place. Indeed, the Song’s refusal to situate itself in a particular time and place is one of its important poetic strategies for immortalizing the love it celebrates (see “The Lovers as Representing All Lovers,” pp. 8–9). Most commentators tend to date the Song in or around the Hellenistic period, primarily on linguistic grounds. Not surprisingly, the linguistic evidence is also debated. The language appears to be late (see, especially, Fox 187–90, but see also the arguments for an early date by