21/9/06 - Classical Literature - The Age of Iliad

Homer's contemporaries believed such stories were fact.

The Bronze Age (Middle Age). Between 1300 - 1180 BC. Evidence comes from pottery, AKA Late Palace.

Pelopennese palaces linked by roads. Palaces inside citadels - walled cities.

Cyclopean buildings. Huge cities built by supposedly 'primitive' people, 1600 BC. Myth is that they were built by giants.

Each city state sees itself as pre-eminent and separate, e.g. Atheneans, Spartans, etc. Only linkage is religion and language. No concept of Greek-ness.

Greek tradition in art. Women painted with white skin, men with dark skin.

From Greek pottery (Warrior Vase), soldiers went to war with spears. Uniform also discovered. Iliad 10:261-265. Was at first thought to be fiction, but archaeologists found remnants of boar tusks. These helmets represent status as men were considered higher the more boars they killed.

Iliad 16:130-135. Achilleus dressed in bronze. Bronze swords, symbols of status. Skilled workmanship.

Funeral prizes given to guests of Patroklos's funeral, e.g. gold cups.

In societies of wall paintings, jewellery, pottery, etc. it indicates great wealth and surplus food. In wars, the manpower must stop making these things. Wars were expensive.

Troy
A lot of valuable evidence was lost on the site due to bad archaeology. However, evidence of fires, skeletal remains from fires, slingshot stones indicative of siege on Troy. Such stones used to attack besiegers, and recollected afterwards. They had not been recollected.

Helen's abduction may be artistic licence, but a real war is likely. "We have to attack Troy because it is the richest city." Wealth = power.

Traditionally heroes were cremated rather than buried.

Homer wrote down an already existing story. He juxtaposes present with past events. Composed approximately 700 BC ?

Trade important in that age. Archaeological evidence found for this.