The rich and splendid culture of the ancient Greeks has often been described as emerging like a miracle from a genius of its own, owing practically nothing to its neighbors. Walter Burkert offers a decisive argument against that distorted view, replacing it with a balanced picture of the archaic period “in which, under the influence of the Semitic East, Greek culture began its unique flowering, soon to assume cultural hegemony in the Mediterranean.”
Burkert focuses on the “orientalizing” century 750-650 B.c., the period of Assyrian conquest, Phoenician commerce, and Greek exploration of both East and West, when not only eastern skills and images but also the Semitic art of writing were transmitted to Greece. He tracks the migrant craftsmen who brought the Greeks new techniques and designs, the wandering seers and healers teaching magic and medicine, and the important Greek borrowings from Near Eastern poetry and myth. Drawing widely on archaeological, textual, and historical evidence, he demonstrates that eastern models significantly affected Greek literature and religion in the Homeric age.
WALTER BURKERT is Professor of Classics at the University of Zurich. His books include 'Greek Religion' and 'Ancient Mystery Cults' (Harvard).
Author(s): Walter Burkert
Series: Revealing Antiquity 5
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Year: 1992
Language: English
Commentary: scantailor & ocrmypdf
Pages: 248
City: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Tags: greek antiquity;cultural exchange
The Orientalizing Revolution
Contents
Illustrations
Map The Mediterranean and the Near East in the early archaic period
Figure 1. Bronze tympanon from the Idaean cave, Crete
Figure 2. North Syrian bronze plaque from horse harness, inscribed
Figure 3. Liver models from Mesopotamia and from Piacenza, Italy
Figure 4. Babylonian bronze figurine found in the Hera sanctuary at Samos
Figure 5. Lamashtu plate from Carchemish
Figure 6. Seal impression from Nuzi and bronze shield strap from Olympia
Figure 7. Cypriote silver bowl from the Bernardini tomb, Praeneste
Figure 8. Orthostate relief from the palace at Guzana-Tell Halaf
Preface
Introduction
1. "Who are Public Workers" The Migrant Craftsmen
Historical Background
Oriental Products in Greece
Writing and Literature in the Eighth Century
The Problem of Loan-Words
2. "A Seer or a Healer" Magic and Medicine from East to West
"Craftsmen of the Sacred": Mobility and Family Structure
Hepatoscopy
Foundation Deposits
Purification
Spirits of the Dead and Black Magic
Substitute Sacrifice
Asclepius and Asgelatas
Ecstatic Divination
Lamashtu, Lamia, and Gorgo
3. 'Or also a Godly Singer" Akkadian and Early Greek Literature
From Atrahasis to the "Deception of Zeus"
Complaint in Heaven: Ishtar and Aphrodite
The Overpopulated Earth
Seven against Thebes
Common Style and Stance in Oriental and Greek Epic
Fables
Magic and Cosmogony
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Notes
Introduction
1. "Who Are Public Workers"
Historical Background
Oriental Products in Greece
Writing and Literature in the Eighth Century
The Problem of Loan-Words
2. "A Seer or a Healer"
"Craftsmen of the Sacred"
Hepatoscopy
Foundation Deposits
Purification
Spirits of the Dead and Black Magic
Substitute Sacrifice
Asclepius and Asgelatas
Ecstatic Divination
Lamashtu, Lamia, and Gorgo
3. "Or Also a Godly Singer"
From Atrahasis to the "Deception of Zeus"
Complaint in Heaven
The Overpopulated Earth
Seven against Thebes
Common Style and Stance in Oriental and Greek Epic
Fables
Magic and Cosmogony
Index of Greek Words
General Index
Back Cover
