The Ancient Greeks and Their Neighbors

Dennis Campbell

Course Description
This class will explore the ways in which the ancient Greeks interacted with the multicultural
world in which they lived. Influence from Egypt, Mesopotamia and Anatolia can be seen in
virtually all aspects of Greek culture. To the ancient Near Eastern cultures of the Late Bronze
Age, the Mycenaeans were a peripheral, but powerful, people. We will explore the ways in
which the Near Eastern states viewed their early Greek neighbors and how they interacted, in
peace, in war, and through trade. The influence of the East on the Greeks in religion cannot be
downplayed. A significant portion of the class will be in examining the influence of the Near
East on the (early) Greeks.
Course Requirements:
1. Attendance is mandatory. Role will be taken at the beginning of every class. Two
unexcused absences from class will be tolerated but any more will result in a lowering of your
grade. If you come to class late it is your responsibility to inform the instructor at the end of that
class period that you were there. Failure to do so will count as an absence. If you cannot make a
class, you must inform the instructor before hand.
2. Participation is expected and required. A portion of your grade will be determined by the
degree to which you participate in class discussions. There will be a number of readings required
throughout this course. We will be discussing these in detail during class periods. These pieces
are often open to a variety of interpretations. When discussing different views on class topics I
expect you to act respectfully to your fellow students. Debate and discussion are important tools
in historical resource. Tearing people down, however, is never constructive and will not be
tolerated.
3. Writing assignments must be handed by the end of class on the day on which they are due.
Failure to do so without the permission of the instructor will result in the reduction of one-third of
a letter grade for each day that it is late (and Saturdays and Sundays count as days!). For example,
if the original grade for your paper was a B and it is two days late, your actual grade for the paper
will be a C+. Furthermore, plagiarism is not permitted and if found will result in a failing grade
for the course.
4. Each week you will need to write a short synopsis on the readings or handouts. What are
the authors saying? What sources do they use? How do they use these sources? For some weeks
I will give you a list of questions that I want you to answer on these readings. These assignments
are to be posted online on Blackboard.
5. There will be a final exam. It is the students responsibility to be present and prepared at
each exam. Make up tests will only be given in extraordinary cases and with the instructors
approval.
Writing Assignments
There are two writing assignments required for this course, an annotated bibliography and a
research paper based on this bibliography. First you must develop a paper based on the class
topics and have it approved by the instructor. Then you will develop a detailed annotated
bibliography. An annotated bibliography is much more detailed than an ordinary bibliography.
Based on this bibliography, you will then write a proper research paper on your approved topic.

Campbell, Dennis R.M. 2

*Scheduled due dates:

Week Three: One paragraph on your proposed topic is due in week three. I will e-mail you
with comments on your topic. If I feel that it is not appropriate or sufficient, I will request a
meeting with you, at which time we will discuss your proposal and develop an appropriate topic.
Week Six: Annotated bibliography is due. I expect at least ten sources. In the bibliography you
must explain why this source is useful and appropriate to your topic.
Week Ten: Paper is due on the last class. This paper is to be a proper research paper, with an
introduction, body and conclusion and bibliography. You may use footnotes if required. The
paper is to be double spaced, 12 pt. font and with normal margins (I will not accept papers that
are made to look longer through bigger fonts and skewed margins; papers like this will be
immediately returned and you will have 1 week to hand in a proper version or you will receive a
failing grade for the paper). The length is open, but it should not be less than 8 pages and not
more than 25.
Grading
Participation
5%
Annotated Bibliography 15%
Final Paper
25%
Weekly assignments
15%
Final Exam
40%
Course Schedual
Week 1:
Introduction
required: Albright (1972); Kuhrt (1995)
The Mycenaeans
required: Caskey (1969); Knapp (1992); Olsen (1998)
recommended: Knapp (1995); Mountjoy (1998); Niemeier (2001)
Week 2:
Transmission of the Alphabet
required: McCarter (1974); Naveh (1973), (1980)
The Mycenaeans and the Hittites
required: (handouts: Tawagalawa, Indictment of Madduwata, Treaty with Alaksandu)
Gterbock (1983), (1984), (1986)
Week 3:
The Trojan War
required: Bryce (2006)- chapters 3-6; Easton, et.al. (2002); Hertel and Kolb (2003)
Mycenaeans and Trade
required: Cline (1994)- chapters 1-14 (scan through); Knapp (1993); Mee (1978)
recommended: Vison (1990)
DUE: PAPER TOPIC

