The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age

by Walter Burkert, Margaret E. Pinder

Overview

The 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, pointing toward a balanced picture of the archaic period “in which, under the influence of the Semitic East—from writers, craftsmen, merchants, healers—Greek culture began its unique flowering, soon to assume cultural hegemony in the Mediterranean.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674643642
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	08/11/1998
Series:	Revealing Antiquity , #5
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Walter Burkert was Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Zurich.

Table of Contents

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

"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

Index of Greek Words

General Index

Editorial Reviews

An elegant and academically influential work...The Orientalizing Revolution can be enthusiastically recommended.

Times Literary Supplement - Simon Hornblower

This thought provoking work is an updated translation of Burkert's Die orientlisierende Epoche in der griechischen Religion und Literature, 1984...It is refreshing to see a classical scholar follow in the footsteps of eminent Near Eastern scholars such as Cyrus Gordon and Michael Astour who have long argued for interconnections in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin - Mark W. Chavalas

Brilliant...[Burkert] is consistently thorough and challenging...Without denying the role of innate talent, he shows that much of the Greek miracle grew from an openness to influences from other cultures...[His] careful scholarship...has constructed the bridge that he set out to build.

Carol G. Thomasn Historical Review

Burkert's The Orientalizing Revolution remains an outstanding, or rather the outstanding, contribution to the question of ‘Near Eastern influence on Greek culture in the Early Archaic Age.

Greece and Rome

An elegant and academically influential work...The Orientalizing Revolution can be enthusiastically recommended.--Simon Hornblower "Times Literary Supplement"

Brilliant...[Burkert] is consistently thorough and challenging...Without denying the role of innate talent, he shows that much of the Greek miracle grew from an openness to influences from other cultures...[His] careful scholarship...has constructed the bridge that he set out to build.--Carol G. Thomas "American Historical Review"

Burkert's The Orientalizing Revolution remains an outstanding, or rather the outstanding, contribution to the question of 'Near Eastern influence on Greek culture in the Early Archaic Age.-- "Greece and Rome"

This thought provoking work is an updated translation of Burkert's Die orientlisierende Epoche in der griechischen Religion und Literature, 1984...It is refreshing to see a classical scholar follow in the footsteps of eminent Near Eastern scholars such as Cyrus Gordon and Michael Astour who have long argued for interconnections in the ancient Mediterranean world.--Mark W. Chavalas "Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin" (1/1/1997 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

Brilliant...[Burkert] is consistently thorough and challenging...Without denying the role of innate talent, he shows that much of the Greek miracle grew from an openness to influences from other cultures...[His] careful scholarship...has constructed the bridge that he set out to build.

American Historical Review - Carol G. Thomas

This thought provoking work is an updated translation of Burkert's Die orientlisierende Epoche in der griechischen Religion und Literature, 1984...It is refreshing to see a classical scholar follow in the footsteps of eminent Near Eastern scholars such as Cyrus Gordon and Michael Astour who have long argued for interconnections in the ancient Mediterranean world.
— Mark W. Chavalas

Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin

An elegant and academically influential work...The Orientalizing Revolution can be enthusiastically recommended.
— Simon Hornblower

Times Literary Supplement

Brilliant...[Burkert] is consistently thorough and challenging...Without denying the role of innate talent, he shows that much of the Greek miracle grew from an openness to influences from other cultures...[His] careful scholarship...has constructed the bridge that he set out to build.
— Carol G. Thomas

American Historical Review

Burkert (classics, U. of Zurich) draws on archaeological, textual, and historical evidence to demonstrate that eastern models significantly affected Greek literature and religion in the Homeric age, 750-650 B.C. Revised and translated from the original publication in German in 1984. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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