13.GREEK EPIC AND ITS

BRONZE AGE BACKGROUND

Back to Syllabus.

Homer, Hesiod both are early sources

• Hesiod (c. 700 BCE): two poems (oral or written?)
  • Theogony--creation of world, birth of gods, etc.
  • Works and Days--advice on farming, life
• Homer: associated with two poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, products of a long oral tradition
  • Nothing much is known about him. The mystery of his life and possible contribution is referred to as "the Homeric Question":
    • was he a real person, or a convenient name for a lot of different bards?
    • if he was real, when did he live?
      • variously dated to 9th cy. 8th cy. or later BCE
      • said to be blind
    • was he responsible for both the Iliad and the Odyssey in the form familiar today, or did two different poets shape the two poems?
      • 'separatists' think a different poet for each
      • 'unitarians' believe the same one responsible for both
  • Iliad--quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon in the tenth year of the Trojan War
  • Odyssey--Odysseus' return from Troy

Characteristics of Greek epic poetry

• meter: dactylic hexameter: –uu –uu –uu –uu –uu – –
• poems orally composed by means of metrically similar formulae
  • So he spoke; and another rose up, long-suffering Odysseus.
  • So he spoke; and another rose up, blond-haired Menelaus.
  • So he spoke; and another rose up, swift-footed Achilles.
• poems evolved over time, expanded and elaborated from end of the Mycenaean period (c. 1200 BCE) until they took the form we know
• epic is solemn without being grim; it is expansive, leisurely, detailed; thus it explores everything with equal attention. No one line is the special line; you can't use a highlighter to mark the important parts.

The Iliad and the Trojan War

• The Trojan War is the subject of a cycle of epic poems; various parts of the story appear in other literature too. The story is well summarized in H&P.
• The Iliad covers just a 40-day episode in the last (10th) year of the Trojan War
  • quarrel between Achilles (best warrior) and Agamemnon (official commander)
    • Agamemnon takes Achilles' war prize, the woman Briseis
    • Achilles in anger withdraws from fighting, Greeks start to lose
  • gradually Achilles learns to reject old values--my arete (excellence) is defined by what others think, how many prizes my peers award me--and to esteem friendship more
  • By the end he recovers loyalty to Greeks, shows compassion to aged Trojan king Priam--new values

Bronze Age background

• Late Helladic Period (Mycenaean Period, c. 1550-1200 BCE)
  • 1600-1500 : Shaft Graves at Mycenae; great wealth, skilled craft work, foreign contact thanks to the Minoans on Crete
  • 1500-1400 : Increased contact with Crete; Mycenaeans take over Minoan trade routes in Aegean Sea area
  • 1400-1200 : Mycenaeans control the Aegean; wealth, trade, building activity
  • c. 1200 : Mysterious destruction of many Mycenaean sites, others abandoned
    • loss of power, wealth, trade, writing
• Major features of Mycenaean culture
  • organized into independent states, each governed by a king
    • also parts of Greece not thus organized
  • pottery found abroad shows trade with Troy, Egypt, Syria, Italy
    • imports include precious metals, ivory, spices
    • exports include textiles, perfumed oil
  • art routine, repetitive; little sculpture, much painting, metalwork, sealstones
    • common scenes: lion hunts, siege and battles, single combat, processions of women
  • writing on clay tablets in syllabic script Linear B
    • economic documents--taxes, offerings to gods, inventories, payments
    • preserve names of men and gods (Zeus, Poseidon, Potnia, etc.)
    • so far tablets found only at palace sites, esp. Pylos and Knossos

Trojan War

• could be correlated with Troy level VI or level VIIa
  • Troy excavated by Schliemann in 1870's-1880's
  • site had contacts with Mycenaeans
  • Troy VI destroyed c. 1260 ??--by man or earthquake ??
  • Troy VIIa poorer, smaller; destroyed c. 1200 by man
• Mycenaeans responsible for this destruction?
  • their own sites destroyed c. end 13th cy. BCE
  • probably Iliad preserves, not historical truth, but generic memory of such wars

Dark Age Background

• Art
  • no extant sculpture, very few temples
  • pottery
    • Submycenaean (1200-1050)--degenerate Mycenaean
    • Protogeometric (1050-900)
      • linear designs, compass-drawn circles, bands
      • most of pot black or plain; decorated area small
    • Geometric (900-700)--best in Athens
      • increasingly elaborate decoration over more of pot
      • increasing use of silhouette figures--representational art
        • mourning, combat scenes, animals
      • high point: Dipylon Painter and his workshop, ca. 750 BCE
      • 750-700: beginnings of narrative art
      • coincides with flowering of myths in poetry
• Literacy
  • 1200-750 BCE, oral society
    • poets, messengers, prophets had special status
      • because they controlled historical, legal, religious lore
    • oral tradition--poems change with each retelling
  • 750-700 BCE, alphabet adopted, diffused
    • taken from Phoenicians, who had mature script by 900 BCE
    • 22 characters, later expanded to 24
    • local letter forms in different dialect areas, even within one area

Homer and the Bronze Age

• Bronze Age places in Homer
  • Pylos, Mycenae, Ithaca, Troy itself, several others
• Bronze Age objects in Homer
  • boar's tooth helmet, sword with silver-covered rivets, tower shield of ox-hide
  • chariots for use in battle, metal inlay technique, single combat, megaron
• Non-Bronze Age elements in Homer
  • hoplite battle technique--massed ranks of infantry; introduced c. 700 BCE
  • use of chariots misunderstood--used as taxis, not fighting vehicles
  • burial customs--cremation instead of inhumation the norm
  • Gorgon's head as shield device--c. 700 BCE