1. Features of the development of Homeric society.

The period of Greek history following the Cretan-Mycenaean era is usually called “Homeric” after the great poet Homer, whose poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” remain the most important source of information about this time.

The evidence of the Homeric epic is significantly complemented and expanded by archeology. The bulk of archaeological material for this period comes from excavations of necropolises. The largest of them were discovered in Athens (the areas of Ceramics and the later Agora), on the island of Salamis, on Euboea (near Lefkandi), in the vicinity of Argos. The number of currently known settlements of the 11th-9th centuries. BC e. extremely small (this fact itself indicates a sharp reduction in the total population). Almost all of them are located in hard-to-reach places, fortified by nature itself. An example is the mountain villages discovered in various places on the territory of eastern Crete, including Karfi, Kavousi, Vrokastro, etc. Apparently, they sheltered the remnants of the local Minoan-Achaean population, driven out of the flat part of the island by the Dorian conquerors. Coastal settlements of Homeric times are usually located on small peninsulas connected to land only by a narrow isthmus, and are often surrounded by a wall, which indicates widespread piracy. Of the settlements of this type, the most famous is Smyrna, founded on the coast of Asia Minor by Aeolian colonists from European Greece.

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Archeology shows that the so-called Dorian conquest pushed Greece back several centuries. Of the achievements of the Mycenaean era, only a few industrial skills and technical devices have been preserved, which were of vital importance both for the new inhabitants of the country and for the remnants of its former population. These include a potter's wheel, relatively high metal processing techniques, a ship with a sail, and the culture of growing olives and grapes.

Mycenaean palaces and citadels were abandoned and lay in ruins.

All this, of course, does not mean that the Homeric period did not introduce anything new into the cultural development of Greece. The history of mankind does not know absolute regression, and in the material culture of the Homeric period, elements of regression are intricately intertwined with a number of important innovations. The most important of them was the Greeks' mastery of iron smelting and processing techniques. In the Mycenaean era, iron was known in Greece only as a precious metal and was used mainly for the manufacture of various types of jewelry such as rings, bracelets, etc. The oldest examples of iron weapons (swords, daggers, arrowheads and spears), discovered on the territory of Balkan Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea, date back to the 12th-11th centuries. BC e. Somewhat later, in the X-IX centuries. BC e., the first tools made of the same metal appear. Examples include an ax and a chisel found in one of the burials of the Athenian Agora, a chisel and an adze from one grave in the necropolis

*Numerous remnants of the Cretan-Mycenaean era survive in Greek art and architecture, as well as in religion, mythology and epic poetry. We must not, however, forget that these are precisely relics, that is, scattered, accidentally surviving elements of ancient cultures that are irretrievably consigned to the past.

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Pottery, iron sickle from Tiryns and other items. Homer is also well aware of the widespread use of iron for the manufacture of agricultural and other tools. In one of the episodes of the Iliad, Achilles invites participants in the competition at the funeral feast, organized in honor of his deceased friend Patroclus, to test their strength in throwing a block of native iron. It will also be the reward that the winner will receive. This block is so big that

No matter how many fields someone has, both distant and wide, -

There will be enough for five whole years

Lumps like this; he is never short of iron

Neither the orator nor the shepherd will go to the city, but he will get home.

The widespread introduction of the new metal into production meant a real technical revolution under the conditions of that time. For the first time, metal became cheap and widely available (iron deposits are found in nature much more often than deposits of copper and tin, the main components of bronze). There was no longer a need for dangerous and expensive expeditions to ore mining sites. In this regard, the production capabilities of an individual family have sharply increased. This was an undeniable technological advance.

However, its beneficial effect on the social and cultural development of Ancient Greece was not immediately felt, and in general the culture of the Homeric period is much lower than the chronologically preceding culture of the Cretan-Mycenaean era. This is unanimously evidenced not only by the objects found by archaeologists during excavations, but also by the descriptions of life and everyday life with which Homer’s poems introduce us. 2. Socio-economic relations. Slavery.

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It has long been noted that the Iliad and the Odyssey as a whole depict a society much closer to barbarism, a culture much more backward and primitive than that which we can imagine by reading Linear B tablets or examining the works of the Cretan-Mycenaean art. In the economy of Homeric times, subsistence agriculture reigns supreme, the main branches of which remain, as in the Mycenaean era, agriculture.

business and cattle breeding. Homer himself undoubtedly had a good understanding of the various types of peasant labor. He judges with great knowledge the difficult work of the farmer and shepherd and often introduces scenes from contemporary rural life into his narrative about the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus. Such episodes are especially often used in comparisons, with which the poet abundantly enriches his story. Thus, in the Iliad, the heroes of Ajax going into battle are compared to two bulls plowing the earth. The approaching enemy armies are likened to reapers walking across the field towards each other. The dead Yura reminds the poet of an olive tree, grown by a caring owner, which was uprooted by a violent wind. There are also detailed descriptions of field work in the epic. Such, for example, are the scenes of plowing and harvesting, depicted with great art by Hephaestus, the god of the blacksmith, on the shield of Achilles:

He also made a wide field on it, rich arable land,

Loose, three times plowed fallow; there are farmers on it

They drive the jugular oxen, turning back and forth;

In each hand they hold a cup of wine that gladdens the heart,

The husband serves; and they, turning in their lanes,

They again rush to reach the end of the deep steam.

The field, although golden, turns black behind the screaming ones,

Like a plowed field: he imagined such a miracle.

The mercenaries stung, sparkling with sharp sickles in their hands.

Here, thick handfuls fall in a continuous strip;

Three bandagers follow the reapers; behind them are their children,

A handful of ears quickly, one after another in armfuls

They are served to knitters. The ruler between them, silently,

With a club in his hand, he stands on the reins and has fun with his soul.

Along with arable farming, the Greeks of the Homeric era were engaged in gardening and viticulture. This is evidenced by the detailed description of the wonderful garden of the Phaeacian king Alcinous in the Odyssey:

Behind the wide yard there was a rich man of four decades

A garden surrounded on all sides by a high fence; grew up there

There are many fruitful, branchy, broad-topped trees,

Apple trees, and pears, and pomegranates, abundant in golden fruits,

Also sweet fig trees and olive trees, blooming luxuriously...

There would also be a rich grape garden there; and grapes

Some of them lay in a sunny place, dried by the heat,

Some of them were waiting for the vinedresser to cut them from the vines; others

They were crushed in vats; and others bloomed or showered

Color, ripened and filled with amber-thick juice.

Cattle breeding played an extremely important role in the economy of Homer's time. Livestock was considered the main measure of wealth. The number of heads of livestock largely determined the position a person occupied in society; The honor and respect given to him depended on him.

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Thus, Odysseus is considered “first among the heroes of Ithaca and the nearby mainland” because he owned 12 herds of cattle and a corresponding number of goats, sheep and pigs. Cattle were also used as a unit of exchange, since Homeric society did not yet know real money. In one scene of the Iliad, a bronze tripod is valued at twelve oxen; about a slave woman skilled in many things

The results of the study of the Homeric epic fully confirm the conclusion made by archaeologists about the economic isolation of Greece and the entire Aegean basin in the 11th-9th centuries. BC e. The Mycenaean states with their highly developed economy could not exist without constant well-established trade contacts with the outside world, primarily with the countries of the Middle East. In contrast to this, the typical Homeric community (demos) leads a completely isolated existence, almost without coming into contact even with other similar communities closest to it. The community's economy is predominantly subsistence in nature. Trade and craft play only the most insignificant role in it. Each family itself produces almost everything necessary for its life: agricultural and livestock products, clothing, simple utensils, tools, perhaps even weapons. Specialist craftsmen who live by their own labor are extremely rare in poems. Homer calls them demiurges, that is, “working for the people.” Many of them, apparently, did not even have their own workshop or permanent place of residence and were forced to wander around the villages, moving from house to house in search of earnings and food. Their services were turned to only in cases where it was necessary to make some rare type of weapon, for example, a bronze armor or a shield made of bull skins or precious jewelry. It was difficult to do such work without the help of a qualified blacksmith, tanner or jeweler. The Greeks of the Homeric era engaged in almost no trade. They preferred to obtain the foreign things they needed by force and for this purpose they equipped predatory expeditions to foreign lands. In their imagination, they populated these lands with terrible monsters like sirens or giant Cyclops, which Odysseus tells his astonished listeners about. The only real merchants Homer mentions are the “cunning guests of the seas” the Phoenicians. As in other countries, the Phoenicians were mainly engaged in intermediary trade in Greece, selling at exorbitant prices outlandish overseas items made of gold, amber, ivory, bottles of incense, and glass beads. The poet treats them with obvious antipathy, seeing them as insidious deceivers, always ready to deceive the simple-minded Greek.

works, it is said that its value is equal to four bulls.

