Cows of Battle, Urinating Lions, and Frightened Falcons: Unexpected Metaphors in Sumerian Literary Compositions. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Cows of Battle, Urinating Lions, and Frightened Falcons
Researching Metaphor in the Ancient Near East, 2020
In this essay, we discuss the creative process involved in the organisation and sequencing of one of the Chapters of Šumma ālu, namely of the well-preserved T. 37, which contains ant omens. By especially focusing on the vertical structure of the apodoses, we work out that, while standard repetitive apodoses were used, these standard repetitive apodoses were arranged in a creative way, and the individual lines were carefully interlaced by numerous small-scale connections.
It is my genuine pleasure to dedicate this article to my dear colleague Hanns-Peter Schmidt. Among his many accomplishments as an Tndo-Iranist are his important studies of the Gathas of Zarathushtra, in which he shows a rare combination of meticulous textual investigation, judicious argumentation, and original, often bold, conclusions. My present study has its ultimate methodological underpinnings in some innovative observations which Professor Schmidt made concerning Gathic compositional techniques (discussed in my next paragraph) which I subsequently expanded and systematized. I shall here apply this theoretical development to prove an independent hypothesis, or cluster of hypotheses, which Prof. Schmidt has elaborated in several articles pertaining to bovine symbolism in the Gathas, views which have been controverted, especially by Helmut Humbach. For all these issues of composition and synthesis, my focal text will be Y(asna) 29, which is particularly full of difficult words and is in other ways as well probably the most mystifying text of the Gathas. The study of Y 29 will lead me to examine some remarkable features of other Gathic poems.
The images of the lion, the shepherd, along with the master of animals, though closely associated in the realm of sovereignty, have not been the object of what could be called an associative or interactive analysis. This contribution aims at revisiting these images, analyzing the sources in interaction, without excluding them and confronting them even to their contradiction. My analysis is based mainly on textual sources and should be further enriched by the study of iconographic sources. In the first part, I will review Assyrian royal inscriptions and their treatment of the figures of the lion and the shepherd. In the second part, Levantine sources will be examined and allow me to focus on the book of Amos in which a detailed analysis of the interactive metaphors of the lion and the shepherd will be proposed. A comparative conclusion will be drawn, and the fruits of this interactive analysis highlighted.
. Animal Similes in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions
Orientalia, 1977
A study of the animal similes used in the Assyrian royal inscriptions starting from Shalmeneser I (1274-45) till the time of Assurbanipal (668-27). These similes were used as literary devices to relate movements on and off the battlefield, to portray actions of the king, his army and his foes. The animals are classified according to the following categories: a) wild animals, b) domestic animals, c) birds, and d) insects, reptiles, and fish. The usage of these similes in context is studied and the symbolic significance for each animal is discussed. In analyzing the structure of these similes it is observed that certain animals usually appear together with certain verbs (e.g. “raging [nadāru] like a lion [labbu] or trampling [dâšu] like a wild bull [rēmu]). This finding can on occasion be helpful in translating difficult passages (so the simile kīma šūbe ušna’’il cannot be translated “I cut down like sheep,” rather “I cut down like emmer”). The similes occur in fixed patterns, using either a noun with the adverbial iš or āniš (e.g. labbiš “like a lion”) or a noun with the preposition kî or kīma (e.g kīma labbi “like a lion”). Animals occurring with iš endings immediately precede or follow verbs (e.g. asliš unakkis or unakkis asliš “I cut down like lambs”). Similes in kīma-clauses, which represent over 80% of the similes, occur in three syntactic patterns: a) kīma-clause, phrase, verb; b) phrase, kīma-clause, verb; and c) kīma-clause, verb, phrase. It is extremely rare for a kīma-clause to end a sentence. The relative consistency of these patterns can serve as a tool for textual interpretation, and examples are illustrated from the annals of Tiglath-Pileser I (1114-1076) and from the annals of Sennacherib (704-681).