9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 15:44 Page iv 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 15:44 Page i Praise for Epic and History “This book is an ‘epic’ undertaking in its own right, extending across four millennia in time, and most of the globe in setting. The challenging mosaic of studies takes shape as an exploratory chart of how memory, story-telling and the desire for heroes may relate to what we might want to call ‘History.’” Oliver Taplin, Magdalen College, Oxford University “A remarkably wide-ranging collection, deeply learned, ecumenical in spirit, and diverse in its approaches.” Martin Mueller, Northwestern University “Answers come and go. Questions persist. One of the many virtues of this volume of collected essays is its ability to re-open some fundamental discussions about epic, history, genre, and memory. It does so in a sophisticated, learned, and wide-ranging manner. This book problematizes the relationships between literary form, fact, and tradition in a way that will inform and excite scholars in many fields for many years.” Ahuvia Kahane, Royal Holloway, University of London 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 15:44 Page ii The Ancient World: Comparative Histories Series Editor: Kurt A. Raaflaub Published War and Peace in the Ancient World Edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub Household and Family Religion in Antiquity Edited by John Bodel and Saul Olyan Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies Edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub and Richard J. A. Talbert Epic and History Edited by David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 15:44 Page iii Epic and History Edited by David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 15:44 Page iv This edition first published 2010 © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148–5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Epic and history / edited by David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub. p. cm. – (The ancient world, comparative histories) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-9307-8 (alk. paper) 1. Epic literature–History and criticism. 2. Literature and history. 3. History in literature. I. Konstan, David. II. Raaflaub, Kurt A. PN56.E65E645 2010 809.1′32–dc22 2009018579 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10/13pt Galliard by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed in Singapore I 2010 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 10:52 Page v Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Notes on Contributors viii Series Editor’s Preface xiv 1 Introduction 1 David Konstan and Kurt A. Raaflaub 2 Maybe Epic: The Origins and Reception of Sumerian Heroic Poetry 7 Piotr Michalowski 3 Historical Events and the Process of Their Transformation in Akkadian Heroic Traditions 26 Joan Goodnick Westenholz 4 Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia: In Search of a Local Hero 51 Amir Gilan 5 Manly Deeds: Hittite Admonitory History and Eastern Mediterranean Didactic Epic 66 Mary R. Bachvarova 6 Epic and History in the Hebrew Bible: Definitions, “Ethnic Genres,” and the Challenges of Cultural Identity in the Biblical Book of Judges 86 Susan Niditch 7 No Contest between Memory and Invention: The Invention of the Pa08ava Heroes of the MahAbhArata 103 James L. Fitzgerald 8 From “Imperishable Glory” to History: The Iliadand the Trojan War 122 Jonas Grethlein 9 Historical Narrative in Archaic and Early Classical Greek Elegy 145 Ewen Bowie 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 10:52 Page vi vi Contents 10 Fact, Fiction, and Form in Early Roman Epic 167 Sander M. Goldberg 11 The Song and the Sword: Silius’s Punicaand the Crisis of Early Imperial Epic 185 Raymond D. Marks 12 The Burden of Mortality: Alexander and the Dead in Persian Epic and Beyond 212 Olga M. Davidson 13 Slavic Epic: Past Tales and Present Myths 223 Susana Torres Prieto 14 Historicity and Anachronism in Beowulf 243 Geoffrey Russom 15 The Nibelungenlied– Myth and History: A Middle High German Epic Poem at the Crossroads of Past and Present, Despair and Hope 262 Albrecht Classen 16 Medieval Epic and History in the Romance Literatures 280 Joseph J. Duggan 17 Roland’s Migration from Anglo-Norman Epic to Royal French Chronicle History 293 Michel-André Bossy 18 A Recurrent Theme of the Spanish Medieval Epic: Complaints and Laments by Noble Women 310 Mercedes Vaquero 19 History in Medieval Scandinavian Heroic Literature and the Northwest European Context 328 Robert D. Fulk 20 Traditional History in South Slavic Oral Epic 347 John Miles Foley 21 Lord Five Thunder and the 12 Eagles and Jaguars of Rabinal Meet Charlemagne and the 12 Knights of France 362 Dennis Tedlock 22 History, Myth, and Social Function in Southern African Nguni Praise Poetry 381 Richard Whitaker 23 Epic and History in the Arabic Tradition 392 Dwight F. Reynolds 24 Comments on “Epic and History” 411 Dean Miller Index 425 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 10:52 Page vii List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 2.1 Map of Mesopotamia: Major Old Babylonian literary text finds 10 Figure 21.1 The opening performance of Rabinal Achiin the 1999 season 366 Figure 21.2 Two trumpeters and a drummer, playing the dance music for Rabinal Achi 367 Figure 21.3 Kaweq in Rabinal Achiand an ancient lord of Palenque 368 Tables Table 2.1 Six Gilgameshtales used in the old Babylonian schools 18 Table 9.1 Narrative elegies that might have been composed around 700, as well as elegies attested to have been composed around 650 156 Table 11.1 Roman republican and early imperial epics 200 9781405193078_1_pre.qxd 10/9/09 10:52 Page viii Notes on Contributors Mary R. Bachvarova received her PhD from the University of Chicago’s Committee on the History of Culture. She is Associate Professor of Classics at Willamette University. She has published several articles on Hittite, Mesopotamian, and Greek epic and poetry and on issues of cross-cultural influence and transmission. A volume she co-edited, Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and Their Neighbors, was published in 2008. A book, From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Back- ground of Greek Epic and Prayer,and a co-edited volume, The Impenetrabilityof Desire (on ancient Greek women’s experience and expression of sexual desire), are forthcoming. Michel-André Bossy has a PhD in Comparative Literature from Yale University and is Professor of Comparative Literature and French Studies at Brown University. He has published Medieval Debate Poetry: Vernacular Works (1987), edited two special issues of Tenso: Bulletin of the Société Guilhem IX,on Guiraut Riquier, a thirteenth-century troubadour, and co-edited Lives and Legacies: An Encyclopedia of People Who Changed the World. Artists, Writers, and Musicians (2001). He is working on a book on Guiraut Riquier and an edition and translation of his complete lyrics and songs. Other current research projects examine the political dimensions of literary art in influential European courts during the thirteenth- century wars between Guelfs and Ghibellines and the Hundred Years War. Ewen Bowie is an Emeritus Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was E. P. Warren Praelector in Classics from 1965 to 2007, and latterly Professor of Classical Languages and Literature in the University of Oxford. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on archaic Greek poetry, old comedy, Hellenistic poetry, and the literature and Realien of the Greek world in the first three centuries ce. Titles relevant for this volume include, for example, “Choral Performances” (2006); “Early Expatriates: Displacement and Exile in Archaic Poetry” (2007), and “Wandering Poets, Archaic Style” (2009). Albrecht Classen has a PhD in German Studies from the University of Virginia and is University Distinguished Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona. His recent books include Despair and Hope: The Search for the Communicative Community in German Medieval Literature (2002; in German); The Discourse on Love and Marriage from the High Middle Ages to the Early Seventeenth Century (2005; in German); The Medieval Chastity Belt (2007), and