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Foley, John Miles (ed.): A Companion to Ancient Epic (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World). Maiden/Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 2005. 664 p.
A Companion to Ancient Epic is a comprehensive introduction and guide to the epics of the ancient Near Eastern and Classical worlds. The forty-two essays in the book cover general topics on the study and comparison of ancient epics as well as epics in Greek and Latin, Hittite and Hurrian, Persian, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew, and Ugaritic.
The book is divided into four sections. In me first section, "Issues and Perspectives", problems of the definition, comparison, and historicity of epics are discussed. As is often emphasized in studies of epic, defining the genre is very difficult. Richard Martin suggests instead that if "'epic', ancient or modern, represents a 'genre' in any meaningful sense, our first task should not be to enumerate the characteristics of a classification, but to ask what might be the ultimate usefulness, whether to literary criticism or cultural studies, of such categories" (p. 9). In a volume covering the kinds of epic traditions covered by this volume, such an approach is probably inevitable. Indeed, in some cases, as with Sumerian and Semitic epic traditions, we can't even be sure mat we're dealing wim a poetic tradition, much less an epic tradition in die commonly held sense of epic. Other essays in this first section take up further aspects of me comparative study of epics. In one of me volume's few disappointing essays, Joshua Katz writes on "The Indo-European Context". Katz focuses on Greek epic in his essay because "we know more about me Greek epic material than any other branch [oflndo-European] aside from Indie" and because "most of the contributors to and readers of this volumes are classicists" (23). The idea mat most of the readers of this book will be classicists is rather puzzling to me: it is, after all, a companion to ancient epic, and, as Foley points out in his introduction (6), it is meant to be accessible to users from a variety of disciplines. And, while Greek epic is certainly the best attested ancient Indo-European epic tradition, mere are a variety of Indo-European epic traditions mat share traits in common with the Greek, Latin, and Hittite traditions covered...