Epic and History

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).

"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)

• List of Figures and Tables viiNotes on Contributors viiiSeries Editor’s Preface xiv1 Introduction 1David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub2 Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian Heroic Poetry 7Piotr Michalowski3 Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation in Akkadian Heroic Traditions 26Joan Goodnick Westenholz4 Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia: In Search of a Local Hero 51Amir Gilan5 Manly Deeds: Hittite Admonitory History and Eastern Mediterranean Didactic Epic 66Mary R. Bachvarova6 Epic and History in the Hebrew Bible: Definitions, “Ethnic Genres,” and the Challenges of Cultural Identityin the Biblical Book of Judges 86Susan Niditch7 No Contest between Memory and Invention: The Invention of the Pa08ava Heroes of the MahAbhArata 103James L. Fitzgerald8 From “Imperishable Glory” to History: The Iliad and the Trojan War 122Jonas Grethlein9 Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical Greek Elegy 145Ewen Bowie10 Fact, Fiction, and Form in Early Roman Epic 167Sander M. Goldberg11 The Song and the Sword: Silius’s Punica and the Crisis of Early Imperial Epic 185Raymond D. Marks12 The Burden of Mortality: Alexander and the Dead in Persian Epic and Beyond 212Olga M. Davidson13 Slavic Epic: Past Tales and Present Myths 223Susana Torres Prieto14 Historicity and Anachronism in Beowulf 243Geoffrey Russom15 The Nibelungenlied – Myth and History: A Middle High German Epic Poem at the Crossroads of Past and Present, Despair and Hope 262Albrecht Classen16 Medieval Epic and History in the Romance Literatures 280Joseph J. Duggan17 Roland’s Migration from Anglo-Norman Epic to Royal French Chronicle History 293Michel-André Bossy18 A Recurrent Theme of the Spanish Medieval Epic: Complaints and Laments by Noble Women 310Mercedes Vaquero19 History in Medieval Scandinavian Heroic Literature and the Northwest European Context 328Robert D. Fulk20 Traditional History in South Slavic Oral Epic 347John Miles Foley21 Lord Five Thunder and the 12 Eagles and Jaguars of Rabinal Meet Charlemagne and the 12 Knights of France 362Dennis Tedlock22 History, Myth, and Social Function in Southern African Nguni Praise Poetry 381Richard Whitaker23 Epic and History in the Arabic Tradition 392Dwight F. Reynolds24 Comments on “Epic and History” 411Dean MillerIndex 425