* For patiently answering many philological questions and for much literary guidance, I am indebted to Gary Beckman, W. Randall Garr, Robert M. Good, William K. Simpson, and especially Benjamin R. Foster. Particular thanks are due to Pamela B. Vandiver for steadfast encouragement throughout. As a historian of Bronze Age art, I have gratefully relied upon translations not my own, realizing that differences of scholarly opinion may change meanings, perhaps negating some of my points. Other examples and interpretations are welcomed; contra Hesiod, let not potter compete with potter (Works and Days, line 25).

1. For a lucid guide to theoretical, linguistical, historical, and other aspects of figurative language, see Hawkes, Terence, Metaphor (London, 1972 Google Scholar.

2. Yale University Press, Spring 1988 Prospectus, p. 49.Google Scholar

3. The New Yorker, 18 January 1988, p. 27.Google Scholar One is reminded here of the Rubaiyat's sustained ceramic imagery, from the first line's “Morning in the Bowl of Night” to the quatrains set in the potter's shop crowded with discursive vessels ( Arberry, A. J., ed. Persian Poems [London, 1964], pp. 3–15)Google Scholar.

4. The New Yorker, 13 March 1989, p. 101. Ceramic creation tropes similarly underlie Carolyn Chute's description of Thomas Williams' prose style: “With the mere ‘clay’ of words, Williams wrings the pages into human shapes” (dustjacket of The Moon Pinnace [Garden City, 1986]).Google Scholar

5. Brown, Clarence and Merwin, W. S., Modern European Poetry (Penguin, 1977), pp. 130–31; I am grateful to Marjorie Schultz for bringing these poems to my attention and for a stimulating term paper on Near Eastern imagery in the works of Thomas Mann.Google Scholar

6. For general studies of Mesopotamian figurative language, see Buccellati, G., “Towards a Formal Typology of Akkadian Similes,” AOAT 25 (1976): 59–70;Google Scholar Kramer, S. N., “Sumerian Similes: A Panoramic View of Some of Man's Oldest Literary Images,” JAOS 89 (1969): 1–10; andGoogle Scholar Mindler, M., Geller, M. J., Wansbrough, J. E., eds., Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East (London, 1987).Google Scholar On the metaphorical role of ivory in ancient Near Eastern literature, see Caubet, Annie, “Pygmalion et la statue d'ivoire,” pp. 247–48 in Etienne, R., Dinahet, M.-T. le, Yon, M., eds., Architecture et poesie dans le Monde Grec: Hommage Georges Roux (Lyon, 1989)Google Scholar.

7. In the Bronze Age, direct relationships between literature and art are difficult to ascertain. On the one hand, the few texts that mention works of art focus on their descriptive rather than aesthetic qualities, while on the other hand, images lack representation-specific captions. Though some literary texts do seem to have been pictorialized in various media, sure identifications of personae or episodes are rare, even of the epical Gilgamesh (see Lambert, W. G., “Gilgamesh in Literature and Art: The Second and First Millennia,” pp. 37–52 in Farkas, Ann et al. , eds., Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds [Mainz, 1987]). There is, furthermore, little unambiguous written evidence for such illustrations. A Marn letter from a newly appointed functionary, for example, possibly alludes to a proverb depicted in bas relief, though another reading takes the phrase as “a worm at the damp course of the wall,” a metaphor for the writer's grateful humility (Google Scholar Veenhof, K. R., “Mari A 450:9 f [ARM 26/1, p. 378 note 13],” N,A.B.U., 1989:2, p. 27). Millennia later, much greater documentation exists for unequivocal analogies, especially between late Roman poetic and mosaic techniques. For two recent studies on Roman literary and visual style, seeGoogle Scholar Roberts, Michael, The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity (Ithaca, 1989) andGoogle Scholar Leach, Eleanor Winsor, The Rhetoric of Space: Literary and Artistic Representations of Landscape in Republican and Augustan Rome (Princeton, 1988)Google Scholar.

8. Important articles on narrative in ancient art appear in symposium proceedings: AJA 61 (1957):44-78 and Kessler, H.L. and Simpson, M. S., eds., Pictorial Narrative in Antiguity and the Middle Ages (Washington, 1985). See alsoGoogle Scholar Gaballa, C. A., Narrative in Egyptian Art (Mainz, 1976)Google Scholar; Thomas, Carol G., “Greek Geometric Narrative Art and Orality,” Art History 12 (1989):257–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. See my “Translations into Clay: Inspiration and Imitation in Minoan Pottery,” pp. 31–44 in McGovern, Patrick E. and Notis, Michael R., eds., Cross-Craft and Cross-Cultural Interactions in Ceramics [Ceramics and Civilization, vol. 4] (American Ceramic Society, 1989)Google Scholar.

