Promise-Giving and Treaty Making: Homer and the Near East (Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava Supplementum)

Promise-giving and Treaty-making 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. The author uses a comparative analysis of evidence from the Near East and the Homeric corpus. Full description PROMISE-GIVING AND TREATY-MAKING HOMER AND THE NEAR EAST 4 CONTENTS 8 List of Abbreviations 10 Preface 12 Introduction 14 The Focus 15 1. The Structural Composition of the Homeric Agreements 16 2. The Near Eastern Treaties 17 3. Later Greek Treaty-Making 20 4. The Mycenaean Gap 21 The Logic 23 The Design 26 PART ONE. THE HOMERIC AGREEMENTS: THEIR CORPUS, TERMINOLOGY, AND STRUCTURE 28 I. The Corpus of Homeric Agreements 30 The Homeric Texts 31 The Agreements Compared and Contrasted 54 The Oral Character of the Homeric Agreements 58 II. The Linguistic Evidence 61 The Significance of Philotês 61 The Interrelation of Horkia, Horkos, and Omnyein 71 Conclusion 94 III. The Structure of Homeric Agreements 95 The Preamble 96 The Recounting of Antecedent History 100 Stipulations 102 The Invocation of Gods as Witnesses 111 Curses and Blessings 117 Conclusion 120 IV. Other Features of Homeric Agreements 121 Other Maledictions 122 1. The destruction and transformation of cities 123 2. Ravenous wild animals 123 3. The ravishing of wives 124 4. The destruction of weapons 124 5. Warriors becoming women 125 6. Refusal of burial 125 7. Devastating flood 126 Ritual 129 Suzerainty Treaties 132 PART TWO. SOME COMMON CONTENTS AND OTHER FEATURES SHARED BY NEAR EASTERN AND HOMERIC TREATIES 138 V. The People 140 The Role of the People 140 Stipulations Concerning the Fate of Fugitives 161 VI. War Conventions 170 The Talking and Sharing of Booty 170 The Use of Surrogates 183 Firing the First Shot 188 VII. Conventions Associated with Treaty-Making 192 Meals 192 Deposition and Recitation 200 The Duration of the Agreement 207 VIII. Conclusion: Continuity or Discontinuity? 214 Bibliography 220 Index of Proper Names and Titles 230 Index of Transliterated Terms 236 SUPPLEMENTS TO MNEMOSYNE 238 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.

This book challenges the current view of the Homeric epics that they reflect only the institutions and ideas of the Dark Ages, during which they were composed, telling us nothing about the Mycenaean Age preceding it. Comparing evidence from the Near East with the Homeric corpus, Peter Karavites argues 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.