ABSTRACT
Being a Man is a formative work which reveals the myriad and complex negotiations for constructions of masculine identities in the greater ancient Near East and beyond. Through a juxtaposition of studies into Neo-Assyrian artistic representations and omens, biblical hymns and narrative, Hittite, Akkadian, and Indian epic, as well as detailed linguistic studies on gender and sex in the Sumerian and Hebrew languages, the book challenges traditional understandings and assumed homogeneity for what it meant "to be a man" in antiquity. Being a Man is an indispensable resource for students of the ancient Near East, and a fascinating study for anyone with an interest in gender and sexuality throughout history.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |29 pages
Wisdom of former days
The manly Hittite king and foolish Kumarbi, father of the gods
chapter |13 pages
Female trouble and troubled males
Roiled seas, decadent royals, and Mesopotamian masculinities in myth and practice
chapter |22 pages
Shaved beards and bared buttocks
Shame and the undermining of masculine performance in biblical texts
chapter |23 pages
Happy is the man who fills his quiver with them (Ps. 127:5)
Constructions of masculinities in the Psalms
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chapter |34 pages
The masculinity of male angels on the make
Genesis 6:1–4 in early nineteenth-century Gothic imagination
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