Greek Religion and the ANE
May 3, 2009 16:32:11 GMT -5
Post by us4-he2-gal2 on May 3, 2009 16:32:11 GMT -5
Thread Orientation: A summary of brief comparison
As I've mentioned to some of you, I am doing a small course in Greek Religion this Summer, and as part of the reading I am doing leading up to that I have borrowed a book from the library entitled "A Companion to Greek Religion" (third edition). The first segment of this volume has turned out to be an article by Scott Noegel which is of high interest to me - the comparison between Greek and Ancient Near Eastern religion. I will therefore take notes on this thread in the hopes this will start a good dialog on the influence the ANE had on the Greeks, who I have usually neglected in times past.
Noegel begins by noting some things that both ANE religion, and religion of the Aegean seem to have in common:
The author relates that Classicists have found the ANE the most likely source especially for "certain purification rituals, the sacrificial use of scapegoats, and foundation deposit - to name just a few." However the author stresses that the long road leading to comparison is by no means simple of straightforward. Comparison between east and west had for decades been underplayed by scholars, the majority of whom favored Greece as the apparent mecca of civilization; now a shift has occurred and there is general consensus that "some" influence did occur from the east - however, this new consensus is fraught with difficulties and disagreements with some even questioning the concept of influence itself (how could such occur in a world of "constant mutual exchange?"). Even so, Noegel retreats from this entanglement for the purpose of writing his introduction, and focuses his discussion on 4 points of comparison.
1) Myths, Rituals and Cults
Noebel explains that the ancient world was "highly cosmopolitan" "interactive" and "multilingual" with all sorts of intellectual trade going on, for an example he cites the cuneiform tablets found in Amarna, Egypt, which informed the Egyptians of Adapa, Nergal and Ereshkigal. Interestingly, and I didn't know this, he remarks on Mesopotamian cylinder seals that were found in Thebes, which demonstrate the ancient Greeks contact with Mesopotamia.
The author explains that studies to date now refer to an ancient literary circle of sorts, comprising epics from Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syro-Canaan and Egypt which is sometimes referred to as the "Asiatic mythological koine" - this body of literature is now generally seen to have had an influence on the Aegean literature of the Bronze and Iron ages, particularly that of Heisod and Homer, although it is admitted that it is generally to track the process of a strain of epic literature with any precision - for example the exact course of the story of the deluge, which culture after culture adopted (beginning with the Sumerians).
An interesting point comes when Noegel discusses specifically Mesopotamian Influences:
"Mesopotamian myths also have provided a number of conspicuous parallels. Some of the closest have been those that connect Hesiod's Theogony and the Babylonian creation story Enuma Elish. Both texts, for example, describe how the commingling of the Sky and the Earth resulted in the birth of the gods. Other close parallels include those that link portions of the Iliad and the Odyssey with the Atrahasis epic and the epic of Gilgamesh (Abusch 2001; Burkert 1991, 1992-88-93m 2005a); Rollinger 1996; West 1997). Well-known examples of the latter include the similarities between Achilles' speech to his dead friend Patroclus and Gilgamesh's speech to his deceased comrade Enkidu. Also remarkable are parallels that connect the account of Gilgamesh's refusal of Ishtar's sexual advances to Homer's treatment of Aphrodite and Anchises. The evidence for literary borrowing that these motifs and thematic parallels provide, and there are many more than can be elaborated upon here, is bolstered by additional similarities in style and compositional structure (Morris 1997). There can no longer be any doubt that at least some of these parallels are the result of contact with the Near East."
A difference lies in Scholars perception of the relation between myth and ritual in the two civilizations; while they believe myth was more closely relate to ritual in Mesopotamia (i.e. as when the Enuma Elish was recited at new year, or how myth sometimes serve emphasize the cosmological importance of ritual events), this significance seemed altogether absent in myth from the Aegean "Homer's treatment of ritual seemed generalized."
