Much ado about Marduk : questioning discourses of royalty in First Millennium Mesopotamian literature

Scholars often assume that the nature of Mesopotamian kingship was such that questioning royal authority was impossible. This volume challenges that general assumption, by presenting an analysis of the motivations,methods, and motifs behind a scholarly discourse about kingship that arose in the final stages of the last Mesopotamian empires. The focus of the volume is the proliferation of a literature that problematizes authority in the Neo-Assyrian period, when texts first begin to specifically explore various modalities for critique of royalty. This development is symptomatic of a larger discourse about the limits of power that emerges after the repatriation of Marduk's statue to Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in the 12th century BCE. From this point onwards, public attitudes toward Marduk provide a framework for the definition of proper royal behavior, and become a point of contention between Assyria and Babylonia. It is in this historical and political context that several important Akkadian compositions are placed. The texts are analyzed from a new perspective that sheds light on their original milieux and intended functions. Preface 5 Contents 7 Standard Abbreviations 9 Chapter 1. Reading Counterdiscursive Texts in the First Millennium BC 11 Chapter 2. The Kassite Revolution 52 Chapter 3. The Library of Assurbanipal and the Counterdiscursive Landscape 88 Chapter 4. The “Babylonian Problem” and Scribal Dialogues of Counterdiscursiveness 106 Chapter 5. Counterdiscursiveness beyond belles lettres in and out of Nineveh 136 Chapter 6. Textual Hegemony and the Counterdiscursive Public 160 Epilogue. The Legacy of Late Akkadian Countertexts 182 Bibliography 214 Index 245 The king in ancient Mesopotamia is often viewed as a figure above reproach. This volume problematizes this assumption through a critical investigation of several Akkadian texts that challenge royal policy. In most cases, the questions raised by these texts pertain to the king's relationship to the Babylonian god Marduk, an issue that becomes increasingly relevant during the Neo-Assyrian period.