LEADER 04338nam 22006491 450 001 9910827894903321 005 20160707140203.0 010 $a0-7556-0923-9 010 $a0-85773-607-8 024 7 $a10.5040/9780755609239 035 $a(CKB)3710000000377844 035 $a(EBL)1992218 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001458078 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12559710 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001458078 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11443693 035 $a(PQKB)10637124 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC1992218 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC6486555 035 $a(OCoLC)905544191 035 $a(UtOrBLW)bpp09264594 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL1992218 035 $a(OCoLC)905996380 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000377844 100 $a20200131d2014 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aBabylon $elegend, history and the ancient city /$fMichael Seymour 205 $a1st ed. 210 1$aLondon ;$aNew York :$cI.B. Tauris,$d2014. 215 $a1 online resource (585 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a1-84885-701-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 307-338) and index. 327 $aList of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Maps -- 1. A City and its ghosts -- 2. Ancient Babylon -- 3. Tyrants and wonders: The biblical and classical sources -- 4. The Eartly City : Medieval and Renaissance approaches -- 5. Discoveries and fantasies: Enlightenment and modern approaches -- 6. The German experience: Excavation and repetition -- 7. The Library of Babel: Babylon and its representation after the excavations -- 8. Culture and knowledge Postcript: The Babylon exhibitions -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index. 330 $a"Babylon: for eons its very name has been a byword for luxury and wickedness. 'By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept', wrote the psalmist, 'as we remembered Zion'. One of the greatest cities of the ancient world, Babylon has been eclipsed by its own sinful reputation. For two thousand years the real, physical metropolis lay buried while another, ghostly city lived on, engorged on accounts of its own destruction. More recently the site of Babylon has been the centre of major excavation, yet the spectacular results of this work have done little to displace the many other fascinating ways in which the city has endured and reinvented itself in culture. Saddam Hussein, for one, notoriously exploited the Babylonian myth to associate himself and his regime with its glorious past. Why has Babylon so creatively fired the human imagination, with results both good and ill? Why has it been so enthralling to so many, and for so long? In exploring answers, Michael Seymour's book ranges extensively over space and time and embraces art, archaeology, history and literature. From Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, via Strabo and Diodorus, to the Book of Revelation, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Voltaire, William Blake and modern interpreters like Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino and Gore Vidal, the author brings to light a carnival of disparate sources dominated by powerful and intoxicating ideas such as the Tower of Babel and the city of sin. Yet captivating as this dark mythology was and has continued to be, at its root lies a remarkable and sophisticated imperial civilization whose complex state-building, law-making and religion dominated Mesopotamia and beyond for millennia, before its incorporation into the still wider Persian empire of the Achaemenid kings."--Bloomsbury publishing. 517 3 $aLegend, history and the ancient city 606 $aExcavations (Archaeology)$zIraq$xBabylon (Extinct city) 606 $aAncient history: to c 500 CE$2BIC 607 $aBabylon (Extinct city)$xHistory 607 $aBabylon (Extinct city)$xIn art 607 $aBabylon (Extinct city)$xIn literature 607 $aIraq$xAntiquities 607 $aIraq$zBabylon (Extinct city)$2fast 615 0$aExcavations (Archaeology)$xBabylon (Extinct city) 615 7$aAncient history: to c 500 CE. 676 $a935 700 $aSeymour$b Michael$g(Michael John),$01683677 801 0$bUtOrBLW 801 1$bUtOrBLW 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910827894903321 996 $aBabylon$94054626 997 $aUNINA