2) The Vehicles of Culture Transmission
Noegel begins here by recognizing that the Minoan civilization played a formative role in shaping the culture that would become Mycenaean Greece - interestingly, he relate that the Minoan's themselves were in turn influenced by Egypt, and with contacts from the Eastern Mediterranean (including Mesopotamia). He does stress however that Minoan Crete was by no means a "carbon copy" of Near Eastern politics; it was by all measures a culture unto its own, though of course, one that received and returned influence.
Sea Lanes/
The author discusses how sea trade in the Mediterranean was a prime opportunity for the exporting of religion; Mycenaean wares have been found Ugarit, in Syro-Canaan, a region that facilitated trade all over the Mediterranean with goods originating from Egypt and Mesopotamia, and to Cyprus, the Levant and the Aegean. Cyprus is another hotspot, and there is evidence for "Hittites, Semites, Hurrians, Egyptians and Aegean peoples" all living on that island. The well known Phoenician trading cities Tyre, Sidon and Byblos had very extensive contacts with Aegean centers, and their religion was exported as inscriptions devoted to Astarte found in Spain and Cypress testify. "The sum total of evidence makes it clear that the Bronze Age Mediterranean was far more interactive than is often portrayed in textbooks."
Intercultural Festivals/
Noegel hits on a particularly interesting point here: "Religious festivals, known especially in Anatolia, also provided opportunities for contact between Hurrian, Hittite, and Aegean bards, performers, and cultic personnel (Bachvarova forthcoming.) Such festivals accompanied the transport of divine statues from on region to another. The two bronze "smiting gods" found at the Mycenaean site of Phylakopi on Melos may be placed into this context. The Mycenaeans also imported an Anatolian goddess, whom they called "Potnia Aswiya." Evidence suggests that her cultic officials and rituals accompanied her (Bachvarova forthcoming; Morris 2001). Though Hittite religion appears to have synthesized Hattic and Hurrian traditions (McMahon 1995:1983), it must be kept in mind that scribes who wrote Akkadian had long lived at Hattusha and had promoted Mesopotamian learning there (Beckman 1983). Since Akkadian education consisted of learning the epic religious texts, we may see Anatolia as a conduit for the westward movement of Mesopotamian religious ideas as well."
The Assyrians/
Between 744 and 727 BC, the Assyrian king Tilglath-Pilesar III expanded northward taking the kingdom of Urartu which gave him control of Byblos and Tyre. These accusations soon obliged the Assyrian king to defend his new territory from attacks from what the native Syrians called the "Ionians" (peoples of Euboea, Athens, Samos and Naxos). Tilglath-Pilesar's successors would also gain control of Hittite city states, and in the 7th century King Sennacherib defeated the Ionians in a "decisive naval battle." Afterwards however, Sennacherib undertook to maximize foreign trade with the Aegean and the author relates that Berossus told of how Sennacherib sent bronze statues inscribed with his achievements to be placed in a specially constructed temple in Athens - though this have never been found, Mesopotamian bronze statues have been found in temples in Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Rhodes and Samoes, which supports that claim.
Assurbanipal, Magic and Cult/
With Assurbanipal, the discussion gets even more interesting: "A little more then a generation after Sennacherib, when the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669-627) allied with Lydia against the Cimmerians, he protected his ambitions in the region by maintaining the royal road connecting Nineveh to Sardis. This road provided the Assyrian court with a direct conduit to channel its political, military and cultural influences to western Anatolia, and by extension to the coastal states of Ionia. It is into this context of exchange between royal courts that some scholars place the influence of Akkadian religious literature upon the Homeric epics.
