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" 'He Brought a Message Back from Before the Flood': The Iliad and Neo-Assyrian Propaganda and Ideology "
Ziemann, Marcus Daniel
Lopez-Ruiz, Carolina
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1053295
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TL52412
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Ziemann, Marcus Daniel
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| Title & Author
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'He Brought a Message Back from Before the Flood': The Iliad and Neo-Assyrian Propaganda and Ideology\ Ziemann, Marcus DanielLopez-Ruiz, Carolina
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| College
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The Ohio State University
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| Date
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2019
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2019
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| Note
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351 p.
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| Abstract
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This project makes use of theories derived from globalization studies to reexamine Near Eastern influence on the Iliad. In particular, I read the Iliad against the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE and the dissemination of Assyrian ideology around the eastern Mediterranean. After examining how the Assyrians pressed literary works, especially the Epic of Gilgamesh, into ideological service, I then triangulate the Iliad’s response to Assyrian propaganda with other contemporary non-Assyrian texts, in particular the Book of Isaiah, to show that the Iliad was part of a larger intellectual world. I demonstrate that the Iliad’s reactions to Assyria parallel those of other contemporary literatures, especially the Hebrew Bible. Consequently, my dissertation casts doubt on the idea that Near Eastern influence in the so-called Orientalizing Period (ca. 750-650 BCE) occurred mainly through “floating motifs,” elements passed orally, without intentionality, across cultural-linguistic boundaries. Instead, I argue that Homer had direct knowledge of Near Eastern texts and that he purposefully adopted and adapted them for his own purposes. Therefore, I argue, differences between Homeric and Near Eastern parallels are not, as many scholars believe, due to Homer’s indirect knowledge of Near Eastern literature and mythology but rather are the result of Homer’s creative reworking of passages and themes. Moreover, as I engage with globalization dynamics, I show that the Iliad’s reception of Near Eastern culture functions similarly to how non-Westerners today adopt aspects of Western culture. The Iliad’s adoption of Near Eastern material helped enhance Greeks’ prestige in a world centered on Assyrian high culture. While I restrict myself to the Iliad in this project, my work here has implications for the rest of Greek Archaic Poetry (the Odyssey, the Hesiodic poems, and the Homeric Hymns) and how we ought to understand Near Eastern influence on those poems as well.
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Classical studies
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Lopez-Ruiz, Carolina
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The Ohio State University
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