Myth and Politics in Ancient Near Eastern Historiography, Mario Liverani Edited by Zainab Bahrani, Marc Van De Mieroop

Author

Mario Liverani [+–]

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

Mario Liverani is Emeritus Professor of “History of the Ancient Near East” in the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Member of the Italian National “Lincei” Academy, honorary member of the American Oriental Society. His most recent book is Immaginare Babele (2013); his general handbook Ancient Orient is now available in English translation.

Edited by

Zainab Bahrani [+–]

Colombia University

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Zainab Bahrani is Edith Porada Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

Marc Van De Mieroop [+–]

Colombia University

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Marc Van De Mieroop is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Departments of History and Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.

The essays collected in this volume represent a selection of studies, previously published mainly in Italian, that make explicit use of anthropological and semiological tools in order to analyze important texts of historical nature from various regions of the Ancient Near East. They suggest that these historiographical texts were of a ‘true’ historical nature, and that the literary forms and mental models employed were very apt at accomplishing the intended results. Two different aspects are especially emphasized: myth and politics.

Series: Studies in Egyptology and the Ancient Near East

Prelims

Editor’s Introduction [+–] vii – xi

Zainab Bahrani,Marc Van De Mieroop

Colombia University

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Zainab Bahrani is Edith Porada Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

Colombia University

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Marc Van De Mieroop is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Departments of History and Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.

An introduction to the book.

Acknowledgements [+–] xiii

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

Abbreviations [+–] xiv

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

PART ONE: MESOPOTAMIA

1. Adapa, guest of the gods [+–] 3 – 23

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

One of the handful of Akkadian literary texts found at the Egyptian capital of Amarna is the short story of Adapa. By the fourteenth century, the composition was thus known outside Babylonia, which must be its region of origin. We do not have any manuscripts from Mesopotamia proper until the seventh century library of Ashurbanipal, however. Altogether only four fragmentary manuscripts are known so far, but they do allow us to reconstruct the outlines of the story at the beginning of this chapter. The main character, Adapa, was one of the seven antediluvian sages who brought civilisation to humankind. In this story he appears as the priest of the god Ea in the city of Eridu near the Persian Gulf, and is responsible for the care and feeding of his god, having to procure fish for the offerings. In the course of his duties he disturbs the natural order, and is invited by the god Anu in heaven to justify himself. There he misses the opportunity to gain immortality by refusing the food and drink offered him. The chapter here analyses the story as a foundational myth to explain human mortality. The poem was recently fully re-edited by Izre’el 2001. Recent English translations have appeared in Dalley 1989: 182–7; Foster 1993: 429–34; Foster 1995: 97–101.

PART TWO: HITTITE ANATOLIA

2. Telipinu, or: on solidarity [+–] 27 – 52

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

In the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries, the Hittites created a centralised state in Anatolia often referred to as the Hittite Old Kingdom. Later historical tradition from the second half of the second millennium remembered this period as one where a number of strong and powerful kings, the ancestors of the Hittite royal house, were succeeded by a confused set of weak ones. Of the powerful ones, Hattushili I was regarded as the creator of the state, while his successor, Murshili I, was the great conqueror of Aleppo in northern Syria and of Babylon in southern Mesopotamia. Upon his return home, the latter was assassinated and the state fell into disarray from which it did not recover for some two centuries. In that long period of weakness only one king stands out, Telipinu, who was the author of an Edict, ostensibly trying to reverse the situation by regulating succession to the throne.

