Last Thoughts on Rituals of war

After reading chapters seven and eight of Rituals of war, I came upon several questions that relate to other texts. Chapter eight makes note of the number seven as being the number of creatures created by Anu that brought destruction to the land ( Bahrani 208). These seven creatures represent seven different plagues or types of destruction. As someone in the class said that it might be dangerous to draw comparisons to the bible but I particularly find number seven to be linked in the bible. According to the bible, seven are the days that took god to create the world (Genesis). In the seventh day, God finished creating the world (Genesis). In relation to the destruction afflicted by the seven mythical creatures, there exists a passage in the bible that tells about seven seals of the apocalypse; they brought destruction and catastrophes. It just seems that number seven is associated with destruction. In addition, the number seven is also mentioned in the epic of Gilgamesh several times. One example is on tablet number two when Enkidu fornicates with Shamhat for seven days and seven nights. It appears that the number seven represents a cycle; a cycle that the ancient ideology established.

There are instances where Bahrani’s arguments seem to be acceptable. However, on page 201, the author makes a big deal about the head but as we discussed in class, the head does not stands out, and is treated as a single component of the entire relief. In addition, Bahrani also argues that the images of war in reliefs and art did not serve for propaganda rather it was part of a religious ideology (197). On page 204, Bahrani brings out an interesting point that might support her argument. She affirms: The Assyrian palace reliefs that depict wars do not glorify the king as an individual in any obvious way.” Furthermore, she argues that there exists a difference of art reliefs and written accounts. On page 204 she argues that the written accounts in which the king takes a first person narrative and takes the credit for the main events. In my opinion, both the written accounts and the images were used for propaganda. The images portrayed the religious ideology that justified the violence and war. The written accounts as Bahrani has pointed out, served a tool for glorification. Although reading Bahrani’s raises the question to what extend her arguments are credible, Rituals of war has presented a critical view of the ways we can look at art in the ancient context.