“Sing Muse, of Achilles’ wrath,”
begins the Iliad, about the grievance of a Greek,
whereas the Bible quoth,
using an analogous poetical technique,
that by the Reed Sea after the Egyptians and their horses drowned,
yet Israelites crossed dryshod,
Moses sang, and in his Sea Song crowned
with glory not himself, but God.
Leon Kass in Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus between the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15 and the Iliad, contrasts their first lines: “Sing, muse, the wrath of Peleus’s son, Achilles,” and the Song of the Sea in Exod. 15:1: “… I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted…”
Gershon Hepner
4/6/21
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
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