Campbell, Dennis R.M. 3

Week 4:
Mycenaeans and the Near East
required: Dothan (1995); Stanislawski (1973); Stiebing (1980)
Art
required: Hall (1914); Kkozy (1995); Mller (1936)
Week 5:
Religion
required: Burkert (1979)- pp. 35-77; Gurney (1981); Morrison (1981); Pfeifer (1937)
Mythology and Religion
required: Antonaccio (1994); Burkert (1979)- pp. 1-34; West (1995), (1997)- pp. 61-106.
Week 6:
Hesiods Theogony, Kumarbi Cycle and Philo of Byblos and other creation myths
required: Hoffner (1998)- Kumarbi Cycle; Attridge and Oden (1981)- esp. pp. 47-55; West
(1997)- pp. 276-305
recommended: Edwards (1991); Gterbock (1948)
DUE: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Week 7:
Homer and the Near East
required: (handout: sections of Iliad and Odyssey) Feldman (1996); West (1997)- pp. 334-437
Week 8:
Transmission: Baker (1994)
Historiography in the Near East
required: Averbeck (1994); Grayson (1980); Hoffner (1980); Seeters (1995)
recommended: McMahon (1994)
Week 9:
Historiography among the Greeks
required: Finley (1991); Harrison (2007); Manigliano (1991); Notopoulos (1960)
recommended: Pikoulas (2007)
The Greeks and the Persians
required: Miller (1997)- chapters 1, 4, 5
Week 10:
Lycians, Lydians and the Greeks:
required: Bryce (1986)- scan chapters 2, 4, and 7; Bryce (1995); Greenewalt (1995); Ray (1995)
Alexander the Great
required: Austin (2003); Flower (2000); Tarn (2003)
recommended: Hammond (2003); Hammond and Finley (2003)
DUE: FINAL PAPER

Campbell, Dennis R.M. 4

Finals Week: FINAL EXAM

Bibliography:
Albright, W.F. Neglected Factors in the Greek Intellectual Revolution. Proceedings of the
American Philological Society 116 (1972): 225-242.
Antonaccio, C.M. Contesting the Past: Hero Cult, Tomb Cult, and Epic in Early Greece.
American Journal of Archaeology 98 (1994): 389-410.
Attridge, H. and R. Oden, Jr. Philo of Byblos: The Phoenician History: Introduction, Critical
Text, Translation, Notes (The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 9). The Catholic
Biblical Association of America, 1981.
Austin, M. Alexander and the Macedonian Invasion of Asia: Aspects of the Historiography of
War and Empire in Antiquity. I. Worthington (ed.) Alexander the Great: A Reader. Routledge,
2003: 118-135.
Averbeck, R. The Sumerian Historiographic Tradition and Its Implications for Genesis 1-11.
A. Millard et. al. (eds.) Faith, Tradition, and History: Old Testament Historiography in Its Near
Eastern Context. Eisenbrauns, 1994: 79-101.
Baker, D. Scribes as Transmitters of Tradition. A. Millard et. al. (eds.) Faith, Tradition, and
History: Old Testament Historiography in Its Near Eastern Context. Eisenbrauns, 1994: 65-77.
Bryce, T. The Lycians. Museum Tusculanum Press, 1986.
Bryce, T. The Lycian Kingdom of Southwest Anatolia. J. Sasson (ed.) Civilizations of the
Ancient Near East, Volume II. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 1161-1172.
Bryce, T. The Trojans and Their Neighbours. Routledge, 2006.
Burkert, W. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual. University of California Press,
1979.
Caskey, J.L. Crises in the Minoan-Mycenaean World. Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society 113 (1969): 433-449.
Cline, E. Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International Trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean (BAR
International Series 591). Tempus Repartvm, 1994.
Dothan, T. The Sea Peoples and the Philistines of Ancient Palestine. J. Sasson (ed.)
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Volume II. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 1267-1280.
Easton, D.F., et. al. Troy in Recent Perspective. Anatolian Studies 52 (2002): 75-109.
Edwards, M.J. Philo or Sanchuniathon? A Phoenicean Cosmogony. The Classical Quarterly,
New Series 41.1 (1991): 213-220.