Other scholars credit peripatetic Near Eastern artisans (Gordon 1956), seers, and purification priests (Burkert 1992) with disseminating their scared, "magical," and medical traditions (Thomas 2004) (and cite Homeric references to itinerant seers and bards in support, e.g. Odyssey 17.383-5). Thus, it is during this period of increased access (ca. the eighth to seventh centuries BC) that the Mesopotamian deities gallu and Lamashtu were introduced to the Greek speaking world, becoming the demons Gallo and Lamia (West 1991). Images of Gilgamesh and Enkidu slaying Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest, similarly began to inspire depictions of Perseus killing the Gorgon. Apotropaic masks of Humbaba's frightening face also appear in Aegean domestic settings at this time (Faraone 1992). The Aegean practice of extispicy, along with that of augury from birds, lecanomancy, and certain "magical" practices all appear to have been imported from the Near East during this period (Burkert 1992:41-52; Dalley and Reyes 1998a:100-1; Faraone 1993, 1995, 2002). The existence of migrant seers and bards may provide a background for understanding the etymological connection between the Greek word temenos "sacred precinct" and the Akkadian temmenu "boundary marker, foundation deposit, temple platform" (West 1997:36). It also allows us to understand why many Greek musical instruments, as well as so called "Pthyagorean" system of tuning, have Mesopotamian origins (Yamauchi 1967). Nevertheless, it is probably that such figures had enjoyed a great deal of influence already in the Bronze Age (Bachvarova forthcoming).
Noegel further notes the worship of Hera at Samos had distinctly Mesopotamian influence, though for unknown reasons. There were found at that temple bronze statues of men placing their hand on bronze dogs, very similar in style to items belong to the cult of Gula in Mesopotamian. Further, a bronze Mus Hussu was found at the site and the annual cult procession of Hera involved ritual bathing and clothing of the divine statue similar to that practiced in Babylon during the New Years festival - "just how Hera's cult on Samos acquired these Mesopotamian trappings is unknown."
Still to come... Noegels concluding remarks
Greek Religion and the Ancient Near East
As I've mentioned to some of you, I am doing a small course in Greek Religion this Summer, and as part of the reading I am doing leading up to that I have borrowed a book from the library entitled "A Companion to Greek Religion" (third edition). The first segment of this volume has turned out to be an article by Scott Noegel which is of high interest to me - the comparison between Greek and Ancient Near Eastern religion. I will therefore take notes on this thread in the hopes this will start a good dialog on the influence the ANE had on the Greeks, who I have usually neglected in times past.
Noegel begins by noting some things that both ANE religion, and religion of the Aegean seem to have in common:
-cult images, alters and sacrifices
- libations and other ritual practices
- sanctuaries, temples and temple functionaries
- laws and ethics
- prayers, hymns, incantations and curses
- cultic dancing, festivals
- divination, ecstasy, seers and oracles
- divinities and demons of both genders
- association of gods with cosmic regions
- notions of the sacred, pollution, purification and atonement
- libations and other ritual practices
- sanctuaries, temples and temple functionaries
- laws and ethics
- prayers, hymns, incantations and curses
- cultic dancing, festivals
- divination, ecstasy, seers and oracles
- divinities and demons of both genders
- association of gods with cosmic regions
- notions of the sacred, pollution, purification and atonement
The author relates that Classicists have found the ANE the most likely source especially for "certain purification rituals, the sacrificial use of scapegoats, and foundation deposit - to name just a few." However the author stresses that the long road leading to comparison is by no means simple of straightforward. Comparison between east and west had for decades been underplayed by scholars, the majority of whom favored Greece as the apparent mecca of civilization; now a shift has occurred and there is general consensus that "some" influence did occur from the east - however, this new consensus is fraught with difficulties and disagreements with some even questioning the concept of influence itself (how could such occur in a world of "constant mutual exchange?"). Even so, Noegel retreats from this entanglement for the purpose of writing his introduction, and focuses his discussion on 4 points of comparison.
1) Myths, Rituals and Cults
Noebel explains that the ancient world was "highly cosmopolitan" "interactive" and "multilingual" with all sorts of intellectual trade going on, for an example he cites the cuneiform tablets found in Amarna, Egypt, which informed the Egyptians of Adapa, Nergal and Ereshkigal. Interestingly, and I didn't know this, he remarks on Mesopotamian cylinder seals that were found in Thebes, which demonstrate the ancient Greeks contact with Mesopotamia.
