The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age (Revealing Antiquity)

240 Pages·1998·9.44 MB·English

by  Walter Burkert

T HE
O R I E N T A L I Z I NG
R E V O L U T I ON
Near Eastern Influence on
Greek Culture in
the Early Archaic Age
Walter Burkert
TRANSLATED BY
Margaret E. Pinder
and Walter Burkert
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
Copyright © 1992 by the President and
Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 1995
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burkert, Walter, 1931-
The orientalizing revolution: Near Eastern influence on Greek
culture in the early archaic age / Walter Burkert; translated by
Margaret E. Pinder and Walter Burkert.
p. cm. — (Revealing antiquity; 5)
Translation of: Die orientahsierende Epoche in der griechischen
Religion und Literatur.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-64363-1 (cloth)
ISBN 0-674-643 64-X (pbk.)
1. Greece—Civilization—to 146 B.C. 2. Greece—Civiliza
tion—Middle Eastern influences. I. Title. II. Series.
DF78.B85 1992 92-8923
938—dc20 CIP
C O N T E N TS
Preface ix
Introduction 1
i. "Who Are Public Workers": The Migrant Craftsmen g
Historical Background g
Oriental Products in Greece 14
Writing and Literature in the Eighth Century 23
The Problem of Loan-Words 33
2. "A Seer or a Healer": Magic and Medicine 41
"Craftsmen oj the Sacred": Mobility and [-'amity Structure 41
Hepatoscopy 46
Foundation Deposits 33
Purification 35
Spirits of the Dead and Black Magic 63
Substitute Sacrifice 73
Asclepius and Asgelatas 73
Ecstatic Divination 79
Lamashtu, Lamia, and Gorgo 82
3. "Or Also a Godly Singer": Akkadian and Early
Greek Literature 88
From Atrahasis to the "Deception of Zeus" 88
Complaint in Heaven: Ishtar and Aphrodite 96
The Overpopulated Earth 100
Seven against Thebes 106
v
C O N T E N TS
Common Style and Stance in Oriental and Greek Epic
Fables 120
Magic and Cosmogony 124
Conclusion 128
Abbreviations 131
Bibliography 133
Notes 133
Index of Greek Words 219
General Index 221
VI
ILLUSTRATIONS
Map The Mediterranean and the Near East in the early
archaic period
Figure 1. Bronze tympanon from the Idaean cave, Crete;
Heraklion Museum; drawing by Hildi Keel-Leu
Figure 2, North Syrian bronze plaque from horse har
ness, inscribed; courtesy of the Deutsches Archäo
logisches Institut, Aufnahme DAI Athen, Neg. Nr.
88/1022
Figure 3. Liver models from Mesopotamia and from
Piacenza, Italy: British Museum, London, and Mu-
seo Archeologico, Florence; from C. O. Thulin, Die
etmskische Disziplin, vol. I (Göteborg, 1905), plate II
Figure 4. Babylonian bronze figurine found in the Hera
sanctuary at Samos; Samos Museum; courtesy of the
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Aufnahme DAI
Athen, Neg. Nr. 78/600
Figure 5. Lamashtu plate from Carchemish; drawing by
Hildi Keel-Leu
vu
I L L U S T R A T I O NS
Figure 6. Seal impression from Nuzi and bronze shield 86
strap from Olympia; drawings from Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 21 (1961), 115; courtesy of the Uni
versity of Chicago Press. Seal from Baghdad: draw
ing by Cornelius Burkert; courtesy of the Vordera
siatisches Museum, Berlin
Figure 7. Cypriote silver bowl from the Bernardini 103
tomb, Praeneste; courtesy of the Museo di Villa Giu-
lia, Rome
Figure 8. Orthostate relief from the palace at Guzana- 112
Tell Halaf; from H. T. Bossert, Altsyrien (Tübingen:
Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 1951), fig. 472; courtesy of
Verlag Ernst Wasmuth, Tübingen
viii
N
PREFACE
The original version of this book was published in 1984 in Sit-
zungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. I am
grateful to Glen Bowersock for promoting an English transla
tion. With a view to a larger public and in order to reflect the
current state of scholarship, I have revised the book throughout
and in some places expanded the argument.
My thesis about the indebtedness of Greek civilization to east
ern stimuli may appear less provocative today than it did eight
years ago. This change may be partly an effect of the original
publication, but mainly it reflects the fact that classics has been
losing more and more its status of a solitary model in our mod
ern world. Yet it still seems worthwhile to help bridge the gaps
between related fields of scholarship and to make available ma
terials often neglected by one or another. Such an exercise may
convey the excitement of unexpected discoveries even when it
necessitates a fair amount of annotation.
I owe special thanks to Peter Frei, Paul Hoskisson, Fritz Stolz,
Rolf Stucky, and Markus Wafler for their help on matters ori
ental, and to Peter Blome for detailed archaeological advice.
IX