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palisade. Typical in this sense is the home of Odysseus, the main character of the second Homeric poem. At the entrance to the “palace” of this king there is a large dung heap, on which Odysseus, who returned home in the guise of an old beggar, finds his faithful dog Argus. Beggars and tramps easily enter the house from the street and sit at the door, waiting for a handout in the same room where the owner feasts with his guests. The floor in the house is compacted earth. The inside of the house is very dirty. The walls and ceiling are covered with soot, as the houses were heated without pipes or a chimney, “chicken-style.” Homer clearly has no idea what the palaces and citadels of the “heroic age” looked like. In his poems, he never mentions the grandiose walls of the Mycenaean strongholds, the frescoes that decorated their palaces, or the bathrooms and toilet rooms.

And the entire lifestyle of the heroes of the poems is very far from the luxurious and comfortable life of the Mycenaean palace elite. It is much simpler and rougher. The wealth of the Homeric Basilei cannot be compared with the fortunes of their predecessors - the Achaean rulers. Middle-income peasants not only worked side by side with their slaves, but also lived with them under the same roof. This is how the old man Laertes, the father of Odysseus, lives in his rural estate. In cold weather, he sleeps with his slaves right on the floor in the ashes by the fireplace. Both in his clothes and in his entire appearance it is difficult to distinguish him from a simple slave.

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It should also be taken into account that the bulk of forced laborers were female slaves. In those days, men, as a rule, were not taken captive in war, since their “taming” required a lot of time and perseverance, but women were taken willingly, since they could be used both as labor and as concubines. The wife of the Trojan hero Hector Andromache, mourning her dead husband, thinks about the difficult slave fate awaiting her and her little son:

You, defender of the city, protector of women and babies!

Soon they will be dragged into ruin on deep ships;

I am inevitably with them; and you, my poor child,

Together with me; and there, exhausted in shameful work,

You will serve the stern ruler...

On the farm of Odysseus, for example, twelve slaves are busy grinding grain with hand-held grain grinders from morning until late evening (this work was considered especially difficult, and it was usually assigned to obstinate slaves as punishment). Male slaves, in the few cases where they are mentioned in the pages of poems, usually herd livestock. The classic type of Homeric slave was embodied by the “divine swineherd” Eumaeus, who was the first to meet and shelter the wanderer Odysseus when he returned to his homeland after many years of absence, and then helped him deal with his enemies, Penelope’s suitors. As a little boy, Eumaeus was bought from Phoenician slave traders by Odysseus' father Laertes. For exemplary behavior and obedience, Odysseus made him the chief shepherd of the pig herd. Eumaeus expects that there will be a generous reward for his diligence. The owner will give him a piece of land, a house and a wife - “in a word, everything that a good-natured gentleman should give to faithful servants when the just gods rewarded his diligence with success.” Eumaeus can be considered an example of a “good slave” in the Homeric sense of the word. But the poet knows that there are also “bad slaves” who do not want to obey their masters. In the Odyssey, this is the goatherd Melanthius, who sympathizes with the suitors and helps them fight Odysseus, as well as the twelve slaves of Penelope, who entered into a criminal relationship with the enemies of their master. Having finished with the suitors, Odysseus and Telemachus deal with them too: the slaves are hanged on the ship's rope, and Melanthia, having cut off his ears, nose, legs and arms, is thrown to the dogs while still alive. This episode eloquently demonstrates that the sense of owner-slave owner is already quite strongly developed among Homer’s heroes, although slavery itself is just beginning to emerge. Despite the features of patriarchy in the depiction of the relationship between slaves and their masters, the poet is well aware of the impassable line that separates both of these classes. This is indicated by the characteristic maxim uttered by the swineherd Eumaeus, already known to us:

The slave is careless; do not force me, sir, with a strict command

He himself will not take up his work willingly:

Having chosen the painful lot of sad slavery for man,

Zeus destroys the best half of him.

3. Tribal institutions and the Homeric polis. Among other important achievements of the Mycenaean civilization, linear syllabary was forgotten during the troubled time of tribal invasions and migrations. The entire Homeric period was a period in the full sense of the word without writing. Until now, archaeologists have not been able to find a single inscription on the territory of Greece that could be attributed to the period from the 11th to the 9th centuries. BC e. After a long break, the first known

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Scientific Greek inscriptions appear only in the second half of the 8th century. But these inscriptions no longer use the signs of Linear B, which were dotted with the Mycenaean tablets, but the letters of a completely new alphabetic script, which, obviously, was just emerging at that time. In accordance with this, we do not find any mention of writing in Homer's poems. The heroes of the poems are all illiterate, they can neither read nor write. The Aedi singers also do not know the letter: the “divine” Demodocus and Phemius, whom we meet on the pages of the Odyssey. The very fact of the disappearance of writing in the post-Mycenaean era is, of course, not accidental. The spread of linear syllabic writing in Crete and Mycenae was dictated primarily by the need of a centralized monarchical state for strict accounting and control over all material and human resources at its disposal. Scribes working in the Mycenaean palace archives regularly recorded the receipt of taxes from the subject population into the palace treasury, the performance of labor duties by slaves and freemen, as well as various kinds of extraditions and deductions from the treasury.

What type of society arose from the ruins of the Mycenaean bureaucratic monarchy? Relying on the testimony of the same Homer, we can say that it was a rather primitive rural community - demos, which, as a rule, occupied a very small territory and was almost completely isolated from other communities neighboring it. The political and economic center of the community was the so-called polis. In the Greek language of the classical era, this word simultaneously expresses two closely interconnected concepts in the minds of every Greek: “city” and “state”. It is interesting, however, that in the Homeric vocabulary, in which the word “polis” (city) appears quite often, there is no word that could be translated as “village”.

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fragmented into many small self-governing districts.

In the social life of the Homeric polis, the still strong traditions of the tribal system play a significant role. Associations of clans - the so-called phyla and phratries - form the basis of the entire political and military organization of the community. A community militia is formed according to phyles and phratries during a campaign or battle. According to phyla and phratries, people come together to meet when they need to discuss some important issue. A person who did not belong to any phratry stands, in Homer’s understanding, outside of society. He has no hearth, i.e., home and family. The law does not protect him. Therefore, he can easily become a victim of violence and arbitrariness. There was no strong connection between individual clan unions. The only thing that forced them to stick to each other and settle together outside the walls of the policy was the need for joint protection from an external enemy. Otherwise, the phyla and phratries led an independent existence. The community hardly interfered in their internal affairs. Individual clans were constantly at odds with each other. The barbaric custom of blood feud was widely practiced. A person who had stained himself with murder had to flee to a foreign land, fleeing the persecution of the relatives of the murdered person. Among the heroes of poems there are often such exiles who left their fatherland because of blood feud and found shelter in the house of some foreign king.

If the murderer was rich enough, he could pay off the relatives of the murdered man by paying them a fine in cattle or metal ingots. Song XVIII of the Iliad depicts a court scene over a penalty for murder:

A dispute arose there; two people argued about foam,

Bribe for murder; and he swore alone, declaring to the people,

As if he had paid everything; and the other denied admission.

Both decided, having presented witnesses, to end their litigation.

Citizens suddenly quiet their screams; and the city elders

Silently they sit on hewn stones in the middle of the sacred circle;

Scepters are accepted into the hands of loud-voiced messengers;

They stand with them, and one by one they pronounce their judgment.

In the circle before them lie two talents of pure gold;

A bribe for whoever of them rightly proves the right.

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able to subordinate warring clans to its authority, interclan feuds often grew into bloody civil strife, putting the community on the brink of collapse. We see such a critical situation in the final scene of the Odyssey. The suitors' relatives, embittered by the death of their children and brothers who fell at the hands of Odysseus, rush to the country estate of his father Laertes with the firm intention of avenging the dead and eradicating the entire royal family. Both “parties” advance towards each other with arms in hand. A battle ensues.

Only the intervention of Athena, who protects Odysseus, stops the bloodshed and forces the enemies to reconcile. 4. Property and social stratification.

