Berossos between Greek and Babylonian Culture

Berossos of Babylon has long been a familiar figure to students of the Hellenistic Near East. Berossos, it is becoming clear, combined Greek and Mesopotamian cultural traditions in sophisticated and often unpredictable ways. Berossos's main work, the Babyloniaca , was a history of the world from a Babylonian perspective. Berossos's negotiations between Babylonian and Greek traditions need careful tracing. Nebuchadnezzar's Iranian wife Amyitis is mentioned elsewhere in the Babyloniaca , which makes it difficult to remove her and her garden from Berossos's account of Nebuchadnezzar's building works. Berossos's Seleucid voice can clearly be heard in some passages in the Babyloniaca . Nebuchadnezzar behaves like a traditional Babylonian king, restoring the walls, temples, and palaces of the city in a manner that recalls his own inscriptions, as has already emerged. Berossos was an extraordinary figure and the Babyloniaca is an exceptionally interesting text.