3. Shunashura, or: on reciprocity [+–] 53 – 81

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

The Hittites, who ruled Anatolia and large parts of northern Syria in the second half of the second millennium, have left us the largest number of political treaties from the ancient Near East. Those can be divided into two groups based on the status of the other treaty partner. There are parity treaties with equals and vassal treaties with subordinates, and the latter group is by far the largest. Treaties had to be renewed repeatedly as they were agreements between two individuals, the kings, rather than between two states. They also had to take into account changes in the political relations, and these shifts produced awkward diplomatic circumstances, when a previously equal ruler became subject. While the political reality was known to all, diplomacy did not permit a categorical statement of the fact. Such a situation is examined here. The south east Anatolian state of Kizzuwatna had been equal to Hatti, but in the early fourteenth century it became a vassal to the Hittite king Tudhaliya II. That new reality was ascertained in a treaty, which was very careful in its language not to offend the king of Kizzuwatna. The discrepancies between political reality and diplomatic language are examined in this chapter. The identity of the Hittite partner of the treaty as Tudhaliya II was determined by Wilhelm (1988). The Shunashura treaty and many other Hittite treaties mentioned in this chapter were recently translated into English by Beckman (1996).

PART FOUR: HEBREW BIBLE

7. The story of Joash [+–] 147 – 159

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

The biblical story of Joash (in 2 Kings 11 and 12) suggests that in the late ninth century the rule of the house of David over Judah had been interrupted. King Ahaz had died as the result of wounds he suffered in battle, while his son, Joash, was an infant. Athaliah, the mother of Ahaz, became regent and massacred the rest of the royal family, but Joash was saved by an aunt, who hid him in the temple of Yahweh. Seven years later the high priest, Jehoiada, recognised Joash as the true king, installed him on the throne, and killed Athaliah. In this chapter Liverani reads this brief narrative as an example of the apologetic texts that are written by usurpers to the throne in order to justify their rule. He compares it to two well known apologies of the second millennium: the inscription on Idrimi’s statue (chapter 4 here), and the explanation given by the Hittite king Hattushili III after he seized the throne from his nephew Urhi- Teshub (for a recent translation, see van den Hout 1997). The Joash episode becomes then a fictional explanation from the hand of the high priest who de facto took charge by placing a seven-year-old boy on the throne. It is like the text of a staged theatrical performance where the recognition of the young boy is the event that removes the disruption in the rule of the house of David. The comparison with other apologies is done on the basis of a structural analysis that identifies themes and their sequence within the narrative, which are the same for the three texts. Moreover, in other types of documents, primarily treaties between the Hittites and their vassals, parts of the sequence can also be found in the so-called historical introductions. A recent translation of those has been published by Gary Beckman (1996; Shattiwaza = no. 6, Mashhuiluwa = no. 11, Benteshina = no. 16).

8. Messages, women, and hospitality: Inter-tribal communication in Judges 19–21 [+–] 160 – 192

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

Two stories at the end of the biblical book of Judges are usually considered to be appendices, as they do not mention any of the Judges. Their insertion there was probably due to the fact that they are said to deal with the ‘days when there was no king in Israel’. The second story, told in chapters 19 to 21, is quite long and complicated. While a mundane retelling does not do it justice, it may help the reader to follow the discussion in the chapter here. A Levite from Ephraim has been abandoned by his concubine, who returned to her father’s house in Bethlehem. The Levite goes to reclaim her and after leaving his father-in law’s house with the woman, has to spend the night at Gibeah in Benjaminite territory. Only an old man, who himself is from Ephraim, is willing to talk to the Levite and puts him up in his house. That night the men of Gibeah demand that they be allowed to have sexual intercourse with the Levite, who offers them his concubine instead. After she is abused all night long, she dies. When the Levite finds her the next morning, he takes her home and cuts the body up into twelve pieces, sending one to each of the tribes of Israel to summon them. At their assembly the tribes decide to demand that the men of Gibeah be surrendered, and when rejected they attack the Benjaminites at Gibeah. They win by leading the main body of the Benjaminite army into an ambush, taking the city behind their back, and burning it down. They massacre the men of Benjamin. Moreover, they swear an oath never to give brides to the remaining Benjaminites. The survival of that tribe is thus in danger, and in order to obtain women the people of Jabesh-Gilead are attacked and slaughtered but for 400 virgins who are given to the Benjaminites. As this number does not suffice, and the oath that no woman should be given to Benjamin cannot be broken, an arrangement is made whereby the Benjaminites can seize girls at the annual festival of Shiloh and thus obtain brides. The chapter translated here was originally published in 1979, long before a feminist approach became fashionable in biblical studies. It discusses many topics that have become the concern of later feminist scholarship, such as the anonymity of the concubine, her rape, and her dismemberment (eg., Exum 1993; Stone 1995). Unfortunately, the Italian article is rarely acknowledged, so its republication will serve a purpose. Liverani uses this story to discuss a wide array of other topics, including hospitality, reciprocity in the exchange of gifts and women, interior and exterior spaces, and manners of communication. He has continued to study those in his subsequent work, and they are most elaborately discussed in the book he published in 1990 entitled Prestige and Interest.

