Seeing Double in Seleucid Babylonia

Kosmin, Paul J.

doi:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199668885.003.0009

Cited by 17 publications

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“…The Nabû-Apollo syncretism is attested “in Babylonia and also in greater Mesopotamia and Syria,” 59 which demonstrates that the mentioned syncretism was strong and widespread. The evidence that Paul Kosmin (2014: 177) provides is worth quoting at length:Strabo identified Borsippa [i.e., the home of Nabû and his lover, Nanaya] … as sacred to Apollo and Artemis, i.e., Nabû and Nanaya. The temple of the Gaddê at Dura-Europus, a Seleucid colony, housed a gypsum statue of Apollo Citharoedus, identified by a Palmyrene Aramaic label as Nabû ( nbw ).…”

Section: A Related Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“… 58. Beaulieu (2014: 18); Allan (2004: 113–155); Harrison (2000: 208–222); Stephens (2003: 8–9, 51, 247); Mori (2016: 89–111). Kosmin (2014: 177) helpfully notes, “Babylon’s Marduk (known by his cult title Bēl) was associated with Zeus at least as early as Herodotus. Indeed, Berossus’ Babyloniaca seems to have translated Mesopotamian deities into their Greek equivalents.…”

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confidence: 99%

“… 66. See Appian Syriaca 56; Justinus Epitome 15:4.3–9; Golenko (1993: 85); Sherwin-White and Kuhrt (1993: 127–128); Wright (2005: 69); Kosmin (2014: 177); Erickson (2011: 52; 2018: 63). …”

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confidence: 99%

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The Most High God vs. Nabû: A God of Letters, Wisdom, and Fate Who Can(not) Read, Understand, or Foretell

Lee

2023

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

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A natural reading of Daniel 5 clearly depicts the Jewish deity as humbling an arrogant pagan king, Belshazzar, through the Judahite sage, Daniel. This article suggests that a second but not mutually exclusive interpretation is possible in light of the story’s Mesopotamian background. According to this reading, the author of Daniel 5 used the traits of Nabû to subvert the well-known Babylonian belief that Nabû was the tutelary deity for the Babylonian kings. By rendering Nabû completely powerless before the Jewish deity, the author exalts the Jewish deity as the Most High God (עליא אלהא‎) who effectively displaces Nabû. It is in this capacity that the Most High God weighs the arrogant pagan king’s deeds and then determines the length of his life. Such a theological message would serve to comfort the intended audience of the pericope, the Jewish diaspora community under pagan rule, and encourage them to faithfully obey their God.

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Section: A Related Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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The Most High God vs. Nabû: A God of Letters, Wisdom, and Fate Who Can(not) Read, Understand, or Foretell

Lee

2023

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

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Translating the Seleucid Βασιλισσα: Notes on the Titulature of Stratonice in the Borsippa Cylinder

Widmer¹

2019

Greece & Rome

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Until the end of the twentieth century, the study of Hellenistic Babylonia appealed mostly to researchers trained in Classics. When J. G. Droysen published Geschichte des Hellenismus between 1836 and 1843, Akkadian had in fact not yet been deciphered. Classical texts therefore provided the only way in which scholars could understand Babylonia. When Assyriology developed as a field on its own, researchers focused on Sumero-Akkadian culture; they considered the Hellenistic period to be a decadent time in which Greek culture had infiltrated the native one, to its detriment. With these two perspectives combined, the Hellenocentric understanding of Hellenistic Babylonia was strengthened. In the early 1990s, however, Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kuhrt vigorously upended this view. They focused on non-classical texts and documents and thereby stressed the vitality of Near Eastern cultural traditions. Their challenging work paved the way for intercultural reflection on Hellenistic Babylonia. In effect, the interactions between Babylon and Greece could therefore be developed, by a new generation of researchers, as cross-cultural, meaning that it is likely that mutual impact was felt in both cultures. Among them, Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper offers, in the field of archaeology, a useful interpretative model which analyses cultural interactions in their diachronic and multi-directional dimensions. She assumes the existence of cultural mediators who stimulate interactions between people of two cultural backgrounds sharing a common space. Over time, the facilitation of exchange may affect the nature of social relationships, so much so that they no longer develop in accordance with cultural factors but rather with social class, age, gender, or profession. This implies numerous combinations which vary depending on the sociocultural background of each participant in a given social interaction.

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Performing Homeric islands: Homeric receptions in (post-)Hellenistic Asia

2024

Classical Receptions Journal

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This article presents critical interpretations of the Sophytos inscription in comparison with the K-pop song ‘Sugar Rush Ride’ within the context of the cultural politics of sugar production in modern colonialism. It posits that both pieces individually engage with discreet episodes concerning Homeric islands in the Odyssey: Odysseus’ lying about his Cretan background in book 14 and the lotus-eating story in book 9. Meanwhile, both refer to the Phaeacian episode in book 8. In doing so, this article not only underscores the significance of this Homeric epic as a rich mine from which people across different time periods and geographic areas (such as Kandahar and Korea) draw inspiration, but also contributes to a re-evaluation of the epistemic foundation of research on Hellenistic Central Asia and its legacy.

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Seeing Double in Seleucid Babylonia

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

The Most High God vs. Nabû: A God of Letters, Wisdom, and Fate Who Can(not) Read, Understand, or Foretell

The Most High God vs. Nabû: A God of Letters, Wisdom, and Fate Who Can(not) Read, Understand, or Foretell

Translating the Seleucid Βασιλισσα: Notes on the Titulature of Stratonice in the Borsippa Cylinder

Performing Homeric islands: Homeric receptions in (post-)Hellenistic Asia

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