On Courtiers in the Neo-Assyrian Empire: ša-rēši and mazzāz pāni

Groß, Melanie; Pirngruber, Reinhard

doi:10.1515/aofo-2014-0015

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…10 See in particular Brinkman (1968: 309-11), Oppenheim (1973), Garelli (1974: 133-36), Parpola (1983: 20-21), Brinkman and Dalley (1988: 85-86 n. 27), Grayson (1995), Tadmor (1995), Briant (1996Briant ( : 285-88 = 2002, Deller (1999), Watanabe (1999), Mattila (2000: 131-33), Dalley (2001), Hawkins (2002: 217-21), Pirngruber (2011), Lenfant (2012). For more recent discussions of the term ša rēši in Neo-Assyrian contexts see Groß and Pirngruber (2015), Radner (2017: 97-98), and Groß (2020: 239-57). 11 E.g., Brinkman (1968: 309-11), Oppenheim (1973), Garelli (1974: 133-36), and Brinkman and Dalley (1988: 85-86 n. 27).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heads and Beds: On the Origin of the Akkadian Term for Eunuch or Courtier

Frazer

2022

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History

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Alongside the ongoing debate over whether the primary meaning of the Akkadian term ša rēši (lit. “he of the head”) is “eunuch” or “courtier,” various explanations for the origin of the term have been proposed. After reviewing the seven explanations encountered in the secondary literature, and assessing their respective strengths and weaknesses, this article makes a new proposal for the origin of the term, namely that it refers to the “head” of the king’s bed. It is observed that this hypothesis is consistent: (i) with Akkadian terminology relating to parts of beds, which uses rēšu(m) to designate either a bed’s top end generally or its “headboard” specifically; (ii) with the perception, visible in Babylonian ritual texts, of the bed as a place of potential danger to its occupant; and (iii) with the Akkadian literary expression mukīl rēši (“lit. keeper of the head”) which, by analogy with well-attested expressions like mukīl bābi (“keeper of the gate”) and mukīl appāti (lit. “keeper of the bridle”), is more likely to refer to an inanimate “head” than part of the human body. The possibility that the term ša rēš (šarri) is equivalent to the Greek term εὐνοῦχος, as argued for example by (Briant, P. 1996. Histoire de l’empire Perse. De Cyrus à Alexandre. Paris: Fayard. = Briant, Pierre. 2000. From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of the Persian Empire. Translated from the French by Peter T. Daniels. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns), has been questioned by (Lenfant, D. 2012. “Ctesias and his Eunuchs a Challenge for Modern Historians.” Histos 6: 257–97), but if the newly proposed origin of ša rēši is correct, it indirectly supports the case for an equivalency of the two terms: like εὐνοῦχος (lit. “bed-keeper”), ša rēši would literally refer to guardianship of the king’s bed. The new proposal nevertheless has no bearing on the debate over whether ša rēši primarily designates “eunuch” or “courtier.”

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heads and Beds: On the Origin of the Akkadian Term for Eunuch or Courtier

Frazer

2022

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History

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Darstellungen Der Suḫäer Und Weiterer Nachbarn Der Assyrer Im 9. Jh. 1. Teil

Braun-Holzinger¹

2018

Iraq

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Representations of foreigners in their strange attire have a long tradition in the Ancient Near East. While the Assyrian Empire was expanding during the early first millennium BC, the Assyrian kings ‒ with the help of skilled and even inspired craftsmen – attached a growing importance to the differentiation of their near neighbours and people further away. The palace reliefs of Assurnaṣirpal were of excellent craftsmanship, the garments, the hair-styles, the beards and the surrounding landscape were carefully rendered, quite often in every minute detail. Through these details the meaning of the ‘images’ became fully understandable to the well informed Assyrian viewer. Foreign people were not merely enemies, they were people in their own right.

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Becoming Empire: Neo-Assyrian palaces and the creation of courtly culture

Groß

Kertai

2019

Journal of Ancient History

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Assyria (911–612 BCE) can be described as the founder of the imperial model of kingship in the ancient Near East. The Assyrian court itself, however, remains poorly understood. Scholarship has treated the court as a disembodied, textual entity, separated from the physical spaces it occupied – namely, the palaces. At the same time, architectural analyses have examined the physical structures of the Assyrian palaces, without consideration for how these structures were connected to people’s lives and works. The palaces are often described as secluded, inaccessible locations. This study presents the first model of the Assyrian court contextualized in its actual palaces. It provides a nuanced model highlighting how the court organized the immense flow of information, people and goods entering the palace as a result of the empire’s increased size and complexity. It argues that access to the king was regulated by three gates of control which were manned by specific types of personnel and a more situational organization that moved within the physical spaces of the palace and was contingent on the king’s activity.

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On Courtiers in the Neo-Assyrian Empire: ša-rēši and mazzāz pāni

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Heads and Beds: On the Origin of the Akkadian Term for Eunuch or Courtier

Heads and Beds: On the Origin of the Akkadian Term for Eunuch or Courtier

Darstellungen Der Suḫäer Und Weiterer Nachbarn Der Assyrer Im 9. Jh. 1. Teil

Becoming Empire: Neo-Assyrian palaces and the creation of courtly culture

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