par Andrianne, Gilles 
Référence Melammu Symposia 10 – Societies at War (10: 25.09.2016 - 29.09.2016: Universität Kassel (Allemagne))
Publication Non publié, 2016
Référence Melammu Symposia 10 – Societies at War (10: 25.09.2016 - 29.09.2016: Universität Kassel (Allemagne))
Publication Non publié, 2016
Poster de conférence
| Résumé : | Ancient Greece, being in a crossroad between the Eastern World and the Western World, occupies an ambiguous position in matters of Indo-European heritage, contacts and influences between cultures ; the study of bows and archers includes elements that can be compared in the fields of warfare, rituals and religion, literature, and culture in general. Comparing the use of the bow between Ancient Greece and Near Eastern cultures (such as Egypt, Canaan, Ugarit, Mesopotamia) allows us to bring out peculiar elements in rituals and narratives that attest an Eastern cultural continuum, to which archaic Greece belongs to a certain extent. It is thus possible to typologically compare elements between homeric and Mesopotamian warfare, showing for instance the joint use of archers and shield-bearers ; the Ugaritic legend of Aqat finds an echo in the last chapters of the Odyssey and explains some of Penelope’s and Telemachus’ behaviour regarding Odysseus’ bow ; moreover, Hittite and Mesopotamian rituals share a common ideology, linking up the use of the bow with virility, kingship, and masculine power, of which we can find traces in the Greek archaic use of the bow. Whether these data have to be considered as typological comparisons, universals, the result of one-to-one cultural influence, or the sharing of common patterns often remains an open question and the analysis of these elements may provide some methodological guidelines. |
