Description
Book SynopsisPejoratively referred to as "idols" in the Hebrew Bible and in western tradition, the cult image occupied a central place in the cultures of the ancient Near East. In Mesopotamia, a ritual (mis pi) was used to "give birth" to the god represented by the cult image. In this volume, three separate essays examine the topic within different ancient Near Eastern cultures, and a fourth provides a modern analogy as counterpoint.
Trade Review"This is an interesting, most welcome collection. It is a major contribution, providing a much-needed, interdisciplinary (philological and anthropological) study of a long-neglected, maligned topic that by its very nature demands use of comparative material...this long-overdue book is an enlightening, fascinating, and significant step towards understanding cult statues as perceived by their proponents and opponents."--Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Journal of the American Oriental Society(121.3, 2001)
Table of ContentsMichael B. Dick, ‘Prophetic Parodies of Making the Cult Image’
Christopher Walker and Michael B. Dick, ‘The Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian mis pi Ritual’
David Lorton, ‘The Theology of Cult Statues in Ancient Egypt’
Joanne Punzo Waghorne, ‘The Divine Image in Contemporary South India: The Renaissance of a Once Maligned Tradition’
