Gods and Ancestors in Emar and Nuzi

Abstract

(Extrait de Res.d'A.). Owing to the discoveries at Emar, it has become possible to take a comparative approach to the domestic cult documented in the Nuzi tablets. The Emar texts contain frequent allusions to household gods. The gods mentionned in Emar inheritance texts refer in fact to the ancestors. The costumary expression the gods and the dead is best taken as a hendiadys: the dead are called gods on account of their priviliged state. A study of the occurences of ilānu and etemmū in the Nuzi texts suggests that, here too, the two designations both refer to the deifeid family ancestors. (...).