Greeks Between East and West: Essays in Greek Literature and History in Memory of David Asheri

The essays collected in this volume, ranging chronologically from the second millennium BCE to the classical age and thematically from literature through ritual and religion to archaeology, present a variety of meetings among the realms of Greek culture and between them and the cultures with which they engaged in the course of eastward colonization. Encounters of the former kind include those between poetic myth and historical truth; between historians and their poetic heritage; between the political cultures of Sparta and Athens; and between reality and ritual. In the latter realm, Greek meets other in the fantastical writings of Ctesias; the concept of tyranny is traced back to marriage ties within the royal houses of ancient Anatolia; a link is established between the biblical Philistines and the Greek tradition of a lost Race of Heroes; and cultural traces of Greek colonists and their local neighbours are unearthed at sites around the Black Sea. The book includes a complete bibliographical listing of the writings of David Asheri.