Seth L. Sanders

nabalkattu.bsky.social

29 July 2026 16:35

Film criticism aside, Emily Wilson's review of the Odyssey concerned me because it misrepresents Late Bronze Age history and reinforces an old Eurocentric pattern of dismissing the experiences--and reality--of ancient peoples other than the Greeks.

Seth L. Sanders

nabalkattu.bsky.social

29 July 2026 16:35

There are two problems with waving off 'the sea peoples' as a nonexistent "debunked 19th century idea": the ancient sources and modern archaeology. Egyptian, Ugaritic, Hittite, Aramaic, and Canaanite sources all mention population groups that emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean around this time.

Seth L. Sanders

nabalkattu.bsky.social

29 July 2026 16:35

The Egyptian, Ugaritic, and Hittite sources all mention maritime raiders around this time as part of the collapse of Late Bronze Age empires. Egyptian and Hittite sources mention some of the same population groups including the Lukka, an Anatolian population that participated in raids on both.

Seth L. Sanders

nabalkattu.bsky.social

29 July 2026 16:35

There is a Eurocentric denialism maybe rooted in an original Greek sense of inferiority: Egyptians and Hittites produced whole written literatures while Greek peoples were still nonliterate. They left prose annals and memorial inscriptions where Greek bards left us beautiful, myth-saturated poetry.

Seth L. Sanders

nabalkattu.bsky.social

29 July 2026 16:35

Perhaps because these records are in languages Classicists don't usually read, they may seem too messy to take seriously. But the idea that because life was complex and ruptures overdetermined (aren't they often?), there were no real groups or experiences worth considering is itself a dangerous one.