Archaic Greece and the Ancient Near East

Abstract

REVIEW DISCUSSION: ARCHAICGREECE ANDTHE ANCIENTNEAR EAST When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East. CAROLINA LÓPEZ-RUIZ. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010. Pp. xii s+ 302. ISBN 978-0-674-04946-8. Homer’s Odyssey and the Near East. BRUCE LOUDEN. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp. vii +356. ISBN: 978-0-521-76820-7. s classical scholars have become increasingly aware, the mutual exchange of ideas, techniques, and products among ancient Greeks and Near Eastern peoples was remarkably fluid and long-lasting.1 In approaching this cultural interaction, the books by López-Ruiz and by Louden take the eighth century BCE as their temporal focus, the former book examining Hesiod’s Theogony, the latter Homer’s Odyssey. López-Ruiz and Louden both argue that scholars have not fully appreciated the correspondences between Greek myth and literature and the myth and literature of a specific West Semitic people—the Phoenicians for López-Ruiz, the Hebrews for Louden. Of the five chapters in Carolina López-Ruiz’s book (When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East), the first is particularly compelling. In chapter 1, López-Ruizexplores the dynamic relationship thatexisted between the Greeks and Phoenicians. Known in Greek sources primarily as maritime traders, the Phoenicians conveyed in their travels not only material goods, but also mythic and religious ideas. During the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, many Phoenicians moved westward, founding major colonies (such as Carthage) and probably also settling within many Greek cities in a small-scale, unrecorded manner. It is in precisely this period (750–650 BCE) that eastern motifs increase in Greek art,myth,and literature. 1 Prominent in this field are the studies of Walter Burkert and of Martin L. West. See especially Burkert’s The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age (Cambridge, Mass., 1992) and West’s The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth (Oxford, 1997). A BOOK REVIEWS 501 In chapter 2 López-Ruiz investigates the puzzling line in the Theogony (35) when Hesiod asks, “But what do I care about these things concerning a tree or a stone?” Rather than seeing the line as simply an obscure proverbial saying or transitional formula, López-Ruiz argues that the “tree and stone” expression can best be understood in a Near Eastern context.2 Close to the Hesiodic passage is one in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle; both passages concern divine knowledge and divine speech. Accordingly, line 35 looks back at the encounter with the Helikonian Muses (22–34), in which Hesiod receives divine inspiration/knowledge from the Muses, and the Muses (27–28) speak of their ability to utter true/false things. López-Ruiz turns to the Succession Myth in chapter 3. She argues that scholars have underestimated the similarities between the myth in the Theogony and the evidence both from the Ugaritic deity lists and from the Phoenician History of Philon of Byblos (first-second centuries CE). The Ugaritic deity lists appear to show that Philon preserves a genuine (and independent from Hesiod) Northwest Semitic (i.e. Phoenician) cosmogonic-theogonic tradition. My brief summary does not do justice to the riches found in this chapter (especially the fascinating comparison of Kronos to the Canaanite god El), which, along with chapter 1,is the book’s strongest. In chapter 4, López-Ruiz argues that Orphic theogonies (poems and accounts associated with the mystery cult of Orphism) illuminate Hesiod’s Theogony in two ways. First, the Orphic theogonies are often closer to their Northwest Semitic/Southern Anatolian counterparts than Hesiod’s; this suggests that the Orphic theogoniesreflect traditions independent from (and not just in response to) Hesiod. Second, the clearer religious/ritualistic nature of Orphic theogonies suggests that Hesiod’s Theogony may originally have had such a nature itself. López-Ruiz concludes in chapter 5 by noting that cosmogonies/theogonies are particularly well-suited as items for cultural exchange. The poets of such works were viewed much like craftsmen, who often traveled from city to city plying their trade. In their travels, these poets could easily pick...