10. For an analysis of the other principal creation tradition in Sumerian literature, see Frymer-Kensky, Tikva, “The Planting of Man: A Study in Biblical Imagery,” pp. 129–36 in Marks, John H. and Good, Robert M., eds., Love & Death in the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of Marvin H. Pope (Guilford, CT, 1987 Google Scholar). For a catalogue of Near Eastern creation texts and fragments, see Muller, Hans-Peter, “Eine neue babylonische Menschenschopfungserzahlung im Licht keilschriftlicher und biblischer Parallelen -- Zum Wirklichkeitsaufassung im Mythos,” Orientalia 58 (1989):61–85.Google Scholar

11. Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Harps that Once... Sumerian Poetry in Translation (New Haven, 1987), pp. 156 57 Google Scholar; compare Kramer: “Quand tu auras malaxe un lopin/ De l'argile tirée des rives de l'Apsu/ On donnera forme (?) à l'argile de cette matrice (?), (...)” ( Bottéro, Jean and Kramer, Samuel Noah, Lorsque les dieux faisaient l'homme: Mythologie Mésopotamienne [Paris, 1989], p. 190). For detailed discussion of this difficult passage, seeGoogle Scholar Dijk, J. van, “Le motif cosmique dans la pensee Sumerienne,” Acta Orientalia 28 (1964):29–30 Google Scholar.

12. Among them, , Frymer-Kensky, op. cit., pp. 129–30 andGoogle Scholar , Jacobsen, Harps, pp. 152–53.Google Scholar

13. Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn, “The Brick of Birth,” JNES 46 (1987) :211–13Google Scholar , with full references; Kilmer independently suggests the kiln-womb linkage, with an interesting parallel from African myths (p. 213).

14. , Kilmer, pp. cit., p. 212.Google Scholar

15. Lambert, W. G. and Millard, A. R., Atra-basīs: The Babylonian Story of the Flood (Oxford, 1969), pp. 61, 63, 65. Compare Hittite practices, in which a bowl-shaped birth-stool is present:Google Scholar Beckman, Gary, Hittite Birth Rituals: An Introduction [Sources and Monographs from the Ancient Near East, vol. 1, fasc.4] (Malibu, 1978), esp. p. 13.Google Scholar

16. , Jacobsen, Harps, pp. 411, 413.Google Scholar

17. , Kilmer, pp. cit., p. 213. Recent study of geophagy, or earth-eating, in Central America has documented female consumption of symbolically inscribed clay tablets, especially during pregnancy to counteract morning sickness and to ensure safe delivery:Google Scholar “Eating Clay Tablets as an Act of Faith,” National Geographic 176:6 (1989), Geographica page, not numbered; I owe this reference to Micaela Woodbridge.Google Scholar

18. God list An: , Anum, CT 24, pl. 25 (line 86 b).Google Scholar Dingirmah may have taken over the ceramic concerns of a minor goddess in her entourage; on this and other activities of the several birth goddesses, see , Jacobsen, “Notes on Nintur,” Orientalia 42 (1973):274–98.Google Scholar For Ea as god of potters, under the names Lil(lu) and Nunurra, see Tallqvist, K., “Akkadische G6tterepithete,” StOr 7 (1938):348, 432Google Scholar.

19. Gibson, M., “Nippur Regional Project,” Oriental Institute Annual Repoýr, 1977/1978, pp. 20–21; I am grateful to Douglas Frayne for drawing this Kesh identification to my attention. For other proposals, see RLA s. v. Keg, p. 573.Google Scholar

20. Green, Margaret, “Eridu in Sumerian Literature,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1975, p. 169; I am grateful to the author for providing me with a photocopy of the relevant pages of her dissertation.Google Scholar

21. , Jacobsen, Harps, pp. 154–55, 191ff.Google Scholar

22. Alster, Bendt, “Ninurta and the Turtle, UET 6/1 2,” JCS 24 (1971 1972): 122.Google Scholar

23. Sachs, A., “Akkadian Rituals,” ANET², p. 341 Google Scholar (Text C, Babylonian ritual for the repair of a temple). For discussion, see Ellis, Richard S., Foundation Deposits in Ancient Mesopotamia [YNER 2] (New Haven, 1968), p. 18 Google Scholar; Bottéro, Jean, Mythes et Rites de Babylone (Paris, 1985), pp. 294–95Google Scholar.

24. KBo 19, text 98, col. b lines 24'-25'; I owe the translation to B. R. Foster.

25. Kramer, S. N., “'Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld' Continued and Revised,” JCS 5 (1951):10 (lines 219-22); seeGoogle Scholar , Jacobsen, Harps, p. 218 for the suggestion that these are professional mourners, translated by him as elegist and myrmidonGoogle Scholar.

