqué. Although the implications of such language are
almost unavoidable, embarrassed Christian interpreters of
the Bible for centuries worked hard to avoid the obvious
and assert a higher purpose for the poem, reading it, especially, as a description of the relation between Christ and
his “Bride,” the Church.
Generations of translators also sought to obscure the
powerful voice of the female protagonist in the poem by
presenting the young woman as chaste and submissive, but
of the two voices, hers is the more active and authoritative. In a world in which history is traced through the patriarchs, and genealogies are generally written in the form of
the father “begetting” his sons, the young woman asserts
herself here in a way that suggests that if in Hebrew society the records of lineage were in the hands of its men, the
traditions of love-making—and by extension, the ability to
propagate the lineage itself—were controlled by its women.
It is even possible that a woman composed all or large parts
of the poem, since women traditionally sang songs of victory and mourning in the Bible, and the daughters of Jerusalem actually function as a chorus in the poem, asking
questions of the Shulamite.
The Prophets and the Diaspora
After Solomon’s death, the United Monarchy of Israel split
into two separate states. To the north was Israel, with its
capital in Samaria, and to the south, Judah, with its capital
in Jerusalem. In this era of the two kingdoms, Hebrew culture was dominated by prophets, men who were prophetic
not in the sense of foretelling the future, but rather in the
sense of serving as mouthpieces and interpreters of Yahweh’s purposes, which they claimed to understand through
visions. The prophets instructed the people in the ways of
living according to the laws of the Torah, and they more
or less freely confronted anyone guilty of wrongful actions,
even the Hebrew kings. They attacked, particularly, the
wealthy Hebrews whose commercial ventures had brought
them unprecedented material comfort and who were
inclined to stray from monotheism and worship Canaanite fertility gods and goddesses. The moral laxity of these
wealthy Hebrews troubled the prophets, who urged the
Hebrew nation to reform spiritually.
In 722 bce, Assyrians attacked the northern kingdom
of Israel and scattered its people, who were thereafter
known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. The southern kingdom
of Judah survived another 140 years, until Nebuchadnezzar
and the Babylonians overwhelmed it in 587 bce, destroying the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem and deporting
the Hebrews to Babylon (Fig. 2.16). Not only had the
Hebrews lost their homeland and their temple, but the Ark
of the Covenant itself had also disappeared. For nearly 60
years, the Hebrews endured what is known as the Babylonian Captivity. As recorded in Psalm 137: “By the rivers of
Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion.”
Fig. 2.16 Exile of the Israelites, detail of a limestone relief from the palace of Sennacherib,
Nineveh, Assyria. Late 8th century bce. This relief shows a family of Israelites, their cattle yoked to a cart
carrying their household into exile after being defeated by the Assyrians in 722 bce. The relief seems to depict
three generations of a family: the father in front with the cattle, the son behind carrying baggage, the wife of
the father seated on the front of the cart, the son’s wife and children seated behind her.
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 55
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 55
19/11/2013 10:08
Finally, invading Persians, whom they believed had been
sent by Yahweh, freed them from the Babylonians in 520
bce. They returned to Judah, known now, for the first time,
as the Jews (after the name of their homeland). They rebuilt
a Second Temple of Jerusalem, with an empty chamber at
its center, meant for the Ark of the Covenant should it ever
return. And they welcomed back other Jews from around
the Mediterranean, including many whose families had
left the northern kingdom almost 200 years earlier. Many
others, however, were by now permanently settled elsewhere, and they became known as the Jews of the Diaspora,
or the “dispersion.”
Hebrew culture would have a profound impact on Western civilization. The Jews provided the essential ethical and
moral foundation for religion in the West, including Christianity and Islam, both of which incorporate Jewish teachings into their own thought and practice. In the Torah, we
find the basis of the law as we understand and practice it
today. So moving and universal are the stories recorded in
the Torah that over the centuries they have inspired—and
continue to inspire—countless works of art, music, and literature. Most important, the Hebrews introduced to the
world the concept of ethical monotheism, the idea that
there is only one God, and that God demands that humans
behave in a certain way, and rewards and punishes accordingly. Few, if any, concepts have had a more far-reaching
effect on history and culture.
THE LATE EMPIRES:
NEO-BABYLONIA AND PERSIA
How do the art and architecture of NeoBabylonia and Persia reflect the aspirations
of the two cultures?
As noted earlier in this chapter, the Assyrians had begun to
conquer neighboring peoples in about 1000 bce, and they
controlled most of Mesopotamia by the end of the ninth
century bce, eventually extending their dominance as far
west as the Nile Valley by the seventh century bce. The
Assyrians modeled a kind of military and cultural prowess
that others envied and aspired to attain. The most successful of these new imperial adventurers were the Babylonians
and the Persians.
Neo-Babylonia
From the eighth through the seventh century bce, Babylon fell in and out of Assyrian rule, until Nabopolassar
(r. 626–604 bce), the first king of Babylonia, defeated
the Assyrians, sacking Nineveh in 612 bce. The Assyrian
Empire collapsed completely in 609 bce. Nabopolassar was
followed by his son and heir, Nebuchadnezzar (r. 604–562
bce), who continued on with his father’s plan to restore
Babylon’s palace as the center of Mesopotamian civilization. It was here that the Hebrews lived in exile for nearly
Fig. 2.17 Reconstruction drawing of Babylon with the Processional
Way and the Ishtar Gate as it might have appeared in the 6th century
bce. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. In the
distance is the Marduk ziggurat, and between the ziggurat and the Ishtar
Gate are the famous Hanging Gardens in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II.
50 years (586–538 bce) after Nebuchadnezzar captured the
people of Jerusalem.
