Le tirage au sort des provinces divines chez Homère (Iliade 15, 185-199) et ses antécédents mésopotamiens : un état de la question

Abstract

In the Iliad (O 185-199), Zeus, Hades and Poseidon draw lots to divide the world into divine provinces. This myth is attested for the first time in Greek in the Iliad, and finds several parallels in later Greek tradition. However, these parallels are not sufficient to account for its exceptional nature in the context of Homeric epic. Another, non-Greek, parallel seems to offer a key to the solution of this problem – namely a similar myth of Mesopotamian origin, which appears in Atram-Hasis, an Akkadian cuneiform text. This article reconstructs the possible ways in which the Mesopotamian myth reached the Greek-speaking world at the time the Homeric epics were being composed. Through a systematic study of the affinities and differences between the two texts, the article goes on to interpret the Homeric myth as a refraction of ancient Near Eastern cosmological conceptions. An appendix summarizes two important functions of lot-drawing in ancient Mesopotamia : the settling of inheritances and the designation of “ eponyms” (limmu).