Ancient Greek Poetry and the Near East

Comparative study of ancient Greek and Near Eastern texts has become a standard subfield of classical philology. This timely handbook presents an up-to-date history of the field and sets out the important questions still to be answered. The author lays out the kinds of parallels that have been discovered for various Greek poetic genres: epic, theogonic, genealogical, and didactic narratives, Homeric hymns, lyric and iambic poetry, drama, Orphic poetry, and incantations. These data inform discussions of how transmission could have occurred in each case – the "who, what, where, when, how, and why" – taking into account such questions as performance settings and other places of contact, the means by which traditional texts were handed down, translation and adaptation, and competition among performers and intellectual authorities. In this way, layers of Near Eastern influence on Greek poetic texts can be distinguished. Covering the full range of relevant sources with reliable up-to-date bibliography, this volume strikes a balance between addressing the educated lay reader, including interested undergraduates, and specialists in the various fields in which the texts in question are the topic of study.