The volume under review originates from Bachvarova's PhD thesis and draws on her previously published work. It argues that Hittite Anatolia was an important channel for the transmission of ancient Near Eastern literary and religious traditions to the Greek world and seeks to present to a classicist audience the relevant evidence, mainly from the libraries and archives of Hattusa, the Hittite capital. The book focuses on the influence of the Hurro-Hittite narrative poetry, attested in the Hittite archives, on Greek epic in general and the Homeric epics in particular. It argues that the Hurro-Hittite narrative tradition shows the closest parallels to the Greek Homeric tradition and is therefore quintessential to the understanding of the prehistory of Greek epic.

The book also sets out to explore the channels of transmission by which the Greeks came in contact with the Hurro-Hittite traditions. It contends that the most important phase of transmission took place in the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, considerably earlier than previously thought. Furthermore, it argues that transmission was indirect in nature, taking place in Cyprus, Cilicia and Anatolia, in the context of religious festivals, magico-medical rituals and ancestor veneration, usually sponsored by royal patronage. On such festivities, practised throughout the Mediterranean, narrative songs were performed by bilingual poets, considered by Bachvarova to be the most important agents of poetic transmission, creating an indirect chain of transfer from east to west. The emphasis given in the book to oral rather than written modes of transmission of ancient Near Eastern literature is one of its most central, although controversial, propositions.

The first seven chapters are dedicated to the Mesopotamian and Hurro-Hittite narratives found in Hattusa, considered by Bachvarova to be the harbingers of early Greek epic poetry. The genre of Hurro-Hittite narrative song is defined and the transmission model by a chain of bilingual traditions of oral performance is introduced (chapter 2). Subsequent chapters deal in greater detail with individual compositions. These include the Akkadian, Hurrian and Hittite versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh (chapters 3–4), the bilingual Hurro-Hittite Song of Release (chapters 5–7) and the narratives about the kings of Akkad (chapter 8). The compositions are presented through these chapters and possible parallels to Greek compositions are put forward. Special attention is given to the identification of the context of rituals in which these compositions were allegedly performed. The embeddedness of these narratives in ritual is a vital component in Bachvarova's model of oral transmission.

Indeed, several ancient Near Eastern compositions are known to have compelling parallels in Greek epic. The Hurro-Hittite background of the Hesiodic succession myth, for example, is widely recognized. However, the parallels between Near Eastern and early Greek literature suggested in the volume are only occasionally convincing and rarely compelling. There is also strong evidence that some narrative songs were recited in ritual context. The “Song of the Deeds of the Sea”, for example, was sung during a festival in honour of Mount Hazzi, the Jebel Aqra (pp. 25–6). The evidence for this is straightforward: it is explicitly stated in the colophon of the composition. Bachvarova examines several fascinating Hurro-Hittite texts in order to demonstrate that the individual narratives she chose were also performed in the context of ritual, but the evidence presented is conjectural, and the interpretations are highly speculative and seldom convincing. Neither the reputed mention of Gilgamesh in a “pit ritual” (pp. 81–4) nor the listing of the kings Akkad and other deified ancient rulers in an enigmatic ritual text involving king-substituting wool-puppets (pp. 182–7) compellingly demonstrate oral performances of the narratives about them. Paradoxically, the appearance of Gilgamesh or the ancient kings of Akkad in these texts seems to support rather a written, rather than an oral, mode of transmission. These texts were written in a scholarly, scribal setting, and their authors probably came across these names in other texts.

Chapters 9–14 constitute the second part of the book, exploring the modes of interaction by which the Hurro-Hittite songs could have reached the Greeks and the reasons why they would be of interest to them. Chapter 9 deals with ancient interest in things exotic. The role of “state sponsored” festivals as motors of cultural exchange in Hittite Anatolia and in Late Bronze and Iron Age Greece is elaborated in chapter 10. The contexts in which epic poetry was performed are surveyed (chapter 11). The roles of Cyprus and of Cilicia as stations in the chain of transmission are the subject of chapter 12. Subsequent chapters are concerned with cultural contacts in Western Anatolia between the Hittites and Ahhiyawa (chapter 13) and the role of Troy and of Syro-Anatolian mortuary practices in the construction of historical memory (chapter 14). The final chapters (15–16) deal specifically with the Iliad. The prehistory of the Iliad is discussed based on the work of Gregory Nagy and the layers of Anatolian influence on the composition are surveyed. An appendix on the dactylic hexameter, a 100-page bibliography and extensive indices conclude the volume.

This short review cannot possibly do justice to the volume because of its sheer magnitude, the abundance of themes, detailed discussions and wealth of original ideas. The book is highly readable, the transmission model suggested intriguing and the arguments are well articulated. Bachvarova's seemingly effortless bridging between disciplines as she uses a plethora of textual and archaeological evidence from various fields is enviable. She is to be congratulated for presenting the Hurro-Hittite literature, often treasures known only to specialists, to a wider audience, even if the present reviewer does not concur with some of her interpretations. The main flaw of the book, however, is the author's eagerness to fit as much evidence as possible into her overarching hypothesis, rendering some discussions tendentious: hypotheses often become facts, continuity is favoured over change, affinities over differences and influence is taken for granted. One of the main objectives set by Bachvarova was to animate further discussion on the interaction between ancient Near Eastern and Greek literatures. Her book will undoubtedly achieve that.