ASSYRIA GRAMMATA: How Did Greeks in the Orientalizing Period Encounter Near Eastern Literature?

Abstract A vexing problem for scholars of the so-called Orientalizing Period (ca. 750–600 bce ) is trying to determine the precise nature of the intense influence of the Near Eastern literatures and mythology on the Greeks. In particular, did Greeks know the literatures and stories of the Near East directly or were they influenced by some indirect means? At the center of this problem is the question of whether Greeks regularly learned Near Eastern languages. By investigating some select Aramaic literary works (Van der Toorn Papyrus Amherst 63 ), I will argue in this paper that the linguistically diverse Cilico-Syro-Levantine zone was an important crucible for transmitting Near Eastern literature in Phoenico-Aramaic to the Greeks. In particular, I will investigate the role of Aramaic as the second official language of the Assyrian Empire and a potential vector for transmitting knowledge of Mesopotamian literature to the Greeks.