Myth, text, and image in ancient Mesopotamia : a narrative reading of the world / Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pongratz-Leisten, Beate, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art and mythology--Iraq--History--To 1500.

Art and mythology.

Myth.

Cosmovision--Iraq--History--To 1500.

Cosmovision.

Storytelling--Iraq--History--To 1500.

Storytelling.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxv, 400 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

This book is about the power of story-telling and the place of myth in the cultural memory of ancient Mesopotamia. Rather than reducing mythology to an archaic state of the mind, this study redefines myth as a system of knowledge (episteme) and part of cognitive and cultural experience serving as an explanatory system. It demonstrates how among the multiple ways of world-making (Nelson Goodman) myth not only reflects experiences and reality but also constitutes reality in text and image alike. Drawing on cognitive semiotics, visual studies, and cognitive narratology, it explores the power of the image in showing and revealing something that is absent (deixis). Thus, it demonstrates the contribution of the image to knowledge production. The book calls for re-introducing meaning when dealing with the imagery and iconology of ancient Mesopotamia and introduces an innovative approach to the art history of the ancient Near East.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Epigraph

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Chronology

List of Abbreviations

Map

Chapter One Imagination and the Power of Storytelling: What This Book Is About

Chapter Two Explorations of Myth in Assyriology

2.1 Myth as Paradigmatic Tale: The Frankfort School and the Beginnings of Theory in Assyriology

2.2 Myth's Entanglement with History: Jacobsen, van Dijk, and Wilcke

2.3 Myth and Reactualization: The Assyriological Discourse Revolving on the Kings of Akkad

2.4 Gender, Intertextuality, and Conceptual Metaphor: Recent Assyriological Approaches to Myth

Chapter Three Reviving Myth as Conceptual Metaphor: Mythos as a Mode of Thought

3.1 Mythologizing as a Strategy for Meaning-Making and a Matrix for Action

3.2 Mythos, Storytelling, and Mythmaking: Cognition and Narrative

3.3 The Referential and World-Making Potential of Storytelling

Chapter Four Mythic Narratives as a Fundamental Instrument of Thought: The Explanatory, Orientational, and World-Making Functions of Myth

4.1 Sociogony: Enki and Ninmah

4.2 The Great Chain of Being

4.3 Between Anthropogony and Sociogony: The Myth of the Creation of the King

4.4 Ethnogony: Alterity in the Martu Myth

4.5 Political Mythmaking and Mythologizing as a Form of Historiography in Ancient Mesopotamia

4.6 Myth-Historicization: The Mythologizing and Theologizing of History in the Marduk Prophecy

4.7 Myth Reflecting on the Monarchical Form of Governance: The Sumerian King List

4.8 Participatory Governance? Gilgamesh and Agga

Chapter Five Mythos as a Mode of Remembrance and Its Reactualization in the Image

5.1 Older Studies on Narrative and Myth in Images.

5.2 Text-Image Dialectic, Schriftbildlichkeit, and the Semiotic Approach: The Blau Monument and Late Assyrian Astroglyphs

5.3 The Deictic Power of the Image and Its Iconic Difference: Huwawa's Head

5.4 Narrative Reading and Intermediality: Ninurta's Mace Heads from the Maison K

5.5 Oppenheim's Stream of Tradition and Interpictoriality: Nabu-apla-iddina's Sun God Tablet

Chapter Six The Mythos of the Chaoskampf and the Conflict Myths Informing the Royal Pictorial Repertoire

6.1 Introduction: The Conceptual Metaphor of the Chaoskampf in the Ancient Near East

6.2 Gesturality and Interpictoriality: Two Venues for Approaching the Imagery of the Hunter and the Warrior

6.3 The Sealings of Tell Majnuna and the Lion Hunt Stele of Uruk: First Steps towards Creating a Pictorial Repertoire of the Hunter and Warrior

6.4 Multilayered Temporalities: Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures

6.5 Celebrating the Human Victor: Wall Panels, Furniture Inlays, and Sealings in Ebla and Mari

6.6 The Old Akkadian Period: Royal Appropriation of the Mythic Icon of Victory

6.7 The Tigridian Pictorial Stream of Tradition and the Victory Steles of Dadusha and Shamshi-Addu

6.8 The Emergence of the Middle Assyrian Royal Image: Tukulti-Ninurta's Signet Rings and Socle B

6.9 Unity in Action: The Broken Obelisk of Ashur-bel-kala/Tiglath-Pileser I

6.10 Concluding Remarks

Chapter Seven Projecting Myth onto the Landscape: A Multimodal Approach

7.1 Introduction: The Configurational Impact of Architecture on Neo-Assyrian Palaces

7.2 The Configuration of Space and the Logic of Movement: Ashurnasirpal II's Throne Room

7.3 The Poetics of Space: The Façade of Sargon II's Throne Room in Dur-Sharruken

7.4 Myth into the Landscape: Sargon II's Construction of Local Canal Systems in Maltai and Faida and Sennacherib's Gate Monument at Khinis.

Chapter Eight Marking Myth onto the Body

8.1 The Royal Body as a Semantic Web of Associations

8.2 The Enuma elish and Ashurnasirpal II's Statue

8.3 Gilgamesh and the Emblem of Eternal Kingship in the Royal Dress

Chapter Nine Ekphrasis or the ''Verbal Enactment of the Gaze to Relate with and Penetrate the Object''

9.1 The Performative Power of Language

9.2 The Mental Image: Gudea's Dream Vision, the Syncretic Hymn to Ninurta, and the Göttertypentext

9.3 Evoking the Protective Force of Divine Presence: The Multimodality of Ninurta's Image as Lamassu

9.4 Iconologia sacra: The Image of Ishtar of Arbail

9.5 Ekphrastic Description of Technological Skills and Knowledge in Sennacherib's Inscriptions

9.6 The Persian Verse Account: An Example of Inverted Ekphrasis

Chapter Ten The Agency Behind the Creation Process of Text and Image

Epilogue

References

Indices

Scholars

Ancient Texts

Personal Names

Deities, Demons, Monsters

Star Names

Geographical Names

Words and Phrases (by language): Akkadian

Sumerian

Index Locorum (Texts).

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 04 Feb 2026).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-62938-7

1-009-62935-2

1-009-62934-4