The Hittite-Homer Connection? w/ Mary Bachvarova

For thousands of years, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were the oldest epic stories that Europeans know of. But is it possible that Homer was, in turn, influenced by the stories of other civilizations to the east of Greece? Joining us to discuss the Hittites and their potential (direct and indirect) influences on the Greek epic tradition is Mary Bachvarova, professor of classics at Willamette University and author of From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic, as well as other books and articles on the oral traditions of the late Bronze and early iron ages.

This episode is available as a video on YouTube, in addition to the normal audio format.

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Scholars and scholarly works mention during the conversation

Walter Burkert, Alwin Kloekhorst, William Merritt Sale, Calvert Watkins, Martin West's The East Side of Helicon