Language and Cosmos in Greece and Mesopotamia

Argues that Greek thinkers engaged with linguistic concepts developed by Mesopotamian scribes in a process leading to new discoveries.

Jacobo Myerston (Author)

9781009289924, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 April 2023

184 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.6 cm, 0.42 kg

'This is a highly stimulating book, both in its didactic presentation of often-ignored texts relating to ancient linguistic thought, and in its innovative approach, which consists of starting from the hypothesis that these Greek and Mesopotamian texts can shed light on each other. Thus, this work enriches our understanding of ancient linguistic theories, while illustrating with remarkable clarity the circulation of these theories between Greece and the ancient Near East.' Victor Gysembergh, Histoire Épistémologie Langage

Theorizing about language and its place in the world began long before Plato and Aristotle. In this book, Jacobo Myerston traces the trajectories of various proto-linguistic traditions that circulated between Greece and Mesopotamia before the institutionalization of Greek philosophy. By following the threads of transcultural conversations, the author shows the impact of Mesopotamian semantics and hermeneutics on early Greek thinkers. He reconstructs the Greek appropriation of Mesopotamian semantics while arguing that, despite geographical distance and cultural constraints, the Greeks adopted and transformed Babylonian cosmological and linguistic concepts in a process leading to new discoveries. This book covers conceptions of signification present in cuneiform word lists, esoteric syllabaries, commentaries, literary texts like Enuma elish, Gilgamesh, Hesiod's Theogony, and the Homeric Hymns as well as the philosophical commentary preserved in the Derveni papyrus.

1. Babylonian Theories of Language
2 Language and Cosmos in the Epic of Creation
3. Hesiod, Language, and the Names of Ishtar
4. Orpheus' Cosmic Names.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]