Bibliography
| Title: Reading in the twilight zone; Homer and the Jews in antiquity Secondary Title: Report of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (2002-2003) . Pages: 21-33 Type: Edited Book Year: 2003 Abstract: Homeric poetry was the foundation of Graeco-Roman education, but many Jews found that the Homeric ideals and values were incompatible with the Jewish traditions and cultural identities. Nevertheless, some Jewish literatures and even funerary inscriptions were written in Homeric Greek hexameter. This paper argues that the works of Homer might have been unconsciously conceptualized in the culture of Graeco-Roman Judaism, and contemporaries Hellenized Jews might have tried to harmonize and rationalize their cultural identities that involved law-violating but non-excludable elements. Keywords: Hellenism; philosophy; Bible; Homer; Josephus Flavius; Philo of Alexandria |