the Judeo-Christian Legacy4.4 Italian Cinema and the Greco-Roman Heritage4.4.1 The First Golden Age4.4.2 Peplum and the Genesis of the WestChapter 5: Mesopotamia as the Seed of Evil5.1 Resurrecting Ancient Near Eastern Demons5.2 Present Speeches From an Ancient Demoniacal Past5.2.1 Religious Narratives: The Apocalypse and the Whore of Babylon5.2.2 Political Narratives: Communism, Capitalism, Nazism, and TerrorismChapter 6: Imagining the Land Between the Rivers: Urbanism and Culture6.1 The City as a Privileged Setting6.1.1 The Hyperbolizing of Urban Architecture6.1.2 The Polarization of the City: Palace and Temple6.2 The Ziggurat Tower: Babel Intertwining Past and Present6.3 Exoticism and Modernism: Colliding Worlds in Mesopotamia6.3.1 Hybridism and Advance Machinery in the Era of Industrial Revival6.3.2 Universalizing Mesopotamia in Post-Fascist ItalyChapter 7: Exploring Mesopotamia’s Society and Politics7.1 A Portrait of the King and Queen and Their Population7.1.1 Eastern Stereotypes and Socio-political Contexts7.1.2 The Mesopotamian Fascist vs. the Mesopotamian Apostle of Tolerance7.2 Religion and Politics7.2.1 Gods at War: Idolatry, Holocaust and the Judeo-Christian Faith7.2.2 It’s Every Man for HimselfChapter 8: Helping Without Hurting8.1 Judith against Assyria8.1.1 Female Emancipation vs. Biblical Conservatism8.1.2 The Debate Regarding the “New Woman”8.2 The Two Semiramis8.3 Mesopotamian Bacchanals and Odd RitualsChapter 9: Farewell Babylon, Farewell Nineveh10 Bibliography
11 Index
List of Illustrations
1 Chapter 1Figure 1.1. James Tissot, The Flight of the Prisoners.Figure 1.2. Martyrs chrétiens, a film by Lucien Nonguet..
2 Chapter 2Figure 2.1. Woodcut illustration of Semiramis from an incunable German...Figure 2.2. SéSémiramis, a film by Camille de Morlhon.Figure 2.3. The Gate of Imgur Bel with Assyrian winged bulls...
3 Chapter 3Figure 3.1. Engraving by Gustave Doré entitled The..Figure 3.2. Still from the movie Metropolis (1927).Figure 3.3. Belshazzar’s Feast (1820) by John Martin. Public domain.
4 Chapter 4Figure 4.1. Actress Gloria Swanson in a publicity shot for the...Figure 4.2. Motion picture poster for the film Cabiria (1914)..
5 Chapter 5Figure 5.1. The Seven-headed animal from Metropolis (1927).Figure 5.2. The underground world of The Mole People (1956)...
6 Chapter 6Figure 6.1. Gate of Ishtar reconstructed at the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin. Figure 6.2. The Babylonian court of Intolerance (1916). Public domain.Figure 6.3. Poster for Noah’s Ark (1928). Public domain.
7 Chapter 7Figure 7.1. Le Festin de Balthazar, a film by Louis Feuillade..Figure 7.2. Assyrian banquet relief.Figure 7.3. David W. Griffith near Ishtar’s statue.
8 Chapter 8Figure 8.1. Blanche Sweet as Judith in Judith of Bethulia...Figure 8.2. Yvonne Furneaux as the Assyrian queen in Io Semiramide (1963).Figure 8.3. Scene from Intolerance (1916). Public domain.
Guide
1 Cover
5 Table of Contents
10 Index
Pages
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