Antiquity Studies

King, Sage, Scribe, and Priest: Seleucid Uruk and Jerusalem in Perspective

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Abstract

The scribal role is fundamental in Antiquity and is often associated with royal power, to the point that one may speak of a mythology of the ‘wise king’. One may think of Kings David and Solomon in the Hebrew Bible or the tradition begun with Šulgi in Mesopotamia. This mythology, which articulates both concepts of kingship and wisdom, seems to gain credence not so much at the peak of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires or at the time of David and Solomon reigns, but at a very late moment in the history of these cultures, when they lacked political independence, especially during the Hellenistic period.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Nov. 7, 2023 | Accepted: March 4, 2024 | Published July 9, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Hellenistic Uruk • Scribalism • Hellenistic Jerusalem • Wisdom • Kingship

Copyright © 2024 Stephanié Anthonioz. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-776-0/005


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