Abstract
In Poetic Heroes, Mark S. Smith explores the practices and values associated with warrior culture in ancient Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean, as well as the reception and coopting of heroic traditions by other groups. Smith focuses his discussion on the genre of heroic poetry, which allows him to analyze and compare examples of warrior literature from ancient Greece (the Iliad), Mesopotamia (the Epic of Gilgamesh), and the Levant (both Ugaritic heroic poetry and biblical examples from Judges 5 and 2 Samuel 1).
The book is divided into four sections. The first, and shortest, section adheres to the book's primary topic of warrior culture more readily than later sections, and draws on textual and archaeological evidence to detail warrior life in the biblical world. Here, Smith addresses the rituals that prepared warriors for battle and facilitated their return to normal life afterwards, the importance of honor and glory to the warrior ethos, and the celebration of heroic exploits in song.
The second section addresses the common phenomenon in heroic poetry of warrior pairs: two men closely bonded to one another and nearly equal in martial skill and stature. The three most famous of these pairs in ancient texts are the centerpiece of this discussion: Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Achilles and Patroklos, and David and Jonathan. Smith notes the many interesting similarities shared by these warrior pairs, such as the presence of a greater partner in the pair who outlives his slightly lesser partner but finds himself fundamentally transformed by embodying specific qualities of his departed friend. This section also treats the much-discussed topic of the ambiguous sexuality of these heroic pairs (79–95). Additionally, Smith offers some potential explanations for the curious prevalence of female war goddesses in societies where warfare was viewed as a distinctly male endeavor (74), a fascinating tangent in a book full of them.
The third section examines texts from Ugarit, a northern Canaanite city-state destroyed approximately two centuries before the time of the earliest biblical heroic poetry, according to Smith's chronology. These texts also feature characters familiar to readers of the Bible, such as the god Baal, the ancient hero Danil (Ezekiel 14:14, 20; 28:3), and the legendary figures known as the Rephaim (e.g., Genesis 14:5; Joshua 12:4). This geographic, chronological, and cultural proximity make Ugaritic literature potentially very illuminating of Israelite warrior traditions, in Smith's judgment. His detailed discussion notes how the divine male and female warriors found throughout these texts provide models of ferocity and valor for their human counterparts, and their stories also reveal characteristic warrior practices like post-battle feasting and singing. Human heroes also populate Ugaritic literature, such as Aqhat, whose story emphasizes a central concept in the warrior's code: the ultimate acceptance of mortality.
Also introduced in the third section is a theme that is significant in the latter half of the book: the appropriation of heroic imagery and poetry by monarchies to justify their claims to power. At Ugarit, the monarchy traced their ancestry back to a race of divine deceased warriors known as the Rephaim, thereby associating the city's royal line with a heroic cachet (see especially 154–161). In Israel, as Smith shows in his fourth section, the warrior traditions found at the core of the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), when edited by a later hand that added emphasis on Israel's unity and Yahweh's military leadership of the people, likely inspired national and religious cohesion in the northern kingdom of Israel. David's lament for Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1 performed a similar function for the southern kingdom of Judah. Alongside this important theme in the latter half of the book, the fourth section also discusses the tribal context that gave rise to Israel's oral heroic poetry, and the processes that led to its demise.
Poetic Heroes is an invaluable resource for scholars, and not only those interested in the book's main theme of warriors. Smith's exhaustive research and avid curiosity lead him down many paths peripherally related to his primary topic, and he never fails to offer a provocative and original opinion. The subtopics he explores include gender and sexuality in the ancient world, the methodology for dating biblical texts, the transition in cultures from oral traditions to written literature, and the development of ethnic identity in ancient Israel. Moreover, Smith is meticulous in citing his sources; thus scholarly readers will find a thorough and current bibliography of each topic he addresses.
Students and interested laypeople expecting to encounter a straightforward discussion of “warriors and warrior culture,” as the book's title indicates, may be occasionally frustrated. The careful discussions of methodology and multiple explorations of loosely-related topics that recommend his book so highly to scholars may not be as welcome to those outside of academic circles. Moreover, from time to time the connections Smith draws between his peripheral concerns and his primary subject matter are not especially clear, as in his several page discussion of the emblematic animal most associated with the goddess ‘Athtart, the lioness (204–08).
In sum, with its breadth of focus and fearless willingness to explore oft-debated topics, Smith's book is essential for biblical scholars and ancient historians. Others who are brought to the book by an interest in ancient warfare and warriors will certainly find much of value, although they should be prepared to glean this material selectively from among an impressive panoply of other topics.