In my view, acquaintance with the Ugaritic myths is invaluable for gaining a larger perspective and context for understanding a typical epic divine economy. Ugaritic myth has a full polytheistic conception that roughly parallels most of the central gods of Greek and Roman myth, and was the backdrop out of which later Israelite monotheism evolved. To this end, then, see first Chapter 16, by Nicolas Wyatt in this volume. Mark S. Smith’s The Origins of Biblical Monotheism (2001) is invaluable, as is basic familiarity with the main Ugaritic myths, The Baal Cycle and Aqhat. Together, these provide the reader with larger contexts for analyzing the gods in the Homeric epics, Gilgamesh, the Aeneid, and Old Testament myth, in particular.
Robert Mondi’s essay, ‘‘Greek mythic thought in the light of the Near East’’ (1990), is one of the most original and useful attempts to provide a Near Eastern context for Greek myth, bringing in Ugaritic and other Near Eastern myths and formulating original arguments about them. Martin West’s The East Face of Helicon (1997b) pursues similar connections between Greek and Near Eastern myth on an even larger scale.
Other works also useful for exploring connections between various divine pantheons include Sarah Morris 1992; see also her article ‘‘The sacrifice of Astyanax’’ in Carter and Morris 1995: 221-45. Also recommended are Patrick D. Miller’s The Divine Warrior in Early Israel (1973), Frank Moore Cross’s Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (1973), E. Theodore Mullen’s The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature (1980), and Peggy Day’s entry on ‘‘Anat’’ in the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (van der Toorn et al. 1995).
A Companion to Ancient Epic Edited by John Miles Foley Copyright © 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
World History