26. Foster, Benjamin R., “Ea and altu,” p. 80 in Ellis, Maria de J., ed., Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of Jacob Joel Finkelstein [Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 19] (Hamden, CT, 1977); cf.Google Scholar Groneberg, B., “Philologische Bearbeitung des Agu:ayahymnus,” RA 75 (1981):114.Google Scholar

27. Lambert, W. G., Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford, 1967), p. 89 Google Scholar (stanza XXVI.276-86, said by the friend), with discussion pp. 65, 310.

28. Speiser, E. A., “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” ANET², p. 74 (I ii 34); for discussion of this and related creation passages, seeGoogle Scholar Tigay, Jeffrey H., The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic (Philadelphia, 1982), pp. 192–7. Aruru's creation of mankind is alluded to inGoogle Scholar “The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer” (Lambert, BWL, p. 59 [IV(?).40])Google Scholar.

29. , Lambert and , Millard, Atra-basīs, p. 59 (1.210-13). After Enki trod the clay to mix it, the Mistress of the Gods and other birth goddesses nipped off fourteen pieces of clay, seven for males and seven for females (see pp. xi, 9, 61-63).Google Scholar

30. The same may be said of the metaphor in which only the slain god's blood is used to create man: , Speiser, “The Creation Epic,” ANET², p. 68 (VI.5-7, 31-33). See also the discussion inGoogle Scholar , Frymer-Kensky, 2R. cit., p. 130 n. 9, with further referencesGoogle Scholar.

31. , Jacobsen, Harps, pp. 154–55.Google Scholar

32. For other literary connections between mud and canal work, compare one of the imprecations protecting a kudurru of Nebuchadnezzar I: “May Adad...fill his [any violator's] canals with mud” ( King, L. W., Babylonian Boundary-Stones and Memorial-Tablets in the British Museum [London, 1912], p. 36), and “The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer,” Tablet I, line 100 (Google Scholar Lambert, W. G., review of W. von Soden, AHW, Journal of Semitic Studies 14 [1969]:250)Google Scholar.

33. See also Edzard, D. O., “Deep-Rooted Skyscrapers and Bricks: Ancient Mesopotamian Architecture and its Imagery,” pp. 13–24 Google Scholar in Figurative Languag (supra n. 6), esp. p. 19 for the importance of choosing the right clay for the first brick. On types and relative values of bricks, such as kiln-baked vs. sundried, see Dunham, Sally, “Bricks for the Temple of tara and Ninurra,” RA 76 (1982):27-41, esp. p. 37 Google Scholar n. 18 for discussion of the possibility of a purified brick category. For Cudea's “harmoniously blended clay,” see , Jacobsen, Harps, pp. 404, 410-13; alsoGoogle Scholar Heimpel, W., “Gudea's Fated Brick,” JNES 46 (1987):205–11. On building rites in general, seeGoogle Scholar , Ellis, Foundation Deposits, pp. 5–34 Google Scholar.

34. Jacobsen, Hats, p. 415.Google Scholar

35. Ritter, Edith K. and Wilson, J. V. Kinnier, “Prescription for an Anxiety State: A Study of BAM 234,” AnatStud 30 (1980):23–30; see other references s. v. kullatu “potter's clay,” CAD K, p. 506.Google Scholar

36. , Jacobsen, Hap, p. 372 Google Scholar; Cooper, Jerrold S., The Curse of Agagde (Baltimore, 1983), p. 61 (lines 231-32)Google Scholar.

37. , Jacobsen, H, p. 250 Google Scholar; , Jacobsen, “The Asakku in Lugal-e,” p. 229 inGoogle Scholar Leichty, Erle, Ellis, Maria deJ., Gerardi, Pamela, eds., A Scientific Humanist. Studies in Memory of Abraham Sachs (Philadelphia, 1988)Google Scholar.

38. Cagni, Luigi, L'epopea di Erra [Studi Semitici 34] (Rome, 1969), pp. 65 (1.74), 121 (IV.150).Google Scholar

39. , Jacobsen, Harps, p. 459.Google Scholar For the suggestion that plague epidemics caused the destruction of Ur and other Sumerian cities, see Vanstiphout, H. L. J., “The Death of an Era: The Great Mortality in the Sumerian City Laments,” pp. 83–89 in Alster, B., ed., Death in Mesopotamia [Mesopotamia 8] (Copenhagen, 1980)Google Scholar.

40. , Jacobsen, Harps, p. 460 Google Scholar; , Kramer, “A Sumerian Lamentation,” ANET², p. 459.Google Scholar In a related city lament, the dispossessed deities wail that they “are spilled out like figurines being cast in molds,” while “in Ur (people) were smashed as if they were clay pots” ( Michalowski, Piotr, The Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur [Winona Lake, 1989], pp. 51 Google Scholar [line 229], 63 [line 406]).

