Tracking the Dragon across the Ancient Near East
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20321997 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert D Miller (0000-0002-8479-8819) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 82 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 437-458 |
| Publication date | 2014-09-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archiv orientální (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0044-8699 • E-ISSN: 2787-9461 |
| Publisher | Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER • CZ) |
| DOI | 10.47979/aror.j.82.2.437-458 |
| OpenAlex | W4321473068 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 12 |
Calvert Watkins definitively illustrated the connections between the Vedics laying of the dragon Vr̥tra by the thunder-god Indra and the storm-god dragon slaying myths of the both ancient Iran (Aži Dahāka) and Indo-European Hittites (Illuyanka). But there are actually two Hittite dragon-slaying myths – the other, Hurrian in origin, concerning the storm god Teshub – and the relationship between the two remains unclear. The Hurrian-Hittite myth clearly underlies the Canaanite storm-god dragon slaying, but the connection of the latter to an independent Semitic dragon-slaying myth is also unclear. Is there a separate Semitic myth at all, or does the dissemination of these mythological motifs all go back to Indo-European Hittites and Indo-Europeans among the Hurrians? And if there is a Semitic myth, did it disseminate from the Levant southeastward to Mesopotamia with the spread of the Amorites in the early 2nd millennium or was there an originally-Sumerian dragon-slaying myth already in Southern Mesopotamia? And what are we to do when specificmotifsoftheearliest Mesopotamian form reappear in the late Iranian Shahname? This essay tracks the dragon across the ancient Near East, as similar myths fed into each other, their elements interweaving and combining in new forms
Ancient history · Arabic · Archaeology · Hittite language · Honour · Linguistics · Mesopotamia · Middle East · Mythology · Semitic languages · Sumerian · Ancient Near East History · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy
How to Kill a Dragon
The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East
The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East
What Has Ugarit to Do with Jerusalem
Eastern Anatolia in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age
The Culture of North-East Anatolia and its Neighbours
The decipherment of Indus script
Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
Elamites and Kassites in the Persian Gulf
CT 13.33-34 and Ezekiel 32
Indo-Aryan Names from Mitanni, Nuzi, and Syrian Documents
The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2024 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |