Tag: science-fiction

Bruce Gordon, The Bible: A Global History (Basic Books 2024)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204593723-the-bible?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=9GKahtOSci&rank=1

The book goes through how the Bible became a book and how early Christian writers were inspired to proselytise. We see how the Gospels portrayed the person of the Christ, an aspect of early Christianity which remains shrouded in myth.
Then it works chronologically through the history of the Christian Bible, from the middle ages to Renaissance and Reformation, taking on the science versus religion argument. We follow the book as it champions the switch from scroll to codex format. The project of translating the Bible drove the invention of the Armenian (4th C) and Cyrillic (9th C) scripts. The book made its way to the New World, making its way to Africa and China. It has been translated into 698 languages.
Although it treats the Christian Bible (New Testament) only, it does touch upon Christian interpretations of Jewish Scriptures. I missed discussion of the Jewish history, and found discussion of the formation of canon a bit wanting. The dating of the gospels is a fascinating story, and I wish the book had gone into that a bit more. There are some colour photographs of famous Bibles throughout history, but a big book like this could have used more illustrations.
This is a prodigious work of scholarship extensive in scope.
I was given this book for Christmas.

Eirene S. Allen, The Epic Women of Homer: Exploring Women’s Roles in the Iliad and Odyssey (Pen and Sword History 2025)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219296084-the-epic-women-of-homer

Homer (whoever he/they were) didn’t just tell the stories of both the Greeks and the Trojans.

Where most ancient literature barely mentioned slaves, captives or even wives, Homer’s women are fully formed. The grief and heartbreak of the Trojan women is vividly portrayed, and Helen, the captive queen who causes the war, is a complex protagonist. The victim of sexual violence (or was it love?), her fate depends on the outcome of battle between men. Still, she exercises agency, and in her voice is placed the final lament in the Iliad.

Allen concentrates on precise line by line translation of the Greek, which at first it may seem a bit pedantic to non-Greek readers. I majored in historical linguistics, however, so I find it fascinating. But we must stick through it, otherwise, we miss too much.

In some translations Telemachus’ scolding Penelope to return to ‘the loom and the distaff’ can sound like teenage misogyny, until we understand that Penelope is Odysseus’ histos, his loom and his mast, a weaving term with connotations of ship-building and of pillars that hold up the rooves of family and dynasty.

Allen studies women’s roles as queen, captive, goddess or heroine, a structure I found not the most systematic. For example, the same scene of Telemachus scolding his mother is discussed in several different places.

A woman’s status was defined in relation to the men in her life. The bard implies, though, that the roles are complementary—we couldn’t have had the heroes without the heroines; it is the women who sing the laments, tend the shrines and keep the legends alive.

What you won’t find anywhere else is the amazing appendix featuring nuanced and insightful discussions on words and phrases (such as histos) within the cultural context of Homer’s age.

This review first appeared in Historical Novels Review.