Ea's duplicity in the Gilgamesh flood story. (2019)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: Martin Worthington.
• Authors: Worthington, Martin
• Contents: Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations PART 1 – Preliminaries 1 Introduction 1.1 Bitextuality 1.2 The Gilgameš Flood story 1.3 Other Mesopotamian Flood stories 1.4 Ea’s message 1.4.1 The manuscripts 1.4.2 Synoptic transliteration 1.4.3 Composite text and translation 1.5 The problems 1.6 Previous studies 1.6.1 Recovering (most of) the text: George Smith (1872) to Paul Haupt (1883) 1.6.2 An "infamous lie"? Peter Jensen (1890) and dissenters 1.6.3 Glimmers of puns: Ungnad (1911) etc. 1.6.4 The ‘bitextual’ pun of Frank (1925) 1.6.5 Early reception of Frank’s idea 1.6.6 Thompson (1930)’s reading ina še-er 1.6.7 The golden age of Frank’s bitextual pun 1.6.8 Exit puns: Von Soden (1955) to Millard (1987) 1.6.9 Re-enter puns: Dalley (1989) and others 1.6.10 Re-exit puns: George (2010) to the present 1.6.11 Summary 1.7 Outline of the argument 1.7.1 Angles not pursued 1.8 Audiences, internal and external 2 ‘Interrogating’ Babylonian narrative poetry 2.1 Is ‘interrogation’ appropriate? 2.1.1 Is the poem too ‘naïve’? 2.1.2 Is ‘interrogation’ precluded by accretion? 2.2 Modelling ancient interpretations 2.2.1 The elusiveness of native meta-discussions 2.2.2 Did they simply ‘know it all’? 2.2.3 Differences between ancient and modern interests 2.2.4 Glimpses of ancient interpretation 2.2.4.1 Commentaries on narrative poems 2.2.4.2 Commentaries mentioning narrative poems 2.2.4.3 Other commentaries 2.2.4.4 The ‘Marduk Ordeal’ 2.2.4.5 Colophons 2.2.4.6 Self-reflexive comments within poems 2.2.4.7 Adaptation 2.2.4.8 The ‘Catalogue of Texts and Authors’ 2.2.4.9 A personal response to the Flood story? 2.2.5 Summary: modelling ancient interpretations 2.3 Summary: ‘interrogating’ Babylonian narrative poetry 3 ‘Identifying’ puns 3.1 Are they ‘really there’? – author intention vs audience reception 3.2 Disadvantages of the exclusive focus on authorial intention 3.2.1 Cases where authorial intention is clear 3.2.2 Obstacles to identifying authorial intention 3.2.3 Rigidity 3.3 Alternatives to the emphasis on authorial intention 3.3.1 ‘Ironclad’ vs ‘potential’ puns 3.3.2 A ‘high-potential’ bitextual pun in OB Atra–hasīs 3.4 Puns and pronunciation 3.5 Summary 4 The high concentration of puns in the Gilgameš Flood story PART 2 – Dissecting Ea’s message 5 The lines about the Flood hero 6 Raining ‘plenty’: ušaznanakkunūši nuhšam-ma 6.1 The positive sense 6.2 The negative sense 6.3 The subject of ušaznanakkunūši 6.3.1 Enlil as instigator of the Flood 6.3.2 Exit Šamaš 7 The birds: [hiṣib] iṣṣūrāti 7.1 The restoration ‘hi-ṣib’ 7.2 The positive sense 7.3 The negative sense 7.3.1 The verb vs the noun 7.3.2 ‘Cutting off’, literal and metaphorical 7.3.3 The spheres of use attested for haṣābu 7.4 An Ur–Namma passage 7.5 Summary 8 The fish: puzur nūnī 8.1 What is puzur? 8.2 The positive sense 8.2.1 The associations of ‘covering’ 8.2.2 Fish as comestibles 8.3 The negative sense 8.3.1 Fish-like sages, Assyrian vs Babylonian 8.4 Summary 9 The harvest: [...] mešrâ ebūram-ma 9.1 The positive sense 9.2 The negative sense 9.3 Summary 10 ‘Cakes at dawn’: ina šēr(-)kukkī 10.1 The positive sense 10.1.1 kukku ‘bread, cake’ 10.2 The negative sense involving darkness 10.2.1 kukkû ‘darkness’ 10.2.2 The relevance of darkness to Ea’s message 10.3 The negative sense involving incantations 10.3.1 The morphological problem 10.3.1.1 Case endings on manuscript W 10.3.1.2 Case endings on manuscript c 10.3.1.3 Why is the genitive ending absent? 