The Greek Dark Age was a tumultuous time in ancient Greek
history. Civilizations collapsed and many people migrated around the Aegean Sea.[1] The
transition from the Bronze Age to modern Greece is one that could not have been
made without the Dark Age. The Odyssey
is able to give the reader a link between the two worlds while also offering
clues about the Dark Age as well. Transitions in politics, the economy, social and
cultural life all present themselves in Homer’s epic tale of Odysseus and his
journey home from the Trojan War.[2] The Odyssey offers a glimpse into the
past by connecting the Mycenaean civilization to Ionian and Dorian cultures,
and eventually modern Greece, through the Dark Age.
The
politics of both the Bronze Age and the Dark Age can be seen in The Odyssey. In ancient Bronze Age
Greece kings ruled in vast palaces over large groups of people. Through the
Dark Age people migrated in smaller groups and had more individual liberties.
Individual accountability resulted in assemblies where members of a polis or
community voted when the Dark Age ended. Homer seems to mix the two in The Odyssey knowing that in ancient
Greece civilizations were run by a monarch but not fully understanding how that
would work.[3]
In book two of The Odyssey Homer
writes, “He [Telemachus] at once gave orders to the clear-voiced criers to call
the long-haired Achaeans to Assembly.”[4]
Homer is recounting a tale that took place in the Bronze Age where a kingship
would have been in place however the son of Odysseus is calling an assembly
which did not start forming until after the Bronze Age. This political idea
offers a link to the time period that Homer is writing instead of the period in
which the history is about.
Odysseus
comes to the land of the Cyclops in book nine of The Odyssey.[5] In
telling his story he explains that “The Cyclops have no assemblies for the making
of laws, nor any established legal codes, but live in hollow caverns in the
mountain heights, where each man is lawgiver to his own children and women, and
nobody has the slightest interest in what his neighbors decide.”[6] This
is another example of Homer writing about the political system of his day
rather than that of the Bronze Age. The interesting piece is that Odysseus is
the king of his palace in Ithaca but here he is astonished at the idea of no
legal system for laws or no assemblies. In The
Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece, Robert Morkot states, “The 8th
and 7th centuries were a period of changing political structures in
which kingships gave way to elected officials.”[7]
Homer seems to be stuck within his own world relating an oral history with a
political system that he does not fully understand.
An
Economy is captured in the background of The Odyssey. There are a few places
that allow the reader to see beyond the story and see the Greek economy coming
through. In the first book Athene, her appearance changed, goes to Telemachus
to encourage him to get rid of the suitors who are waiting for his mother’s
hand in marriage.[8]
At this meeting “lavish portions” of meat are offered and Athene is instructed
to sit in a “beautiful carved chair” as Telemachus sits in an “ornate
easy-chair.”[9]
These items show wealth in the palace as well as trade from other countries.
Homer also states, “Presently a maid came with water in a fine golden jug and
poured it out over a silver basin for them to rinse their hands.”[10]
This action allows the reader to see a couple instances of the Greek economy.
Within the palace there were maids that served the wealthy class. Also there
was a golden jug and a silver basin that could have come from a trade partner.
Morkot explains, “Metals, particularly copper and gold were an important item
of exchange.”[11]
Luxury trade items as well as social stratification were distinguishing
features of the Bronze Age.[12]
During the Dark Age luxury items ceased to be made. Pots and jugs were made for
a specific purpose and not as art or trade. In this way Homer’s writing serves
as a link between the Bronze age and the present because it shows the reader a
piece of history that was not there during the Dark Age.
The
palace is another link to the Bronze Age economy. Morkot states, “It is certain
that the centralized economies based on the palaces were disrupted and that
there was extensive destruction at many important settlements.”[13]
The Mycenaean world came to an end around 1200 BCE.[14]
Homer’s epic tale offers a look into the palace at Ithaca before the
destruction that Morkot suggests. In this glimpse the reader is able to get an
idea of what a Bronze Age palace was like before that collapse.
