Ancestor of the West: Writing, Reasoning, and Religion in Mesopotamia, Elam, and GreeceWith Ancestor of the West, three distinguished French historians reveal the story of the birth of writing and reason, demonstrating how the logical religious structures of Near Eastern and Mesopotamian cultures served as precursors to those of the West. "Full of matter for anyone interested in language, religion, and politics in the ancient world."—R. T. Ridley, Journal of Religious History "In this accessible introduction to the ancient world, three leading French scholars explore the emergence of rationality and writing in the West, tracing its development and its survival in our own traditions. . . . Jean Bottero focuses on writing and religion in ancient Mesopotamia, Clarisse Herrenschmidt considers a broader history of ancient writing, and Jean-Pierre Vernant examines classical Greek civilization in the context of Near Eastern history."—Translation Review |
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Common terms and phrases
Achaemenid Ahura Mazdā Akkadian Anaximander ancient Mesopotamians appear Aramaic archē aspirated h Athenians Athens Avestan became beginning birth breath bullae calculi called century B.C. citizens civilization complete alphabet consonant alphabets consonantal cratos created culture disappeared divine documents earth Elam Elamite language essential everything example existence expressed fact fourth millennium gods graphic Greece Greek alphabet Hebrew humans imagine Indo-European inscriptions Inšušnak invented invisible Iran Iranian Jean Bottéro Jean-Pierre Vernant king land letters Linear Elamite linguistic logograms Mazdean means Middle East Mycenaean myths number of signs objects occlusive Old Persian cuneiform origin Peiraeus person Phoenician phonetic pictograms pneuma political proto-Elamite reader realm religion religious represented ritual role royal ruler scribes script second millennium Semitic signs with inherent sound speech Sumerian Susa syllabaries syllable tablets texts things third millennium thought tion vowels word writing system written Yasna