Archaeology And Homeric Epic

The relationship between the Homeric epics and archaeology has long suffered mixed fortunes, swinging between 'fundamentalist' attempts to use archaeology in order to demonstrate the essential historicity of the epics and their background, and outright rejection of the idea that archaeology is capable of contributing anything at all to our understanding and appreciation of the epics. Archaeology and the Homeric Epic concentrates less on historicity in favor of exploring a variety of other, perhaps sometimes more oblique, ways in which we can use a multidisciplinary approach – archaeology, philology, anthropology and social history – to help offer insights into the epics, the contexts of their possibly prolonged creation, aspects of their 'prehistory', and what they may have stood for at various times in their long oral and written history. The effects of the Homeric epics on the history and popular reception of archaeology, especially in the particular context of modern Germany, is also a theme that is explored here. Contributors explore a variety of issues including the relationships between visual and verbal imagery, the social contexts of epic (or sub-epic) creation or re-creation, the roles of bards and their relationships to different types of patrons and audiences, the construction and uses of 'history' as traceable through both epic and archaeology and the relationship between 'prehistoric' (oral) and 'historical' (recorded in writing) periods. Throughout, the emphasis is on context and its relevance to the creation, transmission, re-creation and manipulation of epic in the present (or near-present) as well as in the ancient Greek past.

This is the first book systematically to examine Wolfgang Petersen’s epic film Troy from different archaeological, literary, cultural, and cinematic perspectives. The first book systematically to examine Wolfgang Petersen’s epic film Troy from different archaeological, literary, cultural, and cinematic perspectives. Examines the film’s use of Homer’s Iliad and the myth of the Trojan War, its presentation of Bronze-Age archaeology, and its place in film history. Identifies the modern political overtones of the Trojan War myth as expressed in the film and explains why it found world-wide audiences. Editor and contributors are archaeologists or classical scholars, several of whom incorporate films into their teaching and research. Includes an annotated list of films and television films and series episodes on the Trojan War. Contains archaeological illustrations of Troy, relevant images of ancient art, and stills from films on the Trojan War.

The relationship between the Homeric epics and archaeology has long suffered mixed fortunes, swinging between 'fundamentalist' attempts to use archaeology in order to demonstrate the essential historicity of the epics and their background, and outright rejection of the idea that archaeology is capable of contributing anything at all to our understanding and appreciation of the epics. Archaeology and the Homeric Epic concentrates less on historicity in favor of exploring a variety of other, perhaps sometimes more oblique, ways in which we can use a multidisciplinary approach – archaeology, philology, anthropology and social history – to help offer insights into the epics, the contexts of their possibly prolonged creation, aspects of their 'prehistory', and what they may have stood for at various times in their long oral and written history. The effects of the Homeric epics on the history and popular reception of archaeology, especially in the particular context of modern Germany, is also a theme that is explored here. Contributors explore a variety of issues including the relationships between visual and verbal imagery, the social contexts of epic (or sub-epic) creation or re-creation, the roles of bards and their relationships to different types of patrons and audiences, the construction and uses of 'history' as traceable through both epic and archaeology and the relationship between 'prehistoric' (oral) and 'historical' (recorded in writing) periods. Throughout, the emphasis is on context and its relevance to the creation, transmission, re-creation and manipulation of epic in the present (or near-present) as well as in the ancient Greek past.

This volume is the first English-language survey of Homeric studies to appear for more than a generation, and the first such work to attempt to cover all fields comprehensively. Thirty leading scholars from Europe and America provide short, authoritative overviews of the state of knowledge and current controversies in the many specialist divisions in Homeric studies. The chapters pay equal attention to literary, mythological, linguistic, historical, and archaeological topics, ranging from such long-established problems as the "Homeric Question" to newer issues like the relevance of narratology and computer-assisted quantification. The collection, the third publication in Brill's handbook series, The Classical Tradition, will be valuable at every level of study - from the general student of literature to the Homeric specialist seeking a general understanding of the latest developments across the whole range of Homeric scholarship.

The period between the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization around 1200 BC and the dawning of the classical era four and half centuries later is widely known as the Dark Age of Greece, not least in the eponymous history by A. M. Snodgrass published by EUP in 1971, and reissued by the Press in 2000.In January 2003 distinguished scholars from all over the world gathered in Edinburgh to re-examine old and new evidence on the period. The subjects of their papers were chosen in advance by the editors so that taken together they would cover the field. This book, based on thirty-three of the presentations, will constitute the most fundamental reinterpretation of the period for 30 years. The authors take issue with the idea of a Greek Dark Age and everything it implies for the understanding of Greek history, culture and society. They argue that the period is characterised as much by continuity as disruption and that the evidence from every source shows a progression from Mycenaean kingship to the conception of aristocratic nobility in the Archaic period. The volume is divided into six parts dealing with political and social structures; questions of continuity and transformation; international and inter-regional relations; religion and hero cult; Homeric epics and heroic poetry; and the archaeology of the Greek regions. Copiously illustrated and with a collated bibliography, itself a valuable resource, this book is likely to be the essential and basic source of reference on the later phases of the Mycenaean and the Early Greek Iron Ages for many years.

