Gods, Heroes, and Monsters A Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Myths in Translation

by López-Ruiz, Carolina

• ISBN13: 9780190644819
• ISBN10: 0190644818
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-06-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Offering an expansive view of the ancient Mediterranean world, Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: A Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Myths in Translation, Second Edition, presents essential Greek and Roman sources--including work from Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, and Ovid--alongside analogous narratives from the ancient Near East--Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Hittite kingdom, Ugarit, Phoenicia, and the Hebrew Bible. Some of the sources appear here in English translations for the first time.

This collection stresses cultural continuities and comparisons, showing how Greek and Roman myths did not emerge in a vacuum but rather evolved from and interacted with their counterparts in the ancient Near East. Reinforcing this more inclusive definition of "classical," it is organized thematically, which allows readers to excamine each category of myth in a comparative and cross-cultural light. For example, "Part III: Epic Struggles: Gods, Heroes, and Monsters" provides sources that feature Greek heroes like Heracles, Apollo, Achilles, and Hector along with the Epic of Gilgamesh and other ancient Near Eastern selections that focus on the hero.

Gods, Heroes, and Monsters, Second Edition. shows how the literature, inhabitants, and intellectual traditions of Greece and Rome and the ancient Near East were inextricably intertwined. The book is enhanced by a vibrant, full-color, 16-pg. photo insert, and many new translations by editor Carolina López-Ruiz and others.

Author Biography

Carolina López-Ruiz is Associate Professor of Classics at The Ohio State University. She is the author of When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East (2010), the coauthor of Tartessos and the Phoenicians in Iberia (OUP, 2016), and the coeditor of Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician, Greek, and Indigenous Relations (2009).

