BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:2800-a72dda050452b80aceb91fd15add1100@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260514T204050Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231201T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231201T173000 SUMMARY:“Between Propaganda, Polemics, and Philosophy: The Babylonian Epic of Cr eation Inside and Outside of Mesopotamia” DESCRIPTION:\nThe Babylonian Epic of Creation\, also known as Enuma Elis h\, was the most widely studied cuneiform text in first millennium BCE M esopotamia. Initially composed to extol the Babylonian god Marduk and hi s home city Babylon\, it was also popular in Assyria\, where it served a s a blueprint for the autocratic model promoted by the rulers of the Ass yrian Empire. As time went by\, the epic informed the religious identiti es of a variety of cities and states in the Levant\, and even left trace s in the works of some Greek philosophers. But on several occasions\, fi rst in Assyria and later in the Biblical book of Genesis\, the epic and the cultic festivals during which it was recited also became the target of newly introduced forms of polemical &ldquo\;deconstruction&rdquo\; th at changed the religious discourse of the times in decisive ways. This l ecture analyzes the volatile history of a text whose theo-ideological ri gidity did not preclude it from being subjected to a number of radical r einterpretations over a period of some one-thousand years.\n\nEckart Fra hm is professor of Assyriology at Yale University. His main research int erests are Assyrian and Babylonian history and Mesopotamian scholarly te xts of the first millennium BCE. Frahm is the coauthor or coeditor of te n books\, including\, most recently\, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World&rsquo\;s First Empire (Basic Books and Bloomsbury 2023). He is the director of the Cuneiform Commentaries Project (http://ccp.yale.edu) an d has served as an expert witness in a number of high-profile cases of t rafficking in cultural artifacts from the Middle East.\n\nFor more detai ls: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/the_babylonian_epic_of_creation_insi de_and_outside_of_mesopotamia/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Babylonian Epic of Creation, also known as Enuma Elish, was the most widely studied cuneiform text in first millennium BCE Mesopotamia. Initially composed to extol the Babylonian god Marduk and his home city Babylon, it was als o popular in Assyria, where it served as a blueprint for the autocratic model promoted by the rulers of the Assyrian Empire. As time went by, th e epic informed the religious identities of a variety of cities and stat es in the Levant, and even left traces in the works of some Greek philos ophers. But on several occasions, first in Assyria and later in the Bibl ical book of Genesis, the epic and the cultic festivals during which it was recited also became the target of newly introduced forms of polemica l “deconstruction” that changed the religious discourse of t he times in decisive ways. This lecture analyzes the volatile history of a text whose theo-ideological rigidity did not preclude it from being s ubjected to a number of radical reinterpretations over a period of some one-thousand years.

Eckart Frahm is professor of Assyriology at Ya le University. His main research interests are Assyrian and Babylonian h istory and Mesopotamian scholarly texts of the first millennium BCE. Fra hm is the coauthor or coeditor of ten books, including, most recently, < i>Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire (Basi c Books and Bloomsbury 2023). He is the director of the Cuneiform Commen taries Project (http://ccp.yale.edu) a nd has served as an expert witness in a number of high-profile cases of trafficking in cultural artifacts from the Middle East.

For more d etails: https://events.la.psu.edu/e vent/the_babylonian_epic_of_creation_inside_and_outside_of_mesopotamia/< /a>

LOCATION:102 Weaver Building END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR