tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post7713199738513087825..comments2023-04-05T08:04:07.514-04:00Comments on Bryn Mawr Classical Review: 2011.08.25Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-72538099449882662962011-08-20T10:31:20.419-04:002011-08-20T10:31:20.419-04:00P. 24 : once he has quoted Job 1: 6-8, Louden writ...P. 24 : once he has quoted Job 1: 6-8, Louden writes, justly enough, that "OT myth’s emerging monotheism forces alterations on the traditional epic triangle. While Satan clearly occupies the function of the wrathful god, Yahweh’s position suggests a combination of both the sky father and the mentor god". I would have welcomed a reference or three on the similitudes between Zeus and Yahweh ; see J. P. Brown, ''Yahweh, Zeus, Jupiter : The High Gods and the Elements', Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 106, 1994, 175-197, (the Greco-Roman god of the bright sky mirrors the Hebrew god of the dark sky insofar as both control the meteorological elements [179 sqq.] and share some striking lexemes relating to the climate), and C. López-Ruiz, When the Gods Were Born. Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East, 148-151 (on Zeus and Yahweh in their demiourgic functions). P. 43 : when Louden analoges the wrath of Athena, 'Anatu and Yahweh ("her graphic, violent intent resembles the traditions of Anat (...). The Homeric Athena has much in common with Anat. OT myth’s conception of a wrathful Yahweh has similarly graphic passages (e.g., Jer. 46: 10 ; Isa. 34: 2–4, 6)", 42-43), it would have been commendable to remind the reader that, among these three deities, only Yahweh passes judgement on his people and the other nations (J. L. Crenshaw, 'YHWH Seba'ôt Shemô : A Form-Critical Analysis', Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 81, 1969, 156-175 at 156-167 ; M. Kensky, Trying Man, Trying God. The Divine Courtroom in Early Jewish and Christian Literature, 13-61). Violent and sensual, 'Anatu is seldom, if ever, concerned with innocence and guilt (Walls, The Goddess Anat in Ugaritic Myth, 161-215 passim), while it would be very uncritical to envision the Odyssey, and Athena's part in its plot, as a demonstration of divine justice (J. S. Clay, The Wrath of Athena. Gods and Men in the Odyssey, 232-239).Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-22007332993121448312011-08-20T05:42:37.591-04:002011-08-20T05:42:37.591-04:00Now for a modicum of bibliography. P. 62, cf. 65 :...Now for a modicum of bibliography. P. 62, cf. 65 : Potiphar's Wife motif, whose earliest attestations are in the Tale of the Two Brothers and in Genesis 39, receives one footnote (15 on 62) deploying the (here not very rewarding) Reading the Fractures of Genesis by Carr ; see rather M. López Salvá, 'El tema de Putifar en la literatura arcaica y clásica griega en su relación con la del Próximo Oriente', Cuadernos de Filología Clásica 1, 1994, 77-112 (79-83 on Joseph and the wife of his master), and S. T. Hollis (the editor of the Egyptian narrative referred to above), 'The Woman in Ancient Examples of the Potiphar's Wife Motif, K 2111', in P. L. Day (ed.), Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, 28-42. P. 96 : few will listen to a lecture on the role of dreams in the ANE literatures by a scholar who did not open one of the recent monographs on oniromancy and dream as a literary device (R. K. Gnuse, Dreams and Dream Reports in the Writings of Josephus. A Traditio-Historical Analysis, 34-128 ; S. B. Noegel, Nocturnal Ciphers. The Allusive Language of Dreams in the Ancient Near East ; A. Mouton, Rêves hittites. Contribution à une histoire et une anthropologie du rêve en Anatolie ancienne). Pp. 98 sqq. : nothing whatsoever is said about the trickster in Mesopotamia and the Levant (cf. at least D. A. Nicholas, The Trickster Revisited. Deception as a Motif in the Pentateuch, 8-33), not even the name of the Mesopotamian trickster extraordinaire, Enki (see, e.g., 'Enki and Ninhursag', lines 148-186, apud P. Attinger, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 74, 1984, 1-51 at 20-23 ; for a deconstructionistic interpretation, go to K. Dickson, 'Enki and Ninhursag : The Trickster in Paradise', Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66, 2007, 1-32). The conclusion Louden voices on 102 "the characteristics inherited from their trickster progenitors, a willingness to use deception, a wiliness with words, to which the physical analogy is wrestling, are precisely the qualities that enable Odysseus and Joseph to manage the postponed recognition scenes to which they subject their relatives" is thus very flat.Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-34673305489418931962011-08-19T20:24:48.567-04:002011-08-19T20:24:48.567-04:00On 125, the sentence "the four fountains on O...On 125, the sentence "the four fountains on Ogygia (Od. 5.70–1) offer an unexpected parallel to Eden’s four rivers (Gen. 2:10–14)" comes with the footnote "I am unable to find a previous commentator who has noted this parallel". Louden did not search with enough energy, for Carl Fries, 'Babylonische und Griechische Mythologie', Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum, Geschichte und deutsche Literatur und für Pädagogik 9, 1902, 689-707, wrote at 691 that "in anderer Form erscheint das Vierstromland als Paradies im Alten Testament. "Und es ging aus von Eden ein Strom, zu wässern den Garten, und theilete sich daselbst in vier Hauptwasser" (Genes. 2, 15). Die Frage nach den vier Flussnamen Gihon, Pison, Hiddekel und Phrat kann hier nicht erörtert werden". P. 131 : "like Ishtar with Gilgamesh, the queen of Sheba enters the story because of Solomon’s fame, “The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame and came to test him” (1 Kgs. 10:1; cf. 2 Chr. 9:1). Where Ishtar responds to Gilgamesh’s prowess against Humbaba and his physical beauty, the queen of Sheba is prompted by accounts of Solomon’s wisdom." One more superficial parallel : Ishtar "responds" to nothing but her lust at the sight of a bathing Gilgamesh (Standard Version, VI, 1-9), and his prowess or social status qua, respectively, the slayer of Humbaba/Huwawa and the king of Uruk, counts for naught in her very bold offer. It has rightly been called a reversal of proper etiquette/expected roles (R. Harris, Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature, 125-126) and may well have been no acceptable proposition at all (T. Abusch, 'Ishtar's Proposal and Gilgamesh's Refusal : An Interpretation of The Gilgamesh Epic, Tablet 6, Lines 1-79', History of Religions 26, 1986, 143-187). Furthermore, the episode starring the queen of Sheba is not nearly as pivotal in the narrative economy of the book of Kings as as in the S.V. the scene where Ishtar offers herself only to be scorned (see N. H. Walls, Desire, Discord and Death. Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Myth, 34-49 ; S. Ackerman, When Heroes Love. The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David, 146-148)Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-36274456110581740252011-08-18T09:09:30.960-04:002011-08-18T09:09:30.960-04:00Some examples, now, of Louden's heavy-handed o...Some examples, now, of Louden's heavy-handed or crude (if not outright naive) handling of ANE materials. P. 142, à propos of Odyssey VII 18-45, we are told that "(...) the scene is (...) similar to an episode in 1 Samuel. Saul and his attendants, looking for some donkeys, meet girls drawing water who give them directions and information about how to find a seer (1 Sam. 9:11–14)." Trouble is, the biblical scene has nothing distinctive, since the helpful role played by maiden around waterholes in Old Testament narratives is a clearly traditional theme (cf. Genesis 24: 13 qq., 29: 2-14) related to the duties discharged by Canaanite women (D. T. Tsumura, The First Book of Samuel, 271-272), and does not mirror closely the Odyssean episode. Furthermore, the Israelite maiden do not provide Saul and his group with "precise directions and information" ; they simply confirm that the seer is in town and advice the party to hurry up and see him as soon as they arrive. P. 229 : "Moses' encounter with Yahweh atop the mountain, depicted in Exodus 25–31, is a mixture of two of the mythic types analyzed in Chapter 9, anabasis and the vision. Moses’ ascent up the mountain, literally an anabasis in the Septuagint (Exod. 24:1 (..)), is like an approach to heaven (cf. Propp 2006: 300, “When Moses climbs the mountain, he approaches Heaven itself ”), where he receives an adapted form of the vision, Yahweh himself his otherworldly guide" : the pivotal remark "like an approach to Heaven" as well as the precision "otherwordly guide" are both very tendentious, man-made temples and high places such as mountains being in free variation within ANE texts and iconography as the places of worship, qua symbolic representations of the cosmic mountain (see S. W. Holloway, 'What Ship Goes There : The Flood Narratives in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis Considered in Light of Ancient Near Eastern Temple Ideology', Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 103, 1991, 328-355 at 329-333) or, at the very least, places dear to the gods ('holy mountains' : W. Vogel, The Cultic Motif in the Book of Daniel, 20-34).Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-68172609815590820722011-08-18T05:36:11.687-04:002011-08-18T05:36:11.687-04:00As further proof that Louden is not to be relied u...As further proof that Louden is not to be relied upon, I may adduce p. 2 : "creation myth, depicting the creation of mortals, gods, or the earth, as in the Enuma Elish, the Sumerian Enki and Ninmah, the Babylonian Adapa, Genesis 1-6: 4, Hesiod's Works and Days (47-174), Ovid's Metamorphoses (1.5-88), Milton's Paradise Lost (5-6), and the like". The myth (for want of a better label) 'Enki and Ninmah', apud The Context of Scripture, I, 516-518 (J. Klein) = W. H. P. Römer, in Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testament III. 3, 386-401 = S. N. Kramer & J. Maier, Myths of Enki, the Crafty God, 31-37 = J. Bottéro & S. N. Kramer, Lorsque les dieux faisaient l'homme. Mythologie mésopotamienne, 188-198 = T. Jacobsen, The Harps That Once. Sumerian Poetry in Translation, 151-166, does not really belong in this list, since the creation of mankind (lines 1-43) is but a preliminary to the core of the narrative (44-139), viz. the feast during which a drunk and unhappy Ninmah challenges an inebriated Enki to better the life of the crippled men she will fashion. Sumerologists are fond of regarding this myth as made of two originally independent stories, 1-43 being also known as 'Nammu and Enki' (cf. the rich study by H. Sauren in M. E. Cohen, D. C. Snell & D. B. Weisberg (edd.), The Tablet and the Scroll. Near Eastern Studies in Honor of W. W. Hallo, 199-208, especially 203 sqq.), but the remarks of A. Westenholz in W. Horowitz, U. Gabby & F. Vukosavovic (edd.), A Woman of Valor. Jerusalem Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of J. G. Westenholz, 201-204 at 201-202 note 2 shall be borne in mind ; in any case, the point of the whole composition is the exaltation of Enki, the ever-resourceful, against a mother goddess (e.g. Bottéro & Kramer, 197-198), a trait 'Enki and Ninmah' share with other myths about this god (Kramer & Maier, 20). Given the level of Louden's ANE erudition, it is tempting to speculate that the unqualified inclusion of 'Enki and Ninmah' in his list of creation myths owes something to his sources (the title of the chapter of Jacobsen's anthology where our myth can be read is "The Birth of Man").Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-70148384764324010652011-08-17T17:02:06.708-04:002011-08-17T17:02:06.708-04:00I must also point out that Louden's way of dra...I must also point out that Louden's way of drawing comparisons between the Odyssey and the ANE masterpieces often ignores glaring differences even when, it would seem, they outweigh the resemblances. On 62-63, he would have us believe that the Odyssean references to the Phoenicians / Sidonians are on a par with the treatment the Tale of Sinuhe reserves to the Asiatic people the hero mingles with, in that both the Greeks and the Egyptians "defined themselves in opposition" (63) with these neighbors. Now, the Greeks of Homer conceive the Phoenicians as their, not quite fair, competitors in the international trade of goods and ATURMATA and, willy-nilly, the agents of the established sea power in the Eastern Mediterranean (I. Winter, "Homer's Phoenicians : History, Historiography, or Literary Trope ?", in J. B. Carter & S. Morris (edd.), The Ages of Homer. A Tribute to E. T. Vermeule, 247-271 at 247-249, 255-264) ; on the other hand, the Egyptians of the Middle and New Kindoms predominantly consider "Asia" - or, rather, the partially overlapping Levantine areas which they know as Djahy (D3hy), Kharu (H3rw), Naharin (N3h3ryn3), Retenu (Rtnw), etc - to be the peripheral land meant par excellence for booty, conquest and economical pressure. Ideologically speaking, they envisioned the Asiatics abroad, '3mw.t (K. Meurer, Nubier in Ägypten bis zum Beginn des Neuen Reiches. Zur Bedeutung der Stele Berlin 14753, 131-135) as the antithesis of their civilisation, therefore people meant for being the victims of Pharaoh's military might (D. B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 71-97 ; it is revealing that the verb most commonly found with '3mw.t in Egyptian inscriptions happens to be hwj, 'hit, strike, smite'). We are faced in both cases with self-identification through the blackening of the Other ; but the Egyptian case and the Homeric one are very unlike in essence, not merely in degree. So unlike, actually, that the whole point of Louden's comparison seems to me to vanish.Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-5535553848757972092011-08-17T17:01:11.161-04:002011-08-17T17:01:11.161-04:00As a sample of Louden's insensitivity to detai...As a sample of Louden's insensitivity to details, I shall mention p. 305 : within a discussion of Athena's function qua vengeful deity in the plot of the Odyssey, a parallel is drawn between Iliad XXII 185, wherein Zeus allows her to act as she pleases towards Hector, and the Epic of Aqhat (not "The Aqhat" Louden, ut semper), CTA 1.18.18 (actually 18-19), in which the high god El ('Ilu) concedes his irate daughter Anat ('Anatu) the same liberty vis-à-vis Aqhat ('Aqhatu). There is not much in common between these two lines, despite all appearances and pace Louden who speaks of "a similar remark", once they are properly replaced in their context, viz. the whole speeches of the elder divinities (Il. XXII 183-185 ~ CTA. 1.16-19) : Zeus gives in with what looks like casual flippancy to the common feeling of the gods voiced by Athena, whereas 'Ilu merely tries to deflect from himself 'Anatu's selfish and unreasonable