Reading between the 'likes': Intertextuality and meaning in neo-Assyrian expressions of similarity, metaphorical identity, and analogy
Mc Dermott, Luke
Mc Dermott, Luke
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Publication Date
2023-10-09
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Thesis
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Abstract
Figurative language is, in essence, the act of synthesising disparate concepts into one communicative image. Rather than merely a poetic technique, this process is fundamental in general understanding and expression of abstract or new ideas. Moreover, metaphorical and non-literal statements echo and signal the cultural network of meaning to which they contribute in a way that literal statements do not. In this sense, metaphorical language is semantically open where the literal is closed. Simile is even more inherently self-exegetical. The expression of X in terms of Y on the basis of implicit or explicit similar characteristics is itself a process of interpretation by comparison. Simile is also a more literal type of formulation than straight metaphor. That is, simile ‘has a job to do, and it does it: it proposes a comparison between two entities, in one particular respect, or at most in a few respects, as it is explicit in its comparative goal.’1 Language which highlights a conceptual proximity between expressed referents functions as a key for the reader. It accentuates the characteristics of the expressed X which are deemed prominent and relevant by their commonality with those of the compared Y. The style of expressing concepts in terms of one another, implicitly acknowledging their thematic or characteristic overlaps, is a technique that has been central throughout the Mesopotamian textual tradition. It does not just appear as a preserve of artistic or poetic writing, but is ubiquitous. As will be seen, this pattern based expression is structurally integrated into such societal and ritual events as divination political accords, and substitute rituals.2 Using the framework of template expressions of conceptual proximity laid out in the table below (Fig.1), this dissertation will analyse the metaphorical and analogical language that pervades its case study, The Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince (henceforth UWV). This philological process produces a deep engagement with the text. During this slow reading, the sense will emerge that the ways of expressing conceptual proximity and communicating ideas through their nexus of cultural associations and intertextual correlates was also of intellectual interest to UWV’s author. It will be argued here that the author sets up and explores the relationships between ideas by means of intricate figurative language, wordplay, intertextuality, and even meta-textuality, where the scribal narrative voice itself explicitly engages with the “moral” of the tale as it tells it. This dissertation will follow the threads of intertextuality which can often be discerned within the incorporation of figurative language throughout the narrative. The gradation of intertextual resonances along a spectrum which ranges from echoes of a shared cultural context to deliberate and authorially fixed allusion is discussed below (Fig.2). An overview of some of the contextual considerations that this study requires will be given below, such as the developments in the field of cognitive metaphor and the work that has thus far been done to bring this scholarship into the study of Mesopotamian writing. The following chapter will look at the central role and esteem that the culture of textuality enjoyed in the organisation of Mesopotamian society. It will show how important metaphorical language and the conceptualisation of ideas in terms of a comparandum were in central procedures of state and society. For example, it discusses how the protasis-apodosis relationship in divination was often an a priori association rooted in cultural or paronomastic affinities rather than any a posteriori observation of empirical causality. Moreover, Section 2.2 examines metaphorical language that manifested in the reification of a political accord.3 This will serve to underline the importance that metaphorical language and thought had in a culture whose modes of communication were so intertwined with literacy and textuality. The rest of this dissertation will be dedicated to a slow reading of the case study, The Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince. The emphasis of this reading will be on the figurative expressions of metaphorical predication and simile. Particular focus will be given to two passages, both coming on the reverse tablet. The first of these (r.2-10) is sequence of vivid descriptions, a catalogue of the various bodily compositions of the divine beings that the protagonist, Kummay, encounters on his journey through the underworld in a dream.4 It will be appraised in its own right, but also in juxtaposition with the bodily descriptions that are found in other texts, particularly in the teratological divinatory series Šumma izbu5 as well as the swapping of limbs between a spring lamb and the king of Arpad in a treaty between Aššur-nerari V and Mati’-ilu. 6 The other section (r.29-31) details the emotional maelstrom overcomes the prince upon waking from his infernal experience. His anguish is captured in a uniquely complex double simile which likens him first to a man hiding in the thicket from hunters, and then to a pig at the height of carnal excitement. Of course, other incorporations of analogy and metaphor in the narrative will also be discussed. For example, a simile (r.23) which describes the legacy of a royal corpse that the protagonist is shown in the underworld, which bears an intertextual relationship with the Letter of Gilgamesh.7 Considering the level of influence that was borne by Mesopotamian culture upon those of surrounding communities, increased understanding of the value associations of the former will shed further light upon its relationships with the latter. For example, understanding more keenly the semiotics of metaphorical expressions within a given cultural context aids efforts to trace a metaphor across cultures. This facilitates more comparative work to problematise and evaluate the transmission and translation of particular metaphor between textual communities. Throughout this dissertation, passages of text will generally draw on the translation work of other scholars, but also comment upon it; with deconstructions and suggestions of alternative interpretations offered where appropriate. In the instance of the primary case study, UWV, the translation of Livingstone8 will be most represented, though the interpretation of other scholars, such as Foster9 will also be incorporated. Where no notation is given, translation is my own. All of my own translation work, however, is based on the valuable transliteration from cuneiform of other scholars. Notation of the translation and edition used is given in each case throughout the dissertation.
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NUI Galway