The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay of Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East

409 Pages·1977·19.85 MB·English

by  Henri Frankfort

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THE
INTELLECTUAL ADVENTURE
OF ANCIENT MAN
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THE
INTELLECTUAL ADVENTURE
OF ANCIENT MAN
AN ESSAY ON SPECULATIVE THOUGHT
IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
H. and H. A. FRANKFORT • JOHN A.WILSON
THORKILD JACOBSEN . WILLIAM A. IRWIN
With Revised Bibliographies
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO & LONDON
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AN ORIENTAL INSTITUTE ESSAY
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON
Copyright 1946 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1946
First Phoenix Edition 1977
Printed in the United States of America
94 93 92 91 90 89 88 87 17 16 15 14 13
LCC Card Number: 47-1318
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PREFACE
T
HIS volume contains lectures given as a public course in the
Division of the Humanities of the University of Chicago.
Except for minor changes, they are published in the form in which
they were delivered, not in order to avoid transforming them into
scientific treatises but because we believe that the direct exposi
tory method involves something of a challenge. In effect, we are
presenting Webster's definition of an essay—"a literary composi
tion, analytical or interpretative in nature, dealing with its subject
from a more or less limited or personal standpoint and permitting
a considerable freedom of style and method." We believe that the
essay form possesses potentialities, even in dealing with our frag
mentary and intricate sources which impose attention to detail as
a first duty on every worker in the field. Such essays may claim a
new freedom of method; they may have to cut across a historical
approach for the sake of a new perspective; they may have to ig
nore the many-sidedness of a problem for the sake of a single as
pect of it; sometimes their aim must be to evoke rather than to
prove or argue. But, however varied their treatment may be, the
essayists will have one characteristic in common. Bent on discov
ering the meaning of cultural and historical phenomena, their ap
proach will be humanistic, and they will express themselves in
terms understood by the educated layman.
Since these lectures address themselves primarily to a lay audi
ence, the critical and documentary apparatus has been cut to a mini
mum and placed at the ends of the chapters. Our professional col
leagues, however, will have little difficulty in distinguishing where
we propound accepted views and where we offer new interpreta
tions. We intend to defend some of the latter with all necessary
documentation in future publications. Unless otherwise indicated,
the translations in the present volume are those of the individual
author, except in the case of biblical quotations, a large number
of which are taken from the American Standard Version (used
v
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vi PREFACE
with permission of the International Council of Religious Edu
cation) .
The four main contributions in these lectures have been inte
grated through continued discussions and the exchange of prelimi
nary manuscripts over a series of several months in advance of de
livery. The result has been agreement on a unified point of view,
which binds together divergent methods of presentation. Mrs.
H. A. Groenewegen Frankfort, who was the first to suggest the
subject of these lectures and who has contributed her special
knowledge as a student of philosophy, serves with her husband as
the author of the first and last chapters. She is also responsible for
the poetical rendering of the translations from the Sumerian and
Akkadian in chapters v-vii.
ORIENTAL INSTITUTE
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
In this Phoenix Edition the bibliography at the end of each part
has been updated, for Parts 1 and 2 by authors Wilson and Jacob-
sen respectively—Mr. Wilson completing his revision only a few
days before his death last summer. For Part 3 Mr. Dennis Pardee of
the Oriental Institute has kindly provided the current information.
With this exception, the text remains as it was originally published,
thus including the essay on the Hebrews omitted in the Penguin
Edition, which was issued under the title Before Philosophy and
which is now out of print.
1977
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
By H. and H. A. FRANKFORT
I. MYTH AND REALITY 3
EGYPT
By JOHN A. WILSON
II. THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE 31
III. THE FUNCTION OF THE STATE 62
IV. THE VALUES OF LIFE 93
MESOPOTAMIA
By THORKILD JACOBSEN
V. THE COSMOS AS A STATE 125
VI. THE FUNCTION OF THE STATE 185
VII. THE GOOD LIFE 202
THE HEBREWS
By WILLIAM A. IRWIN
VIII. GOD 223
IX. MAN 255
X. MAN IN THE WJRLD 293
XI. NATION, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS 326
CONCLUSION
By H. and H. A. FRANKFORT
XII. THE EMANCIPATION OF THOUGHT FROM MYTH . . .. 363
INDEX
INDEX 391
vii
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INTRODUCTION
H. and H. A. FRANKFORT
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