"A body of theory has developed about the role and function of memory in creating and maintaining cultural identity. Yet there has been no consideration of the rich Mediterranean and Near Eastern traditions of laments for fallen cities in commemorating or resolving communal trauma. This volume offers new insights into the trope of the fallen city in folk song and a variety of literary genres. These commemorations reveal memories modified by diverse agendas, and contain responses to the narrative structures and motifs in which the meaning of memory-making about fallen cities resided, repurposing them or even denying their meaning or silencing them. Opening a new avenue of research into the Mediterranean genre of city lament, this book examines references to, or re-workings of, otherwise lost texts or ways of commemorating fallen cities in the extant texts, and with greater emphasis than usual on the point of view of the victors"--