Royal literary identity under the Sargonids and the Epic of Gilgameš
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21407871 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Johannes Bach (0000-0002-8872-9562, Department of Cultures Faculty of Arts University of Helsinki P.O. Box 4 (Fabianinkatu 24 A) FI-00014 Helsinki Finland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 318-338 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-09 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Die Welt des Orients (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-2547 • E-ISSN: 2196-9019 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.13109/wdor.2020.50.2.318 |
| OpenAlex | W3128792868 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
The high density of intertexts lifted from the epic of Gilgameš in the corpus of Sargonid royal narrative texts is unprecedented in Assyrian literary history Following Kenneth Gergen’s works on narrativity and identity building, this paper understands these programmatic innovations as deliberate attempts by the Sargonids to reformulate royal identity By employing a concise methodology for intertext analysis based on the works of Gérard Genette, this paper shows how two prominent Sargonid texts, the king’s report “Sargon’s Eight Campaign” (TCL 3) and the inscription Esh 1, have used allusion to the Gilgameš epic to inscribe the figure of the Assyrian king into a literary world similar that of the legendary king of Uruk This process peaks in a literary emulation of Assyrian kingship with the kingship of Gilgameš under Esarhaddon The paper closes with a short survey on other Gilgameš-related elements in Sargonid Assyria and some concluding thoughts on the “expansion of the narrative borders” of Assyrian royal identity
Aesthetics · Allusion · Art · Deuteronomist · EPIC · Identity (music) · Intertextuality · Literature · Monarchy · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Pseudonym · Theology · Ancient Near East History · Families in Therapy and Culture · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2024 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |