Epic and History
Ancient World: Comparative Histories
1. Edition December 2009
456 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBN:
978-1-4051-9307-8
John Wiley & Sons
With contributions from leading scholars, this is a unique
cross-cultural comparison of historical epics across a wide range
of cultures and time periods, which presents crucial insights into
how history is treated in narrative poetry.
* The first book to gain new insights into the topic of
'epic and history' through in-depth cross-cultural
comparisons
* Covers epic traditions across the globe and across a wide range
of time periods
* Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited
by two internationally regarded scholars
* An important reference for scholars and students interested in
history and literature across a broad range of disciplines
List of Figures and Tables vii
Notes on Contributors viii
Series Editor's Preface xiv
1 Introduction 1
David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub
2 Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian Heroic
Poetry 7
Piotr Michalowski
3 Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation in
Akkadian Heroic Traditions 26
Joan Goodnick Westenholz
4 Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia: In Search of a Local
Hero 51
Amir Gilan
5 Manly Deeds: Hittite Admonitory History and Eastern
Mediterranean Didactic Epic 66
Mary R. Bachvarova
6 Epic and History in the Hebrew Bible: Definitions,
"Ethnic Genres," and the Challenges of Cultural
Identity
in the Biblical Book of Judges 86
Susan Niditch
7 No Contest between Memory and Invention: The Invention of the
Pa08ava Heroes of the MahAbhArata 103
James L. Fitzgerald
8 From "Imperishable Glory" to History: The Iliad
and the Trojan War 122
Jonas Grethlein
9 Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical Greek
Elegy 145
Ewen Bowie
10 Fact, Fiction, and Form in Early Roman Epic 167
Sander M. Goldberg
11 The Song and the Sword: Silius's Punica and the Crisis
of Early Imperial Epic 185
Raymond D. Marks
12 The Burden of Mortality: Alexander and the Dead in Persian
Epic and Beyond 212
Olga M. Davidson
13 Slavic Epic: Past Tales and Present Myths 223
Susana Torres Prieto
14 Historicity and Anachronism in Beowulf 243
Geoffrey Russom
15 The Nibelungenlied - Myth and History: A Middle High
German Epic Poem at the Crossroads of Past and Present, Despair and
Hope 262
Albrecht Classen
16 Medieval Epic and History in the Romance Literatures
280
Joseph J. Duggan
17 Roland's Migration from Anglo-Norman Epic to Royal
French Chronicle History 293
Michel-André Bossy
18 A Recurrent Theme of the Spanish Medieval Epic: Complaints
and Laments by Noble Women 310
Mercedes Vaquero
19 History in Medieval Scandinavian Heroic Literature and the
Northwest European Context 328
Robert D. Fulk
20 Traditional History in South Slavic Oral Epic 347
John Miles Foley
21 Lord Five Thunder and the 12 Eagles and Jaguars of Rabinal
Meet Charlemagne and the 12 Knights of France 362
Dennis Tedlock
22 History, Myth, and Social Function in Southern African Nguni
Praise Poetry 381
Richard Whitaker
23 Epic and History in the Arabic Tradition 392
Dwight F. Reynolds
24 Comments on "Epic and History" 411
Dean Miller
Index 425
Notes on Contributors viii
Series Editor's Preface xiv
1 Introduction 1
David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub
2 Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian Heroic
Poetry 7
Piotr Michalowski
3 Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation in
Akkadian Heroic Traditions 26
Joan Goodnick Westenholz
4 Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia: In Search of a Local
Hero 51
Amir Gilan
5 Manly Deeds: Hittite Admonitory History and Eastern
Mediterranean Didactic Epic 66
Mary R. Bachvarova
6 Epic and History in the Hebrew Bible: Definitions,
"Ethnic Genres," and the Challenges of Cultural
Identity
in the Biblical Book of Judges 86
Susan Niditch
7 No Contest between Memory and Invention: The Invention of the
Pa08ava Heroes of the MahAbhArata 103
James L. Fitzgerald
8 From "Imperishable Glory" to History: The Iliad
and the Trojan War 122
Jonas Grethlein
9 Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical Greek
Elegy 145
Ewen Bowie
10 Fact, Fiction, and Form in Early Roman Epic 167
Sander M. Goldberg
11 The Song and the Sword: Silius's Punica and the Crisis
of Early Imperial Epic 185
Raymond D. Marks
12 The Burden of Mortality: Alexander and the Dead in Persian
Epic and Beyond 212
Olga M. Davidson
13 Slavic Epic: Past Tales and Present Myths 223
Susana Torres Prieto
14 Historicity and Anachronism in Beowulf 243
Geoffrey Russom
15 The Nibelungenlied - Myth and History: A Middle High
German Epic Poem at the Crossroads of Past and Present, Despair and
Hope 262
Albrecht Classen
16 Medieval Epic and History in the Romance Literatures
280
Joseph J. Duggan
17 Roland's Migration from Anglo-Norman Epic to Royal
French Chronicle History 293
Michel-André Bossy
18 A Recurrent Theme of the Spanish Medieval Epic: Complaints
and Laments by Noble Women 310
Mercedes Vaquero
19 History in Medieval Scandinavian Heroic Literature and the
Northwest European Context 328
Robert D. Fulk
20 Traditional History in South Slavic Oral Epic 347
John Miles Foley
21 Lord Five Thunder and the 12 Eagles and Jaguars of Rabinal
Meet Charlemagne and the 12 Knights of France 362
Dennis Tedlock
22 History, Myth, and Social Function in Southern African Nguni
Praise Poetry 381
Richard Whitaker
23 Epic and History in the Arabic Tradition 392
Dwight F. Reynolds
24 Comments on "Epic and History" 411
Dean Miller
Index 425
"The reader will surely find useful and insightful comparative
material in all the essays." (Bryn Mawr Classical
Review, February 2011)
"I would recommend this volume both for scholars of epic and
heroic literature (especially if they have interests in comparative
literature or in questions of orality and historicity), who will no
doubt enjoy its generally succinct essays with pertinent
bibliography for each tradition." (Bmcreview, 9 February 2011)
"Essential. Graduate students and researches." (Choice, October
2010)
"A remarkably wide-ranging collection, deeply learned, ecumenical
in spirit, and diverse in its approaches."
Martin Mueller, Northwestern University
"This book is an 'epic' undertaking in its own
right, extending across four millennia in time, and most of the
globe in setting. The challenging mosaic of studies takes
shape as an exploratory chart of how memory, story-telling and the
desire for heroes may relate to what we might want to call
'History'".
Oliver Taplin, Magdalen College, Oxford
University
"Answers come and go. Questions persist. One of the many
virtues of this volume of collected essays is its ability to
re-open some fundamental discussions about epic, history, genre,
and memory. It does so in a sophisiticated, learned, and wide
ranging manner. This book problematizes the relationships between
literary form, fact, and tradition in a way that will inform and
excite scholars in many fields for many years."
Ahuvia Kahane, Royal Holloway, University of London
material in all the essays." (Bryn Mawr Classical
Review, February 2011)
"I would recommend this volume both for scholars of epic and
heroic literature (especially if they have interests in comparative
literature or in questions of orality and historicity), who will no
doubt enjoy its generally succinct essays with pertinent
bibliography for each tradition." (Bmcreview, 9 February 2011)
"Essential. Graduate students and researches." (Choice, October
2010)
"A remarkably wide-ranging collection, deeply learned, ecumenical
in spirit, and diverse in its approaches."
Martin Mueller, Northwestern University
"This book is an 'epic' undertaking in its own
right, extending across four millennia in time, and most of the
globe in setting. The challenging mosaic of studies takes
shape as an exploratory chart of how memory, story-telling and the
desire for heroes may relate to what we might want to call
'History'".
Oliver Taplin, Magdalen College, Oxford
University
"Answers come and go. Questions persist. One of the many
virtues of this volume of collected essays is its ability to
re-open some fundamental discussions about epic, history, genre,
and memory. It does so in a sophisiticated, learned, and wide
ranging manner. This book problematizes the relationships between
literary form, fact, and tradition in a way that will inform and
excite scholars in many fields for many years."
Ahuvia Kahane, Royal Holloway, University of London
David Konstan is the John Rowe Workman Distinguished
Professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition at Brown
University; he is also a Professor in Comparative Literature, and a
member of the Graduate Faculty of Theatre Arts and Performance
Studies. He is the author of Roman Comedy (1983); Sexual
Symmetry (1994); Greek Comedy and Ideology (1995);
Friendship in the Classical World (1997); Pity
Transformed (2001); The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks
(2006); Terms for Eternity: Aiônios and
aïdios in Classical and Christian Texts, (with Ilaria
Ramelli, 2007); and A Life Worthy of the Gods: The Materialist
Psychology of Epicurus (2008).
Kurt A. Raaflaub is David Herlihy University Professor,
and Professor of Classics and History at Brown University. His
numerous publications include The Discovery of Freedom in
Ancient Greece (2004) and Origins of Democracy in
Ancient Greece (2007, co-authored with Josiah Ober and Robert
Wallace). He is also the editor of Social Struggles in Archaic
Rome (Blackwell, 2005), and War and Peace in the Ancient
World (Blackwell, 2007), and co-editor of Democracy, Empire,
and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens (1998), War and Society
in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (1999), A Companion to
Archaic Greece (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), and Geography and
Ethnography: Perspectives of the World in Premodern Societies
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
Professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition at Brown
University; he is also a Professor in Comparative Literature, and a
member of the Graduate Faculty of Theatre Arts and Performance
Studies. He is the author of Roman Comedy (1983); Sexual
Symmetry (1994); Greek Comedy and Ideology (1995);
Friendship in the Classical World (1997); Pity
Transformed (2001); The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks
(2006); Terms for Eternity: Aiônios and
aïdios in Classical and Christian Texts, (with Ilaria
Ramelli, 2007); and A Life Worthy of the Gods: The Materialist
Psychology of Epicurus (2008).
Kurt A. Raaflaub is David Herlihy University Professor,
and Professor of Classics and History at Brown University. His
numerous publications include The Discovery of Freedom in
Ancient Greece (2004) and Origins of Democracy in
Ancient Greece (2007, co-authored with Josiah Ober and Robert
Wallace). He is also the editor of Social Struggles in Archaic
Rome (Blackwell, 2005), and War and Peace in the Ancient
World (Blackwell, 2007), and co-editor of Democracy, Empire,
and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens (1998), War and Society
in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (1999), A Companion to
Archaic Greece (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), and Geography and
Ethnography: Perspectives of the World in Premodern Societies
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
