Poetic Heroes: The Literary Commemorations of Warriors and Warrior Culture in the Early Biblical World

 

Mark S. Smith is Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary. His other books include The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine and Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World.

Ronald Hendel
-- University of California, Berkeley
"Mark Smith takes us on a fascinating tour of the 'lost world' of early Israelite warrior culture. From the heroic values of love, life, and death to the poetic victories of divine and human warriors (both male and female), a submerged stratum of biblical and prebiblical culture comes to life. At once erudite and engaging, this is a treat for discerning readers of the Bible."

Susan Niditch
-- Amherst College
"With sophisticated comparative analysis of classical ancient Near Eastern texts, Smith's Poetic Heroes probes questions critical to an appreciation of cultural identity and worldview. His work is an innovative and thoughtful contribution to the study of ancient epic traditions, and he grapples deftly with issues in gender and war, providing a basis for further work in religious ethics."

Susan Ackerman
-- Dartmouth College
"Smith offers an impressively in-depth account of warriors and warrior culture as depicted in some of the greatest literary masterpieces of the ancient eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. . . . His analysis teases out of these texts key ideas of what defines warriors in the early biblical world, also describing how ancient ideas about warriors were presented and transmitted in oral and written form. . . . An invaluable reference."

Karel van der Toorn
-- University of Amsterdam
"Poetic Heroes offers a tremendous amount of things to learn, to enjoy, to savor, and to argue about. A profound reflection on warrior culture in the world of the Bible by a great scholar."