From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic by Mary R. Bachvarova (review)

Building on well over a decade of research and publications, Mary R. Bach-varova’s From Hittite to Homer presents a definitive synthesis of the author’s investigations into connections between the Homeric poems and Anatolian narrative traditions.Fully versed in the work of Milman Parry, Albert Lord, Gregory Nagy, John Miles Foley, and Paul Zumthor (but acknowledging the need for conscientious adaptation of their ideas), she discovers in the Boğazköy tablets signs of multiformity that suggest the ongoing vitality of an oral tradition even for such classics of the scribal schools as the Gilgamesh epic.The second half of the book explores a variety of possible contexts for the westward transmission of narratives, focusing especially on ritual practice and festivals in Late Bronze Age Anatolia and Early Iron Age Cyprus.