Ancient Greece from Homer to Alexander

The Evidence

Joseph Roisman, J. C. Yardley

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781118300954
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia dell'antica Grecia

With fresh, new translations and extensive introductions and annotations, this sourcebook provides an inclusive and integrated view of Greek history, from Homer to Alexander the Great.

• New translations of original sources are contextualized by insightful introductions and annotations
• Includes a range of literary, artistic and material evidence from the Homeric, Archaic and Classical Ages
• Focuses on important developments as well as specific themes to create an integrated perspective on the period
• Links the political and social history of the Greeks to their intellectual accomplishments
• Includes an up-to-date bibliography of seminal scholarship
• An accompanying website offers additional evidence and explanations, as well as links to useful online resources
  

1

The World of Homer

CHAPTER CONTENTS

1.1 A Funeral Scene on a Dipylon Vase

1.2 The Homeric Household (Oikos)

1.3 Women and the Homeric Household

1.4 Slaves and the Homeric Household

1.5 The Measure of Happiness

1.6 A Household in Trouble

1.7 Households and Community

1.8 Homeric Leaders

1.9 Kings, Council, and Assembly

1.10 A Trial Scene

1.11 Homeric Values: Honor and Excellence

1.12 Reciprocity and Guest-Friendship (Xenia)

1.13 A Bust of Homer

This chapter briefly surveys the so-called Homeric Question, including the relations between the Homeric epics and material evidence. Its major focus, however, is on the society and institutions depicted in the epics, which are assumed here to be largely historic. On that assumption, Homer is a valuable source for two main reasons. Firstly, the poet describes institutions and practices that were likely to have existed no later than the early Archaic period. Secondly, his heroes often served as models for generations of ancient Greeks, especially members of the elite. The Homeric value system, then, was relevant to many Greeks far beyond his age. In general, the Odyssey is more informative on Homeric society, and the Iliad on political institutions and war. The following sections discuss the Homeric family and household, their relationship to the community, political institutions and leadership, values, and social networks.

Scholarly interest in the Homeric epics goes back to ancient times. It has often focused on the so-called Homeric Question, which may be more aptly termed the Homeric Controversy. Readers have failed to agree on the identity of Homer; the time and the manner by which the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed or edited; the origins of the epics and their unique language; and the historicity of the poems.

Briefly, already in ancient times readers doubted whether Homer was a historical figure or if he wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Many modern scholars would answer both questions in the positive. They assume that he wrote, or orally composed, first the Iliad, and then the Odyssey, based on oral traditions. Indeed, the epics reveal their oral origins in their language, which used a special rhythmic form, the hexameter, and many repetitive descriptive words or phrases (epithets) that were well suited to recitations.

Students of history are particularly interested in how historical the events and the society described in the epics are and to what period they should be dated. The Iliad in particular describes a long war between a large Greek expedition and a well-fortified Troy. The nineteenth-century excavator Heinrich Schliemann identified the site of Troy in the mound of Hissarlik in Asia Minor near the Dardanelles. Yet the site has revealed the existence of nine cities as well as sub-settlements dating from the Bronze Age to Roman times. Identifying which of these is the Troy of the Trojan War has been a bone of scholarly contention since Schliemann. The Greeks could not have mounted a large expedition following the destructions and consequent decline of many Bronze Age sites around 1200. This means that only Troy VIh, ca. 1300, or Troy VIi (formerly known as VIIa), ca. 1210–1180, would be good candidates. Yet both were relatively small settlements that appear to have suffered no human destruction, although recent excavators of the site interpret some findings as signs of a much larger site and even of human destruction for Troy VIi.

Many scholars agree that the Homeric epics may retain ancient memories, but that they also project on mythical times realities that better fit the poet’s own era, perhaps between the second half of the eighth century and the first half of the seventh. This does not mean that the world depicted by the poet is consistent or securely fixed in this period. The epics mix elements from different times and locales in a way that has caused some readers to regard attempts to historicize the Homeric world as futile.

The following example illustrates the complexity of attempts to compare the Homeric evidence with archaeological findings.

1.1 A Funeral Scene on a Dipylon Vase

Figure 1.1 shows a grave marker in the form of a very large crater or mixing bowl from the Dipylon cemetery in Athens. It was made ca. 750 by a potter known as the “Dipylon Master.” It depicts a dead man surrounded by more than forty male and female mourners, who are making the same gesture of (probably) tearing their hair. Chariots are driving by, and a ship is depicted under the handle. The painter is possibly describing the dead man’s military exploits. Homer describes a chariot parade around the corpse of Patrocles, Achilles’ friend (Iliad 23.12–16). It could be that Homer’s description is based on a practice current in his own day, or that he inspired the painter. No less likely, however, is that both poet and artist, in their different ways, mix fiction and reality.

Questions

1. What is the Homeric Question?

2. Can the Homeric epics be used as historical documents?

Figure 1.1 A funeral scene on a Dipylon Vase. © Photo 12 – Oronoz.

Image not available in this digital edition.