PART THREE: SYRIA

4. Leaving by chariot for the desert [+–] 85 – 96

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

In the early fifteenth century a local ruler of the city of Alalah, today in southern Turkey some 50 km west of Aleppo in Syria, left a statue of himself with an inscription recounting his career. He started out in Aleppo, was chased from the city with his family, crossed the desert and fled to Emar on the Euphrates. There he decided to join bands of warriors called habiru . Seven years later he conquered the city of Alalah, and was eventually recognised by the ruler of the region, Barattarna, king of Mitanni. The story provides a justification for Idrimi’s rule over a city with which he had no previous connections (see chapter 7), and was manufactured in order to make the king look especially qualified for the task. It includes a literary motif of the hero taking off by himself into hostile territory where he can prove his worth. The chapter here identifies that motif, akin to what is found in fairy tales, and traces it through other literatures from the ancient Near East. It analyses the motif using V. Propp’s methods for the analysis of fairy tales. The Egyptian tale of the ‘Doomed Prince’ provides the clearest parallel to the Idrimi story. In it the only son of an unnamed Egyptian king, whose death through a crocodile, snake, or dog was prophesied at birth, is kept in a safe house by his father. But one day he takes off by himself on his chariot to Nahrin in Syria where he is chosen to marry a local princess because he alone is able to pass a test. Afterwards his wife urges him to protect himself against his fate, and he probably ends up escaping it, although the end of the text is not preserved. That text is clearly a fairy tale, but several other Near Eastern texts of various genres contain parts of the motif. Such texts then have to be analysed as what they truly are, fictional stories, rather than as historical accounts. Idrimi’s inscription has been translated numerous times. The most recent English translation is by Longman (1997).

5. Rib-Adda, righteous sufferer [+–] 97 – 124

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

Rib-Adda was king of the harbor city of Byblos, on the coast of present-day Lebanon, in the early fourteenth century when Egypt controlled the Syro- Palestinian area through a system of vassals. The king of Byblos was a prolific correspondent with the court of Egypt, under kings Amenophis III and IV, and between 59 and 63 letters from him are preserved in the Amarna archive (EA 68– 71, 73–95, 102–9, 112–4, 116–9, 121–7, 129–34, 136–8, 362; EA 101, 110, 111, and 120 are probably also his). In those he portrays himself as the victim of the kings of Amurru who pressure states in the region to abandon their allegiance to Egypt. As loyal vassal to Pharaoh he sees himself under constant threat and implores the king to help him. Ultimately, he was indeed overthrown, not by outsiders but by his own brother, and he died in exile. The Amarna correspondence presents a rich source of information on how Egypt administered this area through a hands-off policy. Local dynasts, called mayors ( hazanu ) by the Egyptians while acknowledged as kings by their own subjects, had to provide annual payments whose collection was Egypt’s main concern. The Syro-Palestinian area was divided into three provinces, Kinahni (= Canaan), Ube, and Amurru, each of which had one centre of Egyptian administration, where a governor ( rabisu ) resided. The local kings competed with one another over territory and in their struggles hoped to gain Pharaoh’s support by presenting themselves as loyal vassals and the others as Egypt’s enemies. It is in this context that Rib-Adda’s letters have to be read. The kings of Amurru are the primary targets of his accusations and he claims that they rely on marauding bands of outcasts, the habiru , in their aggression. This chapter cautions against a literal reading of Rib-Adda’s letters, and interprets their style and contents as a reflection of the author’s self-portrayal as a righteous sufferer. Everything that is known about Rib-Adda derives from the Amarna letters (referred to as EA with the numbers typically assigned in the discipline). These have been recently retranslated into English by Moran (1992). Liverani’s own complete translations into Italian were published in 1998–99.