Modern Homeric scholarship is distinguished by a dazzling diversity of approaches. That diversity is brilliantly displayed in this volume, in which nine well-known classicists approach the Homeric poems from the various perspectives of archaeology, economic history, philosophy, literary criticism, linguistics, and Byzantine history. Several essays are primarily concerned with what the Homeric poems teach us about the past. Richard Hope Simpson, for example, reviews the controversy sparked by his and John F. Lazenby's 1970 argument that the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad accurately reflects the geography of Mycenean Greece. Using archaeology as just one of his starting points, Gregory Nagy reflects upon the death and funeral of Sarpedon as described in the Iliad. Our understanding of the word áté is enhanced by E. D. Francis, who closely examines its prehistory. Norman Austin's elegant and original discussion of tone in the Odyssey's Cyclops tale is animated by both psychoanalytic theory and his work with two practitioners of optometric visual training. Writing of Odysseus, James M. Redfield dubs that hero "the economic man" and links certain tensions in the Odyssey to the actual economic concerns of Greece in the late eighth century BC. Both Ann L. T. Bergren and Mabel L. Lang concern themselves with problems of narrative in the Homeric epics. Like Hope Simpson, C. J. Rowe updates a controversy—in this instance, the many objections raised to Arthur Adkins' influential 1960 study of moral values in Homer. Gareth Morgan provides a fascinating glimpse of the Homeric scholarship of another day by focusing on the work of the astonishing John Tzetzes in twelfth-century Byzantium.

Table of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsList of abbreviationsI. EPOS AND LOGOS: HOMER AND TROY- Malcolm WIENER, Homer and History: Old Questions, New Evidence- Marianna NIKOLAIDOU and Dimitra KOKKINIDOU, Epos, History, Metahistory in Aegean Bronze Age Studies- Maureen BASEDOW, Troy without Homer: the Bronze Age-Iron Age Transition in the Troad- Sarah P. MORRIS, Troy Between Bronze and Iron Ages: Myth, Cult and Memory in a Sacred LandscapeII. EPOS AND EIKON: ART, POETRY AND WRITING- John YOUNGER, The Mycenaean Bard: The Evidence for Sound and Song- Robert LAFFINEUR, Homeric Similes: A Bronze Age Background?- Edmund F. BLOEDOW, Homer and the depas amphikypellon- L. Vance WATROUS, The Fleet Fresco, the Odyssey and Greek Epic Narrative- Andreas VLACHOPOULOS, Mythos, Logos and Eikon. Motifs of Early Greek Poetry in the Wall Paintings of Xeste 3 III. WANAX AND BASILEUS: RULERSHIP IN HOMER AND ARCHAEOLOGY- Pierre CARLIER, Are the Homeric Basileis ¿Big Men'? - Thomas G. PALAIMA, Mycenaean Society and Kingship: Cui Bono? A Counter-Speculative View- Bryan E. BURNS, Epic Reconstructions: Homeric Palaces and Mycenaean Architecture- Brendan BURKE, Gordion of Midas and the Homeric Age- Eric H. CLINE and Assaf YASUR-LANDAU, Poetry in Motion: Canaanite Rulership and Minoan Narrative Art at Tel KabriIV. BEYOND ELITE: HOMERIC SOCIETY AND ARCHAEOLOGY- Kim S. SHELTON, Foot Soldiers and Cannon Fodder: The Underrepresented Majority of the Mycenaean Civilization- Helene WHITTAKER, Sacrificial Practice and Warfare in Homer and in the Bronze Age- Andrea GUZETTI, Homer and the Dorians: The Reasons For a Missed EncounterV. EPOS AND MYTHOS- Ernestine S. ELSTER, Odysseys Before Homer: Trade, Travel, and Adventure in Prehistoric Greece - Cynthia S. COLBURN, The Symbolic Significance of Distance in the Homeric Epics and the Bronze Age Aegean- Fritz BLAKOLMER, The Silver Battle Krater from Shaft Grave IV at Mycenae: Evidence of Fighting ¿Heroes¿ on Minoan Palace Walls at Knossos?- Massimo PERNA, Homer and the ¿Folded Wooden Tablets¿VI. EPOS AND TOPOS: HOMERIC LANDSCAPES- Oliver DICKINSON, Aspects of Homeric Geography- Philip P. BETANCOURT, The Amnissos Cave: Poetry Meets Reality- Aleydis VAN DE MOORTEL, The Site of Mitrou and East Lokris in ¿Homeric Times¿- Anne P. CHAPIN and Louise A. HITCHCOCK, Homer and Laconian Topography: This Is What the Book Says, and This Is What the Land Tells Us - Naya SGOURITSA, Myth, Epos and Mycenaean Attica: The Evidence Reconsidered