Goddesses in Context
On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources
By (author) J.M. Asher-Greve By (author) J.G. Westenholz
<i>Goddesses in Context</i> examines from different perspectives some ofthe most challenging themes in Mesopotamian religion such as genderswitch of deities and changes of the status, roles and functions ofgoddesses. Julia M. Asher-Greve and Goodnick Westenholz incorporaterecent scholarship from various disciplines into their analysis oftextual and visual sources, representations in diverse media,theological strategies, typologies, and the place of image in religionand cult over a span of three millennia. <br />Different types ofsyncretism (fusion, fission, mutation) resulted in transformation andhomogenization of goddesses’ roles and functions. The processes ofsyncretism (a useful heuristic tool for studying the evolution ofreligions and the attendant political and social changes) and genderswitch were facilitated by the fluidity of personality due to multipleor similar divine roles and functions. <br />Few goddesses kepttheir identity throughout the millennia. Individuality is rare in theiconography of goddesses while visual emphasis is on repetition ofgeneric divine figures (<i>hieros typos</i>) in order to retainrecognizability of divinity, where femininity is of secondarysignificance. <br />This richly illustrated book demonstrates thatgoddesses were never marginalized or extrinsic and that their continuouspresence in texts, cult images, rituals, and worship throughoutMesopotamian history is testimony to their powerful numinous impact. <br/>This richly illustrated book is the first in-depth analysis ofgoddesses and the changes they underwent from the earliest visual andtextual evidence around 3000 BCE to the end of ancient Mesopotamiancivilization in the Seleucid period. <i>Goddesses in Context</i> is acompelling contribution to Mesopotamian religion and history as well asto history, art history, history of religion and gender studies.
- By (author) J.M. Asher-Greve
- By (author) J.G. Westenholz
Other Titles in this Series
Architecture, Iconography, and Text
New Studies on the Northwest Palace Reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II
Volume 301
When Gods Speak to Men
Divine Speech according to Textual Sources in the Ancient Mediterranean Basin
Volume 289
Divine Names on the Spot II
Exploring the Potentials of Names through Images and Narratives
Volume 299
Les fluides corporels en Égypte et au Proche-Orient anciens
Actes du colloque organisé à l'Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier, 5-7 septembre 2019
Volume 309
Images of Anonymous Women
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Volume 310
‘Trinkt von dem Wein, den ich mischte!’ ‘Drink of the Wine which I have Mingled!’
Festschrift für Silvia Schroer zum 65. Geburtstag
Volume 303
The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Scribal Scholarship in Antiquity
Studies in Honor of Arie van der Kooij on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday
Volume 306
The Text of Leviticus
Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthelemy Institute, held in Fribourg (October 2015)
Volume 292
Divine Names on the Spot
Towards a Dynamic Approach of Divine Denominations in Greek andSemitic Contexts
Volume 293
Oral et écrit dans l’Antiquité orientale: les processus de rédaction et d’édition
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 26 et 27 mai 2016
Volume 291
The Power of Images
The Poetics of Violence in Lamentations 2 and Ancient Near Eastern Art
Volume 297
Le peuple aux trois noms
Une histoire de l'ancien Israël à travers le prisme de ses ethnonymes
Volume 298
Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien et dans la Bible
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 5 et 6 mai 2015
Volume 287
Wortschöpfung
Die Memphitische Theologie und die Siegesstele des Pije - zwei Zeugen kultureller Repräsentation in der 25. Dynastie
Volume 243
Israeliten und Phönizier
Ihre Beziehungen im Spiegel der Archäologie und der Literatur des Alten Testaments und seiner Umwelt
Volume 235