Campbell, Dennis R.M. 5

Feldman, L. Homer and the Near East: the Rise of a Greek Genius. The Biblical Archaeologist
39.1 (1996): 13-21.
Finley, M. Myth, Memory, and History. J.M. Alonso-Nez (ed.) Geschichtbild und
Geschichtsdenken im Altertum. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991: 166-176.
Flower, M. Alexander the Great and Panhellenism. A.B. Bosworth and E.J. Baynham (eds.)
Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction. Oxford University Press, 2000: 96-135.
Grayson, A.K. Histories and Historians of the Ancient Near East: Assyria and Babylonia.
Orientalia 49 (1980): 140-194.
Greenewalt, C. Croesus of Sardis and the Lydian Kingdom of Anatolia. J. Sasson (ed.)
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Volume II. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 1173-1184.
Gurney, O.R. The Babylonians and Hittites. M. Loewe and C. Blacker (eds.), Oracles and
Divination. Shambhala, 1981: 142-173.
Gterbock, H.G. The Hittite Version of the Hurrian Kumarbi Myths: Oriental Forerunners of
Hesiod. American Journal of Archaeology 52 (1948): 123-134.
Gterbock, H.G. The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 1. The Ahhiyawa Problem
Reconsidered. American Journal of Archaeology 87 (1983): 133-138.
Gterbock, H.G. Hittites and Akhaeans: A New Look. Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society 128 (1984): 114-122.
Gterbock, H.G. Troy in Hittite Texts? Wilusa, Ahhiyawa, and Hittite History. M. Mellink (ed.)
Troy and the Trojan War. A Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College, October 1984. Bryn Mawr
College, 1986: 33-44.
Hall, H.R. The Relations of Aegean with Egyptian Art. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
1.2 (1914): 110-118.
Hammond, N.G.L. The Kingdom of Asia and the Persian Throne. I. Worthington (ed.)
Alexander the Great: A Reader. Routledge, 2003: 136-147.
Hammond, N.G.L. and F.W. Walbank. Relations with the Greek States. I. Worthington (ed.)
Alexander the Great: A Reader. Routledge, 2003: 81-89.
Harrison, T. The Place of Geography in Herodotus Histories. C. Adams and J. Roy (eds.)
Travel, Geography and Culture in Ancient Greece, Egypt and the Near East. Oxbow Books, 2007:
44-65.
Hertel, D. and F. Kolb. Troy in Clearer Perspective. Anatolian Studies 53 (2003): 71-88.
Hoffner, H.A., Jr. Histories and Historians of the Ancient Near East: The Hittites. Orientalia
49 (1980): 283-332.
Hoffner, H.A., Jr. Hittite Myths, second edition. Society of Biblical Literature, 1998.