Table of Contents

List of Maps
List of Figures
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Note on Text Arrangement, Transliterations, and Chronology
About the Editor
Contributors
Timeline
Maps
PART ONE. AND SO IT BEGAN: COSMOGONIES AND THEOGONIES
MESOPOTAMIAN
1.1. Babylonian Epic of Creation: Enuma Elish
1.2. Theogony of Dunnu
EGYPTIAN
1.3. Egyptian Cosmogonies
1.3.a. The Memphite Theology: Ending of the Shabako Stone
1.3.b. "A Hymn to Life": Coffin Texts Spell 80
1.3.c. Excerpt from The Teachings for Merikare
ISRAELITE
1.4. God's Creation, from the Book of Genesis 1
GREEK
1.5. Hesiod's Theogony
1.6. The Demiurge, from Plato's Timaeus
1.7. Orphic Cosmogony: The Derveni Papyrus
1.8. Short Cosmogony in Apollonios of Rhodes' Argonautika
PHOENICIAN
1.9. Phoenician Cosmogonies
1.9.a. Philon of Byblos: Excerpts from the Phoenician History
1.9.b. Phoenician Cosmogonies Mentioned by Damaskios
ROMAN
1.10. Creation Myth in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 1
1.11. Two Short Cosmogonies, from Virgil's Aeneid and Eclogues
1.11.a. A "Tyrian" Cosmogony, from Aeneid, Book 1
1.11.b. Cosmic Song of Silenus, from Eclogues 6
PART TWO. MANKIND CREATED, MANKIND DESTROYED
MESOPOTAMIAN
2.1. Mesopotamian Flood Stories
2.1.a. Atrahasis
2.1.b. Flood Story from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI
EGYPTIAN
2.2. Egyptian Texts on the Creation and Destruction of Mankind
2.2.a. Excerpts from the Coffin Texts
2.2.b. Excerpt from the Book of the Heavenly Cow
ISRAELITE
2.3. Adam and Eve, from Genesis 2-3
2.4. The Story of Noah, from Genesis 6-9
GREEK
2.5. Hesiod's Prometheus, Pandora, and Five Races of Mankind, from Works and Days
2.6. The Creation and Attributes of Mankind, from Plato's Protagoras
2.7. Deukalion and Pyrrha: The Greek Flood, from Apollodorus' Library
ROMAN- LATE ANTIQUITY GREEK
2.8. The Ages of Mankind and the Flood, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 1
2.9. Virgil's Golden Age, from the Georgics, Book 1
2.10. An Orphic Anthropogony
PART THREE. EPIC STRUGGLES: GODS, HEROES, AND MONSTERS
MESOPOTAMIAN
3.1. The Epic of Gilgamesh (selections)
EGYPTIAN
3.2. The Disputes between Horus and Seth
3.3. Egypt: Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
ANATOLIAN
3.4. Hittite Myths
3.4.a. Anatolian Myth of Illuyanka
3.4.b. The Hurro-Hittite Kumarbi Cycle
CANAANITE
3.5. Ugaritic Epic Poems
3.5.a. The Baal Cycle
3.5.b. The Aqhat Epic
ISRAELITE
3.6. Yahweh as a Storm God: Psalm 29
3.7. David and Goliath: 1 Samuel 17
GREEK
3.8. Homer's Gods and Heroes in battle: Iliad, Book 5
3.9. Apollo's Journey: The Homeric Hymn to Apollo
3.10. Dionysos' many faces
3.10.a. The Homeric Hymn to Dionysos
3.10.b. The opening of Euripides' Bacchae
3.10.c. Dionysos' birth and wanderings, from Apollodorus' Library
3.11. Jason and the Argonauts, from Apollodorus' Library
3.12. Argive Heroes: Bellerophon, Perseus, and Herakles, from Apollodorus' Library
3.12.a. Bellerophon and the Chimaera
3.12.b. Perseus' adventures
3.12.c. Herakles' life and labors
3.13. The Theban Saga: Oedipus and the Seven against Thebes, from Apollodorus' Library
PART FOUR. OF CITIES AND PEOPLES
EGYPTIAN
4.1. The Foundation of a Heliopolis Temple by Senusert I
ANATOLIAN
4.2. The Hurro-Hittite Song of Release (Destruction of the City of Ebla)
ISRAELITE
4.3. Cain and Abel: Genesis 4
4.4. The Tower of Babel: Genesis 11
4.5. Abraham's Test, from Genesis 22
4.6. Moses and the Israelites' Escape from Egypt, from the Book of Exodus
MESOPOTAMIAN
4.7. The Sargon Legend
4.7.a. The Sumerian Sargon Legend
4.7.b. Neo-Assyrian Sargon Birth Legend
GREEK-PERSIAN
4.8. Birth of Cyrus the Great, from Herodotos' Histories
GREEK
4.9. The Foundation of Cyrene
4.9.a. Herodotos on the Foundation of Cyrene
4.9.b. Cyrene in Pindar, Pythian Ode 5
4.10. Athens and Atlantis, from Plato's Timaeus and Kritias
4.11. Theseus, an Athenian civic hero
4.11.a. Theseus' exploits, from Apollodorus' Library
4.11.b. The unification of Attica, from Plutarch's Life of Theseus
4.12. Kadmos, Europa, and the foundation of Thebes
4.12.a. The foundation of Thebes, from Apollodorus' Library
4.12.b. The "Rape of Europa" and the foundation of Thebes, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 2-3
PHOENICIAN-WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN
4.13. Tyre's Foundation Story, from Nonnos' Dionysiaka
4.14. The Foundation of Carthage
4.14.a. Carthage's Foundation, from Justin, Epitome of Trogus
4.14.b. The Dawn of Carthage in Virgil's Aeneid, Book 1
4.15. Gargoris and Habis: Culture heroes in the western Mediterranean, from Justin, Epitome of Trogus
ROMAN
4.16. The Foundation of Rome
4.16.a. Beginning of Rome, from Livy's History of Rome, Book 1
4.16.b. Romulus and Remus, from Plutarch's Life of Romulus
PART FIVE. EROS AND THE LABORS OF LOVE
MESOPOTAMIAN
5.1. Ishtar and Gilgamesh: Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VI
EGYPTIAN
5.2. Story of the Two Brothers
ISRAELITE
5.3.Joseph and Potiphar's Wife: Genesis 39
GREEK-ROMAN
5.4. Aphrodite and Anchises: The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite
5.5. Medea and Jason, from Euripides'Medea
5.6. The origins of Love according to Aristophanes, from Plato's Symposium
5.7. Teiresias: A transgendered seer, from Apollodorus' Library
5.8. "Hymn to Venus," from Lucretius' De rerum natura
5.9. Aeneas and Dido, from Virgil's Aeneid, Books 1 and 4
5.10. Pasiphae and the Cretan Bull
5.10.a. Minos, Pasiphae, and the Bull, from Apollodorus' Library
5.10.b. Pasiphae's Passion, from Ovid's Ars Amatoria
5.10.c. Minos and the Bull, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 8
5.11. Theseus and Ariadne
5.11.a. Ariadne's Fate, from Plutarch, Life of Theseus
5.11.b. Ariadne to Theseus: Ovid, Heroides 10
5.12. Phaedra to Hippolytus: Ovid, Heroides 4
5.13. Penelope to Ulysses: Ovid, Heroides 1
5.14. Hermaphroditus, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 4
5.15. Cephalus and Procris, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 7
5.16. Hyacinth and Apollo, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 10
5.17. Pygmalion's Statue, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 10
5.18. Myrrha and Cinyras, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 10
5.19. Caenis-Caeneus, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 12
5.20. Achilles at Skyros, from Statius' Achilleid
5.21. Cupid and Psyche, from Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Books 4-6
PART SIX. DEATH AND THE AFTERLIFE JOURNEY
MESOPOTAMIAN
6.1. Sumerian poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld (Excerpt)
6.2. Gilgamesh and the Underworld: Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablets X-XI
6.3. Ishtar's Descent to the Underworld
EGYPTIAN
6.4. Great Hymn to Osiris
6.5. The Fight between Re and Apep, from the Book of the Dead
GREEK-EGYPTIAN
6.6. Isis and Osiris, from Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride
GREEK
6.7. Odysseus' Nekyia in Homer, Odyssey, Book 11
6.8. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter
6.9. Instructions for the Hereafter: An Orphic Gold Tablet
6.10. The story of Er, from Plato's Republic
ROMAN
6.11. Adonis, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 10
6.12. Orpheus and Eurydice, from Virgil's Georgics, Book 4
6.13. Aeneas' Katabasis, from Virgil's Aeneid, Book 6
6.14. The Dream of Scipio, from Cicero's De re publica
6.15. Psyche's Descent to the Underworld, from Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Book 6
Glossary of Technical Terms
Bibliography
References
Credits
Index of Places and Characters