The international conference organized by the College of France on April

6-7, 2009, addressed a major theme within Near Eastern ideology: the

Young Hero . Different from those elders who were given power by

traditionalistic Near Eastern civilizations and whose anthroponomy

proudly underlined their eldership, the young hero nonetheless succeeds

most of the time, or at least for a time, through his personal gifts as

much as the inconstancy of gods who do not always favour the same man.

Illustrations are multiform. We chose to show that the theme’s typology

matched precise criteria within time periods. Over a millennium and a

half, each of the different ways of apprehending this figure corresponds

to a specific attestation type. It was not possible, even at a regional

level, to establish a complete young hero typology. Various forms

pertaining to romanced myth, most often through epic form, but also to

historical discourse, have been studied by our contributors.

After a general introduction (Liverani), the first part deals with

historical and literary accounts of the young hero’s (un)successful rise

to kingship: Samsi-Erah, Idrimi, David, Saul and Esarhaddon (Guichard,

Durand, McKenzie, Edelman, Marti). Follows a section on non-royal young

heroes yet depicted by means of royal categories: Samson, Moses and

Daniel (Lemardele, Roemer, Langlois). Two contributions on Athaliah and

Esther (Lemaire, Macchi) deal with the theme of feminine heroism, and a

last section focuses on heroic friendships: Gilgames and Enkidu, David

and Jonathan, Achilles and Patroclus (Ziegler, Nihan, Jaillard).