The Orientalizing Revolution

The splendid culture of the ancient Greeks has often been described as emerging like a miracle from a genius of its own, owing practically nothing to its neighbors. Walter Burkert offers a decisive argument against that distorted view, pointing toward a balanced picture of the archaic period in which, under the influence of the Semitic Eastfrom writers, craftsmen, merchants, healersGreek culture began its unique flowering, soon to assume cultural hegemony in the Mediterranean.