Babylon in European Thought
Dec 14, 2008 16:24:24 GMT -5
Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Dec 14, 2008 16:24:24 GMT -5
Thread Orientation - taking notes from an interesting CANE article and the history of Western thought on Mesopotamia.
Sasson's CANE series (Civilizations in the Ancient Near East) is a massive 4 volume survey of essential Egyptian, Hebrew and Mesopotamian studies. I have often taken a volume home to look over some of the most interesting articles, and this week I am interested the numerous studies dedicated to exploring the influence of the ANE on the thinking of later cultures, and today I'm looking at the article Babylon in European Thought by John M. Lundquist.
By way of introduction, Lundquist explains there has never been exactly a "Babylonianmania" in the west, or something like the effect Egypt has had, and this he explains is for fairly obvious reasons: the survival of quite distinctive and influential Egyptian architecture for one (the Romans transports numerous Egyptian Obelisks to Rome, some of which contained hieroglyphics, and so the Egyptian mystique in this way (and others) was firmly implanted in the west.) The ruin mounds of Mesopotamia presented a different prospect to the European traveler however: mounds which were covered with sand or had had their bricks removed by local villagers.
In the below I take some notes from this article and I think the author has done a good job - there is some here for the Antiquarian and the ANE enthusiast.
p. 67/
- In classical Greece, Herodotus, Diodorus, Siculus and Strabo at various points visited Babylonian ruin mounds and described them.
- Alexander the Great called for excavations and restorations of the Marduk temple and ziggurat, but these were not completed.
- [url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults.jsp?q=Babylon
]http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults.jsp?q=Babylon
p. 67[/url]
- Despite many visits by medieval and Renaissance travelers, ideas of Ancient Babylon remained unauthentic and reliant on Biblical accounts until the era of cuneiform decipherment.
p. 69/
- Pietro della Valle first to report accurate descriptions of the site of Babylon in 1616, he also brought back inscribed cylinder seals.
p. 70/
Engelbert Kampfer transcribed an inscription in Persepolis in 1686 and suggested the name "cuneiform".
p. 70/
- Georg Grotefend used copies of Old Persian inscriptions made by Casten Neibuhr to decipher cuneiform in 1802-1803 (these text were bilingual having Old Persian and Cuneiform side by side.)
- See the below book by Grotefend, interesting is p.32:
www.archive.org/stream/erluterungderke00grotgoog
p. 70/
I am interested in Vienna and it's intellectual culture and should check on an early Viennese Oriental Journal named "Fundgruben des Orients", six volumes were published 1809-1818
p. 72/
The author explains that the tale One Thousand and One Nights was "imbued with Babylonian (and generally Near Eastern) customs, character types and myths."
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8655
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8656
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8657
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8658
p. 72/
Voltaire wrote "Zadig" and "La Princess de Babylon" , satires which criticize contemporary politics through the veil of Babylonized story, however the resemblance to ancient Babylon is superficial.
p. 72/
Byron wrote "Hebrew Melodoinses" in 1815 - among these was the poem "Vision of Bshazzer" and later his Sardanopaulus followed it. The main character is based on Diodorus Siculus (a Greek explorer to Babylonian ruins mentioned earlier.)
p. 73/
Josephin Peladen - because he strikes me as a sort of Lovecraft forerunner when it comes to applying occult theories to Assyriological material... and more interestingly, his particular blend of "eclecticism" (Grail legend, Wagnerian mythology and ancient oriental traditions) might be a forerunner to all the Da Vinci code and Rosicrucianism popular "history" out there - thus in him we have some explanation perhaps.. I have quoted the author's entire comment here:
"Mention should be made here of an extraordinary figure, little remembered today, who made a significant impact on French cultural life at the end of the nineteenth century, and who incorporated information from archaeological and epigraphic discoveries in Mesopotamia into his literary and art-historical works: Josephin Peladan. People like Peladan lived at an important juncture in the use of the Near East- still heavily dependent on classical and biblical sources, but beginning to use actual epigraphic and archaeological gains. Nevertheless, it is the exoticism of the Orient that still dominates in their work.
Peladan was a very picturesque, eccentric and bizarre figure, who achieved fame as a dramatist, writing and staging quasi-Wagnerian dramas in the 1890s, an intellectual who traveled the circles of Gustave Moreau and J. K Huysmans. An antimodernist mystic, Pedladan fashioned an occult philosophy out of the Grail Legend, Wagnerian mythology, and the ancient oriental traditions, This eclecticism, in addition to his grandiose dramas, brought upon him mock and ridicule. Peladan is still widely known in Rosicrucian circles, particularly in Europe. Moreover, his influence during his lifetime on the French Symbolist theater, as well as his influence on the Surrealists, is being reexamined. His impact on both these movements is now seen to have been much greater than was previously realized.
