{"product_id":"abishag-administrator-of-king-davids-household-9781910928875","title":"Abishag: Administrator of King David's Household","description":"\u003cp\u003e Following Daniel Bodi's previous monographs on the three wives of King David-Michal, Bathsheba and Abigail-here is a fourth one on Abishag, the last woman in his life. It has not been recognized before how decisive a role she played as a palace administrator in David's final political crisis, Adonijah's coup d'état, and Solomon's proclamation as king. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHitherto, Abishag has been given androcentric readings. Her position as administrator has been demoted to that of a mere housekeeper, bedfellow or even hot-water bottle. Some rabbinic authors transformed her into an androgynous being, claiming an intersex person warms better than a young female virgin. In fact, the term for Abishag's office as sōkenet is nothing but the feminine form of sōken 'palace steward', a well-known functionary across the Semitic world. Much more than a simple housekeeper, Abishag wields administrative power with a legal role as a witness in Solomon's appointment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Exploring further the role of women at royal courts, Bodi also offers a comparative analysis of the famous queens who played a role in the royal succession as kings' mothers in Egypt, Mari, Hatti, Ugarit and Assyria. Solomon's appointment as David's successor results from a palace putsch, executed with cunning and craftiness, which are to be understood as archaic forms of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible, classical Greece and the ancient Near East.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The stories of David's wives-and of Abishag-together form a Hebrew document in the style of an Advice to a Prince. An interesting comparison is drawn between David's four wives and the four females Odysseus encounters in Homer's Odyssey: Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa and Penelope. Strikingly, the Hebrew version of the Advice to a Prince and the Homeric Epic were being written at roughly the same time, the end of the eighth century bce.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBodi, Daniel:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \"Daniel Bodi is Professor of History of Religions of Antiquity at the University of Paris IV - La Sorbonne.\"","brand":"Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50922772070674,"sku":"9781910928875","price":101.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_25846cba-16b6-4234-9486-e9f6753a7730.jpg?v=1738939298","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/abishag-administrator-of-king-davids-household-9781910928875","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}