Homer
provides a Social link for readers of The
Odyssey by showing “a gross perversion of the convention of xenia (the obligation to entertain
outsiders).”[15]
This exchange is seen throughout The
Odyssey and in different variations. Suitors of Penelope show up to the
palace of Odysseus in the first book of The
Odyssey. They sit at the door of the palace waiting for Penelope to make
her decision on who she will marry.[16]
These suitors are welcomed in and fed even though they are a hindrance to the
palace. The practice of xenia comes
from the Greek idea that the gods mingled with common people. This idea
facilitated the idea of xenia because
a person would not want to offend the gods by not welcoming them into his or
her home. Morkot explains that these types of classical myths influenced
ancient art and literature.[17]
This social norm is a link that progressed from the Bronze Age through the Dark
Age.
Homer
provides a look into the very soul of Greeks that had lived through the Dark
Age of migrating from land to land. The Odyssey is the tale of Odysseus journey
back to his homeland after many years of being away. The journey itself is a
link to the people of the Dark Age who yearn to go back to their homeland after
years of being away. Peter Jones states in his introduction to The Odyssey, “it
may well be that the Greeks who had come over to settle there [Ionia] since
1000 felt some special sympathy for epics about Greek triumphs in Ionia and
successful returns back home to Greece.”[18]
Sympathy for epics such as The Odyssey makes sense since people were pushed
from their homes and across the sea. A tale such as this would unite similar
people together and offer a glimpse of a life only professed in the oral
tradition of storytelling.
The Mycenaean culture collapsed sometime after 1200 BCE
however remnants of that culture made their way through the Dark Age.[19]
Homer is able to capture pieces of the old world through the oral tradition
while embedding subtle nuisances of the new. It is clear that he didn’t fully
understand some ideas such as political kingships because he had not lived with
them in his time. However ideas such as xenia
were second nature to Homer and something that he fully understood. The oral
tradition of passing on these stories kept some instances of Bronze Age Greece
intact while others were lost to interpretation. The Odyssey offers a transition from the Bronze Age through the
Dark Age to the present by linking some ideas that made it, and some that
didn’t, through the tumultuous time of mass migration through the Dark Age.
Bibliography
Homer. The Odyssey. New York: The Penguin
Group, 2003.
Jones, Peter. "Introduction." In The
Odyssey, by Homer, xi-xlv. New York: The Penguin Group, 2003.
Morkot, Robert. The Penguin Historical Atlas of
Ancient Greece. New York: The Penguin Group, 1996.
Price, Simon and Thonemann, Peter. The Birth of
Classical Europe: A History from Troy to Augustine. New York: The Penguin
Group, 2011.
[1]
Simon Price and Peter Thonemann, The
Birth of Classical Europe: A History of Troy to Augustine (New York: The
Penguin Group, 2011), 45.
[2]
Homer, The Odyssey (New York: The
Penguin Group, 2003), back cover.
[3]
Peter Jones, “Introduction,” in Homer, The
Odyssey (New York: The Penguin Group, 2003), xxxiv.
[4]
Homer, The Odyssey, 15.
[5]
Homer, The Odyssey, 113.
[6]
Homer, The Odyssey, 113.
[7]
Robert Morkot, The Penguin Historical
Atlas of Ancient Greece (New York: The Penguin Group, 1996), 48.
[8]
Homer, The Odyssey, 5-7.
[9]
Homer, The Odyssey, 6.
[10]
Homer, The Odyssey, 6.
[11]
Morkot, The Penguin Historical Atlas,
28.
[12]
Dr. Stephanie Christelow (Professor of History, I.S.U.), in lecture and notes,
January 2012.
[13]
Morkot, The Penguin Historical Atlas,
38.
[14]
Morkot, The Penguin Historical Atlas,
38.
[15]
Jones, “Introduction”, xxiv.
[16]
Homer, The Odyssey, 6.
[17]
Morkot, The Penguin Historical Atlas,
60.
[18]
Jones, “Introduction”, xxxiii.
[19]
Morkot, The Penguin Historical Atlas,
20.
