Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
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Palace and temple have always been subject to scholarly interest. The first represents the political power of any given land or country, while the latter serves as an entry point into the marvelous...Show morePalace and temple have always been subject to scholarly interest. The first represents the political power of any given land or country, while the latter serves as an entry point into the marvelous world of the religious organization of any given culture. Though studying these separate institutions on their own is of great importance, it is even more in teresting to study the area in which the interests of both institutions meet. Such studies can show how both parties have to deal with each other's interest and have to adapt their own to guarantee a fruitful cooperation. This thesis consists of such a study, researching the relationship between the Babylonian palace and temple in the context of the daily offerings while focusing on the specific role of the king and his priests. With this study I hope to fill in the blanks that are present in this field of study, since this relation has been examined, but not in the context with which this thesis is concerned.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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The present thesis examines the liminal aspects of four Akkadian wisdom compositions from the first millennium B.C.E., specifically: Babylonian Theodicy, Counsels of Wisdom, Dialogue of Pessimism...Show moreThe present thesis examines the liminal aspects of four Akkadian wisdom compositions from the first millennium B.C.E., specifically: Babylonian Theodicy, Counsels of Wisdom, Dialogue of Pessimism and Ludlul bēl nēmeqi. The aim of the present study is to explore the social functions fulfilled by these four texts. I argue that the notion of liminality, as a creative social process, contributes to this discussion. Liminality, as a period which suspends social norms and allows their critical evaluation by an individual or a group (Turner, 1969), is instrumental to explain the social function of wisdom and to describe its productive process. In the present paper, I explore the liminal aspects of these four wisdom compositions based on character and plot description and on the analysis of parallelism and imagery. In these texts, metaphors of material boundaries and social marginality, alongside opposing parallel constructions, accentuate traditional social values exposing them to criticism. My thesis, through heuristic analysis of manuscripts and close-reading of standard versions, studies the relation between the textual representation of liminal situations and the production context offering a new theoretical perspective for the understanding of the social function of Akkadian Wisdom Literature.Show less