The patriarchal monogamous family, living in a closed household (oikos), was the main economic unit of Homeric society. Tribal ownership of land and other types of property, apparently, was eliminated back in the Mycenaean era. The main type of wealth, which was land in the eyes of the Greeks of Homeric times, was considered the property of the entire community. From time to time, the community organized redistributions of land belonging to it. Theoretically, every free community member had the right to receive an allotment (these allotments were called in Greek kleri, i.e., “lots,” since their distribution was made by drawing lots). However, in practice, this land use system did not prevent the enrichment of some community members and the ruin of others.

The aristocrats tried to substantiate their claims to a special, privileged position in society with references to supposedly divine origin. Therefore, Homer often calls them “divine” or “godlike.” Of course, the real basis for the power of the clan nobility was not kinship with the gods, but wealth, which sharply distinguished representatives of this class from ordinary members of the community.

Nobility and wealth for Homer are almost indissoluble concepts.

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A noble person cannot help but be rich, and, conversely, a rich man must be noble. Aristocrats boast before the common people and before each other of their vast fields, countless herds of cattle, rich reserves of iron, bronze and precious metals.

In ancient times, the place a person occupied in the battle ranks usually determined his position in society. Being a decisive force on the battlefield, the Homeric nobility also laid claim to a dominant position in the political life of the community. The aristocrats treated ordinary community members as people who “mean nothing in matters of war and council.” In the presence of the nobility, “men of the people” (demos) had to maintain respectful silence, listening to what the “best people” had to say, since it was believed that, based on their mental abilities, they could not sensibly judge important “state” affairs. At public meetings, descriptions of which are repeatedly found in poems, speeches, as a rule, are given by kings and heroes of “noble birth.” The people present at these verbal debates could express their attitude towards them by shouting or rattling weapons (if the meeting took place in a military situation), but usually did not interfere in the discussion itself. Only in one case, as an exception, does the poet bring a representative of the masses onto the stage and give him the opportunity to speak. At a meeting of the Achaean army besieging Troy, a question is discussed that vitally affects everyone present: is it worth continuing the war, which has been dragging on for ten years and does not promise victory, or is it better to board the ships and return the whole army to their homeland, Greece. Suddenly, ordinary warrior Tersig takes the floor:

Always revolving in my thoughts obscene, impudent speeches,

He always sought to insult kings, despising decency,

Allowing himself everything, which seemed funny to the people.

He boldly denounces the greed and selfishness of Agamemnon, the supreme leader of the Achaean army, and calls on everyone to immediately sail to their native shores, leaving proud Atrid alone to fight the Trojans:

We are a weak, timid tribe, we are Achaeans, not Achaeans!

We will sail to our homes, and leave him near Troy,

Here you can get your fill of other people's rewards; let him know

Do we serve as help in battle for him, or do we not serve.

Thersites’ “seditious” speeches are abruptly interrupted by Odysseus, one of the Achaean kings. Having showered him with rude abuse and threatened him with reprisals if he continues his attacks on the kings, Odysseus, in confirmation of his words, strikes the troublemaker with his royal staff.

The scene with Thersites, like many other episodes of Homer's poems, eloquently testifies to the deep decline and degeneration of primitive democracy. People

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This assembly, called by its very nature to serve as a mouthpiece for the will of the majority, here turns out to be an obedient instrument in the hands of a small handful of kings.

So, the political organization of Homeric society was still very far from true democracy. Real power was concentrated in the hands of the most powerful and influential representatives of the family nobility, whom Homer calls “basilei.” In the works of later Greek authors, the word "basileus" usually means a king, for example, Persian or Macedonian. Outwardly, Homeric basils really resemble kings. In the crowd, any of them could be recognized by the signs of royal dignity: a scepter and purple clothing.

“Scepter-holders” is a common epithet used by the poet to characterize the basilei. They are also called “Zeus-born” or “Zeus-nurtured,” which should indicate the special favor shown to them by the Supreme Olympian. The Basilei have the exclusive right to preserve and interpret the laws instilled in them, as the poet thinks, again by Zeus himself. In war, the basili became the head of the militia and were supposed to be the first to rush into battle, setting an example of bravery and bravery to ordinary warriors. During large national festivals, the basile made sacrifices to the gods and prayed to them for good and prosperity for the entire community. For all this, the people were obliged to honor the “kings” with “gifts”: an honorary share of wine and meat at a feast, the best and most extensive allotment during the redistribution of communal land, etc.

Formally, “gifts” were considered a voluntary award or honor that the basileus received from the people as a reward for his military valor or for the justice he showed in court. However, in practice, this ancient custom often gave the “kings” a convenient pretext for extortion and extortion, so to speak, “on a legal basis.”

Agamemnon is presented as such a “king - devourer of the people” in the first songs of the Iliad. Thersites, already known to us, sarcastically denounces the exorbitant greed of the “shepherd of nations”, manifested in the division of military spoils:

What, Agamemnon, are you complaining, what are you still dissatisfied with?

Your tabernacles are full of brass, and there are many captives

In your tabernacles, which you, Argives, have chosen

We give it to the first in the army when we destroy cities.

Do you still thirst for gold so that one of the Trojans

I brought glorious horsemen for you, to redeem your son,

Whom would I bring in chains like another Argive?

No, it's an unworthy thing

Having been the head of the people, drag us Achaeans into troubles!

With all the power and wealth of the Basilei, their power cannot be considered royal power in the proper sense of the word. Therefore, the usual replacement of the Greek “basile” with the Russian “tsar” in Russian translations of Homer can be accepted only conditionally.

Within his phylum or phratry, the basile performed mainly priestly functions, in charge of clan cults (each clan union in those days had its own special patron god). Nevertheless, together the basiles constituted some semblance of a ruling board or council of a given community and jointly resolved all pressing issues of governance before submitting them for final approval to the people's assembly (by the way, this last formality was not always observed). From time to time, the basil together with the clan elders (the poet usually does not draw a clear line between the two) gathered in the city square (agora) and there, in the presence of all the people, they sorted out litigation. In

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During the war, one (sometimes two) of the basilei was elected at a popular meeting to the position of military commander and led the community's militia.

The Homeric period occupies a special place in Greek history.

The socially differentiated society and state that already existed in Greece during the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization are now emerging here again, but on a different scale and form. The centralized bureaucratic state of the Mycenaean era was replaced by a small self-governing community of free farmers. Over time (in some regions of Greece this happened, apparently, already at the end of the 9th or beginning of the 8th century BC), the first city-states, or policies, grew from such communities. Unlike the previous (Mycenaean) and subsequent (archaic) eras, the Homeric period was not marked by any outstanding successes in the field of culture and art.

From this time, not a single major architectural monument, not a single work of literature or fine art has reached us (the Homeric epic itself, which is our main source for the history of this period, is chronologically already located outside its boundaries). In many ways it was a time of decline and cultural stagnation. But at the same time, it was also a time of accumulation of strength before a new rapid rise. In the depths of Greek society, during this period there is a persistent struggle between the new and the old, there is an intensive breakdown of traditional norms and customs of the tribal system, and an equally intensive process of formation of classes and the state. Of great importance for the subsequent development of Greek society was the radical renewal of its technical base that occurred during the Homeric period, which was expressed primarily in the widespread distribution of iron and its introduction into production. All these important changes prepared the transition of the Greek city-states to a completely new path of historical development, upon which they were able to achieve heights of cultural and social progress unprecedented in the history of mankind over the next three or four centuries. For information on this topic, read the chapter Ancient Greece in the Homeric period from the Textbook of Ancient History by the outstanding Russian scientist N. I. Kareev

The role of Homer's poems for the study of Greek history

Chronologically close to the estimated time of Homer’s life, the period of ancient Hellenic history (XI-IX centuries BC) is usually called “Homeric”, and Hellas of this era is called “Homeric Greece”. The social, economic and cultural life of the then Greek nation is depicted in Homer's poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Homer's poems are the oldest and purest source of our information about the life of the Greek people in the 11th–9th centuries BC. They introduce us to all aspects of life in those centuries. Therefore, they are important for us not only for their poetic dignity, we have in them a true depiction of the real life of Homeric Greece, its material situation, social institutions, concepts and feelings. We must consider those poetic descriptions, the essential features of which we will give below, as pictures of real political and private life, as factual, true outlines of religious and moral concepts. The imagination of Greek poets then had to borrow its materials exclusively from Greek activity: the Greeks were still little familiar with other peoples, and their information about the culture of the eastern peoples was very fragmentary and weak. Homer's descriptions are so objective that there is no fiction in them. But the life they depict is already in a transitional state. “Homer’s songs are imbued with a feeling of sadness,” says the outstanding researcher of Greece Curtius, “in them one can hear grief that human life has become worse than before, that today’s people are far lower than their ancestors in character qualities, do not have that energy, those virtues. The features of the present, unintentionally transferred to the pictures of the past, show that the customs and institutions of the heroic age no longer existed at the time when Homer's songs were composed. According to some sources, it is noticeable that when these songs were composed, democratic aspirations were already awakening among the Greeks.