41. Castellino, G., “Urnammu: Three Religious Texts,” ZA 52 (1957):22, 32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42. Limet, H., “Le poème èpique ‘Inanna et Ebih’: Une version des lignes 123 S182,” Orientalia 40 (1971):20 Google Scholar . See also Pinches, IV R² 24 No. 2 17f, in which Enlil rains down fire and potsherds (out of date edition, Langdon, S., Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms [Paris, 1909], pp. 218–19);Google Scholar Virolleaud, C., L'Astrologie Chaldaenne, suppl. 2 (Paris, 1912), p. 60 (šamaš No. 37, line 11: “potsherds and [ ]”). For discussion of extraordinary downpours, including potsherds, frogs, fish, wheat, and blood, seeGoogle Scholar Millard, A. R., “The Sign of the Flood,” Iraq 49 (1987):63–69 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43. , Lambert, BWL, p. 109 (lines 4-10).Google Scholar

44. , Speiser, “Gilgamesh,” ANET², p. 94 Google Scholar (XI.131-33). For Gilgamesh, this is a poignant reminder of his grief over dead Enkidu, for he has just told Utnapishtim that “my friend whom I loved has turned to clay” ( Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, The Epic of Gilgamesh [Stanford, 1989], p. 91 [X.240]).Google Scholar

45. Soden, W. von, Das Gilpamesch-Epos (Stuttgart, 1982), p. 97 (XI.117-19).Google ScholarIn a fragmentary fire incantation, Belet-ili even goes to Ea, first reminding him of mankind's creation by Ea's nipping “off their clay from the roof of the Apsu,” and then asking the god now to cast a good spell ( Lambert, W. C., “Fire Incantations,” AfO 23 [1970]:43)Google Scholar.

46. , Lambert and , Millard, Atra-basīs, pp. 93–94 (Old Babylonian recension, Tablet III iii 9-11), 125 (Assyrian recension, U rev. 16-18)Google Scholar; , Speiser, “Gilgamesh,” ANET², p. 94 (XI.107)Google Scholar.

47. To similar literary ends, magnification of ceramic tropes also occurs in “The Shamash Hymn,” part of which praises Shamash as the omniscient diviner god capable of seeing all lands and heavens in his bowl: “The heavens are not enough as the vessel into which you gaze,/ The sum of the lands is inadequate as a seer's bowl” ( , Lambert, BWL, p. 135 (lines 154-55])Google Scholar.

48. Hehn, Johannes, “Hymnen und Gebete an Marduk,” Beiträge zur Assyriologie und Semitischen Syrachwissenschaft 5 (1905):327 (no. 4 r. 2, 8).Google Scholar

49. Strong, S. A., “On some Babylonian and Assyrian Alliterative Texts I,” PSBA 17 (1895):139.Google Scholar

50. Vogelzang, M. E., Bin Šar Dadmē: Edition and Analysis of the Akkadian Anzu Poem (Groningen, 1988), p. 43 Google Scholar (line 112), with the same epithet repeated elsewhere in the poem. This ability is also praised in “The Gula Hymn of Bullutsa-rabi”: “the wicked and enemies he [Ninurta] turns into clay” ( Lambert, W. G., “The Gula Hymn of Bullutsa-rabi,” Orientalia 36 [1967]:123 [line 115])Google Scholar.

51. Winckler, H., Die Keilschrifttexte Sargons (Leipzig, 1889), pl. 30 No. 64:14, pl. 33 No. 69:80; seeGoogle Scholar Luckenbill, Daniel David, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. II (Chicago, 1927), p. 25 Google Scholar.

52. Borger, Riekele, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons Königs von Assyrien [AfO Beiheft 9] (Osnabruick, 1967), p. 57 (V 5, Episode 18).Google Scholar

53. Beckman, Gary, Hittite Birth Rituals [Studien zu den Bogazköy-Texten 29] (Wiesbaden, 1983), p. 213 n. 570, translation personal communication.Google Scholar

54. Guterbock, Hans, “The Song of Ullikummi,” JCS 5 (1951):138, 153.Google Scholar

55. For a discussion of these practices, as well as a synopsis of the widespread archaeological evidence for them, see Crinsell, L. V., “The Breaking of Objects as a Funerary Rite,” Folklore 72 (1961) :475–91 andCrossRefGoogle Scholar “Supplementary Note,” Folklore 84 (1973):111–14;Google Scholar Astrom, Paul, “Inverted Vases in Old World Religion,” Journal of Prehistoric Religion 1 (1987):7–16.Google Scholar Recent microstructure study of Paleolithic clay figurines from Dolni Vgstonice, Czechoslovakia (ca. 26,000 B. P.) has suggested that human and animal statuettes were formed, then deliberately exploded upon firing, apparently for magical purposes ( Vandiver, Pamela B., Soffer, Olga, Klima, Bohuslav, and Svoboda, Jiti, “The Origins of Ceramic Technology at Dolni Vgstonice, Czechoslovakia,” Science 246 [1989]:1002–8)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