6. Aziru, servant of two masters [+–] 125 – 144

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

Rib-Adda’s bane was the royal house of Amurru, the state inland from Byblos in Syria and the northernmost Egyptian vassal. He griped constantly about the hostile acts of Abdi-Ashirta and his sons, especially Aziru. While much in his complaints was empty rhetoric to gain Pharaoh’s attention as was pointed out in the previous chapter, the leaders of Amurru were not the reliable vassals they proclaimed to be in their own letters to Egypt. Pharaoh suspected foul play and demanded that Aziru come to him to explain himself, a trip the latter wanted to avoid. The form and contents of Aziru’s letters regarding this matter are the subject of this chapter. Amurru was unusual in the Syro-Palestinian region in that it was not a kingdom focused around a central city, and did not have an old dynasty. Abdi- Ashirta had recently established himself as a ruler of the region and only under Aziru had the house been accepted as royal. There was also a strange overlap between the name of the state and that of the larger province the Egyptians had organised in northern Syria. The province was administered from the city of Sumura on the coast, a city that had been destroyed and was abandoned by the Egyptian governor. Its rebuilding was one of Aziru’s tasks but also here he was reluctant to proceed. Because of the absence of Egypt’s governor he could act as if he were ruler over the entire province of Amurru rather than just over the kingdom. Aziru ended up going to Egypt, but was able to exonerate himself and return home. Probably soon afterwards he concluded a vassal treaty with the Hittite king Shuppiluliuma (Beckman 1996: 32–7) and openly abandoned the Egyptian sphere of influence. Amurru remained a Hittite vassal for some 150 years. The primary basis for the study of Aziru’s career is the Amarna correspondence, recent translations of which can be found in Moran (1992) and Liverani (1998–99). The letters from Amurru were studied in a special monograph by Izre’el (1991).

Bibliography

Bibliography [+–] 193 – 208

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

Bibliography

Index

Index [+–] 209 – 214

Mario Liverani

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

index

Reviews

The availability of these essays now in English is a truly invaluable service to the wider scholarly audience of the ancient Near East.
Bryn Mawr College Review

This valuable collection of essays in English translation will rightfully bring this notable scholar to the attention of a wider audience.
SOTS Booklist 2005

Mario Liverani’s work is among the most original and penetrating in the discipline of ancient Near Eastern studies. I recommend this brilliant and fascinating book with high enthusiasm.
Professor Benjamin R. Foster, Yale University

This collection of his classic essays, selected by Liverani himself, and presented in English for the first time, displays Liverani’s brilliance in dissecting a variety of myths, treaties, royal inscriptions, letters and Biblical narratives.

Liverani’s influence on the interpretation of history is generously acknowledged by professional historians of the Ancient Near East and by the Italian reading public. This collection will bring his substantive contributions and his method to a wider audience of historians, anthropologists, and literary critics. The editors have done a splendid job introducing the essays, revising Liverani’s own translations and providing handy references to studies that have appeared since Liverani’s original work.
Professor Norman Yoffee, University of Michigan

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Myth and Politics in Ancient Near Eastern Historiography

Mario Liverani [+–]

University of Rome “La Sapienza”, (Emeritus)

Zainab Bahrani [+–]

Colombia University

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Marc Van De Mieroop [+–]

Colombia University

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