Papers by Zachary Margulies
The Classical Quarterly, 2020
For the full article, please email me at margulies@nyu.edu or visit https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009... more For the full article, please email me at margulies@nyu.edu or visit https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838820000919
One of the more powerful recurring motifs in the Iliad is that of the grief-stricken woman lamenting the death of a hero. As with much else in the Homeric epics, these scenes have a formulaic character; when Briseis laments Patroclus, and Hecuba, Andromache and Helen lament Hector, each is depicted delivering a specialized form of speech, specific to the context of a woman’s lament. The narrative depiction of grieving women, as well, is formalized, with specific gestures and recurring images that typify these scenes. One element of this depiction that has largely escaped serious consideration is the comparison of a woman in her initial moment of recognition of the corpse to Aphrodite. In this article, I will argue that the allusion is not merely to her beauty but to the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, specifically the moment of the goddess’ discovery of the death of her mortal lover. As the earliest surviving explicit reference to Adonis in Greek literature appears c.600 B.C.E., this would require a raising of the terminus ante quem for the transmission of the Adonis myth from the Near East to the mid eighth century.
Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2020
[4/22: Updated with the full article]
Job's encounter with God (38:1-42:6) has long been underst... more [4/22: Updated with the full article]
Job's encounter with God (38:1-42:6) has long been understood as the crux of the Book of Job, leading readers to seek the book's meaning in these cryptic chapters. Based on formal discrepancies in the text and evidence from two Babylonian parallels, the existence of a "dialogue of Job" (chaps. 3-27; 29-31) is proposed, which was composed independently not only from the prose tale (chaps. 1-2; 42:7-17) but also from the theophany. As this original poetic composition made no appeal to a divine epiphany, its depiction of a suffering and persuasive protagonist served provocatively to challenge traditional answers to the question of theodicy, rather than offer a solution of its own.
Vetus Testamentum, 2019
Recent scholarship has entertained the possibility that Jotham’s Parable of the Trees (Judg 9:8-1... more Recent scholarship has entertained the possibility that Jotham’s Parable of the Trees (Judg 9:8-15) is derived from the Greek text of one of Aesop’s Fables (Perry 262). This article refutes this notion, tracing the dependence of Aesop’s fable on one Septuagint tradition, which itself is a translation of the Hebrew. The article goes on to propose a pre-exilic setting for the biblical fable, based not on its foregrounded opinion of monarchy, but on its background assumptions of deity.
Conference Presentations by Zachary Margulies
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Papers by Zachary Margulies
One of the more powerful recurring motifs in the Iliad is that of the grief-stricken woman lamenting the death of a hero. As with much else in the Homeric epics, these scenes have a formulaic character; when Briseis laments Patroclus, and Hecuba, Andromache and Helen lament Hector, each is depicted delivering a specialized form of speech, specific to the context of a woman’s lament. The narrative depiction of grieving women, as well, is formalized, with specific gestures and recurring images that typify these scenes. One element of this depiction that has largely escaped serious consideration is the comparison of a woman in her initial moment of recognition of the corpse to Aphrodite. In this article, I will argue that the allusion is not merely to her beauty but to the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, specifically the moment of the goddess’ discovery of the death of her mortal lover. As the earliest surviving explicit reference to Adonis in Greek literature appears c.600 B.C.E., this would require a raising of the terminus ante quem for the transmission of the Adonis myth from the Near East to the mid eighth century.
Job's encounter with God (38:1-42:6) has long been understood as the crux of the Book of Job, leading readers to seek the book's meaning in these cryptic chapters. Based on formal discrepancies in the text and evidence from two Babylonian parallels, the existence of a "dialogue of Job" (chaps. 3-27; 29-31) is proposed, which was composed independently not only from the prose tale (chaps. 1-2; 42:7-17) but also from the theophany. As this original poetic composition made no appeal to a divine epiphany, its depiction of a suffering and persuasive protagonist served provocatively to challenge traditional answers to the question of theodicy, rather than offer a solution of its own.
Conference Presentations by Zachary Margulies
One of the more powerful recurring motifs in the Iliad is that of the grief-stricken woman lamenting the death of a hero. As with much else in the Homeric epics, these scenes have a formulaic character; when Briseis laments Patroclus, and Hecuba, Andromache and Helen lament Hector, each is depicted delivering a specialized form of speech, specific to the context of a woman’s lament. The narrative depiction of grieving women, as well, is formalized, with specific gestures and recurring images that typify these scenes. One element of this depiction that has largely escaped serious consideration is the comparison of a woman in her initial moment of recognition of the corpse to Aphrodite. In this article, I will argue that the allusion is not merely to her beauty but to the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, specifically the moment of the goddess’ discovery of the death of her mortal lover. As the earliest surviving explicit reference to Adonis in Greek literature appears c.600 B.C.E., this would require a raising of the terminus ante quem for the transmission of the Adonis myth from the Near East to the mid eighth century.
Job's encounter with God (38:1-42:6) has long been understood as the crux of the Book of Job, leading readers to seek the book's meaning in these cryptic chapters. Based on formal discrepancies in the text and evidence from two Babylonian parallels, the existence of a "dialogue of Job" (chaps. 3-27; 29-31) is proposed, which was composed independently not only from the prose tale (chaps. 1-2; 42:7-17) but also from the theophany. As this original poetic composition made no appeal to a divine epiphany, its depiction of a suffering and persuasive protagonist served provocatively to challenge traditional answers to the question of theodicy, rather than offer a solution of its own.