Kings in Homeric Greece

Let us look first at the government institutions of Homeric Greece. According to Homer's descriptions, in every Greek community we see a king. He is the bravest and most skilled warrior; he leads his comrades into battle. By his divine origin, he is a hereditary expert in the eternal law given and preserved by the gods; therefore he is a judge, a defender of justice; he is the representative of the community before the gods, brings them sacrifices and prayers for it. So, the military leader and judge, the “God-born”, “God-educated” king was also a mediator between the people and the gods. Royal power was considered a divine institution in Homeric Greece. Given by the gods to the ancestor of the current king, who had divine origin, it was inherited from generation to generation, usually from father to eldest son. But the recipient must have qualities that make him worthy of the scepter. A Greek king must be brave in battle, wise in council, eloquent in the people's assembly. He must surpass everyone in physical strength and martial art. Weak, old, or unwarlike kings were little obeyed. Describing an eloquent king, a skillful judge, Hesiod expresses the general concepts of Homeric Greece about these qualities of monarchs:

“Whoever of the blessed rulers at birth was looked upon favorably by the daughters of Kronion (Muse), has sweet dew on his tongue and his speech flows like honey. Everyone looks at him as he pronounces the decision according to the law; he speaks convincingly and skillfully knows how to quickly reconcile quarrels. Rulers are given reason so that they publicly give complete satisfaction to the offended, convincing with meek words. When the king walks through the city, everyone honors him with reverent love, like a god, and in the people’s assembly he surpasses everyone in intelligence.” (Theogony, 81ff.).

In the Homeric period of Greek history, the king owned vast lands, numerous herds, and had the means to entertain his associates in a richly decorated palace, the vast courtyard of which was surrounded by a stone wall. In addition to the lands that were his property, the king used state land; natural duties in his favor were established by law. The king received voluntary gifts; received, according to his rank as a judge, fines from the guilty; in case of war, he received benefits for the maintenance of troops. On religious holidays, he was provided with the best pieces of animals consecrated by sacrifice. As is clear from Homer's remarks, when dividing up the spoils, the Greek king was given the best of it; in particular, the most beautiful captives, precious things, and good weapons were given to him. Energy kings ruled with unlimited power; Their arbitrary, harsh, unjust actions were endured without resistance. They were restrained from too much abuse of power by fear of the wrath of the gods and public opinion. In order to find out public opinion and act in accordance with it, the Greek king of the Homeric era gathered a council of nobles and elders, usually in the palace, for dinner; convened a national assembly; it conferred in the square; heralds maintained order. But neither the council of nobles nor the people's assembly had government power; the king was not obliged to obey their decisions.

The king expressed his thoughts to the people's assembly. The nobles sitting next to him on the stones expressed their opinions; Each, starting a speech, took into his hand the oratorical baton, given by the herald. People stood around; he expressed sympathy with a cry of approval; in case of lack of sympathy, he was silent; that was the extent of his role; whether he approved or disapproved of the matter, he had to obey. Odysseus says in Homer: “Poly power is harmful; there must be one ruler, a king, to whom Zeus gave the scepter of power" (Iliad 2, 204); - these famous words express the general conviction of that time. When Thersites dared to reproach Agamemnon, Odysseus beat him to tears. But in the Homeric era, the Greek “shepherds of the nations” found it useful not to act arbitrarily, but to convince the nobles and people of the fairness and reasonableness of their orders, so that there would be diligent obedience. Agamemnon tells Menelaus that a king should not be arrogant, should show honor to everyone, and speak in a kind tone (Iliad 10, 68). Odysseus says: “When a good king rules over brave men, honoring the gods and preserving justice, then the earth gives a bountiful harvest of wheat, barley and other fruits, the herds multiply and the sea gives a lot of fish” (Iliad 19, 108). “The ideal of a ruler in heroic times is a brave king, inventive in war, superior to everyone around him in intelligence, so that the nobles agree with him, and the people are devoted to him” (Grotto). The king is the ruler of people, like Zeus is the ruler of the gods.

The Duty of Blood Vengeance in Homeric Greece

But the power of the judge-king in the era of Homeric Greece did not have such power as to restrain the strong from lawlessness, robbery, and murder. The legal order protecting the weak was still shaky. If it was insufficient, the offended person was often forced to fight with the offender. Duels between Greek heroes in war were not only competitions of courage, but also a way to decide on whose side justice was; it was God's judgment. Both troops stood and watched the duel; heralds supervised compliance with the rules of battle. In general, in Homeric Greece, a person was only as protected from violence as he could protect himself from it. Women and children could not live except under the protection of a strong man. The man always went armed; his sword was always with him. Homer's songs contain many examples of brutal violence and arrogant lawlessness; They were also performed by glorified heroes. In such a state of society, the custom of blood vengeance inevitably had to have greater power. The fear of bloodshed somewhat restrained the tendency to violence in Homeric Greece. The right of the blood avenger was sacred, everyone was on the side of the blood avenger. The closest relatives of the murdered man were obliged to take revenge on the murderer; so that they could fulfill their duty, society deprived the murderer of his citizenship rights and handed him over to the persecution of blood avengers. If he failed to reconcile with them by giving them a ransom for blood, he usually saw himself in the need to flee from his native district and wandered, looking for a shelter where he would be hidden.

Homer has many examples of both reconciliation and flight. In his stories there are many murderers who fled from their native country and found shelter with the kings of other states. They atoned for their crime by being subjected to the misfortune of exile and being under the protection of Zeus. On the shield of Achilles, by the way, was depicted a scene of a dispute about a ransom for blood: the disputants stood in the public assembly square (agora); the elders (geronts) sat on smoothed stones; they were judges; the people stood around and expressed with a loud cry their approval of the speech of one or another of those arguing; heralds maintained order. In the middle of the circle of judges lay gold; it should have been received either by one of the judges who would find the correct solution to the case, or, as Homer Schoeman explains the words, by one of the disputants who would win the case. Iliad 18, 497:

A lot of people crowd into the marketplace: noisy
A dispute arose there; two people argued about foam,
Bribe for murder; and he swore alone, declaring to the people,
It was as if he had paid everything, and the other refused to receive him;
Both decided, having presented witnesses, to end their litigation.
The citizens around them are shouting, each wishing for his own good;
The messengers tame their noisy cry; and the elders of the city,
Silently, they sit on hewn stones in the middle of the sacred circle;
Scepters are accepted into the hands of loud-voiced messengers;
They stand with them and pronounce their judgment one by one.
In the circle before them lie two talents of pure gold,
A bribe for the one who proves the right more justly.

Relatives of Penelope's suitors killed by Odysseus say (Odyssey 24, 433) that blood vengeance is a duty of honor:

We will leave a blasphemous memory of ourselves and our posterity,
If for your neighbors, for your own sons, to murderers
We won't take revenge here.

Ajax says to Achilles (Iliad 9, 631):

A mortal with an insensitive soul! Take for the murdered brother,
The father even accepts a penalty for the son of a murdered man;
The most murderer among the people lives, paying off with wealth;
He took the penalty and his vengeful spirit and proud heart
Everything finally tames.

If the relatives of the murdered man agreed to take the ransom, the murderer, having paid it, became, according to the Greek customs of Homeric times, free from their persecution and retained his previous position in society. Property was even less protected by law than life. Making raids to plunder homes, steal herds, capture the defenseless captives, into slavery - these were glorious heroic deeds. Sea robbery was considered in Homeric Greece a brave craft of brave people, not at all reprehensible.

But in this turmoil of military and hunting life, traits of noble, humane feelings are also visible. In the Homeric period of Greek history, the beginnings of civilization are already clearly visible. Fear of the wrath of the gods curbed passions. A person who has committed murder has no peace of mind until he is cleansed of sin. There was a custom of hospitality, which obligated to receive a stranger in a friendly manner and give him shelter; should have accepted and reassured him without even asking him who he was. Only when he had refreshed himself with food, refreshed himself with a swim or bath, and rubbed himself with oil, did they ask the guest what his name was, where he was from, what business he was here for. Whoever sat at the hearth and asked for protection could neither be insulted nor left homeless. The beggar was under the protection of Zeus. In Homeric Greece there was a union of hospitality. The people connected by him received each other with honors and gave gifts to the guest at the farewell. This union was hereditary among the Greeks. The gifts received were carefully kept from generation to generation. Heralds and ambassadors were considered inviolable, even by the enemy; - This is the embryo of international law. Agreements were sanctified by sacrifice, calling on the all-seeing sun, rivers and earth as witnesses, calling on the wrath of the underground gods on the head of the one who betrayed the promise.

