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The Origin of Death in some Ancient Near Eastern Religions1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

S. G. F. Brandon
Affiliation:
Professor of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester

Extract

The Irish poet W. B. Yeats once wrote, with great sapience and perception:

Nor dread, nor hope attend

A dying animal;

A man awaits his end

Dreading and hoping all.

That death has ever been a problem to man is attested as far back as we can trace our species in the archaeological record—indeed, it seems to have been a problem even for that immediate precursor of homo sapiens, the so-called Neanderthal Man; for he buried his dead.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

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References

Page 217 note 2 Cf. Brandon, S. G. F., Man and his Destiny in the Great Religions (Manchester University Press, 1962), pp. 89.Google Scholar This work, often to be cited, contains full documentation.

Page 217 note 3 Cf. op. cit., pp. 8–13.

Page 218 note 1 Manchester University Press, 1965.

Page 218 note 2 Pyr. 366c, 367b.

Page 219 note 1 Cf. Sander-Hansen, C. E., Der Begriff des Todes bei den Aegyptern (Copenhagen, 1942), pp. 1820;Google ScholarBrandon, , Man and his Destiny, p. 35.Google Scholar

Page 219 note 2 Cf. Brandon, , Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East (London, 1963), p. 62.Google Scholar

Page 219 note 3 Cf. Creation Legends, chapter 11.

Page 219 note 4 Cf. Man and his Destiny, pp. 63, 66–7.

Page 220 note 1 Cf. Man and his Destiny, pp. 35 ff., where full documentation is given.

Page 220 note 2 Pyr. 1255.

Page 220 note 3 Cf. Bonnet, H., Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte (Berlin, 1952), pp. 707, 711b715;Google ScholarBrandon, , ‘The Personification of Death in some Ancient Religions’ (Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 43, 1961), p. 322;CrossRefGoogle ScholarZandee, J., Death as an Enemy (Leiden, 1960), pp. 85–7, 184–6.Google Scholar

Page 220 note 4 Cf. Brandon, in The Saviour God (Manchester University Press, 1963), pp. 1828.Google Scholar

Page 221 note 1 Kramer, S. N., Sumerian Mythology (Philadelphia, 1944), pp. 6872.Google Scholar

Page 221 note 2 Cf. Brandon, , Creation Legends, pp. 60–1.Google Scholar

Page 222 note 1 Cf. Creation Legends, pp. 77–8.

Page 222 note 2 Cf. Creation Legends, chapter 111.

Page 223 note 1 Tab. X, col. ii, 1–11; trans. Heidel, A., The Gilgamesh Epic (Chicago University Press, 1949), pp. 6970.Google Scholar Cf. Man and his Destiny, pp. 91–3.

Page 224 note 1 Tab. VII, col. iv, 31–41; trans. Heidel, p. 36.

Page 224 note 2 Cf. Ebeling, E., Tod und Leben nach den Vorstellungen des Babylonier (Berlin/Leipzig, 1931), vol. 1, (5) 3;Google Scholar Brandon in B.J.R.L., vol. 43 (1961), p. 324.

Page 224 note 3 Cf. Man and his Destiny, p. 93.

Page 225 note 1 Cf. Man and his Destiny, pp. 87–9.

Page 225 note 2 Cf. Brandon, , History, Time and Deity, pp. 126–9.Google Scholar

Page 226 note 1 Genesis ii. 7.

Page 226 note 2 Gen. ii. 19. Cf. Creation Legends, pp. 123–4.

Page 226 note 3 Gen. ii. 9.

Page 226 note 4 Cf. Creation Legends, pp. 126, 132–5.

Page 226 note 5 Cf. Creation Legends, pp. 127–32, where documentation is given.

Page 227 note 1 Gen. iii. 6–7.

Page 227 note 2 Cf. Creation Legends, pp. 136–9. See also Schwarzbaum, H., ‘The Overcrowded Earth’, in Numen, vol. iv (1957), pp. 5971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 228 note 1 In James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 11;Google Scholar see also Philo, , On the Creation, liii, 1152.Google Scholar

Page 228 note 2 Gen. iii. 19.

Page 228 note 3 Cf. Brandon, , in B.J.R.L. vol. 43, pp. 325–6.Google Scholar

Page 228 note 4 Cf. History, Time and Deity, pp. 61–3.

Page 228 note 5 Cf. de la Vallée, L. Poussin in E.R.E. vol. viii, pp. 406b407b.Google Scholar