wrath (see Pardee, whose translation "lay hold of what you desire, carry out what you wish" is quoted by Louden, in The Context of Scripture, I, 348 note 58, against, e.g., B. Margalit, The Ugaritic Poem of Aqht, p. 322, according to whom 'Ilu "tries to mitigate the severity of the punishment to be meted out to Aqht by Anat" ; on the divine psychology adumbrated here, cf., e.g., Wyatt, Religious Texts from Ugarit², 278-279 note 129). The real parallel, not a merely superficial one, was actually of a literal quality ; it stands between Il. XXII 183-184 OU NU TI THUMÔI / PROPHRONI MUTHEOMAI, and CTA I.18.18 d it b kbdk tsk, "seize what is in your bosom", since we find here the bodily seat of the psychic entity, our metaphorical 'heart' = THUMOS ~ kbd (litterally 'liver', cf. G. Del Olmo Lete & J. Sanmartin, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, I, 424-425 ; A. Rahmouni, Divine Epithets in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts, 4 note 4 ; I. K. H. Halayqa, A Comparative Lexicon of Ugaritic and Canaanite, 182-183). In other words, obsessed by Athena's martial role in the economy of the Odyssey, Louden has been too ready to pray on the first locus similis at hand, however superficial.Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-50221695061831372192011-08-17T10:03:43.855-04:002011-08-17T10:03:43.855-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6588247216777605704.post-91654994412759439602011-08-15T19:43:32.991-04:002011-08-15T19:43:32.991-04:00Dr Ready is no doubt a fine Homeric scholar, but n...Dr Ready is no doubt a fine Homeric scholar, but not one in a position to assess Louden's latest offering in the field of Hellenosemitica. The vacuity of his piece, coupled with the flimsiness of his quibbles, tells the sorry tale of an author who has nothing to contribute on a rather technical matter but blistering and rhetorical conceits. Dr Ready should really have exercised his brains ; for even someone not really conversant with the ancient Near East could have noticed the issues which mar this book. I shall mention here, in order of increasing gravity, a) the absence of first-hand philological knowledge in any of the Levantine and Mesopotamian languages from whose scriptures comparanda are excerpted, so much so that seldom, if ever, do we find translitterated words and snippets from these tongues (verbal scholarship is obviously not Louden's forte) ; b) the very inadequate engagement with critical literature (why bother at all with the ANET now that we have Hallo and Younger's much more extensive and fresh The Context of Scripture, and why stick to its comments [pp. 60 note 11, 62 note 14, 63 note 16], instead of those to be found in more technical sources ? how comes that the Epic of Gilgamesh is quoted not after George's magnificent edition-cum-translation and commentary, but from Dalley's 1991 version, which is far less complete in terms of textual contents and rests on an antiquated constitutio textus ? how is it possible that one crucial passage from the Baal Cycle has been taken not from one of the authoritative translations which appeared before Smith and Pitard's 2009 commentated edition of the relevant tablet of this narrative, especially Wyatt's Religious Texts From Ugarit², but from a 1995 contribution to a Festschrift [p. 296], unless Louden found this text there and nowhere else ? why were books such as J. P. Brown's Israel and Hellas, Sarah Morris's Daidalos and the Origin of Greek Art, R. D. Griffith's Mummy Wheat. Egyptian Influence on the Homeric View of the Afterlife and the Eleusinian Mysteries, or my own Le motif de la paire d'amis héroïques à prolongements homophiles. Perspectives odysséennes et proche-orientales, either omitted or relegated to the bibliography, despite their wealth of relevant learning ? granted, Homer's Odyssey and the Near East attempts something very different from these works, but this was no reason to decline to learn from one's predecessors) ; and c) Louden's model for discovering influences between the Odyssean tradition(s) and those behind some of the Levantine masterpieces, especially Genesis and Exodus in the Hebrew Bible, is a crude attempt at marshalling a very complex evidence which, I am afraid, will persuade no one within Biblical studies ; claims such as his stand and fall with the demonstrations provided, something which the book does not deliver, being little more than a series of vignettes uncluttered with erudition and which illustrate the intuitions of the author's instead of proving them to have some point. This is not to say that this interesting work is a failure ; the reviewer should simply have perceived that, as a piece of scholarship, it fails to impress both on the Homeric and the Near Eastern sides, being too much of an elementary kind for a book which regularly makes sweeping claims.Jean-Fabrice NARDELLI (07.08.1975)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17881630930663798283noreply@blogger.com