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Wschodnie oblicze Helikonu. Pierwiastki zachodnioazjatyckie w greckiej poezji i micie.
Odkąd sześćdziesiąt lat temu narodziła się świadomość istnienia związków łączących wczesną poezję grecką z literaturą starożytnego Bliskiego Wschodu, wielu badaczy antyku poświęciło się ich śledzeniu. Dogłębniejsza od wszystkich dotychczasowych studiów, książka Martina Westa ilustruje te nowo odkryte powiązania obszerną i szczegółową dokumentacją, dowodząc jednocześnie, że są znacznie bardziej fundamentalne i wszechobecne, niż można było przypuszczać. Dokonany tutaj przegląd obejmuje dzieła Hezjoda, epikę homerycką, poezję liryczną i utwory Ajschylosa, a kończą go pouczające i odkrywcze rozważania dotyczące możliwych dróg przenikania świata Orientu do kultury greckiej.
840 pages, Paperback
First published January 8, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 2, 2024
The influence of the Ancient Near East on Greek culture is inescapable in the art of the Orientalising period, but West sets out to demonstrate that its impact on Greek literature—not just in the 8th century but already much earlier—has been greatly underestimated, highlighting parallels in Archaic literature demonstrating not just the obvious Phoenician but also Akkadian and other contacts.
He does this with considerably more enthusiasm than rigour, deliberately taking every literary resemblance as ANE influence (often it convincingly is, as in the comparison of Achilles to Gilgamesh; when it comes to e.g. the Titanomachy, it's not clear why the relatively ambiguous Anunnaki/Igigi conflict is a more pertinent comparandum than the Germanic Æsir/Vanir war or the Indic Deva/Asura one—i.e. probably inherited) and sprinkling the text with scores of extremely dubious etymologies mostly by sand-for-brains theologians who only know Greek and some Hebrew (explaining Scylla (Σκύλλα) and Charybdis (Χάρυβδις) as שְׁכוּלָה škūlā 'bereaved by loss of children' [sic] and חֹר אֹבֵד ḥōr ʾōbēd 'cavity of perdition', and σειρήν 'siren' as שִׁיר חֵן šīr ḥēn 'song of pleasantness' (calquing χαρίεσσα ἀοιδή), is a lot of fun but there are no good parallels in languages that actually could have influenced Greek; connecting Homer (Ὅμηρος) to אֹמֵר ʾōmēr 'speaking' is a thought everyone has had in their first semester of Hebrew but the Phoenician form is ʾūmēr and the first vowel is long in either case), and while it's clear West has some exposure to Semitic languages—all of it apparently in the six years leading up to the publishing of this book, if I read the introduction correctly—it's also clear he's not an expert, and what he does know is largely limited to Hebrew and Akkadian.
All the same, he covers a lot of ground and much of it is convincing, and as he points out in his closing remarks, "[a] corpse suffices to prove a death, even if the inquest is inconclusive". The point of this book isn't to be the final word on ANE/Greek literary influence but rather an opening volley to inspire much-needed further work by legitimate academics (not theologians), and while it hasn't yet, I really hope it still will. Even as it stands, The East Face of Helicon is a supremely important work that should be required reading for any classicist.
He does this with considerably more enthusiasm than rigour, deliberately taking every literary resemblance as ANE influence (often it convincingly is, as in the comparison of Achilles to Gilgamesh; when it comes to e.g. the Titanomachy, it's not clear why the relatively ambiguous Anunnaki/Igigi conflict is a more pertinent comparandum than the Germanic Æsir/Vanir war or the Indic Deva/Asura one—i.e. probably inherited) and sprinkling the text with scores of extremely dubious etymologies mostly by sand-for-brains theologians who only know Greek and some Hebrew (explaining Scylla (Σκύλλα) and Charybdis (Χάρυβδις) as שְׁכוּלָה škūlā 'bereaved by loss of children' [sic] and חֹר אֹבֵד ḥōr ʾōbēd 'cavity of perdition', and σειρήν 'siren' as שִׁיר חֵן šīr ḥēn 'song of pleasantness' (calquing χαρίεσσα ἀοιδή), is a lot of fun but there are no good parallels in languages that actually could have influenced Greek; connecting Homer (Ὅμηρος) to אֹמֵר ʾōmēr 'speaking' is a thought everyone has had in their first semester of Hebrew but the Phoenician form is ʾūmēr and the first vowel is long in either case), and while it's clear West has some exposure to Semitic languages—all of it apparently in the six years leading up to the publishing of this book, if I read the introduction correctly—it's also clear he's not an expert, and what he does know is largely limited to Hebrew and Akkadian.