10.3.2 šerkukku as a by-form of šerkugû 10.3.3 The meanings of šerkugû / šerkukku 10.4 Summary 11 ‘In the evening’: ina līlâti 11.1 The positive sense 11.2 The negative sense involving darkness 11.3 The negative sense involving líl-demonesses 11.4 Summary 12 The ‘rain of wheat’: šamût kibāti 12.1 An incantation-like rhyme? 12.2 The positive sense 12.3 The negative sense of ‘a wheat-like rain’ 12.4 Negative senses involving death 12.4.1 Killing wheat 12.4.2 Wheat stalks symbolising human lives 12.5 Summary 13 Recapitulation 13.1 The message’s various senses 13.2 How alike were the different versions pronounced? 13.3 Why multiple negative meanings? 13.4 The change of meaning with repetition 13.4.1 Did a rain of wheat actually happen? 13.4.2 Who utters 87-88 and 91? 13.4.3 How ‘fairly’ were the people of Šuruppak tricked? 14 Issues of textual history 14.1 When was the bitextual message created? 14.1.1 An Assyrian creation? 14.2 Questions of circulation and diffusion 14.3 How easily would readers have realised the ambiguity? 14.4 Questions of stability 15 Meaning and performance PART 3 – Conspicuous silences in the Gilgameš Flood story 16 Outlining the problems 17 Does Atra–hasīs ‘fill in the gaps’? 17.1 Epistemic competition 17.2 What does Gilgameš know about the Flood? 17.2.1 From the outset to Tablet IX 17.2.2 Tablet X 17.2.3 Tablet XI 17.3 Summary: does Atra–hasīs ‘fill in the gaps’? 18 Communications between Ea and the Flood hero 18.1 The command to build the Ark 18.1.1 Text of the command 18.1.2 How did Ea choose the Flood Hero? 18.1.3 The puzzle of multiple addressees 18.1.4 Why demolish the house? 18.1.5 A link to a Sumerian poem 18.1.6 Summary 18.2 The Flood hero’s reply 18.2.1 What is he concerned about? 18.2.2 Who are ‘the city, the ummānu and the elders’? 18.2.2.1 The ālu 18.2.2.2 The ummānu (or ummânu) 18.2.2.3 The šībūtu 18.2.2.4 Mesopotamian ‘city assemblies’ 18.2.2.4.1 The third millennium 18.2.2.4.2 The first half of the second millennium 18.2.2.4.3 The later second millennium 18.2.2.4.4 The first millennium 18.2.2.4.5 The Assyrian ‘City Hall’ 18.2.2.5 Summary: kī lūpul ālu ummānu u šībūtu 18.2.3 Was a dream involved? 18.3 Ea’s message – from Ea to the Flood hero 19 Communication between the Flood hero and the people of Šuruppak 19.1 How and to whom did the Flood hero relay Ea’s message? 19.2 How did the people of Šuruppak react to Ea’s message? 19.2.1 Cross-checking divinatory information 19.2.2 Scepticism about diviners 19.2.3 Summary: how did the people of Šuruppak react to Ea’s message? 19.3 What about the other gods? 19.4 How easily might the people have realised the message’s ambivalence? 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• Edition: 1st
• Publisher Details: London : Routledge
• Publication Date: 2019
• Extent: 1 online resource
• Subjects: 892.1; Epic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian -- History and criticism; Deluge in literature; Plays on words
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9780429754500; 9780429754517; 9780429754494; 9780429424274
• Related ISBNs: 9781138388925
• Notes: Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Note: Description based on CIP data; resource not viewed.
• Access Rights: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).
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