Promise-giving and treaty-making
Subtitle: Homer and the Near East
By: by Peter (Panayiotis) Karavites, with the collaboration of Thomas Wren.
Contributors: Wren, Thomas E.
Series: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava.; 119
Publisher: E.J. Brill
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Leiden; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 224
Subjects: Homer -- Knowledge -- History.; Epic poetry, Greek -- Mycenaean influences.; Civilization, Mycenaean, in literature.; Middle East in literature.; Treaties in literature.
Description: This book challenges the current view of the Homeric epics, according to which they reflect only the institutions and ideas of their own time, telling us nothing about the Mycenaean Age preceding it. Using a comparative analysis of evidence from the Near East and the Homeric corpus, Peter Karavites comes to the bold conclusion that the epics actually contain much that harks back to the Mycenaean Age, and that the two eras may not be completely discontinuous after all.

Most contemporary scholars maintain that the mighty Mycenaean period was almost completely separated from the Dark Ages and that virtually no evidence of the former remains, with the exception of the archeological finds and the meager testimony of the Linear B tablets. However, the Near Eastern evidence about treaties and other forms of promising suggests that the Iliad and Odyssey may indeed provide historical pictures of the Mycenaean times featured in their narratives.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-216) and indexes.