56. Thompson, R. Campbell, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylon, vol. I (London, 1903), p. 151 (lines 159-62).Google Scholar

57. Thompson, Campbell, Devils, vol. I, p. 153 (line 170); translation CAD U s. v. basbu, p. 132.Google Scholar

58. Reiner, Erica, “Lipšur Litanies,” JNES 15 (1956):40 (lines 15'-16'); see also lines 31'-32' with curse substituted for sin.Google Scholar

59. Thompson, Campbell, Devils, vol. II (London, 1904), p. 123 (lines 62-63).Google Scholar

60. Michalowski, Piotr, “Carminative Magic: Towards an Understanding of Sumerian Poetics,” ZA 71 (1981):4; see alsoCrossRefGoogle Scholar Jestin, Raymond, “Textes Religieux Sumeriens,” RA 41 (1947):60 “comme un vase...qu'lil soit vidé.”Google Scholar

61. Ebeling, E., “Beschwörungen gegen den Feind und den bosen Blick aus dem Zweistromlande,” ArQr 17 (1949):204 (line 20).Google Scholar

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63. Landsberger, B. and Balkan, K., “Die Inschrift des assyrischen Königs Irisum, gefunden in Kültepe 1948,” Belleten 14 (1950):227 (line 14)Google Scholar; Grayson, Albert Kirk, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, vol. I (Wiesbaden, 1972), p. 11.Google Scholar This text appears to be part of an oath-taking ceremony, harking back to a time when trials were held by the mušlalu, or gatehouse.

64. Thompson, Campbell, Devils, vol. II, p. 89 (line 21).Google Scholar

65. Nougayrol, Jean, “Textes Sumero-Accadiens des Archives et Bibliothequcs privees d'Ugarit,” Ugaritica V (Paris, 1968), pp. 64–65 Google Scholar; for other references, see CAD D s. v. damu “blood,” p. 77. In the love lyrics of Nabu and Tasmetu, the goddess's eyes are seen as bowls of lapis lazuli, welling up with tears ( Matsushima, Eiko, “Le Rituel Hierogamique de Nabû,” Acta Sumerologica 9 [1987]:145 Google Scholar[line 12'], 172).

66. Thompson, Campbell, Devils, vol. I, p. 7 Google Scholar (lines 53-56); but CAD K s. v. karpanis, p. 219 takes it “makes the stomach rumble like a porous pot.”

67. Goetze, A., “Hittite rituals, incantations, and descriptions of festivals,” ANET², p. 347. Related Hittite rituals involve mixing clay and grains into figures, teeth, and tongues to cure a bewitched person (Google Scholar Collins, Billie Jean, “The Representation of Wild Animals in Hittite Texts,” Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1989, pp. 247–48), or somehow disgorging evil “as a spring brings clay up from the earth” (Google Scholar Goetze, A., The Hittite Ritual of Tunnawi [AOS Series 14] [New Haven, 1938, pp. 64f).Google Scholar Burial of clay figures was a common Mesopotamian black magical device, which the intended victim might learn about if his bath water looked as if it were filled with clay, according to one omen series: Farber, Walter, “Vorzeichen aus der Waschschüssel: Zu den akkadischen Bade-Omina (Aumma Alu, 43. nisbil),” Orientalia 58 (1989):94 (line 15'a)Google Scholar.

68. Thompson, Campbell, Devils, vol. I, p. 33 (lines 1-4).Google Scholar

69. Rosenthal, F., “Uruk Incantation,” ANET³, pp. 658–59.Google Scholar

70. Meier, Gerhard, Die assyrische Beschw6rungssammlung Maqlû [AfO Beiheft 2] (Berlin, 1937), III Google Scholar (lines 116-17, 171-72). In the same series, another spell against witches entails snipping pieces of their clothing and gathering potsherds from their houses (II, line 185).

71. Gonda, J., Remarks on Similes in Sanskrit Literature (Leiden, 1949), p. 19.Google Scholar

72. Labat, René, Traité Akkadien de Diagnostics et Pronostics Médicaux (Paris and Leiden, 1951), p. 3 (line 2).Google Scholar

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75. , Nötscher, “Die Omen-Serie,” Orientalia 51–54 (1930):58–59 (line 45).Google Scholar

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77. Zimmern, Heinrich, Beitrage zur Kenntnis der babvlonischen Religion, vol. I (Leipzig, 1901), pp. 198 99 (no. 83 ii 7). See CAD I/J s. v. igbilqu, p. 241.Google Scholar

78. See CAD U s. v. babu, p. 132. Note especially the use of sherds in ;ynecological and obstetrical cases: Finkel, Irving J., “The Crescent Fertile,” fO 27 (1980) :47–49 and passim; for Hittite parallels, seeGoogle Scholar , Beckman, Hittite BUrth ituals (supra n. 53), p. 213 n. 570Google Scholar.

