This article examines the function of dismemberment in four stories of female figures from ancient Near Eastern literature. Using the tools of feminist literary analysis, I explore the tales of Levite’s concubine (Judges 19), Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30-37), Anat (KTU 1.3 ii; iii 1-2; 1.6 ii 28-37), and Isis (myth of Isis and Osiris). Comparison between the demise of the Levite’s concubine and Jezebel points to the shared significance of their dismemberment, despite the women’s vastly different societal positions. The discussion then focuses on two goddesses: Anat in Ugaritic narrative poetry and Isis in Egyptian mythology, showing their strength in scenes of dismemberment. Despite differences in divinity and power, all four women can be joined by their connection to dismemberment, whether as a victim, perpetrator, or restorer. This article reveals how dismemberment in these stories serves to strengthen androcentric hegemony while nonetheless challenging assumed gender stereotypes.
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See Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror: Feminist Literary Readings of Biblical Narratives (OTL; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), p. 80.
For fuller discussion, see Daniel Block, “Echo Narrative Technique in Hebrew Literature: A Study in Judges 19” WTJ 52.2 (Fall 1990), pp. 325-41; Weston W. Fields, “The Motif ‘Night as Danger’ Associate with Three Biblical Destruction Narratives,” in Michael Fishbane and Emanuel Tov with the assistance of Weston Fields (eds.), Shar’arei Talmon: Studies in the Bible, Qumran, and the Ancient Near East Presented to Shemaryahu Talmon (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1992), pp. 17-32; Thalia Gur-Klein, “Sexual Hospitality in the Hebrew Bible: Patriarchal Lineage or Matriarchal Rebellion?” in Lisa Isherwood (ed.), Patriarchs, Prophets and Other Villains (London Equinox, 2007), pp. 157-82; Stuart Lasine, “Guest and Host in Judges 19: Lot’s Hospitality in an Inverted World” JSOT 29 (1984), pp. 37-59; Victor H. Matthews, “Hospitality and Hostility in Genesis 19 and Judges 19” BTB 22.1 (Spring 1992), pp. 3-11; Susan Niditch, “The ‘Sodomite’ Theme in Judges 19-20: Family, Community, and Social Disintegration,” CBQ 44 (1982), pp. 365-78; David Penchansky, “Staying the Night: Intertexuality in Genesis and Judges” in Danna Nolan Fewell (ed.), Reading Between Texts: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1992), pp. 17-22; Anne Michele Tapp, “An Ideology of Expendability: Virgin Daughter Sacrifice in Genesis 19:1-11, Judges 11:30-39 and 19:22-26,” in Mieke Bal (ed.), Anti-Covenant: Counter-Reading Women’s Lives in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Almond Press, 1989), pp. 157-74, among others.
See, for example, Jon L. Berquist, Controlling Corporeality: The Body and the Household in Ancient Israel (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002), p. 92.
See Karla Bohmbach, “Conventions/Contraventions: The Meanings of Public and Private for the Judges 19 Concubine” JSOT 83 (1999), pp. 83-98 (96). Bohmbach ultimately questions the usefulness of understanding of private and public spaces as inherently female or male domains, respectively.
On this point see Mieke Bal, Death and Dissymmetry: The Politics of Coherence in the Book of Judges (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 232. See also Francisco O. García-Treto, “The Fall of the House: A Carnivalesque Reading of 2 Kings 9 and 10,” in Fewell (ed.), Reading Between Texts, pp. 153-55.
See, for example, Judith McKinlay, “Negotiating the Frame for Viewing the Death of Jezebel,” BibInt 10.3 (2002), pp. 305–23 (306–307).
Janet S. Everhardt, “Jezebel: Framed by Eunuchs?” CBQ 72 (2010), pp. 688–98 (697). The qere reading changes the masculine object to feminine.
Appler, “From Queen to Cuisine,” p. 67. The MT contains no explicit references to Anat, although some scholars infer references to her name in Judg. 3.31; 5:6, which mention Shamgar son of Anath; and in Josh. 19:38 and Judg. 1:33, with references to the town of Beth-anath. For further discussion, see P. L. Day, “Anat,” in Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Hoorst (eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 36–43.
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This article examines the function of dismemberment in four stories of female figures from ancient Near Eastern literature. Using the tools of feminist literary analysis, I explore the tales of Levite’s concubine (Judges 19), Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30-37), Anat (KTU 1.3 ii; iii 1-2; 1.6 ii 28-37), and Isis (myth of Isis and Osiris). Comparison between the demise of the Levite’s concubine and Jezebel points to the shared significance of their dismemberment, despite the women’s vastly different societal positions. The discussion then focuses on two goddesses: Anat in Ugaritic narrative poetry and Isis in Egyptian mythology, showing their strength in scenes of dismemberment. Despite differences in divinity and power, all four women can be joined by their connection to dismemberment, whether as a victim, perpetrator, or restorer. This article reveals how dismemberment in these stories serves to strengthen androcentric hegemony while nonetheless challenging assumed gender stereotypes.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 708 | 113 | 10 |
Full Text Views | 98 | 3 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 147 | 10 | 2 |