Friedhelm Hoffmann, Sylvia Schoske (eds.), Sesostris – Scheschonq – Sesonchosis: Ein internationaler Held und sein Nachwirken. (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, 139). Brill, 2024. Hb, 368 pp. ISBN 978-90-04-71238-6. EUR 114.45.
<https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/32372>
Why Sesostris? Why does the classical antiquity tell stories about this Egyptian hero king of the second millennium BC? On which basis? The contributions of this conference volume try to systematically answer the question how these narratives come into being and grow. It is not a single historical king Sesostris. Rather the literary tradition of two millennia augments the story with the later Sheshonq kings, makes Sesostris the international hero of demotic narratives and finally leads to the Greek Sesonchosis Romance which itself is widely received. All this takes place in an international cultural context.