79. Thompson, Campbell, Assyrian Medical Texts (London, 1923), 13, 3:3Google Scholar; 92, :8; see CAD U s. v. baqbu, p. 132.

80. So Tallqvist, K., “Summerisch-akkadische Namen der Totenwelt,” stor 5/4 1934):23.Google Scholar Of the two passages there cited, one is from the “Aluzinnu” text and f doubtful meaning (see Romer, W., “Der Spassmacher im Alten Zweistromland, zum sitz im leben' altmesopotamischer Texte,” Persica 7 [197576]:58);Google Scholar for the ther, see note 81 below.

81. Lambert, W. G., “An Address of Marduk to the Demons,” AfO 17 (1954)318 (F line 4), 320; “potsherds” may be preferable.Google Scholar

82. For an explicit use of basbu “potsherd” as “fragment of a human skull,” ee Thompson, Campbell, AMT, 98, 1:6; 99, 3 r 6; CAD U, p. 132Google Scholar.

83. , Speiser, “The Descent of Ishtar,” ANET², p. 107 Google Scholar; , Grayson, “Nergal and reshkigal,” ANET², p. 509 Google Scholar. A fragmentary Hittite text, possibly a translation f a foreign work, similarly describes the underworld as a place whose denizens eat bits of mud” ( Hoffner, Harry A. Jr., “A Scene in the Realm of the Dead,” p. 93 in A Seient-fic Humanist [supra n. 37])Google Scholar.

84. , Jacobsen, Harps, p. 26.Google Scholar

85. , Jacobsen, Harps, pp. 30–32, 45-46.Google Scholar

86. , Jacobsen, Harps, p. 420.Google Scholar

87. Woolley, Sir Leonard, Ur Excavations VI: The Buildings of the Third Dynasty (London and Philadelphia, 1974 Google Scholar), Shulgi (Woolley's Dungi) p. 3 (“the decoration must have been most ornate, resembling that of a temple”) and Amar-Sin (Woolley's Bur-Sin) p. 26; Moorey, P. R. S., Ur 'of the Chaldees': A Revised and Updated Edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at Ur (Ithaca, 1982), pp. 165–66.Google Scholar

88. , Jacobsen, Harps, p. 440.Google Scholar

89. , Jacobsen, Harps, pp. 300–1.Google Scholar

90. , Jacobson, HarRs, p. 89; in this instance, the vessel is probably woodenGoogle Scholar rather than ceramic.

91. , Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven, 1976), pp. 35, 37. For a different metaphorical use of this image, see “The Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince,” in which the prince's father amasses jewels “like well water in buckets,” wealth “like tar and bitumen,” and coats his treasures with some precious material (“large [...]”) as though using “the clay of the potter”Google Scholar ( Livingstone, Alasdair, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea [State Archives of Assyria, vol. III] [Helsinki, 1989], p. 69 [lines 8-10])Google Scholar

92. Lambert, W. G., “The Problem of the Love Lyrics,” p. 121 inGoogle Scholar Goedicke, H. and Roberts, J. J. M., eds., Unity and Diversity: Essays in the History, Literature. and Reliaion of the Ancient Near East (Baltimore, 1975).Google Scholar On this same passage, see also Lambert's comments on blackness or duskiness as marks of beauty, or lack of it: “Devotion: The Language of Religion and Love,” p. 34 in Figurative Language (supra n. 6).

93. , Lambert, BWL, p. 249 (Tablet K 4347 + 16161, 1ii 50-55).Google Scholar

94. Foster, Benjamin R., “Gilgamesh: Sex, Love and the Ascent of Knowledge,” p. 38 in Love & Death (supra n. 10).Google Scholar

95. For compilations of textual references to potters and their goods, see Salonen, A., Die Hausgeräte der alten Mesopotamier. Teil II Gefässe (Helsinki, 1966), pp. 11–21;Google Scholar Barrelet, M. -T., “Le problème du nom sumérien du potier,” RA 58 (1964):1–8 andGoogle Scholar Figurines et Reliefs en terre cuite de la Mesopotamie antique (Paris, 1968), pp. 5–51;Google Scholar and Waetzoldt, H., “Zwei unveroffentliche Ur-Ill-Texte uber die Herstellung von Tcgefassen,” Welt des Orients 6 (1971):7–41.Google Scholar

96. , Lambert, BWL, p. 264.Google Scholar

97. , Lambert, BWL, p. 195.Google Scholar

98. Kramer, S. N., “Inanna and the Numun-plant: A New Sumerian Myth,” p. 94 (lines 49-52) inGoogle Scholar Rendsburg, G., Adler, R., Arfa, M., Winter, N. H., eds., The Bible World: Essays in Honor of Cyrus H. Gordon (New York, 1980)Google Scholar.