The author explains that studies to date now refer to an ancient literary circle of sorts, comprising epics from Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syro-Canaan and Egypt which is sometimes referred to as the "Asiatic mythological koine" - this body of literature is now generally seen to have had an influence on the Aegean literature of the Bronze and Iron ages, particularly that of Heisod and Homer, although it is admitted that it is generally to track the process of a strain of epic literature with any precision - for example the exact course of the story of the deluge, which culture after culture adopted (beginning with the Sumerians).
An interesting point comes when Noegel discusses specifically Mesopotamian Influences:
"Mesopotamian myths also have provided a number of conspicuous parallels. Some of the closest have been those that connect Hesiod's Theogony and the Babylonian creation story Enuma Elish. Both texts, for example, describe how the commingling of the Sky and the Earth resulted in the birth of the gods. Other close parallels include those that link portions of the Iliad and the Odyssey with the Atrahasis epic and the epic of Gilgamesh (Abusch 2001; Burkert 1991, 1992-88-93m 2005a); Rollinger 1996; West 1997). Well-known examples of the latter include the similarities between Achilles' speech to his dead friend Patroclus and Gilgamesh's speech to his deceased comrade Enkidu. Also remarkable are parallels that connect the account of Gilgamesh's refusal of Ishtar's sexual advances to Homer's treatment of Aphrodite and Anchises. The evidence for literary borrowing that these motifs and thematic parallels provide, and there are many more than can be elaborated upon here, is bolstered by additional similarities in style and compositional structure (Morris 1997). There can no longer be any doubt that at least some of these parallels are the result of contact with the Near East."
A difference lies in Scholars perception of the relation between myth and ritual in the two civilizations; while they believe myth was more closely relate to ritual in Mesopotamia (i.e. as when the Enuma Elish was recited at new year, or how myth sometimes serve emphasize the cosmological importance of ritual events), this significance seemed altogether absent in myth from the Aegean "Homer's treatment of ritual seemed generalized."
2) The Vehicles of Culture Transmission
Noegel begins here by recognizing that the Minoan civilization played a formative role in shaping the culture that would become Mycenaean Greece - interestingly, he relate that the Minoan's themselves were in turn influenced by Egypt, and with contacts from the Eastern Mediterranean (including Mesopotamia). He does stress however that Minoan Crete was by no means a "carbon copy" of Near Eastern politics; it was by all measures a culture unto its own, though of course, one that received and returned influence.
Sea Lanes/
The author discusses how sea trade in the Mediterranean was a prime opportunity for the exporting of religion; Mycenaean wares have been found Ugarit, in Syro-Canaan, a region that facilitated trade all over the Mediterranean with goods originating from Egypt and Mesopotamia, and to Cyprus, the Levant and the Aegean. Cyprus is another hotspot, and there is evidence for "Hittites, Semites, Hurrians, Egyptians and Aegean peoples" all living on that island. The well known Phoenician trading cities Tyre, Sidon and Byblos had very extensive contacts with Aegean centers, and their religion was exported as inscriptions devoted to Astarte found in Spain and Cypress testify. "The sum total of evidence makes it clear that the Bronze Age Mediterranean was far more interactive than is often portrayed in textbooks."
Intercultural Festivals/
Noegel hits on a particularly interesting point here: "Religious festivals, known especially in Anatolia, also provided opportunities for contact between Hurrian, Hittite, and Aegean bards, performers, and cultic personnel (Bachvarova forthcoming.) Such festivals accompanied the transport of divine statues from on region to another. The two bronze "smiting gods" found at the Mycenaean site of Phylakopi on Melos may be placed into this context. The Mycenaeans also imported an Anatolian goddess, whom they called "Potnia Aswiya." Evidence suggests that her cultic officials and rituals accompanied her (Bachvarova forthcoming; Morris 2001). Though Hittite religion appears to have synthesized Hattic and Hurrian traditions (McMahon 1995:1983), it must be kept in mind that scribes who wrote Akkadian had long lived at Hattusha and had promoted Mesopotamian learning there (Beckman 1983). Since Akkadian education consisted of learning the epic religious texts, we may see Anatolia as a conduit for the westward movement of Mesopotamian religious ideas as well."
