Gilgamesch: Ikonographie eines Helden.

• Author: Graff, Sarah B.
• Position: Book review

Gilgamesch: Ikonographie eines Helden. Edited by HANS ULRICH STEYMANS. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, vol. 245. Fribourg: ACADEMIC Piss, 2010. Pp. xi + 452, illus. FrS 129.

This collection of eleven essays from nine authors on various topics connected with the visual and literary manifestations of the Gilgameg epic had its genesis in a talk given by Ursula Seidl at a meeting of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft fur Orientalische Altertumswissenschaft and the "Bibel+Orient" group in 2006. Seidl's essay is presented here, along with other new contributions and several classic studies of Gilgames imagery in visual material. Both art historians and philologists, some with training in archaeology, make up the contributors. The editor, Hans Ulrich Steymans, states that his intent was both to publish some unpublished works in the Bibel + Orient Museum's collection, and to gather material "fur eine Dokumentation der Ikonographie des Gilgameg" (p. v). However, since reams of documentation of Gilgameg iconography already exist, what is in fact needed is a critical assessment of the entire venture. We cannot ignore, for example, the lack of consensus even on how to identify the iconography that is the focus of this volume.

The first essay, by Steymans himself, presents an overview of the Gilgameg epic and draws heavily on Othmar Keel's work in explaining the early history of interpretations linking visual and textual material related to Gilgameg, starting with George Smith in 1876 and continuing up to recent studies. The early identification of Gilgameg with the nude hero and Enkidu with the bull-man is discussed, as is the three-figure schema generally used to depict the heroic combats with Humbaba and with the Bull of Heaven. Steymans goes on to make a list of themes in the epic attested in visual media, illustrated by individual examples, but these choices are highly problematic. For instance, in analyzing the Humbabahead orthostats (here conflated into one) from Tell al Rimah through the formalist methodology of Alois Riegl, Steymans avoids engaging with the scholarship of David Oates, Marie-Therese Barrelet, Theresa Howard Carter, and others on the original context and function of these reliefs.

The following essay, also by Steymans, purports to introduce the methodologies used by the contributors, and admirably insists on the rigorous application of iconographic analysis. However, the stated thesis does not quite fit with the content, which becomes...