Greek family in the Homeric period

Already in Homeric Greece, family life had a noble character. Respect and love for parents is a sacred duty. The bad son is pursued by the goddess of vengeance, Erinny. The father's curse takes away happiness and peace from the rebellious son and weighs on his descendants until the third and fourth generations. Thoughts of children and wife give the most energetic stimulation to courage in battle. In the Homeric era of Greek history, a wife occupies a respected position in the house, although she, according to the custom common to all ancient peoples, was acquired by gifts given to her father, that is, as if bought. The bride was brought to her new house in a solemn procession, with singing, music, and torches; Her guests and a merry feast awaited her at the groom's house. The Greeks did not have polygamy even then. The Greek wife is the only legal partner of her husband. She is a respected lady in the house. She is strictly faithful to her husband. The female characters in the Iliad and Odyssey - Penelope, Andromache, Helen, Hecuba, Nausicaa and others, belong to the most beautiful creatures in poetry of all centuries. We see from Homer's stories that women enjoyed freedom in their home life. The lady of the house not only manages the household, not only does spinning, weaving, sewing all the clothes, washing, but also goes out to the guests and takes part in conversations with them; participates in meetings and affairs, and her voice often decides matters. The Greeks did not have polygamy, as we said. It happened that the husband had relationships with other women, especially when he was far from home; but the mistress is alone in the house, her legal wife. The rooms in which she lives, the maids' rooms, her husband's bedroom, the room where weapons and treasures are stored, are located behind a large hall with columns, and their floor is slightly higher, so that the passage from the hall into them forms a staircase. The Great Hall is the main part of the Greek house; here is the hearth. A covered gallery leads to the hall from the courtyard.

Marriage in Homer is constantly depicted as a happy union; husband and wife truly love each other. Odysseus says (Odyssey 6, 128):

Unspeakable happiness resides there,
Where they live unanimously, maintaining order at home,
Husband and wife, a joy to well-meaning people, to unkind people
To people's envy and grief, to one's own great glory.

The history of Ancient Greece is one of the components of the history of the ancient world, studying the state of class societies and states that arose and developed in the countries of the Ancient East and the Mediterranean.

The history of Ancient Greece studies the emergence, flourishing and fall of social and government structures that formed on the territory of the Balkan Peninsula and in the Aegean region, in Southern Italy, on the island. Sicily and the Black Sea region. It begins at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. - from the emergence of the first state formations on the island of Crete, and ends in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC BC, when the Greek and Hellenistic states of the Eastern Mediterranean were captured by Rome and included in the Roman Mediterranean power.
Over a two-thousand-year period of history, the ancient Greeks created a rational economic system based on the economical use of labor and natural resources, a civil social structure, a polis organization with a republican structure, and a high culture that had a huge impact on the development of Roman and world culture. These achievements of ancient Greek civilization enriched the world historical process and served as the foundation for the subsequent development of the peoples of the Mediterranean during the era of Roman rule.
The history of Ancient Greece can be divided into three large stages:
1. Early class societies and the first state formations of the 2nd millennium BC. e. (history of Crete and Achaean Greece).
2. The formation and flourishing of city-states as independent city-states, the creation of high culture (in the XI-IV centuries BC).
3. The conquest of the Persian Empire by the Greeks, the formation of Hellenistic societies and states.
This study pays special attention to the study of the so-called Homeric period of development of Ancient Greece, examines the prerequisites for the emergence of the polis organization of society and analyzes the poems of Homer.
The ancient tradition considered Homer not only the greatest poet, but also a philosopher, historian, and geographer. Even historians as careful in interpreting facts as Herodotus and Thucydides treated the data of the Iliad and Odyssey with confidence.
Strabo quite rightly noted: “First of all, I will say that we and our predecessors (one of whom was Hipparchus) were right in considering Homer the founder of the science of geography. After all, Homer surpassed all people of ancient and modern times not only with the high dignity of his poetry, but, as I think, also with his knowledge of the conditions of social life. Because of this, he not only cared about depicting events, but in order to learn as many facts as possible and tell his descendants about them, he sought to introduce them to the geography of both individual countries and the entire inhabited world, both land and sea. Otherwise, he could not reach the extreme limits of the inhabited world, circumventing it entirely in his description” (I.1.2).
Consequently, in ancient sources Homer is cited as the most reliable informant of the ancient history of the Greek tribes.
It can be said that civilization began among the Asian Greeks with the creation of the Homeric poems, around 850 BC. e., and among the European Greeks about a century later, with the creation of the poems of Hesiod. These eras were preceded by several thousand years, during which the Hellenic tribes passed through the later period of barbarism and prepared to enter civilization. Their oldest traditions find them already settled on the Greek peninsula, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and on the intermediate and neighboring islands. A more ancient branch of the same trunk, the main representatives of which were the Pelasgians, owned most of this region before the Hellenes and were either Hellenized or supplanted by them over time. We can judge the earlier state of the Hellenic tribes and their predecessors from the industries and inventions which they brought with them from the previous period, from the degree of development of their language, from their traditions, and from the social institutions which survived in varying degrees into the period of civilization.
The existence of a Greek tribe always presupposes the presence of clans, since the bonds of kinship and common dialect formed the basis on which the clans were united into a tribe; but the tribe does not imply the existence of a phratry, which, as an intermediate organization, could have been absent, although it was found in almost all of these tribes. In Sparta there were divisions of tribes called oba and corresponding to phratries, ten in each tribe. The question of the functions of these organizations is in an uncertain state.