99. , Lambert, BWL, p. 281 Google Scholar; Oppenheim, A. L., Letters from Mesopotamia (Chicago, 1967), p. 170 Google Scholar.

100. , Lambert, BWL, p. 281.Google Scholar

101. Gardiner, Sir Alan, Egyptian Grammar (Oxford, 1969), p. 4.Google Scholar See also Erman, Adolf, The Ancient-Eg ytians; A Sourcebook of their Writings (New York, 1966), pp. li–lxxii, with a new introduction byGoogle Scholar Simpson, W. K. on “The Study of Egyptian Literature, 1925-1965,” pp. xi–xl. For a concise guide to Egyptian literature, with further references, seeGoogle Scholar Simpson, W. K., ed., The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions and Poetry (New Haven, 1973), pp. 1–12 Google Scholar.

102. , Gardiner, Grammar, pp. 438–40,Google Scholar discussion before the List of Hieroglyphic Signs; Davies, W. V., Egyotian Hieroglyphs [Reading the Past 6] (Berkeley, 1987), pp. 30–36 Google Scholar.

103. Faulkner, Raymond O., A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egytian (Oxford, 1962), pp. 272–73, 293-94.Google Scholar

104. Grapow, Hermann, Die bildlichen Ausdrutcke des Aegvptischen (Leipzig, 1924), p. 167.Google Scholar

105. , Faulkner, Dictionary, p. 257.Google Scholar

106. Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Rgodinps, vol. III (Berkeley, 1980), pp. 109-10, 112-15; see alsoGoogle Scholar , Grapow, Ausdrickej, p. 160. For a study of Egyptian cosmology and cosmogony, seeGoogle Scholar Allen, James P., Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts [Yale EMotological Studies 2] (New Haven, 1988)Google Scholar.

107. Ritner, Robert K., “A Uterine Amulet in the Oriental Institute Collection,” JNES 43 (1984):215.Google ScholarPubMed

108. , Simpson, Literature, p. 262.Google Scholar

109. Weeks, Kent R., “The Anatomical Knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians and the Representation of the Human Figure in Egyptian Art” (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1970), pp. 20–21, s. v. p3kt. I am grateful to W. K. Simpson for making a copy of this dissertation available to me.Google Scholar

110. For a general description of execration texts, see Pritchard, James B., Archaeology and the Old Testament (Princeton, 1958), pp. 66–68 Google Scholar.

111. , Grinsell, op. cit., pp. 477–78 (Pyramid Texts %249 a, b, and rubric; “Breaking of the Two Red Jars”).Google Scholar

112. , Grapow, Ausdrucke, p. 167 (Magical Papyrus Harris IV 7).Google Scholar

113. , Lichtheim, Literature, vol. I (Berkeley, 1975), p. 217.Google Scholar

114. , Lichtheim, Literature, vol. I, p. 217. On Middle Kingdom Egyptian literature as propagandistic vehicle, seeGoogle Scholar Posener, Georges, Litterature et politique. dans l'EpVite de la XIIe dynastie (Paris, 1956)Google Scholar.

115. , Lichtheim, Literature, vol. III, p. 164.Google Scholar

116. , Lichtheim, Literature, vol. II (Berkeley, 1976), p. 189. A more poetic translation: “0 Memphis my city, beauty forever! -- you are a bowl of love's own berries, dish set for Ptah your god” (Google Scholar Foster, John L., Love Songs of the New Kingdom [New York, 1974], p. 71)Google Scholar.

117. , Grapow, Ausdrücke, p. 167 (Papyrus Turin P. R. 135,2).Google Scholar

118. , Lichtheim, Literature, vol. I, p. 151.Google Scholar I am grateful to W. K. Simpson for drawing my attention to remarks on this line by Federn, Walter (“‘...As does a potter's wheel,’” ZAS 93 [1966]:55–56). Federn proposes that the metaphor depends on the wheel's ability to reverse direction, as in a similar Homeric simile, not on its swiftness in spinning, as Longfellow used the potter's wheel (nn. 6-10). A very close Sanskrit parallel reads “my mind revolves as on a potter's wheel” (Google Scholar , Gonda, Similes [supra n. 71], p. 24). On wisdom literature in general, seeGoogle Scholar Fox, Michael V., “Two Decades of Research in Egyptian Wisdom Literature,” ZAS 107 (1980):120 35.Google Scholar

119. , Lichtheim, Literature, vol. I, pp. 186–87.Google Scholar Greek vase painters, also held in low regard, may themselves have turned to caricature to vent their frustrations ( Keuls, Eva C., “The Social Position of Attic Vase Painters and the Birth of Caricature,” pp. 300–13 in Christiansen, Jette and Melander, Torben, eds., Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Ancient Greek and Related Pottery [Copenhagen, 1988])Google Scholar.

