The logo of the Melammu Project

The Melammu Project

The Heritage of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East


  The Melammu Project
  
   General description
   Search string
   Browse by topic
   Search keyword
   Submit entry
  
   About
   Open search
   Thematic search
   Digital Library
   Submit item
  
   Ancient texts
   Dictionaries
   Projects
   Varia
   Submit link
  FAQ
  Contact us
  About

  The Newsletter
  To Project Information >

 

Building of the tower (1)

Printable view
Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)

01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery



01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery



Keywords
tower of Babylon
Period
3rd century BCE
1st century BCE
3rd century CE
Roman Empire
Channel
Christian-Greek philosophers and scholars
Hellenistic philosophers and scholars
Helleno-Roman philosophers and scholars


Text
Alexander Polyhistor 79:
The Sibyl says: ‘when all people spoke the same language, some of them built an exceedingly high tower, in order that they might climb up to heaven. But when God breathed winds, he overturned them. And he gave a unique language to each person, for which reason the city was called Babylon. After the Flood there arose Titan and Prometheus. … it was called Babylon, which they fictitiously say was ruled by kings many tens of thousands of years before.

Abydenus 4 (= Eusebius, Praeparatio 9.14.1):
There, it is said that the first men who arose, being puffed up by their strength and stature, and indeed proudly thinking that they were better than the gods, raised a huge tower, which is now Babylon. And they were already nearer to heaven. And the winds coming to the aid of the gods brought the structure down around them, the ruins of which were called Babylon. And being up to that time of one language, they received from the gods a confused language. And afterward, war arose between Kronos and Titan.


Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Abydenus 4
Alexander Polyhistor 79
Eusebius, Praeparatio 9.14.1

Bibliography

Adler and Tuffin 2002, 60Adler, W. and P. Tuffin. The Chronography of George Synkellos. A Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation translated with introduction and notes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000700.php


Illustrations
No pictures


^
T
O
P