Divinos ritos e “encantamento puro”: palavras e poder na Epopeia Babilônia da criação - Enūma Eliš

Maria Edith Maroca de Avelar

Authors

Maria Edith Maroca de Avelar Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP) Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3070-1938

Keywords:

Ãkitu Festival, Babylonian Creation Epopee, Discourse analysis, Enūma eliš

Abstract

Recreating the "vertigo of time" (Brandão, 2017) experienced in reading the Enūma Eliš (Babylonian epic of creation) as a glimpse and enjoyment of the past through linguistic contextualization (Skinner, 2002) is the process by which this article seeks to understand the "enchanting power" of words in Ancient Babylon. Inspired by Foucault's notions of Discourse, Power and Institution as self-referential and constitutive (Foucault, 1999), the essay proposes the reading of the Babylonian foundational myth in two modalities: the aforementioned poem and the Festival of Ãkitu, paying attention to the choice and characterization of the heroes and locus of power portrayed therein as indicative of the institutional substrate(s) (powers) that sustained them – and vice versa. In this process, the complementary relationship between State and Temple in the exercise of power and authority will be highlighted, as well as the discreet priestly preeminence that shines through in a self-celebratory manner in the Enūma Eliš.

References

ANOR, N. Mesopotâmian Divinatory Inquiry: A Private or a State Matter? In: BOER, R.; DERCKSEN, J. G. Private and State in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 58th RAI at Leiden, 16–20 July 2012.Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2017. p. 71-78.

BARTASH, V. Puḫru: Assembly as a political institution in Enūma eliš (preliminary study). In: KOGAN, L. et al. (ed.). Language in the Ancient Near East. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2010. v. 1, part 2. p. 1083-1108.

BATTO, B. F. The Sleeping God: An Ancient Near Eastern Motif of Divine Sovereignty. In: BATTO, B. F. In the Beginning: Essays on Creation Motifs in the Ancient Near East and the Bible. Winona Lakes: Eisenbrauns, 2013. p. 139-157.

BIDMEAD, J. The Akītu Festival: Religious Continuity and Royal Legitimation in Mesopotâmia. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2014.

BLOOM, J. A. Ancient Near Eastern Temple Assemblies: A Survey and Prolegomena. Ph.D Thesis – University of Pennsylvania, 1992. Disponível em: https://repository.upenn.edu/entities/publication/299a4f0c-4f25-4b46-a353125d17ae90a4/full. Acesso em: 26 jul. 2024.

BRANDÃO, J. L. A epopeia da criação Enūma eliš. Belo Horizonte, Autêntica, 2022

BRANDÃO, J. L. A saga de Apsû no Enūma eliš. Nuntius Antiquus, Belo Horizonte, v. 16, n. 1, p. 221-270, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.35699/1983-3636.2020.20870

BRANDÃO, J. L. Ao Kurnugu, terra sem retorno: descida de Ishtar ao mundo dos mortos. Curitiba: Kotter, 2019.

BRANDÃO, J. L. Ele que o abismo viu: epopeia de Gilgamesh. Tradução do Acádio, introdução e comentários de Jacyntho Lins Brandão. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2017.

CARAMELO, F. Os calendários mesopotâmicos, o culto e as hemerologias. Cultura, v. 23, p. 77-88, 2006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/cultura.1324

CARAMELO, F. O ritual de Ãkitu – o significado político e ideológico do Ano Novo na Mesopotâmia. Revista da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, n. 17, p. 157-60, 2005.

CLANCIER, P. Chapter 1: The Mesopotamian King between Gods and Men in the First Millennium BCE. In: PACHOUMI, E. Conceptualising Divine Unions in the Greek and Near Eastern Worlds. The Netherlands: Brill, 2022. p. 13-44.

COHEN, M. E. The Festival of Àkitu. In: COHEN, M. E. The Cultic Calendar of Ancient Near Eeast. Bethesda: C.D.L. Press, 1993. p. 400-453.

DANESHMAND, P. Extispicy and Consensus Decision-Making in Ancient Mesopotâmia. DABIR Digital (Digital Archive of Brief notes & Iran Review), v. 9, n. 1, p. 67-85, nov. 2022.

DANZIG, D. Name Word Play and Marduk’s Fifty Names in Enūma Eliš. New Haven: Yale

University, 2013.