1. HOMER'S POEMS

The period of Greek history of the 11th – 9th centuries BC. It is usually called Homeric, because the main written source for its study are Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.
The economic and social history of Homeric Greece represents a transitional stage from a tribal system to a slave system. The basis of Greek society was still the clan organization, in which private property was already emerging and property inequality was growing.
Greece was divided into small independent regions. The political form of this transitional system was military democracy, gradually degenerating into the power of a tribal aristocracy.
The Homeric era (or “Dark Ages,” as those who do not attach much importance to Homer’s data prefer to call this time) (Andreev, 2003, pp. 5-12) was characterized by protracted ethnopolitical upheavals, visible regression and stagnation in all spheres of public life, but at the same time, a complex, fraught with new opportunities, interaction of different cultures - dying palace centers, rural communities freed from their oppression, conquering tribes establishing themselves in new places. By the end of this era, the newly accumulated potential for development was realized in the emergence of the primary organisms of early class society - proto-urban and proto-state centers, protopolises. The next, archaic era was already marked by radical technical, socio-economic and cultural changes, the result of which was the final formation of the polis.
Since the time of the philosopher A. Wolf, many witty hypotheses have been constructed about the origin of Homeric poetry. We use the name Homer symbolically to designate two great epic poems that arose among the Aeolians and Ionians of the Asian coast between the 10th and 8th centuries BC. There were certain misconceptions about these poetic works, which were only overcome with difficulty. The Iliad and Odyssey appear before us in the form of complete, complete poems and, moreover, as the oldest literary monument of the Greek people.
Homer reveals to his gaze a certain ancient period, but not the original state: next to certain barbaric relations, he has much that indicates an already progressed culture. The character of all his poetry corresponds to this. It was in vain that Homer's naivety was constantly talked about. His perfect artistic form, his intelligent reflections, the subtle features of his characteristics, his sometimes serious remarks are by no means naive (Andreev, 2003, pp. 5-12).
"The Iliad" - Homer's epic poem is devoted mainly to the war of the Achaeans with the Trojans. In his poem, Homer described two peoples, two tribes; Achaeans (as he called the Greeks) and Trojans. It is precisely because the poem is about war that one can very easily imagine the organization of the military system of Ancient Greece. Here we will find the characteristic features of the emerging military art of this period. The city of Troy was located a few kilometers from the shore of the Hellespont (Dardanelle Strait). Trade routes used by Greek tribes passed through Troy. Apparently, the Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, this forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy. But the Trojans were supported by numerous allies (Lycia, Mysia, etc.), as a result of which the war became protracted and lasted more than nine years (Andreev, 2003, pp. 5-12).
The fate of Troy has provided us with both archaeological and epic monuments, from which we are trying to put together a general historical plot.
The Trojans are obvious newcomers to Asia Minor from the steppe regions. In the Iliad, the Trojans are called “hippodamoi” - “horse tamers”. The legendary Trojan king Dardanus had a herd of horses born from the north wind Boreas. Troy VI, in which archaeological data first records the presence of horses, was founded at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. and existed until a strong earthquake in the 12th century. Troy VII, restored by the former population, has signs of martial law - amphorae for water dug into the floors of houses, cramped buildings, indicating a densification of the population. The fire that destroyed Troy during this period is associated with the anti-Trojan expedition of the Achaeans. Following the fire, Troy was captured by the Phrygians, as evidenced by the primitiveness of the utensils used, created without a potter's wheel. The Troy excavated by Schliemann had many layers, of which Troy I-V dates back to the 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC. e., and the found “Priam’s treasure” has nothing to do with Priam. Troy VI-VII - a completely new population. Two periods with an identical culture are separated by a strong earthquake, after which the collapsed walls and buildings were restored, but after several decades (or even a few years later) the city burned out and was restored again without its former power and gradually fell into decay (Andreev, 2003 , pp.5-12).
Contacts between the Trojans and the Achaeans are indisputable. But the fierce enmity that could hardly exist between closely related tribes is also undeniable. The Achaeans had to fight the Trojans for probably several decades. The fury of the battles led to the defeat of Troy, in which the entire male population of the fortress was destroyed. Homer's epic Iliad included several episodes of this war, in which the Trojans were the continental power and the Achaeans formed a naval coalition (Blavatsky, 1976, p. 60).
The Trojans of Homeric times are quite homogeneous in their lifestyle (skeletal remains, alas, are extremely few in number and have not been studied), but are close to the “maritime” Mycenaean culture, formed by a different tribal group. At the same time, there is a historical incident: the Trojans relied on the support of continental allies (probably Balkan), and the Achaeans relied on the “peoples of the sea.” Some researchers, however, consider the Trojans themselves to be one of the tribes of the “peoples of the sea.” Perhaps this was the case, and the failure of the coastal peoples of the southern branch of the Aryan migrations can be explained by the changeable fate of the sailors (Delbruck, 1936, p. 176).
The city of Troy (now in its place is the Turkish town of Hisarlik) was surrounded by a high stone wall with battlements. The Achaeans did not dare to storm the city and did not block it. The fighting took place on a flat field between the city and the Achaean camp, which was located on the banks of the Hellespont. The Trojans sometimes broke into the enemy camp, trying to set fire to Greek ships pulled ashore.
Homer listed in detail the ships of the Achaeans and counted 1186 ships on which a hundred thousand army was transported.
The main weapon of the Greek warriors was a spear for throwing with a copper tip, which is why Homer calls the Achaeans “spearmen.” From Homer's descriptions we can imagine the setting in which the combat took place. The opponents were located not far from each other (Blavatsky, 1976, p. 65).
Troy was not a large city and could not accommodate the garrison of thousands that Homer wrote about. The total area of ​​Troy inside the walls is about 16 thousand square meters. m. Later excavations revealed a perimeter of Bronze Age walls enclosing an area five times larger. But behind such walls a large army could not hide (about 50 thousand, according to Homer). The size of the Achaean coalition fleet in the Catalog of Ships was probably determined as a whole. Not all of the 1,186 ships took part in the campaign. This number probably corresponds to the total number of ships built during the war. Of the 12 ships of Odysseus in the campaign against Troy, only one is mentioned. The final capture of Troy, destroyed by the earthquake, probably took place with the crews of fifty ships. This is exactly the capacity of the “Rocky Aulis”, where the Achaean expedition gathered. There is an obvious discrepancy between the “Catalogue of Ships” and the composition of the participants in the campaign against Troy. This campaign does not mention many of the leaders and most of the heroes who formed the core of the Achaean coalition. The same thing happens with the Trojan directory. Homer wrote the Iliad three centuries after the fall of Troy and drew on varied (and sometimes contradictory) oral traditions. It combines the realities of the Mycenaean and Dorian periods.
Life in Troy, indeed, was extremely meager - no writing, no frescoes, no sculpture, no necropolises. Only animal bones and shards of dark pottery cover the clay floors. But even later layers do not provide an example of luxury, the flourishing of culture and the skill of artisans. The Troy that was revealed to archaeologists is strikingly different from the Troy of Homer. There is no explanation for this yet. Either Homer embellished the story, or Homer's Troy has not yet been found, or the heirs of Trojan greatness exported it to their new palaces in the Peloponnese.
The Greek-Achaeans and the “peoples of the sea” were probably united by the hope of easy profit, and they undertook a joint expedition to the dilapidated city. A strong fleet was able to block the naval forces of Troy and prevent them from reaching the besieged capital, and the Trojan allies in Asia Minor and the Balkans were exhausted by the protracted war (according to Homer it lasted ten years) or they themselves joined the predatory expedition (Blavatsky, 1976, p. 67).
Homer's epic "Odyssey" contains clear references to the communal-tribal organization of society. However, the socio-historical period depicted in Homer’s poems is far from naive and primitive communal-tribal collectivism; it is distinguished by all the signs of highly developed private property and private initiative within the framework of tribal organizations.
We read, for example: “One person receives satisfaction in some matters, and another in others” (Od., XIV, 228). The epic contains information about the existence of skilled craftsmen, about fortune-tellers, doctors, carpenters and singers (Od., XVII, 382-385). From these texts one can already judge a significant division of labor.
Estates. Homeric society is divided into classes, since a class is nothing more than a community of people united along one or another social or professional basis on the basis of either legal legislation or customary law. Engels writes: “Already in the heroic period, Greece entered history divided into classes...”.
In Homer we find a constant genealogy of heroes descended from Zeus, and an appeal to family honor (for example, Odysseus’ appeal to Telemachus in Od., XXIV, 504-526). In Homer, the leader is usually surrounded by his retinue, who treat him with reverence. The power of the leader is associated with large land ownership (for example, the story of Odysseus, disguised as a wanderer, about his wealth in Crete, Od., XIV, 208 et seq.). Frequent wars and all kinds of entrepreneurship also led to the enrichment of the wealthiest part of the clan community. In Homer we find descriptions of magnificent things and palaces. His characters can speak beautifully. They boast of wealth, iron and copper, gold and silver, and love abundant feasts.
Thus, in the clan community, individual rich owners and leaders emerged, who little by little were liberated from the traditions of clan relations and even opposed themselves to them.

