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Emelianov V. Epics and Calendar in Ancient Mesopotamia

V. Emelianov
St. Petersburg State University
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-5824-8792
E-mail: banshur69@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. The article raises a novel question of the specific content of epic time in the literature of ancient Mesopotamia. Drawing on the analysis of two groups of cuneiform sources, i.e. epic texts and commentary literature, the author tests three theories of epic time (M. M. Bakhtin, Y. V. Vassilkov, N. Frye). He finds out that each of the considered texts has a specific calendar time in which the action of the epic takes place Epics are often parts of festivals: the Sumerian epic about the deeds of Ninurta falls on the month of Ayyaru (April–May); the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish is associated with the first month of the calendar, Nisannu (March–April); and the events of the epic of Harab span an entire half-year, indicating the most significant days of each month. The article provides a new argument in favor of H. Rawlinson’s hypothesis about the correspondence of the tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the zodiac signs. The author puts forward a hypothesis on the calendar nature of the Erra Epic. The data presented demonstrate that the time of Mesopotamian epic texts is not some indistinguishable absolute past, but the time of the cultic calendar. In full accordance with Vassilkov’s classification, we see in the earliest epic texts the idea of eternal return and the associated cosmogonic myths. As for the epic of Gilgamesh, the dialogue between the archaic and heroic times, which is built in it, helps to correlate the life of the protagonist with the path of the sun throughout the year. The theory of Frye is confirmed in the same way: we clearly see the correlation between the seasons of the year and epic plots. However, the uniqueness of the Mesopotamian material is that the epic time here is literally correlated with rituals and has exact dates. Contrary to Bakhtin’s opinion, the epics of ancient Mesopotamia are intended to express not a national principle, but the change of seasons and a related change in the adaptive models of collective behavior. The epic world is not separated from the modernity, because modernity exists in a circle of constantly repeating events, and in this circle even disasters are considered as temporary phenomena occupying a small place in the structure of the world order.

 

KEYWORDS: epics, epic time, cultic calendar, ancient Mesopotamia, explanatory texts, M. M. Bakhtin, Ya. V. Vassilkov, N. Frye, H. Rawlinson

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2021-2(12)-6-28
УДК 82:006.951

 

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