In Search of Wes Anderson’s “Phoenicia”
Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme invokes the ancient Mediterranean world without depicting it, raising an interesting question: what exactly does “Phoenicia” mean in the
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, A View from the East
What is The Odyssey? Is it an accurate historical depiction of a hero returning to his island home? Or a tale of existential crisis about a brave man drawn into a foolish and des
Why Odysseus Had to Go to Scheria —Memories, Flashbacks, and the End of the Bronze Age
As the main setting for a large part of The Odyssey, Scheria is not meant to be understood as just another stop on Odysseus’s wanderings, but as a deliberate flashback to a vanis
Imagining the Ark of the Covenant, From Exodus to Indiana Jones
For two thousand years, there has been a rich interpretive history of the Ark of the Covenant. In my new book Readers of the Lost Ark: Imagining the Ark of the Covenant from Ancien
From Words into Pictures: Adapting 1177 BC for Comics
April 2024 | Vol. 12.4 By Glynnis Fawkes When Princeton University Press editor Rob Tempio first suggested a graphic adaptation of Eric Cline’s 1177 BC, I wasn’t sure how it c
Are Possession and Other Spirit Phenomena Depicted in the Hebrew Bible?
March 2023 | Vol. 11.3 By Reed Carlson Pop culture tropes have often had an outsized influence on how laypersons and scholars alike conceive of possession and other similar spirit
Prismatic Gilgamesh
October 2022 | Vol. 10.10 By Sophus Helle It is 150 years ago since George Smith, a self-taught Assyriologist working at the British Museum, first translated a line from the Epic
The Relationship Between “Jews” and “Israelites” After the Babylonian Exile
july 2022 | Vol. 10.7 By Jason Staples In his review of Karl Georg Kuhn’s Achtzehngebet und Vaterunser und der Reim, the Dutch Biblical scholar M.A. Beek fondly recalls
Nebuchadnezzar Explained: Warrior King, Rebuilder of Cities, and Musical Muse
Neo-Babylonian kings are unusual sources of musical inspiration, but Nebuchadnezzar is an exception. What have composers from Verdi to Kanye seen in him?
Biblical Interpretation in the Age of Superheroes
Is Superman Kryptonian or American, a hero, demi-god, or messiah? Or is he a Biblically inspired Moses or Jesus? After more than 80 years, his fans are still unsure.