Organization of power.
Basileus. Homeric kings “basileus” have nothing to do with unlimited royal power. Odysseus's reminder of absolute autocracy (Il., II, 203-206) is a rare relic of former rule. The power of the king is hereditary, but subject to the outstanding qualities of the applicant. Cases of election are rare, as follows from the speech of Telemachus (Od., I, 394-396). The king is only a clan elder, priest and judge, but very dependent. His power is exercised mainly in war. The power of the tsar is noticeably democratized, as indicated by the strongest criticism of tsarist privileges. This is the episode with Agamemnon’s order to send the troops home.
Bule. The Council of Elders (bule) has administrative and judicial functions. He maintains a close relationship with the basileus, often reinforced by meals (Od., VIII, 95-99, Ill., IX, 67-76), which gives this relationship a naive and primitive connotation. The royal bull is either completely deprived of independence, when, for example, Achilles gathers the agora without advice (Il., I, 54), or acts actively and can be hostile and sharply divided into parties (Od., III 137-150). The behavior of Telemachus (Od., II, 11-14) indicates the emergence of opposition to the council.
Agora. During the heyday of the clan community, the people's assembly (agora) was the main authority and force in the entire community. In Homer's poems one can note his weakening, his passivity and disorganized character (II, 94-101). The main significance of the agora is also in war. In Homer, the people's assembly meets rarely and only in emergency cases. For example, it, like the boule, was not assembled in Ithaca for 20 years (Od., II, 25-34). According to the old custom, the people's assembly is considered, but no speakers are heard from it, and it does not carry out any voting. The agora expresses his approval or disapproval only through general noise.
The supreme power in the image of Homer seems to connect the basileus, boule and agora. Here the fall of royal power, the emergence of an aristocratic republic and the features that will become characteristic of the future slave state are obvious.
The results of the study of the Homeric epic fully confirm the conclusion made by archaeologists about the economic isolation of Greece and the entire Aegean basin in the 11th-9th centuries. BC e. The Mycenaean states with their highly developed economy could not exist without constant well-established trade contacts with the outside world, primarily with the countries of the Middle East. In contrast to this, the typical Homeric community (demos) leads a completely isolated existence, almost without coming into contact even with other similar communities closest to it. The community's economy is predominantly subsistence in nature. Trade and craft play only the most insignificant role in it. Each family itself produces almost everything necessary for its life: agricultural and livestock products, clothing, simple utensils, tools, perhaps even weapons. Specialist craftsmen who live by their own labor are extremely rare in poems. Homer calls them demiurges, that is, “working for the people.” Many of them, apparently, did not even have their own workshop or permanent place of residence and were forced to wander around the villages, moving from house to house in search of income and food. Their services were turned to only in cases where it was necessary to make some rare type of weapon, for example, a bronze armor or a shield made of bull skins or precious jewelry. It was difficult to do such work without the help of a qualified blacksmith, tanner or jeweler. The Greeks of the Homeric era engaged in almost no trade. They preferred to obtain the foreign things they needed by force and for this purpose they equipped predatory expeditions to foreign lands. The seas surrounding Greece were infested with pirates. Sea robbery, like robbery on land, was not considered a reprehensible activity in those days. On the contrary, in enterprises of this kind they saw a manifestation of special daring and valor, worthy of a real hero and aristocrat. Achilles openly boasts that he, fighting on sea and land, destroyed 21 cities in the Trojan lands. Telemachus is proud of the riches that his father Odysseus “plundered” for him. But even the dashing mining pirates did not dare to go far beyond the borders of their native Aegean Sea in those days. The trip to Egypt already seemed to the Greeks of that time a fantastic undertaking that required exceptional courage. The whole world that lay outside their little world, even such relatively close countries as the Black Sea region or Italy and Sicily, seemed distant and scary to them. In their imagination, they populated these lands with terrible monsters like sirens or giant Cyclops, which Odysseus tells his astonished listeners about. The only real merchants Homer mentions are the “cunning guests of the seas” the Phoenicians. As in other countries, the Phoenicians were mainly engaged in intermediary trade in Greece, selling at exorbitant prices outlandish overseas items made of gold, amber, ivory, bottles of incense, and glass beads. The poet treats them with obvious antipathy, seeing them as insidious deceivers, always ready to deceive the simple-minded Greek.
Despite the appearance in Homeric society of fairly clearly expressed signs of property inequality, the life of even its highest strata is striking in its simplicity and patriarchy. Homer's heroes, and they are all kings and aristocrats, live in roughly built wooden houses with a courtyard surrounded by a palisade. Typical in this sense is the home of Odysseus, the main character of the second Homeric poem. At the entrance to the “palace” of this king there is a large dung heap, on which Odysseus, who returned home in the guise of an old beggar, finds his faithful dog Argus. Beggars and tramps easily enter the house from the street and sit at the door, waiting for a handout in the same room where the owner feasts with his guests. The floor in the house is compacted earth. The inside of the house is very dirty. The walls and ceiling are covered with soot, as the houses were heated without pipes or a chimney, “chicken-style.” Homer clearly has no idea what the palaces and citadels of the “heroic age” looked like. In his poems, he never mentions the grandiose walls of the Mycenaean strongholds, the frescoes that decorated their palaces, or the bathrooms and toilet rooms.
And the entire lifestyle of the heroes of the poems is very far from the luxurious and comfortable life of the Mycenaean palace elite. It is much simpler and rougher. The wealth of the Homeric Basilei cannot be compared with the fortunes of their predecessors - the Achaean rulers. These latter needed a whole staff of scribes to keep records and control their property. A typical Homeric basileus himself knows perfectly well what and how much is stored in his pantry, how much land, livestock, slaves, etc. he has. His main wealth consists of metal reserves: bronze cauldrons and tripods, iron ingots, which he carefully stores in a secluded corner of your home. Not least in his character are such traits as hoarding, prudence, and the ability to benefit from everything. In this respect, the psychology of the Homeric aristocrat is not much different from the psychology of the wealthy peasant of that era. Homer nowhere mentions the numerous court servants surrounding the vanaktas of Mycenae or Pylos. The centralized palace economy with its work detachments, with overseers, scribes and auditors is completely alien to him. True, the number of labor forces in the farms of some basileans (Odysseus, king of the Phaeacians Alcinous) is determined by a rather significant figure of 50 slaves, but even if this is not a poetic hyperbole, such a farm is still very far from the farm of the Pylos or Knossos palace, in which, judging by the data tablets, hundreds or even thousands of slaves were occupied. It is difficult for us to imagine a Mycenaean vanakta sharing a meal with his slaves, and his wife sitting at a loom surrounded by her slaves. For Homer, both are a typical picture of the life of his heroes. Homeric kings do not shy away from the roughest physical work. Odysseus, for example, is no less proud of his ability to mow and plow than his military skill. We meet the royal daughter Nausicaa for the first time at the moment when she and her maids go to the seaside to wash the clothes of her father Alcinous. Facts of this kind indicate that slavery in Homeric Greece had not yet become widespread, and even in the households of the richest and most noble people there were not so many slaves. With trade underdeveloped, the main sources of slavery remained war and piracy. The very methods of acquiring slaves were thus fraught with great risk. Therefore, their prices were quite high. A beautiful and skillful slave was equated to a herd of twenty head of bulls. Middle-income peasants not only worked side by side with their slaves, but also lived with them under the same roof. This is how the old man Laertes, the father of Odysseus, lives in his rural estate. In cold weather, he sleeps with his slaves right on the floor in the ashes by the fireplace. Both in his clothes and in his entire appearance it is difficult to distinguish him from a simple slave.
In order to correctly represent the socio-historical basis of Homer’s poems, it is necessary to abandon abstract legal norms, and proceed from the vital thicket of the historical process, which is far from solid legislative norms and is based more on optional and vague customary law.

Features of the development of Homeric society. The period of Greek history following the Cretan-Mycenaean era is usually called “Homeric” after the great poet Homer, whose poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” remain the most important source of information about this time.

The so-called Dorian conquest pushed Greece back several centuries. Of the achievements of the Mycenaean era, only a few industrial skills and technical devices have been preserved, which were of vital importance both for the new inhabitants of the country and for the remnants of its former population. These include a potter's wheel, relatively high metal processing technology, a ship with a sail, and the culture of growing olives and grapes.

Throughout Greece, the primitive communal system was again established for a long time.

Mycenaean palaces and citadels were abandoned and lay in ruins. No one else settled behind their walls. Even in Athens, which obviously did not suffer from the Dorian invasion, the acropolis was abandoned by its inhabitants already in the 12th century. BC e. and thereafter remained uninhabited for a long time. It seems that during the Homeric period the Greeks forgot how to build houses and fortresses from stone blocks, as their predecessors did in the Mycenaean era. Almost all buildings of this time were wooden or made of unbaked brick. Therefore, none of them survived. Burials of the Homeric period, as a rule, are extremely poor, even wretched, when compared with Mycenaean graves. Their entire inventory usually consists of several clay pots, a bronze or iron sword, spear and arrowheads in men’s graves, and cheap jewelry in women’s graves. There are almost no beautiful valuable things in them. There are no objects of foreign, eastern origin, so common in Mycenaean burials. All this speaks of a sharp decline in crafts and trade, a mass flight of skilled craftsmen from a country devastated by war and invasions to foreign lands, and a severance of trade sea routes connecting Mycenaean Greece with the countries of the Middle East and with the rest of the Mediterranean.

Socio-economic relations. Slavery. It has long been noted that the Iliad and Odyssey as a whole depict a society much closer to barbarism, a culture much more backward and primitive than that which we can imagine by reading Linear B tablets or viewing the works of Crete-Mycenaean art. In the economy of Homeric times, subsistence agriculture reigns supreme, the main industries of which remain, as in the Mycenaean era, agriculture and cattle breeding. Homer himself undoubtedly had a good understanding of the various types of peasant labor. He judges with great knowledge the difficult work of the farmer and shepherd and often introduces scenes from contemporary rural life into his narrative about the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus. Such episodes are especially often used in comparisons, with which the poet abundantly enriches his story. Thus, in the Iliad, the heroes of Ajax going into battle are compared to two bulls plowing the earth. The approaching enemy armies are likened to reapers walking across the field towards each other. The dead Yura reminds the poet of an olive tree, grown by a caring owner, which was uprooted by a violent wind. There are also detailed descriptions of field work in the epic.

