EVIL EYE OF HUMANS, ANIMALS, AND DEMONS IN SUMERIAN LITERATURE

• Authors: Kotzé Zacharias
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The widespread ancient belief in the deleterious powers of the eye as reflected in Sumerian literature has been largely neglected in recent research. It has even been suggested that the belief system, though common in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, was foreign to the ancient Sumerians. While Thomsen suggested that the evil eye was limited to humans, other scholars have argued that the evil eye was only associated with divinities in Sumerian literature. This study focuses on the conceptual content of linguistic expressions relating to the eye of humans, animals, and demons in order to demonstrate that much can still be learned about this complex belief system as it existed in ancient Mesopotamia when conceptual metaphors and metonymies for the evil eye are also taken into account.

Keywords

EN

EVIL EYE; SUMERIAN LITERATURE; COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Asian and African Studies
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 53 - 74

Contributors

author

Kotzé Zacharias

• Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, University of South, Preller Street, Pretoria, South Africa

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/aassav.2021.30.1.03