Epic and History

"The reader will surely find useful and insightful comparative material in all the essays." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, February 2011)

"I would recommend this volume both for scholars of epic and heroic literature (especially if they have interests in comparative literature or in questions of orality and historicity), who will no doubt enjoy its generally succinct essays with pertinent bibliography for each tradition." (Bmcreview, 9 February 2011)

"Essential. Graduate students and researches." (Choice, October 2010)

"A remarkably wide-ranging collection, deeply learned, ecumenical in spirit, and diverse in its approaches."
Martin Mueller, Northwestern University

“This book is an ‘epic’ undertaking in its own right, extending across four millennia in time, and most of the globe in setting.  The challenging mosaic of studies takes shape as an exploratory chart of how memory, story-telling and the desire for heroes may relate to what we might want to call ‘History’”.
Oliver Taplin, Magdalen College, Oxford University  

“Answers come and go. Questions persist. One of the many virtues of this volume of collected essays is its ability to re-open some fundamental discussions about epic, history, genre, and memory. It does so in a sophisiticated, learned, and wide ranging manner. This book problematizes the relationships between literary form, fact, and tradition in a way that will inform and excite scholars in many fields for many years.”
Ahuvia Kahane, Royal Holloway, University of London