120. , Lichtheim, Literature, vol. II. 169.Google Scholar

121. For two recent studies of Biblical imagery, see Hillers, elbert R., “Dust: Some Aspects of Old Testament Imagery,” pp. 105–9 in Love & Death (supra n. 10) andGoogle Scholar Longman, Tremper III, Literary Approaches to Biblical Interpretation (Grand Rapids, 1987), esp. pp. 128–32Google Scholar.

122. The present discussion owes much to Kelso, James L., The Ceramic Vocabulary of the Old Testament [ASOR Suppl. Studies 5–6] (New Haven, 1948)Google Scholar.

123. All Hebrew Bible passages are from Tanakh- A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Jewish Publication Society of America: Philadelphia, 1985); New Testament passages are from the Revised Standard Version.Google Scholar

124. Compare the Hymns Scroll of the Dead Sea collection, wherein God is praised by a humble “creature of clay”, “an edifice of dust” ( Vermes, G., The Dead Sea Scrolls in English [Penguin Books, 1962], pp. 151, 159, 190, 192, and elsewhere)Google Scholar.

125. For Jerusalem's Biblical topography, see Paton, Lewis Bayles, Jerusalem in Bible Times (Chicago, 1908), esp. pp. 24–25, 123-4Google Scholar; Pritchard, James B., ed., The Harper Atlas of the Bible (New York, 1987), pp. 166–7, and see there also fig. 3 p. 129, a Carthaginian site of Molech worship, with urns in situGoogle Scholar.

126. , Kelso, Ceramic Vocabulary, p. 17. On Jeremiah's “acted similes,” seeGoogle Scholar Lindblom, J., Prophecy in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia, 1962), esp. p. 171 Google Scholar.

127. The Qumran Targum preserves: “(like dust) money like mud he increases (raiment)” ( Pope, Marvin H., Job [The Anchor Bible, vol. 15] [Doubleday, 1973], p. 192)Google Scholar.

128. Hayes, W. C., Glazed Tiles from a Palace of Ramesses II at Kantīr (New York, 1937).Google Scholar

129. Moorey, P. R. S., Materials and Manufacture in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Evidence of Archaeology and Art [BAR International Series 237] (Oxford, 1985), pp. 165ff.Google Scholar

130. Albright, W. F., “A New Hebrew Word for ‘Glaze’ in Proverbs 26:23,” BASOR 98 (1945):24.Google Scholar

131. Among other translations: “Your womb is a rounded chalice”; “your vulva is a mixing bowl” (Marvin H. Pope, review of Goulder, Michael D., The Song of Fourteen Songs in JAOS 110 [1990]:339). Analogous imagery describes Geštinanna as “Lady Full at the Neck” (Google Scholar R., B. and Foster, K. P., “A Lapidary's Gift to Geštinanna,” Iraq 40 [1978]:64)Google Scholar.

132. Aelian's crocodile has scales on its back like potsherds (Dn nattu1r animalium x.24), noted by Rowley, H. H., The New Century Bible Commentary: The Book of Job (Grand Rapids and London, 1976), p. 264 Google Scholar.

133. Ginsberg, H. L., “Ugaritic Myths and Epics,” ANET², p. 151; I am grateful to Robert R. Wilson for drawing my attention toGoogle Scholar Margalit, Baruch, The Ugaritic Poem of AOHT: Text. Translation, Commentary (Berlin, 1989), with this passage discussed pp. 307–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

134. , Margalit, AOHT, p. 309; to his citations of Neolithic examples and modern studies, add a new piece:Google Scholar Simmons, Alan H. et al. , “A Plastered Human Skull from Neolithic 'Ain Ghazal, Jordan,” Journal of Field Archaeology 17 (1990):107–10. See alsoGoogle Scholar Amiran, Ruth, “Myths of the Creation of Man and the Jericho Statues,” BASOR 167 (1962):23–25, wherein is argued a close connection between mythological and artifactual conceptualizationGoogle Scholar.

135. For commentary and synopsis of previous discussion of this difficult passage, see , Pope, Job, p. 295 Google Scholar.

136. For figurative seals as metaphors for personal relationships, see Hallo, W. W., “‘As the Seal upon Thine Arm‘: Glyptic Metaphors in the Biblical World,” pp. 7–17 in Gorelick, L. and Williams-Forte, E., eds., Ancient Seals and the Bible (Malibu, 1984)Google Scholar.