Since antiquity, poets have been tossed as untrustworthy chroniclers of history. However, the intersections of history, legend, and literature remain blurry scholarly junctions, and the study of literature continues to be central in deciphering the distant past of a nation and decoding its narratives, shared tropes, and legends. Poetry and literature seem evocative enough for both approaches to history: exploring it and inventing it. Both, apparently contradictory slants, are central to this volume.
