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Homer’s Odyssey – some contexts
an epic of the eighth/seventh centuries BCE
and a cascade of relationships between past and present

relationship – 8th/7th century BCE and a golden age of heroes
Trojan war and bronze age
cultural memory and record

relationship – archaeology and this epic of a lost past
Schliemann discovering a legendary past
fact and fiction, archaeology and legend

the setting – the Mediterranean in the bronze age and after
13th century BCE and after

what was happening in Homer’s time?
… and remember this epic is a mixture of past and present

from household to state
great empires in the east
Egyptians,Hittites, Assyrians, Persians

the city and civil society
emerging from the eighth century BCE in the Mediterranean

the old aristocracy and
a new citizenry
this is how the aristocracy
saw themselves

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the citizen body
hoplites fighting together

land and economy
a society whose wealth centered upon agriculture

mobility
aristocrats traveling
mercenaries fighting abroad