Farewell to Shulamit

While most readings of the biblical Song of Songs merge this enigmatic cycle of love poems into a single couple`s dialogue, this new interpretation reveals an artful fresco of ancient society alternating between courtly, urban, rural, and pastoral spaces with their distinct inhabitants. Contextualized in the religious and cultural horizons of a Hellenistic borderland, the Song places a skeptical emphasis on human diversity and communicative Eros.