The Assyrians/
Between 744 and 727 BC, the Assyrian king Tilglath-Pilesar III expanded northward taking the kingdom of Urartu which gave him control of Byblos and Tyre. These accusations soon obliged the Assyrian king to defend his new territory from attacks from what the native Syrians called the "Ionians" (peoples of Euboea, Athens, Samos and Naxos). Tilglath-Pilesar's successors would also gain control of Hittite city states, and in the 7th century King Sennacherib defeated the Ionians in a "decisive naval battle." Afterwards however, Sennacherib undertook to maximize foreign trade with the Aegean and the author relates that Berossus told of how Sennacherib sent bronze statues inscribed with his achievements to be placed in a specially constructed temple in Athens - though this have never been found, Mesopotamian bronze statues have been found in temples in Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Rhodes and Samoes, which supports that claim.
Assurbanipal, Magic and Cult/
With Assurbanipal, the discussion gets even more interesting: "A little more then a generation after Sennacherib, when the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669-627) allied with Lydia against the Cimmerians, he protected his ambitions in the region by maintaining the royal road connecting Nineveh to Sardis. This road provided the Assyrian court with a direct conduit to channel its political, military and cultural influences to western Anatolia, and by extension to the coastal states of Ionia. It is into this context of exchange between royal courts that some scholars place the influence of Akkadian religious literature upon the Homeric epics.
Other scholars credit peripatetic Near Eastern artisans (Gordon 1956), seers, and purification priests (Burkert 1992) with disseminating their scared, "magical," and medical traditions (Thomas 2004) (and cite Homeric references to itinerant seers and bards in support, e.g. Odyssey 17.383-5). Thus, it is during this period of increased access (ca. the eighth to seventh centuries BC) that the Mesopotamian deities gallu and Lamashtu were introduced to the Greek speaking world, becoming the demons Gallo and Lamia (West 1991). Images of Gilgamesh and Enkidu slaying Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest, similarly began to inspire depictions of Perseus killing the Gorgon. Apotropaic masks of Humbaba's frightening face also appear in Aegean domestic settings at this time (Faraone 1992). The Aegean practice of extispicy, along with that of augury from birds, lecanomancy, and certain "magical" practices all appear to have been imported from the Near East during this period (Burkert 1992:41-52; Dalley and Reyes 1998a:100-1; Faraone 1993, 1995, 2002). The existence of migrant seers and bards may provide a background for understanding the etymological connection between the Greek word temenos "sacred precinct" and the Akkadian temmenu "boundary marker, foundation deposit, temple platform" (West 1997:36). It also allows us to understand why many Greek musical instruments, as well as so called "Pthyagorean" system of tuning, have Mesopotamian origins (Yamauchi 1967). Nevertheless, it is probably that such figures had enjoyed a great deal of influence already in the Bronze Age (Bachvarova forthcoming).
Noegel further notes the worship of Hera at Samos had distinctly Mesopotamian influence, though for unknown reasons. There were found at that temple bronze statues of men placing their hand on bronze dogs, very similar in style to items belong to the cult of Gula in Mesopotamian. Further, a bronze Mus Hussu was found at the site and the annual cult procession of Hera involved ritual bathing and clothing of the divine statue similar to that practiced in Babylon during the New Years festival - "just how Hera's cult on Samos acquired these Mesopotamian trappings is unknown."
Still to come... Noegels concluding remarks
There are few thing I like more at enenuru then to talk shop with someone about their personal focus. Certainly with my crash course in Greek religion in the next 6 weeks this sort of exchange can only help my comprehension as well.