His drama Babylone (1895) was praised by Sarah Bernhardt at the opening of the performance; it has characters named Le Sar Merodack, Sinnikirib, and L`Archimage (who was one of Peladan's avatars.) The play Le Fils des etoiles (1894) featured characters of Semiramis (1903-1905) including Naram-Sin, Ourkam, and Zakir-Iddin, along with the title role. Peladan styled himself Sar (presumably from the Akkadian sharru "king") Meodack (after the Babylonian god Marduk). He studied Mesopotamian artifacts in the Louvre, read the Assyriological literature, and interpreted the discoveries in the light of his astrological and cabalistic theories.
p. 74/
Babylonian themes on 11th cen. Romanesque Churches??
Lundquist explains that in considering the (somewhat limited) architectural influence of Mesopotamian on the West, there can be discerned a strange route of transmission:
"motifs [were transferred] through Islamic textiles that had picked up motifs from Sasanian art, which had revived Sumero-Babylonian originals. Te Romanesque sculptors received these influences from Byzantium and Syria and retranslated the designs from the flat textiles back into sculptural relief."
So we have Sumero-Babylonian reliefs - to Sasanian art - to Islamic textiles (flat) - back to relief again when Romanesque sculptors were apparently inspired by Islamic textiles. And so we have according to the author, examples like the Saint Pierre Church in Aulnay (see wiki here). Below are some Oriental influence reliefs from that 11th cen. Church:
-- Thanks to Sheshki for these images - -
Here on left we see what the author says is an eagle grasping two lions - similar in form to the Anzu grasping two stags. In the middle
is ostensibly a biblical scene but coincidently or not also resembles a Mesopotamian wrestling motif.
___________________________
Here another motif at the church is a human head bull - reminiscent of the Assyrian Lamassu.
______________________________
While possible not quite an Anzu (lion headed bird, we have here a human headed bird.
________________________________
Finally, this mule would seem to be playing a harp shaped much like those seen on the Standard of Ur - this could be like harps of the 11th century on the other hand. But a resemble anyway.
p. 76/
Johann Bernhardt Fischer von Erlach was a great Austrian baroque architect, who built the Schonbrunn Castle of the Habsburg monarchy - he also had an interest in ancient architecture and studied the works of classical authors in order to produce his own drawings of the ancient cities. His 1721 work Entwurff einer historischen Architextur included his excellent depiction of Babylon:
von Erich's edition of Babylon
p. 76/
Some European Painters who depicted Mesopotamia (though usually inaccurately):
- John Martin (paintings are named: Belshazzar's Feast, Fall of Niniveh, Fall of Babylon)
- Eugene Delacroix (Death of Sardanapalus)
- J. M. W Turner
- Gustave Courbet (Atelier of the Painter, The Meeting)
____________________________________
notes from CANE vol. I
Babylon in European Thought
by John M. Lundquist
_________________________
Sasson's CANE series (Civilizations in the Ancient Near East) is a massive 4 volume survey of essential Egyptian, Hebrew and Mesopotamian studies. I have often taken a volume home to look over some of the most interesting articles, and this week I am interested the numerous studies dedicated to exploring the influence of the ANE on the thinking of later cultures, and today I'm looking at the article Babylon in European Thought by John M. Lundquist.
By way of introduction, Lundquist explains there has never been exactly a "Babylonianmania" in the west, or something like the effect Egypt has had, and this he explains is for fairly obvious reasons: the survival of quite distinctive and influential Egyptian architecture for one (the Romans transports numerous Egyptian Obelisks to Rome, some of which contained hieroglyphics, and so the Egyptian mystique in this way (and others) was firmly implanted in the west.) The ruin mounds of Mesopotamia presented a different prospect to the European traveler however: mounds which were covered with sand or had had their bricks removed by local villagers.
In the below I take some notes from this article and I think the author has done a good job - there is some here for the Antiquarian and the ANE enthusiast.
p. 67/
- In classical Greece, Herodotus, Diodorus, Siculus and Strabo at various points visited Babylonian ruin mounds and described them.
- Alexander the Great called for excavations and restorations of the Marduk temple and ziggurat, but these were not completed.
- [url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults.jsp?q=Babylon
]http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults.jsp?q=Babylon
p. 67
- Despite many visits by medieval and Renaissance travelers, ideas of Ancient Babylon remained unauthentic and reliant on Biblical accounts until the era of cuneiform decipherment.
p. 69/
- Pietro della Valle first to report accurate descriptions of the site of Babylon in 1616, he also brought back inscribed cylinder seals.
p. 70/
Engelbert Kampfer transcribed an inscription in Persepolis in 1686 and suggested the name "cuneiform".
p. 70/
- Georg Grotefend used copies of Old Persian inscriptions made by Casten Neibuhr to decipher cuneiform in 1802-1803 (these text were bilingual having Old Persian and Cuneiform side by side.)
- See the below book by Grotefend, interesting is p.32:
www.archive.org/stream/erluterungderke00grotgoog
p. 70/
I am interested in Vienna and it's intellectual culture and should check on an early Viennese Oriental Journal named "Fundgruben des Orients", six volumes were published 1809-1818
p. 72/
The author explains that the tale One Thousand and One Nights was "imbued with Babylonian (and generally Near Eastern) customs, character types and myths."
