Variations on Violence in Greek and Akkadian Succession Myths

Abstract In this article I explore a selection of texts from Greece and Mesopotamia that either recount or comment on the succession myth. I argue that representations of violence in those texts differ considerably within the same culture and time period. I explain these variations as social deixis, positing that ancient authors and interpreters of the succession myth used different representations of violence to present themselves as innovative figures. I argue that both mythmakers and myth-interpreters increased and decreased the intensity and number of violent features to mark a position in the competitive field of cosmological knowledge. Through the comparison of the sources, I show that there was as much competition and innovation in Greece as in Mesopotamia within the field of cosmology. The similarity of social contexts and practices may explain the cross-cultural transfer of knowledge between specialists of these two regions.