Battles with the Egyptians, most famously the Battle at Kadesh, led to a treaty between Hattushili III and Ramses II in which a Hittite princess was given to Ramses in marriage.. Althoug
Trang 1greatest foreign expansion They were able to expand the
kingdom throughout all of Syria, defeating Mittani, and
extending almost as far south as Damascus Battles with
the Egyptians, most famously the Battle at Kadesh, led to
a treaty between Hattushili III and Ramses II in which a
Hittite princess was given to Ramses in marriage
Although the treaty with Egypt remained in force for
the remainder of the Hittite New Kingdom, new threats
arose that eventually led to the demise of the Hittites
As-syria under Shalmaneser I became aggressive toward the
Hittites In addition, various smaller nations
surround-ing the Hittite homeland began to pressure the Hittites
militarily and economically
Unfortunately, it is still impossible to tell the exact
nature of the downfall of the Hittite capital Hattusha
What is clear is that limited Hittite rule continued in
other areas, particularly Carchemish These local centers
were ruled by Neo-Hittite dynasties governing
individu-al city-states These city-states were eventuindividu-ally absorbed
into the Neo-Assyrian Empire
Hittite religion and cultic practices are becoming
in-creasingly better known through archaeological
excava-tions Unfortunately, no mythological text in the old
Hit-tite script has yet been discovered However, one myth of
west Semitic origin has been found in a Hittite
transla-tion It tells the story of the virtuous young male
Baal-Haddu refusing the advances of the married Asherah in
a fashion reminiscent of the biblical account of Joseph
and Potipher’s wife found in the book of Genesis Cultic
practices are illuminated in the various festival
descrip-tions found in royal archives and in texts from
provin-cial centers Much is known about these festivals, speprovin-cial
times when the statue of the deity was brought out from
the temple and honored with sacrifi ces and offerings
giv-en amid music and dancing New moon festivals were
held to mark the beginning of each new month
Knowledge of ancient Near Eastern temples,
in-cluding the Solomonic Temple of the Old Testament,
is greatly advanced through the excavations of various
Hittite temples At least fi ve temples have been
uncov-ered in the capital of Hattusha, and some estimate there
to be as many as 20 present in the city Every Hittite city
had at least one temple staffed by both male and female
personnel serving as cooks, musicians, artisans,
farm-ers, and herders
See also Babylon: early period; Babylon, later
periods; Egypt, culture and religion; Fertile
Crescent
Further reading: Bryce, T The Kingdom of the Hittites
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998; Hoffner, H A., Jr
“Hittites.” In A J Hoerth, G L Mattingly, and E M
Yam-auchi Peoples of the Old Testament World Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Books, 1994
Eric Smith
Homeric epics
The epics of the Greek writer Homer—the Iliad and the Odyssey—are the earliest and the best known of
classics of Greek literature Both are long epic poems, and several scholars have argued that different people probably wrote the two, with some academics arguing against even the existence of Homer Certainly, all that
is known about Homer is from tradition and evidence gleaned from the epics
The cities of Argos, Athens, Chios, Colophon, Rhodes, Salamis, and Izmir (Smyrna) all claim that Homer was born in their city Homer was probably a Greek from Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), as his writings used the Ionic and the Aeolic dialects of that region, so the claims of Chios and Izmir are the most plausible
Many centuries later there was a clan at Chios known as the Homeridae who claimed to be descen-dants of Homer and, as wandering minstrels, kept alive some of the traditions associated with their famous ancestor Homer was born the son of Maeon; he lived
around 850 b.c.e Many people thought the Iliad and the Odyssey had been written in the eighth century b.c.e., with a consensus that the Iliad is earlier than the
Odyssey, the former possibly composed in 750 b.c.e.,
and the latter about 25 years later This was the period when many Greeks were moving to Asia Minor, and there was an increasing interest in the traditions of con-tact with the region Some have pointed to references
in the sixth book of the Odyssey to refer clearly to the establishment of a Greek colony The term Homeric age
refers to the period about which Homer wrote, rather than the period in which he lived
Countless writers have translated the Iliad and the
Odyssey The Roman writer Lucius Livius Andronicus,
from Taranto in southern Italy, translated the Odyssey
into Latin verse in the third century b.c.e The most well-known translation is that of E V Rieu, in the Pen-guin Classics edition, fi rst published in 1950 Although there have been many more translations, that by Rich-mond Lattimore in 1951 is regarded as the best He set out to try to capture the atmosphere of the original text
by rendering it into verse, line by line