DÉBOURSE, C. The New Year Festival in Seleucid Babylon a Historical Assessment. In: RIVA, R. et al. (ed.). Ceremonies, Feasts and Festivities in Ancient Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean World: Proceedings of the 11th Melammu Workshop, Barcelona, 29–31 January 2020. Münster: Zaphon, 2022. p. 85-114.

DELNERO, P. Divination and Religion as a cultural System. In: FINCKE, J. C. (ed.) Divination as

Science: A Workshop Conducted during the 60th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Warsaw,

2014. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2016. p. 147-165.

DELNERO, P. Inana and Ebi and the scribal tradition. In: FRAME, G. et al. (eds.). A CommonCultural Heritage: Studies on Mesopotâmia and the Biblical World in Honor of Barry L. Eichler. Bethesda: C.D.L. Press, 2011. p. 123-149.

FINN, J. Chapter 1 – Reading Counterdiscursive Texts in First Millenium BC. In: FINN, J. Much Ado about Marduk: Questioning Discourses of Royalty in First Millennium Mesopotâmian literature. Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017. (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records; 16)

FOUCAULT, M. A Ordem do Discurso: aula inaugural no Collège de France proferida no dia 2 de dezembro de 1970. São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 1999.

GANE, R.; GANE, C. E. Cosmic Conflict and Divine Kingship in Babylonian Religion and Biblical Apocalypses. In: MOSKALA, J. Meeting with God on the Mountains: Essays in Honor of Richard M. Davidson. Berrien Springs: Andrews University, 2016. p. 279-315. Disponível em: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pubs/208. Acesso em: 16 jul. 2024.

GEIDEL, A. The Babylonian Genesis – the Story of Creation. 2. ed. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1963.

HAMURABI, Rei de Babilônia. O Código de Hammurabi. 3. ed. Introdução, tradução do original cuneiforme e comentários de E. Bouzon. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1980.

JOHANDI. A. Public Speaking in Ancient Mesopotâmia: Speeches before Earthly and Divine Battles”. In: ESPAK P. et al. (ed.). When Gods Spoke: Researches and Reflections on Religious Phenomena and Artefacts. Studia in Honorem Tarmo Kulmar. Tartumaa: University of Tartu Press, 2015. p. 71-106

LAMBERT, W. G. Ancient Mesopotamian Gods. Superstition, philosophy, theology. Revue de l’histoire des religions, tome 207, n. 2, p. 115-130, 1990.

LAMBERT, W. G. Babilonian Criation Myths. Winona Lakes: Eisenbrauns, 2013.

MATEU, L. F.; ALBÀ A. M. Enuma Elis y otros relatos babilónicos de la Creación. Madri: Editorial Trotta, 2014.

RODIN, T. The fifty names of Marduk on Enūma Eliš. The Journal of the American Oriental Society, v. 126, n. 1, p. 507-519, 2016.

RODIN, T. The World of the Sumerian Mother Goddess An Interpretation of Her Myths. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2014

SACE, A. H. “Preface”. In: SMITH, G.; SACE, A. H. The Chaldean Account of Genesis. London: S. Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1880.

SKINNER, Q. Visões da Política: sobre os métodos históricos. Algés: Difel, 2002.

SOMMER, B. D. The BabylonianÁkitu Festival: Rectifying the King or Renewing the Cosmos? Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Society, n. 27, p. 81-95, 2000.

SPEISER, E. A (transl.). Akkadian myths and epics. In: PRITCHARD, James B. (ed.). Ancient Near Eastern Texts – Relating to the Old Testament. New Jersey, Princeton, 1969. p. 60-72.

SWEENEY, N. M. Introduction. In: SWEENEY, N. M. Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies: Dialogues and Discourses. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. p. 1-19. Disponível em: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qh48v.4. Acesso em: 14 set. 2024.

TALON, P. The Standard Babylonian Creation Myth Enūma Eliš. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project – University of Helsinki, 2005. (State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts; IV).

TOUBKIS, D. L’ordre de la chronologie. Hypothèses, 2003. p. 133-145.

VAJSKOP, A. Finding Patterns in the Chaos: Woman as Chaos Agent in Creation Myths. Denison Journal of Religion, v. 5, n. 1, p. 60-73, 2005.

VELDHUIS, N. Intellectual History and Assyriology. Journal of Ancient Near Easter History, v. 1,

p. 21-36, 2014.

VERNANT, J-P. Mito e sociedade na Grécia Antiga. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1992.