Gods in the Desert: Religions of the Ancient Near East

364 Pages·2009·3.75 MB·English

by  Glenn S. Holland

Gods in the Desert
Gods in the Desert

Religions of the Ancient Near East

Glenn S. Holland
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.

Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
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Copyright © 2009 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
First paperback edition 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of
Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
The hardback edition of this book was previously cataloged by the Library of

Congress as follows: Holland, Glenn Stanfield, 1952– Gods in the desert :
religions of the ancient Near East / Glenn S. Holland.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Middle East—Religion. 2. Mythology, Middle Eastern. I. Title.
BL1060.H635 2009
200.939'4—dc22 2009009444
ISBN 978-0-7425-6226-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7425-6227-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7425-9979-6 (electronic)
The Scripture quotations used herein are taken from the New Revised Standard
Version
Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National
Council
of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights
reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Illustrations

The Great Pyramid at Giza
Mask of Tutankhamun
Head of Hathor
Akhenaten and his family receiving blessings at the hands of Aten
Partially reconstructed mortuary temple of Hatshepsut
Tutankhamun between the goddess Sekhmet and Ptah, flanked by Horus
as a crowned falcon and Wadjit, goddess of Lower Egypt
The weighing of the heart in the Judgment Hall of Osiris.
Procession of the sun bark of Ra
Figure of a scribe
Sargon II and the Tree of Life
Akkadian seal from Mesopotamia
Clay mask of Huwawa or Humbaba
Partial reconstruction of the Great Ziggurat at Ur
Reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate of the city of Babylon
Cuneiform tablet containing part of the Flood narrative from the Epic of
Gilgamesh
Bronze Canaanite figure of Baal
View of modern Jerusalem

List of Maps

Ancient Egypt
Ancient Mesopotamia
Syria—Palestine in the Ninth Century BCE