| Summary: | The literary motif of crossing has been transmitted over generations in royal Mesopotamian inscriptions as well as in the Levant with its political and ideological issues, mostly royal conquest and victory. It also plays an important role in mythological sources particularly in the Epic of Gilgameš and also in the case of the divine vision in the book of Ezekiel which evidences different Mesopotamian influences. This contribution in its comparative approach adds to past research concerning echoes or dependence between the book of Ezekiel and Mesopotamian sources. It is also the occasion to reflect further on the use of motifs in ancient literature, the way they were transmitted and reinterpreted along particular lines of ideology or history. And finally, in deepening our understanding of the literary motif of crossing, it is highlighted how such a motif was indeed mythologically reworked to the point of mysticism: crossing the border of human reality and entering a fourth dimension beyond human grasp, divine and transcendent.
|
|---|
