TY - UNPB

T1 - Gud og naturfænomen i Mesopotamisk religion.

T2 - et forskningshistorisk problem og et forslag til dets løsning med ildguden Girra som eksempel

AU - Westh, Peter

N1 - Upubliceret kandidatspeciale

PY - 2001

Y1 - 2001

N2 - This thesis explores the association between natural phenomena and deities in Mesopotamian religion. Within Assyriology, expressions such as »Anu is the sky god«, »Enlil is the storm god« and »Girra is the fire god« are being used as if their meaning was transparent and self-evident. In the first part of my thesis, I trace the origin and discuss the validity of this practice. In the second, I explore and re-evaluate how the relationship between gods and natural phenomena is expressed in the sources, in the context of a case study of the »fire god«, Girra.The way religion has been perceived and studied by Assyriologists has so far not been analysed systematically. In the first part of my thesis, I will attempt to do such an analysis. The concept of nature gods is traced from its animistic and nature-mythological origins in the 19th century, through astral mythology and the predominantly hermeneutical tradition of the first decades of the 20th century, to the phenomenological and intellectualist trends of the post-war years. In this way, far more continuity than previous historiographical studies have acknowledged, is demonstrated.Particularly persistent within Assyriology is the notion that there has been a development in Mesopotamian religion from  an early stage, where gods were identical with or immanent in the natural phenomenon they were associated with, to a later stage, where gods assumed anthropomorphic form. The various sources and theories that have given credence to this idea are discussed, as well as its impact on the way in which texts have been dated and interpreted.This leads to my claims that: 1) the differences in content between various texts that have been interpreted as the result of historical development, are in fact differences determined by the genre of these texts, and 2) the practice of distinguishing between historical layers in individual texts is not only circular, but violates the way natural and anthropomorphic metaphors are used in the texts.These two claims are the points of departure for my analysis of the fire god, Girra. A new, theoretical perspective that combines genre theory and cognitive linguistics is proposed. Following a suvery of current knowledge of the god Girra, the various texts in which he appears are then analyzed in turn, by genre. The most important textual genre is incantations, in which fire is utilized ritually. I also discuss the way in which Girra appears in a number of mythical texts as well as in royal inscriptions and astrological and speculative texts. In each case, I show that the way in which Girra is represented in these sources is determined by the formal and pragmatic characteristics of the source in question. Lastly, I analyse the complete and often very artful integration of natural and anthropomorphic metaphors in detail. My conclusion is that the god Girra has in fact only a very limited amount of common characteristics across various textual genres and that this point has far-reaching implications for the study of Mesopotamian religion as a whole.

AB - This thesis explores the association between natural phenomena and deities in Mesopotamian religion. Within Assyriology, expressions such as »Anu is the sky god«, »Enlil is the storm god« and »Girra is the fire god« are being used as if their meaning was transparent and self-evident. In the first part of my thesis, I trace the origin and discuss the validity of this practice. In the second, I explore and re-evaluate how the relationship between gods and natural phenomena is expressed in the sources, in the context of a case study of the »fire god«, Girra.The way religion has been perceived and studied by Assyriologists has so far not been analysed systematically. In the first part of my thesis, I will attempt to do such an analysis. The concept of nature gods is traced from its animistic and nature-mythological origins in the 19th century, through astral mythology and the predominantly hermeneutical tradition of the first decades of the 20th century, to the phenomenological and intellectualist trends of the post-war years. In this way, far more continuity than previous historiographical studies have acknowledged, is demonstrated.Particularly persistent within Assyriology is the notion that there has been a development in Mesopotamian religion from  an early stage, where gods were identical with or immanent in the natural phenomenon they were associated with, to a later stage, where gods assumed anthropomorphic form. The various sources and theories that have given credence to this idea are discussed, as well as its impact on the way in which texts have been dated and interpreted.This leads to my claims that: 1) the differences in content between various texts that have been interpreted as the result of historical development, are in fact differences determined by the genre of these texts, and 2) the practice of distinguishing between historical layers in individual texts is not only circular, but violates the way natural and anthropomorphic metaphors are used in the texts.These two claims are the points of departure for my analysis of the fire god, Girra. A new, theoretical perspective that combines genre theory and cognitive linguistics is proposed. Following a suvery of current knowledge of the god Girra, the various texts in which he appears are then analyzed in turn, by genre. The most important textual genre is incantations, in which fire is utilized ritually. I also discuss the way in which Girra appears in a number of mythical texts as well as in royal inscriptions and astrological and speculative texts. In each case, I show that the way in which Girra is represented in these sources is determined by the formal and pragmatic characteristics of the source in question. Lastly, I analyse the complete and often very artful integration of natural and anthropomorphic metaphors in detail. My conclusion is that the god Girra has in fact only a very limited amount of common characteristics across various textual genres and that this point has far-reaching implications for the study of Mesopotamian religion as a whole.

KW - Det Humanistiske Fakultet

KW - Mesopotamisk religion

KW - Girra

KW - Metaforteori

KW - Blending

KW - Kosmiske guder

M3 - Working paper

BT - Gud og naturfænomen i Mesopotamisk religion.

PB - Museum Tusculanum

ER -