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World Views Professor Biographies: Mary Bachvarova |
Assistant
Professor, Classical Studies Program
Phone: 503 370-6984
E-mail: mbachvar@willamette.edu
Office:
Eaton 305
Professor Bachvarova is an expert in the history of Greek and Near Eastern culture
and religion. In her dissertation, entitled From Hittite to Homer: The Role
of Anatolians in the Transmission of Epic and Prayer Motifs from the Near East
to the Greeks, Prof. Bachvarova argues that Anatolia must have been an important
conduit for Near Eastern literature and religious practices. Her work uses Hittite
epics and prayers to elucidate the history of the Homeric tradition and the
ritual context that made early lyric poetry and Aeschylean tragedy meaningful
to its original audience. In addition, Prof. Bachvarova has published on Near
Eastern birth incantations and Aeschylus' Suppliants, and on the literary use
of dialects in ancient Greek, Indic, and Sumerian.