Ancient, Byzantine and Macedonian Epic Poetry in the Book "The Shadow of King Marko". Book review: Vitomir Mitevski (2017). "The Shadow of King Marko: Ancient, Byzantine and Macedonian Epic Poetry". Skopje: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje

Abstract

The book The Shadow of King Marko by prof. V. Mitevski can be perceived as some kind of a mental reflection on a very complex topic that treats Indo-European, Byzantine and Macedonian tradition. Such is this work, complex, extensively analytic, sometimes synthetic, particularly in the introductory parts that present the paths of the research process, but also in the conclusions that are expressed through numerous analytical passages. Main hypotheses are consequentially formed, derived and proven. Author’s style, short sentence period, clearly formulated idea, enable the reader to easily follow the complex topics. This book is clearly scientific per se. It can be listed among numerous literal-critical and literal-historical studies that originated since the ancient times, in the era of sophists, peripatetics and Alexandrian philosophers, but also in the new-age philological, systematic and scientific, classical studies. This book, beyond any doubt, can be an inspiring reading not only for the classical philologists, but also for the large number of experts in the field of humanistic sciences, Slavicists, neohellenists, ethnologists, folklorists, historians, byzantologists etc. The Shadow of King Marko is casted way back in the space and time, and there is a good chance that the shadow of this book will be casted a long way in the future.