Homer & History
The Bronze Age in Myth
Crete
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Theseus & the Minotaur
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"Thalassocracy" of King Minos
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Labyrinth ~ Minoan palaces?
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Bull imagery ~ minotaur myth
Mycenaean centers
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Mycenae (Agamemnon)
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Pylos (Nestor)
Troy
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Excavations at Hissarlik (Schliemann; later Blegen)
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Troy VI (hit by earthquake c. 1300)
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Troy VIIa (sacked & burned c. 1240)
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Mycenaean influence in Asia Minor (Hittite references to
"Akhkhijawa" = Homer’s "Akhaians"?)
Historical Juxtapositions in Homer
Bronze Age elements
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Bronze main material for weapons
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Armor types: e.g. "bronze-greaved Greeks," boar’s tooth helmet
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Chariots (but not their purpose)
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Mycenaean place-names (esp. in "Catalogue of Ships" in Iliad
2)
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Terminology, e.g. (w)anax ("warlord") = wa-na-ka on Linear
B tablets
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Lions in similes
Dark Age elements
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Contacts w/ Phoenicians (Odyssey)
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No writing (except in Iliad 6?)
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Social organization (esp. in Odyssey)
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Cremation, not burial
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