All the same, he covers a lot of ground and much of it is convincing, and as he points out in his closing remarks, "[a] corpse suffices to prove a death, even if the inquest is inconclusive". The point of this book isn't to be the final word on ANE/Greek literary influence but rather an opening volley to inspire much-needed further work by legitimate academics (not theologians), and while it hasn't yet, I really hope it still will. Even as it stands, The East Face of Helicon is a supremely important work that should be required reading for any classicist.
June 8, 2013
A very important book for the classicists, even if one tends to disagree with the author on certain points. Thought provoking and well worth reading.
September 12, 2024
Ignore West's modest reference to his "little book" in the preface. This is a 630-page cinderblock of evidence that Greek literature, from Homer and Hesiod to Aeschylus, is filled with everything from major themes down to character tropes and figures of speech imported from the the Middle East. Not a revolutionary insight -- as far back as the 1960s, Cyrus Gordon was trying to break down walls between classicists and ANE specialists in "The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations" -- but the tonnage of examples here makes the point nicely.
West combs through Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Hurrian/Hittite literature for his evidence, along with the Hebrew Bible -- although he seems to take the latter's "historical" books as reliable guides to Israelite culture of the early first millennium BCE. Some specialists, at least on the farther shores of biblical minimalism, argue that the OT was to a large extent a product of Israel's Hellenistic era, so there may be a question of who was influencing whom. He does note the suspicion that the northern Israelite tribe of Dan was composed of ethnic Greeks -- possibly connected to the Danaoi of Iliad fame. But when and how did they join the Yahwistic confederation? There's a lot more to be said on the topic (I hope).
It would also be helpful to know not only which myths and motifs are shared not only by Indo-European Greece and the Middle East, but by wider swaths of humanity. West does refer to the mating of Heaven and Earth as "a motif with a wide distribution, from West Africa to the Pacific," but doesn't pursue the subject. I don't want to fanboy out on Michael Witzel's controversial "The Origins of the World's Mythologies," which argues that certain myths originated in the Paleolithic and spread around the world by traceable paths. But just wondering.
West points out big things, like the Iliad's heavy debt to the Gilgamesh epic, and small ones, as when he argues that the story of the gods' destruction of the wall around the Achaeans' camp (Iliad, Book 12) draws its details from the Assyrian destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE. And there's a song from a Babylonian temple ritual honoring Ishtar, in her capacity as goddess of love and fertility, with lyrics that would make drunken sailors stare at the floor in embarrassment. There are nuggets like those throughout the book.
West combs through Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Hurrian/Hittite literature for his evidence, along with the Hebrew Bible -- although he seems to take the latter's "historical" books as reliable guides to Israelite culture of the early first millennium BCE. Some specialists, at least on the farther shores of biblical minimalism, argue that the OT was to a large extent a product of Israel's Hellenistic era, so there may be a question of who was influencing whom. He does note the suspicion that the northern Israelite tribe of Dan was composed of ethnic Greeks -- possibly connected to the Danaoi of Iliad fame. But when and how did they join the Yahwistic confederation? There's a lot more to be said on the topic (I hope).
It would also be helpful to know not only which myths and motifs are shared not only by Indo-European Greece and the Middle East, but by wider swaths of humanity. West does refer to the mating of Heaven and Earth as "a motif with a wide distribution, from West Africa to the Pacific," but doesn't pursue the subject. I don't want to fanboy out on Michael Witzel's controversial "The Origins of the World's Mythologies," which argues that certain myths originated in the Paleolithic and spread around the world by traceable paths. But just wondering.
West points out big things, like the Iliad's heavy debt to the Gilgamesh epic, and small ones, as when he argues that the story of the gods' destruction of the wall around the Achaeans' camp (Iliad, Book 12) draws its details from the Assyrian destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE. And there's a song from a Babylonian temple ritual honoring Ishtar, in her capacity as goddess of love and fertility, with lyrics that would make drunken sailors stare at the floor in embarrassment. There are nuggets like those throughout the book.
June 27, 2025
Incredibly dense, thousand of examples. I danced in the citations alone. You have to be in awe at the breadth and utter dedication of learning, pre-internet. This is someone who clearly sacrificed his whole life in dedication and pursuit of knowledge and we are so lucky he chose to synthesize it for the rest of us.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews