The Treasures of Darkness
A History of Mesopotamian Religion
Thorkild Jacobsen
- 282 pages
- English
- PDF
- Disponible sur iOS et Android
The Treasures of Darkness
A History of Mesopotamian Religion
Thorkild Jacobsen
Ă propos de ce livre
A recreation of the spiritual life of ancient Mesopotamia demonstrating that the roots of Western civilization lie in the ancient Near East.
âThe Treasures of Darkness is the culmination of a lifetimeâs work, an attempt to summarize and recreate the spiritual life of Ancient Mesopotamia. Jacobsen has succeeded brilliantly. . . . His vast experience shows through every page of this unique book, through the vivid, new translations resulting from years of careful research. Everyone interested in early Mesopotamia, whether specialist, student, or complete layman, should read this book. . . . It is, quite simply, authoritative, based on a vast experience of the ancient Mesopotamian mind, and very well written in the bargain.ââBrian M. Fagan, History
âProfessor Jacobsen is an authority on Sumerian life and society, but he is above all a philologist of rare sensibility. The Treasures of Darkness is almost entirely devoted to textual evidence, the more gritty sources of archaeological knowledge being seldom mentioned. He introduces many new translations which are much finer than previous versions. . . . Simply to read this poetry and the authorâs sympathetic commentary is a pleasure and a revelation. Professor Jacobsen accepts the premise that all religion springs from manâs experience of a power not of this world, a mysterious âWholly Other.â This numinous power cannot be described in terms of worldly experience but only in allusive âmetaphorsâ that serve as a means of communication in religious teaching and thought. . . . As a literary work combining sensibility, imagination and scholarship, this book is near perfection.ââJacquetta Hawkes, The London Sunday Times