Punishment as Crime: The “Sins” of the Just Ruler in the Art of the Ancient Near East
In the art of the ancient Near East, the theme of the ruler trampling a defeated enemy is a commonplace trope. However, this formula is far from politically neutral in underscoring a successful or victorious king, and may be thought to play into a mythical pattern of a rebellious divine being with h...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Chicago Press
2015
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| In: |
Near Eastern archaeology
Year: 2015, Volume: 78, Issue: 4, Pages: 236-243 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the art of the ancient Near East, the theme of the ruler trampling a defeated enemy is a commonplace trope. However, this formula is far from politically neutral in underscoring a successful or victorious king, and may be thought to play into a mythical pattern of a rebellious divine being with his own rights and privileges challenging an order established by an authoritarian warrior or ruler god, the chief paradigm for which in ancient Mesopotamia is the Anzû myth. In this regard, such images of punishment are ambivalent. While they show the supremacy of the mainstream ruler, they also draw attention to what the defeated enemy represents in a wider cosmic or sacral history, in which the vanquished, too, was entitled to his numinous background. Such complexity blurs the distinction between good and evil and offense and punishment in the representation of the legitimate ruler in the ancient Near East. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-5404 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Near Eastern archaeology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5615/neareastarch.78.4.0236 |