(2000). The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 139-139.

The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History

Part I. The Theory 1. Introduction 2. Singers: Performance and Training 3. The Formula 4. The Theme 5. Songs and the Song 6. Writing and Oral Tradition Part II. The Application 7. Homer 8. The Odyssey 9. The Iliad 10. Some Notes on Medieval Epic Appendices Notes Index

The Singer of Tales

Early Greek Myth. A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources by Timothy Gantz (review)

Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins

The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia

It is commonly accepted nowadays that ancient Aegean culture included many elements
that were not indigenous. But scholars still question the importance of these for the
development of the region. I contend that such scepticism is mistaken. Ideas about the
ancient Aegean’s cultural independence are founded in the history of research in this
field, and could be countered by more detailed studies of specific cultural elements. The
following issues should be addressed: the likelihood of an indigenous development of
elements; reasons for transmission and the process of embedment; the process of
transmission.
These issues I discuss in the introduction. Next, a case study follows on the
connection between the appearances of the ‘Kingship in Heaven’-theme in the Hittite
Song of Going Forth (‘Song of Kumarbi’) and the Hesiodic Theogony. I explain these
by proposing a specific scenario.
An analysis of the song shows that it focused on the storm-god more than is
commonly assumed. Subsequently, the variant of the theme in the Theogony and its
similarities with that of the song are described. Various elements of the theme that
appear similarly in the Theogony and the song probably originated outside the Aegean.
Their inclusion together implies that the composer of the Theogony knew of a version of
the entire song. I suggest that he intended to create a pan-Hellenic genealogical system,
and considered this text particularly fit as a framework to structure his poem with.
The song was Hurrian originally, and probably connected to kingship
legitimisation. This was also its use in the Hittite and Neo-Hittite kingdoms. Intra-
Anatolian interaction from ca. 1200-650 BCE is surveyed. The Phrygians probably
adopted the song from the Neo-Hittites, perhaps again in the context of kingship rituals.
After 750 BCE, the song reached the Aegean, where, soon afterwards, it was used for
the Theogony.

E.W.M. van Dongen

Papers

Studying external stimuli to the development of the ancient Aegean The 'Kingship in Heaven'-theme from Kumarbi to Kronos via Anatolia