The East Face of Helicon West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth [Paperback]

Over the last sixty years scholars have increasingly become aware of links connecting early Greek poetry with the literatures of the ancient Near East. Martin West's new book far surpasses previous studies in comprehensiveness, demonstrating these links with massive and detailed documentation and showing they are much more fundamental and pervasive than has hitherto been acknowledged. His survey embraces Hesiod, the Homeric epics, the lyric poets, and Aeschylus, and concludes with an illuminating discussion of possible avenues of transmission between the orient and Greece.

Abbreviations
Note on the transcription of oriental languages
Note on chronologies
1. Aegean and Orient
2. Ancient Literatures of Western Asia
3. Of Heaven and Earth
4. Ars Poetica
5. A Form of Words
6. Hesiod
7. TheIliad
8. TheOdyssey
9. Myths and Legends of Heroes
10. The Lyric Poets
11. Aeschylus
12. The Question of Transmission
Bibliography
Indexes

His superb, unique scholarship can be read with ease and profit even by undergraduates. --Religious Studies Review

Martin West FBA was formerly Professor of Greek, University of London (1974-91)