202 Homeric epics greatest foreign expansion They were able to expand the kingdom throughout all of Syria, defeating Mittani, and extending almost as far south as Damascus Battles with the Egyptians, most famously the Battle at Kadesh, led to a treaty between Hattushili III and Ramses II in which a Hittite princess was given to Ramses in marriage Although the treaty with Egypt remained in force for the remainder of the Hittite New Kingdom, new threats arose that eventually led to the demise of the Hittites Assyria under Shalmaneser I became aggressive toward the Hittites In addition, various smaller nations surrounding the Hittite homeland began to pressure the Hittites militarily and economically Unfortunately, it is still impossible to tell the exact nature of the downfall of the Hittite capital Hattusha What is clear is that limited Hittite rule continued in other areas, particularly Carchemish These local centers were ruled by Neo-Hittite dynasties governing individual city-states These city-states were eventually absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire Hittite religion and cultic practices are becoming increasingly better known through archaeological excavations Unfortunately, no mythological text in the old Hittite script has yet been discovered However, one myth of west Semitic origin has been found in a Hittite translation It tells the story of the virtuous young male BaalHaddu refusing the advances of the married Asherah in a fashion reminiscent of the biblical account of Joseph and Potipher’s wife found in the book of Genesis Cultic practices are illuminated in the various festival descriptions found in royal archives and in texts from provincial centers Much is known about these festivals, special times when the statue of the deity was brought out from the temple and honored with sacrifices and offerings given amid music and dancing New moon festivals were held to mark the beginning of each new month Knowledge of ancient Near Eastern temples, including the Solomonic Temple of the Old Testament, is greatly advanced through the excavations of various Hittite temples At least five temples have been uncovered in the capital of Hattusha, and some estimate there to be as many as 20 present in the city Every Hittite city had at least one temple staffed by both male and female personnel serving as cooks, musicians, artisans, farmers, and herders See also Babylon: early period; Babylon, later periods; Egypt, culture and religion; Fertile Crescent Further reading: Bryce, T The Kingdom of the Hittites Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998; Hoffner, H A., Jr “Hittites.” In A J Hoerth, G L Mattingly, and E M Yamauchi Peoples of the Old Testament World Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994 Eric Smith Homeric epics The epics of the Greek writer Homer—the Iliad and the Odyssey—are the earliest and the best known of classics of Greek literature Both are long epic poems, and several scholars have argued that different people probably wrote the two, with some academics arguing against even the existence of Homer Certainly, all that is known about Homer is from tradition and evidence gleaned from the epics The cities of Argos, Athens, Chios, Colophon, Rhodes, Salamis, and Izmir (Smyrna) all claim that Homer was born in their city Homer was probably a Greek from Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), as his writings used the Ionic and the Aeolic dialects of that region, so the claims of Chios and Izmir are the most plausible Many centuries later there was a clan at Chios known as the Homeridae who claimed to be descendants of Homer and, as wandering minstrels, kept alive some of the traditions associated with their famous ancestor Homer was born the son of Maeon; he lived around 850 b.c.e Many people thought the Iliad and the Odyssey had been written in the eighth century b.c.e., with a consensus that the Iliad is earlier than the Odyssey, the former possibly composed in 750 b.c.e., and the latter about 25 years later This was the period when many Greeks were moving to Asia Minor, and there was an increasing interest in the traditions of contact with the region Some have pointed to references in the sixth book of the Odyssey to refer clearly to the establishment of a Greek colony The term Homeric age refers to the period about which Homer wrote, rather than the period in which he lived Countless writers have translated the Iliad and the Odyssey The Roman writer Lucius Livius Andronicus, from Taranto in southern Italy, translated the Odyssey into Latin verse in the third century b.c.e The most well-known translation is that of E V Rieu, in the Penguin Classics edition, first published in 1950 Although there have been many more translations, that by Richmond Lattimore in 1951 is regarded as the best He set out to try to capture the atmosphere of the original text by rendering it into verse, line by line