The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man

An Essay of Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East

Henri Frankfort,H. A. Frankfort,John A. Wilson,Thorkild Jacobsen,William A. Irwin

• Publisher: Oriental Institute Of The University Of
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780226112565
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The people in ancient times the phenomenal world was teeming with life; the thunderclap, the sudden shadow, the unknown and eerie clearing in the wood, all were living things. This unabridged edition traces the fascinating history of thought from the pre-scientific, personal concept of a "humanized" world to the achievement of detached intellectual reasoning.The authors describe and analyze the spiritual life of three ancient civilizations: the Egyptians, whose thinking was profoundly influenced by the daily rebirth of the sun and the annual rebirth of the Nile; the Mesopotamians, who believed the stars, moon, and stones were all citizens of a cosmic state; and the Hebrews, who transcended prevailing mythopoeic thought with their cosmogony of the will of God. In the concluding chapter the Frankforts show that the Greeks, with their intellectual courage, were the first culture to discover a realm of speculative thought in which myth was overcome.

INDEX

INDEX

Aaron, 282

Abel, 312

Abiathar, 357

Abihu, 302

Abimelech, 304, 344–45

Abishag, 347

Aboda Zara, 333

Abraham, 225, 233, 243, 270, 279, 326–28, 330, 335, 370–71

Absalom, 231, 347–48

Abydos, 22, 25

Abyss, 50, 52, 259

Accho, Plain of, 335

Achan, 335

Achemenids, 223; see also Persians Activity and inactivity, conflict of, 173, 175, 180–81

Adab canal, 167

Adam, 273

Adapa, 14–15

Aesop’s Fables, 256

Africa, 35, 73, 228

Africans, 17, 33

Afterlife; see Hereafter; Immortality

Agade, 192

Agricultural communities, 32, 40, 372

Agricultural year, 35–36, 50, 364

Agriculture, 13, 32, 101, 128, 161, 165–68

Agur, 239

Ahab, 275, 299, 332, 349–50, 355

Ahaz, 299

Air, 9, 18–19, 46, 52, 54, 85, 375, 377–78, 380, 382; see also Shū

Ajalon, 299

akh, 48, 98, 107

Akhnaton, 88, 225

Akitu house, 236

Akkadian language, 169

Alexander, 223

Allegory, 7

Amarna letters, 343

Amarna Revolution, 112

Amaunet, 10, 52

Ammon, 226–27, 327, 329

Amon (Amūn), 10, 34, 52, 64, 66, 72, 78, 83, 88, 114, 23...