La creazione della statua di culto come atto religioso, politico e ideologico: il caso di Esarhaddon (680-669 a.C.)

Abstract

In 689 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib destroyed Babylon and deported the statues of the
Babylonian gods to Assyria. In order to restore the political and religious relations between Assyria
and Babylonia, Esarhaddon undertakes to renovate the Babylonian statues and relocate them in their
temples in southern Mesopotamia. This paper aims to provide an analysis of some royal inscriptions
dealing with the (re)creation of the divine effigies and offer an interpretation of their salient
passages.