Nebuchadnezzar wished to remake Babylon as the most
remarkable and beautiful city in the world. It was laid out
on both sides of the Euphrates River, joined together by a
single bridge. Through the middle of the older, eastern sector, ran the Processional Way, an avenue also called “May
the Enemy Not Have Victory” (Fig. 2.17). It ran from the
Euphrates bridge eastward through the temple district, past
the Marduk ziggurat. (Many believe this ziggurat was the
legendary Tower of Babel, described in Genesis 11 as the
place where God, confronted with the prospect of “one
people … one language,” chose instead to “confuse the
language of all the earth,” and scatter people “abroad over
the face of the earth.”) Then it turned north, ending at the
Ishtar Gate (Fig. 2.18), the northern entrance to the city.
Processions honoring Marduk, the god celebrated above all
others in Babylonian lore and considered the founder of
Babylon itself, regularly filled the street, which was as much
as 65 feet wide at some points and paved with large stone
slabs. Marduk’s might is celebrated in the Hymn to Marduk
(Reading 2.5), found in Ashurbanipal’s library:
56 PART ONE The Ancient World and the Classical Past
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 56
19/11/2013 10:08
R EAD IN G 2 .5
from the Hymn to Marduk (1000–700
bce)
Lord Marduk, Supreme god, with unsurpassed
wisdom. …
When you leave for battle the Heavens shake,
when you raise your voice, the Sea is wild!
When you brandish your sword, the gods turn
back.
There is none who can resist your furious blow!
Terrifying lord, in the Assembly of the gods no
one equals you! …
Your weapons flare in the tempest!
Your flame annihilates the steepest mountain.
No trace survives of the city’s famous Hanging Gardens, once considered among the Seven Wonders of the
World, and only the base and parts of the lower stairs of
the Marduk ziggurat still remain. But in the fifth century
bce, the Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 484–430/420 bce)
described the ziggurat as follows:
There was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and
breadth, on which was raised a second tower, and on that a
third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the
outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. … On
the topmost tower, there is a spacious temple, and inside
the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned
with a golden table by its side. … They also declare that the
Fig. 2.18 Ishtar Gate (restored), from Babylon. ca. 575 bce. Glazed brick. Staatliche Museen, Berlin. The dark
blue bricks are glazed—that is, covered with a film of glass—and they would have shone brilliantly in the sun.
View the Closer Look for the Ishtar Gate on MyArtsLab
CHAPTER 2 The Ancient Near East 57
M02_P0030-0065_CH02.indd 57
19/11/2013 10:08
god comes down in person into this chamber, and sleeps on
the couch, but I do not believe it.
Although the ziggurat has disappeared, we can glean
some sense of the city’s magnificence from the Ishtar Gate,
named after the Babylonian goddess of fertility. Today, the
gate is restored and reconstructed inside one of the Berlin
State Museums. It was made of glazed and unglazed bricks,
and decorated with animal forms. The entire length of the
Processional Way was similarly decorated on both sides,
so the ensemble must have been a wondrous sight. The
gate’s striding lions are particularly interesting. They are
traditional symbols of Ishtar herself. Alternating with rows
of bulls with blue horns and tails, associated with deities
such as Adad, god of the weather, are fantastic dragons
with long necks, the forelegs of a lion, and the rear legs of
a bird of prey, an animal form sacred to the god Marduk.
Like so much other Mesopotamian art, it is at once a monument to the power of Nebuchadnezzar, an affirmation of his
close relation to the gods, and a testament to his kingdom’s
wealth and well-being.
The Persian Empire
In 520 bce, the Persians, formerly a minor nomadic tribe
that occupied the plateau of Iran, defeated the Babylonians
and freed the Jews. Their imperial adventuring had begun
in 559 bce with the ascension of Cyrus II (called the Great,
r. 559–530 bce), the first ruler of the Achaemenid dynasty,
named after Achaemenes, a warrior-king whom Persian
legend says ruled on the Iranian plateau around 700 bce.
By the time of Cyrus’s death, the Persians had taken
control of the Greek cities in Ionia on the west coast of
Anatolia. Under King Darius (r. 522–486 bce), they soon
ruled a vast empire that stretched from Egypt in the south,
around Asia Minor, to the Ukraine in the north. The
capital of the Empire was Parsa, which the Greeks called
Persepolis, or city of the Persians, located in the Zagros
highlands of present-day Iran (Fig. 2.19). Built by artisans and workers from all over the Persian Empire, including Greeks from Ionia, it reflected Darius’s multicultural
ambitions. If he was, as he said, “King of Kings, King of
countries, King of the earth,” his palace should reflect the
diversity of his peoples.
The columns reflect Egyptian influence, and, especially in their fluting, the vertical channels that exaggerate their height and lend them a feeling of lightness, they
reflect the influence of the Greeks (see Chapter 4). Rulers
are depicted in relief sculptures with Assyrian beards and
headdresses (Fig. 2.20). In typical Mesopotamian fashion,
they are larger than other people in the works. These decorations further reflect the Persians’ sense that all the peoples of the region owed them allegiance. The relief from
the stairway to the audience hall, where Darius and his son
Xerxes received visitors, is covered with images of their
subjects bringing gifts to the palace—23 subject nations
in all, including Ionian, Babylonian, Syrian, and Susian,
each culture recognizable by its beards and costumes.
Darius can be seen receiving tribute as Xerxes stands
Watch the video about Persepolis on MyArtsLab
The CONTINUING PRESENCE
of the PAST
See Marjane Satrapi,
page from the “Kim Wilde”
chapter of Persepolis, 2001,
at MyArtsLab
Fig. 2.19 Palace of Darius and Xerxes, Persepolis, Iran. 518–ca. 460 bce. The palace stands on a rock terrace 545 y...