Campbell, Dennis R.M. 6

Kkozy, L. Egypt in Ancient Greek and Roman Thought. J. Sasson (ed.) Civilizations of the
Ancient Near East, Volume I. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 3-14.
Knapp, A.B. Bronze Age Mediterranean Island Cultures and the Ancient Near East, Part I. The
Biblical Archaeologist 55.2 (1992): 52-72.
Knapp, A.B. Thalassocracies in Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean Trade: Making and
Breaking a Myth. World Archaeology 24.3 (1993): 332-347.
Knapp, A.B. Island Cultures: Crete, Thera, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Sardinia. J. Sasson (ed.)
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Volume III. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 1433-1450.
Kuhrt, A. Ancient Mesopotamia in Classical Greek and Hellenistic Thought. J. Sasson
(ed.) Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Volume I. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 55-66.
Manigliano, A. Greek Historiography. J.M. Alonso-Nez (ed.) Geschichtbild und
Geschichtsdenken im Altertum. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991: 166-176.
McCarter, P.K. The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet. The Biblical Archaeologist 37.3 (Sep.
1974): 54-68.
McMahon, G. History and Legend in Early Hittite Historiography. A. Millard et. al. (eds.)
Faith, Tradition, and History: Old Testament Historiography in Its Near Eastern Context.
Eisenbrauns, 1994: 149-157.
Mee, C. Aegean Trade and Settlement in Anatolia in the Second Millennium B.C. Anatolian
Studies 28 (1978): 121-156.
Miller, C. Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century BC: A Study in Cultural Reciprocity.
Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Morrison, J.S. The Classical World. M. Loewe and C. Blacker (eds.), Oracles and Divination.
Shambhala, 1981: 87-115.
Mountjoy, P.A. The East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface in the Late Bronze Age:
Mycenaeans and the Kingdom of Ahhiyawa. Anatolian Studies 48 (1998): 33-67.
Mller, V. The Beginnings of Monumental Sculpture in Greece. Metropolitan Museum Studies
5.2 (1936): 157-169.
Naveh, J. Some Semitic Epigraphical Considerations on the Antiquity of the Greek Alphabet.
American Journal of Archaeology 77.1 (1973): 1-8.
Naveh, J. The Greek Alphabet: New Evidence. The Biblical Archaeologist 43.1 (Winter 1980):
22-25.
Niemeier, W.-D. Archaic Greeks in the Orient: Textual and Archaeological Evidence. Bulletin
of the American Schools of Oriental Research 322 (2001): 11-32.
Notopoulos, J. Homer, Hesiod and the Achaean Heritage of Oral Poetry. Hesperia 29.2 (1960):
177-197.

Campbell, Dennis R.M. 7

Olsen, B. Women, Children and the Family in the Late Aegean Bronze Age: Differences in
Minoan and Mycenaean Constructions of Gender. World Archaeology 29.3 (1998): 380-392.
Pfeifer, R.H. Hebrews and Greeks before Alexander. Journal of Biblical Literature 56.2
(1937): 91-101.
Pikoulas, Y. Xenophons Anabasis as a Travellers Memoir. C. Adams and J. Roy (eds.)
Travel, Geography and Culture in Ancient Greece, Egypt and the Near East. Oxbow Books, 2007:
78-87.
Ray, J. Soldiers to Pharaoh: The Carians of Southwest Anatolia. J. Sasson (ed.) Civilizations of
the Ancient Near East, Volume II. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 1185-1194.
Seters, J. van. The Historiography of the Ancient Near East. J. Sasson (ed.) Civilizations of the
Ancient Near East, Volume IV. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 2433-2444.
Stanislawski, D. Dark Age Contributions to the Mediterranean Way of Life. Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 63.4 (1973): 397-410.
Stiebing, W.H. The End of the Mycenean Age. The Biblical Archaeologist 43.1 (1980): 7-21.
Tarn, W. The Policy of Fusion. I. Worthington (ed.) Alexander the Great: A Reader.
Routledge, 2003: 205-207.
Vinson, S. Ships in the Ancient Mediterranean. The Biblical Archaeologist 53.1 (1990): 13-18.
West, M. Ancient Near Eastern Myths in Classical Greek Religious Though. J. Sasson (ed.)
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Volume I. Charles Scribners Sons, 1995: 33-42.
West, M. The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Clarendon
Press, 1997.