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8655
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8656
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8657
- www.gutenberg.org/etext/8658
p. 72/
Voltaire wrote "Zadig" and "La Princess de Babylon" , satires which criticize contemporary politics through the veil of Babylonized story, however the resemblance to ancient Babylon is superficial.
p. 72/
Byron wrote "Hebrew Melodoinses" in 1815 - among these was the poem "Vision of Bshazzer" and later his Sardanopaulus followed it. The main character is based on Diodorus Siculus (a Greek explorer to Babylonian ruins mentioned earlier.)
p. 73/
Josephin Peladen - because he strikes me as a sort of Lovecraft forerunner when it comes to applying occult theories to Assyriological material... and more interestingly, his particular blend of "eclecticism" (Grail legend, Wagnerian mythology and ancient oriental traditions) might be a forerunner to all the Da Vinci code and Rosicrucianism popular "history" out there - thus in him we have some explanation perhaps.. I have quoted the author's entire comment here:
"Mention should be made here of an extraordinary figure, little remembered today, who made a significant impact on French cultural life at the end of the nineteenth century, and who incorporated information from archaeological and epigraphic discoveries in Mesopotamia into his literary and art-historical works: Josephin Peladan. People like Peladan lived at an important juncture in the use of the Near East- still heavily dependent on classical and biblical sources, but beginning to use actual epigraphic and archaeological gains. Nevertheless, it is the exoticism of the Orient that still dominates in their work.
Peladan was a very picturesque, eccentric and bizarre figure, who achieved fame as a dramatist, writing and staging quasi-Wagnerian dramas in the 1890s, an intellectual who traveled the circles of Gustave Moreau and J. K Huysmans. An antimodernist mystic, Pedladan fashioned an occult philosophy out of the Grail Legend, Wagnerian mythology, and the ancient oriental traditions, This eclecticism, in addition to his grandiose dramas, brought upon him mock and ridicule. Peladan is still widely known in Rosicrucian circles, particularly in Europe. Moreover, his influence during his lifetime on the French Symbolist theater, as well as his influence on the Surrealists, is being reexamined. His impact on both these movements is now seen to have been much greater than was previously realized.
His drama Babylone (1895) was praised by Sarah Bernhardt at the opening of the performance; it has characters named Le Sar Merodack, Sinnikirib, and L`Archimage (who was one of Peladan's avatars.) The play Le Fils des etoiles (1894) featured characters of Semiramis (1903-1905) including Naram-Sin, Ourkam, and Zakir-Iddin, along with the title role. Peladan styled himself Sar (presumably from the Akkadian sharru "king") Meodack (after the Babylonian god Marduk). He studied Mesopotamian artifacts in the Louvre, read the Assyriological literature, and interpreted the discoveries in the light of his astrological and cabalistic theories.
p. 74/
Babylonian themes on 11th cen. Romanesque Churches??
Lundquist explains that in considering the (somewhat limited) architectural influence of Mesopotamian on the West, there can be discerned a strange route of transmission:
"motifs [were transferred] through Islamic textiles that had picked up motifs from Sasanian art, which had revived Sumero-Babylonian originals. Te Romanesque sculptors received these influences from Byzantium and Syria and retranslated the designs from the flat textiles back into sculptural relief."
So we have Sumero-Babylonian reliefs - to Sasanian art - to Islamic textiles (flat) - back to relief again when Romanesque sculptors were apparently inspired by Islamic textiles. And so we have according to the author, examples like the Saint Pierre Church in Aulnay (see wiki here). Below are some Oriental influence reliefs from that 11th cen. Church:
-- Thanks to Sheshki for these images - -
Here on left we see what the author says is an eagle grasping two lions - similar in form to the Anzu grasping two stags. In the middle
is ostensibly a biblical scene but coincidently or not also resembles a Mesopotamian wrestling motif.
___________________________
Here another motif at the church is a human head bull - reminiscent of the Assyrian Lamassu.
______________________________
While possible not quite an Anzu (lion headed bird, we have here a human headed bird.
________________________________
Finally, this mule would seem to be playing a harp shaped much like those seen on the Standard of Ur - this could be like harps of the 11th century on the other hand. But a resemble anyway.
p. 76/
Johann Bernhardt Fischer von Erlach was a great Austrian baroque architect, who built the Schonbrunn Castle of the Habsburg monarchy - he also had an interest in ancient architecture and studied the works of classical authors in order to produce his own drawings of the ancient cities. His 1721 work Entwurff einer historischen Architextur included his excellent depiction of Babylon:
von Erich's edition of Babylon
p. 76/
Some European Painters who depicted Mesopotamia (though usually inaccurately):
- John Martin (paintings are named: Belshazzar's Feast, Fall of Niniveh, Fall of Babylon)
- Eugene Delacroix (Death of Sardanapalus)
- J. M. W Turner
- Gustave Courbet (Atelier of the Painter, The Meeting)