1.2 The Homeric Household (Oikos)

The historian M.I. Finley provides a definition of the Homeric household that conveys its critical importance:

The authoritarian household, the oikos, was the center around which life was organized, from which flowed not only the satisfaction of material needs, including security, but ethical norms and values, duties, obligations and responsibilities, and relations with the gods. The oikos was not merely the family, it was all the people of the household together with its lands and goods. (Finley 1978, 57–58)

When wandering Odysseus reached the blessed land of the Phaeacians, he came upon an idealized palatial home and household that belonged to their king, Alcinous. The great house is a center of political, social, and economic activity, bedecked with gold, silver, and bronze.

Homer Odyssey 7.95–132

(95) Inside, seats were installed along the walls on both sides, from the palace threshold to its center, and on them were drapes of fine embroidery, the work of the women of the house. On these seats sat the leaders of the Phaeacians, eating and drinking, and lacking nothing. (100) Golden statues of youths stood on firm pedestals, and in their hands they held blazing torches, brightening the night for the diners throughout the hall. Alcinous has in the house fifty female slaves, some of them grinding yellow grain with hand-mills, (105) and others sitting and plying the loom and spinning wool, which flutters like leaves on a lofty poplar. From the tightly woven fabric seep beads of oil. And as the Phaeacians surpass all men in the skill of sailing a ship swiftly on the sea, so their women excel in the work of the loom; (110) for to them especially has Athena granted the knowledge and wit to produce fine works of art.

Outside the palace courtyard, close to its doors, stands a large four-acre garden encircled by a hedge. Here grow tall trees in full bloom – (115) pear and pomegranate, apple trees with glistening fruit, sweet fig and rich olive trees. Their fruit grows constantly, never dying and never failing winter or summer; and the west wind is constantly breathing on it, bringing some to birth and some to ripeness. (120) And one pear follows another pear in ripening, one apple another apple, one bunch of grapes another bunch, and one fig another fig. There, too, Alcinous has a bountiful vineyard planted, part of which is a warm area on level ground where grapes are being dried in the sun, (125) while others his people are gathering or treading. In front of this are unripe grapes that are dropping their blossom, and others that are starting to turn dark. And there, too, parallel to the last row of vines, are planted well-ordered gardens of all sorts of herbs that are constantly fresh and lush, and two springs, one diffusing water to the whole garden (130) and the other flowing toward the lofty palace, under the entranceway to the courtyard (and from this the town’s inhabitants have their water-supply). Such were the splendid gifts of the gods in the palace of Alcinous.

For women and slaves in the Homeric household, see WEB 1.3–4.

Questions

1. Describe the economic and social activities that take place in Alcinous’ household.

2. What does Homer’s description of the household suggest about the status of its head?

1.5 The Measure of Happiness

A man’s happiness was often measured by the well-being of his family and household. Thus Menelaus, king of Sparta, describes the good fortune of Nestor, the old ruler of Pylos.

Homer Odyssey 4.207–211

It is easy to recognize the son of a man whom Cronus’ son [Zeus] destined for happiness both when he married and when he produced children! Just as now to Nestor he has granted happy days everlasting, allowing him to grow old in his palace, and have sons who are wise and excellent wielders of the spear.

1.6 A Household in Trouble

While Alcinous’ and Nestor’s households were prosperous and secure, Odysseus’ house in Ithaca was in turmoil. In his absence, local nobles pressured his wife, Penelope, to marry one of them. They also invaded Odysseus’ house and squandered its resources.

In the following exchange between Odysseus’ young son, Telemachus, and the most evil of the suitors, Antinous, Telemachus articulates the notion that the male head of the oikos should have sole control over its assets. The prince tries to assert his authority, but also alludes to the unstable nature of dynastic power. In spite of Telemachus’ protests, the suitors continued to behave insolently until Odysseus exacted revenge on them.

Homer Odyssey 1.365–398

(1.365) There was a noisy response from the suitors throughout the shady hall, and they all prayed to lie in bed alongside Penelope. But quick-witted Telemachus began to address them:

“Suitors of my mother, with your brash arrogance, let us now enjoy our feast, (370) and let there be no shouting; for it is good to listen to a singer such as this with a god-like voice. In the morning let us go and sit in the assembly so that I can tell you something straight – to leave these halls! Prepare other banquets for yourselves, (375) eating your own provisions and going from one house to another. But if you think it nicer and better to waste the possessions of a single individual without compensation, then eat up! I shall call upon the ever-living gods for Zeus to grant me my revenge, (380) with you dying in these halls – and without compensation!”

So spoke Telemachus, and with teeth fastened in their lips they were all amazed at his confident address. Then Antinous, son of Eupeithes, spoke:

“Telemachus, those very gods certainly teach you to play the bold orator (385) and speak with confidence. May the son of Cronus not make you the king in sea-washed Ithaca, your birthright though that be!”

And quick-witted Telemachus gave him this reply:

“Antinous, I may annoy you with what I say, (390) but if Zeus granted me the throne, I would happily take it. Are ...