Parse with me

[radiantfracture]

If you were to read the following two sentences, the subject being Gilgamesh and its effect on the English literary tradition:

Into a canon based in the Bible and the Greek and Latin classics, a religious and a secular canon with a highly developed culture of reception and interpretation grown up around it, entered a new text that belonged, as it were, in both currents and in neither. It was millennia older than either, with elements in common with each, which unsettled our understanding and gave us a sense of the extending, shadowy backstories of our traditions. (Schmidt 4)

--would you say that "both currents" refers to the Bible and the Greek/Latin tradition?

{rf}

Comments

[radiantfracture]

Okay, cool--

wait--

both what?

[juushika]

hahaha sorry

Yes, I'd read it as "both currents" applies to both the Bible and the Greek/Latin tradition. Because that pair, that "both," is the one introduced in the first clause, I'd assume that's the "both"/neither/either referred to in following clauses until otherwise specified.