The community's economy is predominantly subsistence in nature. Trade and craft play only the most insignificant role in it. Each family itself produces almost everything necessary for its life: agricultural and livestock products, clothing, simple utensils, tools, perhaps even weapons. Specialist craftsmen who live by their own labor are extremely rare in poems.

Despite the appearance in Homeric society of fairly clearly expressed signs of property inequality, the life of even its highest strata is striking in its simplicity and patriarchy. Homer's heroes, and they are all kings and aristocrats, live in roughly built wooden houses with a courtyard surrounded by a palisade.

Tribal institutions and the Homeric polis. Among other important achievements of the Mycenaean civilization, linear syllabary was forgotten during the troubled time of tribal invasions and migrations. The entire Homeric period was a period in the full sense of the word without writing. Until now, archaeologists have not been able to find a single inscription on the territory of Greece that could be attributed to the period from the 11th to the 9th centuries. BC e.

What type of society arose from the ruins of the Mycenaean bureaucratic monarchy? Relying on the testimony of the same Homer, we can say that it was a rather primitive rural community - demos, which, as a rule, occupied a very small territory and was almost completely isolated from other communities neighboring it. The political and economic center of the community was the so-called polis. In the Greek language of the classical era, this word simultaneously expresses two concepts closely related to each other in the minds of every Greek: “city” and “state”. It is interesting, however, that in the Homeric vocabulary, in which the word "polis" (city) appears quite often, there is no word that could be translated as "village". This means that there was no real opposition between city and country at that time in Greece. The Homeric polis itself was at the same time both a city and a village. It is brought closer to the city, firstly, by the compact development located in a small space, and secondly, by the presence of fortifications. Such Homeric cities as Troy in the Iliad or the city of the Phaeacians in the Odyssey already have walls, although it is difficult to determine from the description whether these were real city walls made of stone or brick, or just an earthen rampart with a palisade. And yet, the polis of the Homeric era is difficult to recognize as a real city due to the fact that the bulk of its population were peasant farmers and cattle breeders, not traders and artisans, of whom there were still very few in those days. The polis is surrounded by deserted fields and mountains, among which the poet’s eye can discern only single shepherd’s huts and cattle pens.

In the social life of the Homeric polis, the still strong traditions of the tribal system play a significant role. Associations of clans - the so-called phyla and phratries - form the basis of the entire political and military organization of the community. A community militia is formed according to phyles and phratries during a campaign or battle. According to phyla and phratries, people come together to meet when they need to discuss some important issue. A person who did not belong to any phratry stands, in Homer’s understanding, outside of society. He has no hearth, i.e., home and family. The law does not protect him. Therefore, he can easily become a victim of violence and arbitrariness.

Property and social stratification. The patriarchal monogamous family, living in a closed household (oikos), was the main economic unit of Homeric society. Tribal ownership of land and other types of property, apparently, was eliminated back in the Mycenaean era. The main type of wealth, which was land in the eyes of the Greeks of Homeric times, was considered the property of the entire community. From time to time, the community organized redistributions of land belonging to it. Theoretically, every free community member had the right to receive an allotment (these allotments were called in Greek cleres, i.e., “lots,” since their distribution was carried out by drawing lots). However, in practice, this land use system did not prevent the enrichment of some community members and the ruin of others. Homer already knows that next to the rich “multiple-landed” people (policleroi) in the community there are also those who had no land at all (akleroi). Obviously, these were poor peasants who did not have enough money to run a farm on their small plot. Driven to despair, they ceded their land to rich neighbors and thus turned into homeless farm laborers.

The fetas, whose position differed only slightly from that of slaves, stand at the very bottom of the social ladder, at the top of which we see the ruling class of the clan nobility, that is, those people whom Homer constantly calls “the best” (aristo - hence our “aristocracy ") or "good", "noble" (agata), contrasting them with "bad" and "low" (kakoy), i.e. ordinary community members. In the poet's understanding, a natural aristocrat stands head and shoulders above any commoner, both mentally and physically.

The aristocrats tried to substantiate their claims to a special, privileged position in society with references to supposedly divine origin. Therefore, Homer often calls them “divine” or “godlike.” Of course, the real basis for the power of the clan nobility was not kinship with the gods, but wealth, which sharply distinguished representatives of this class from ordinary members of the community. Nobility and wealth for Homer are almost indissoluble concepts. A noble person cannot help but be rich, and, conversely, a rich man must be noble. Aristocrats boast before the common people and before each other of their vast fields, countless herds of cattle, rich reserves of iron, bronze and precious metals.

The economic power of the nobility provided it with commanding positions in all affairs of the community, both during war and in peacetime. The decisive role on the battlefields belonged to the aristocracy due to the fact that only a rich person could in those days acquire a complete set of heavy weapons (a bronze helmet with a crest, armor, leggings, a heavy leather shield covered with copper), since the weapons were very expensive. Only the wealthiest people in the community had the opportunity to maintain a war horse.

The Homeric period occupies a special place in Greek history. The socially differentiated society and state that already existed in Greece during the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization are now emerging here again, but on a different scale and form. The centralized bureaucratic state of the Mycenaean era was replaced by a small self-governing community of free farmers. Over time (in some regions of Greece this happened, apparently, already at the end of the 9th or beginning of the 8th century BC), the first city-states, or policies, grew from such communities. Unlike the previous (Mycenaean) and subsequent (archaic) eras, the Homeric period was not marked by any outstanding successes in the field of culture and art. From this time, not a single major architectural monument, not a single work of literature or fine art has reached us (the Homeric epic itself, which is our main source for the history of this period, is chronologically already located outside its boundaries). In many ways it was a time of decline and cultural stagnation. But at the same time, it was also a time of accumulation of strength before a new rapid rise. In the depths of Greek society, during this period there is a persistent struggle between the new and the old, there is an intensive breakdown of traditional norms and customs of the tribal system, and an equally intensive process of formation of classes and the state. Of great importance for the subsequent development of Greek society was the radical renewal of its technical base that occurred during the Homeric period, which was expressed primarily in the widespread distribution of iron and its introduction into production. All these important changes prepared the transition of the Greek city-states to a completely new path of historical development, upon which they were able to achieve heights of cultural and social progress unprecedented in the history of mankind over the next three or four centuries.

Homeric period of Greece They call the time from about the 12th to the 8th centuries. BC. In one of these eras the famous poet Homer. His work has survived to this day. In his poems, Homer talked about the cultural, economic, and social life of Greece. The most striking works of the artist are the poems “Odyssey”, “Iliad”.
If it were not for Homer, the world, hundreds of years later, would not have known how the ancient Greeks lived. Their life, traditions and especially everyday life were touched upon in the works of Homer from all sides. Information about how the poems were created did not reach contemporaries. Many scientists argue about whether such a person existed in Ancient Greece, or whether the name is fictitious. In addition, the authorship of many of his works is questioned. IN " Odyssey" tells about the adventures of "one king", A " Iliad"tells about the events of the Trojan War. There is evidence of these events in history, but they happened much earlier than the period when Homer's works were created. Researchers have analyzed the available materials, but scientists continue to hypothesize about what Ancient Greece was like. They mostly base their ideas on Homeric works.

Homer's works became almost the only written historical monument that was created in those centuries. However, researchers give such a conclusion solely based on information about the absence of other surviving written evidence of that era. It was called the “Dark Time” because no special archaeological or other finds dating back to this period were discovered.
It is believed that in the 10th-8th centuries. BC. Trade, writing, and even the social life of the Greeks came into complete decline. They fought many wars and developed only those crafts that were useful in fighting battles. Thus, the business of potters, metalworking, shipbuilding, and agricultural activities flourished. But sculpture and painting faded into the background, or even did not develop at all.
Archaeologists and other researchers of Ancient Greece have found the reasons for this turn of events. The Dorians, who inhabited the Greek lands at that time, were engaged in robberies of neighboring states. Piracy flourished. It was this way of life that these ancient people considered correct, attributing it to the foundations of valor and courage. Neither the Phoenicians nor the Egyptians visited the Greeks for trade purposes anymore. By the end of the Dorian period, trade relations gradually began to improve. But internal trade progressed at a faster pace.

Social system of the “dark period”

For the Dorians, it all started with tribal ties. No estates or classes have yet emerged. However, the Greeks of that time could not be called a primitive society. Gradually, policies began to form. A unique socio-economic and political system was formed in the city-states. Representatives of the people or community could not own land. The plots were shared. Power was based on the foundations of military democracy.

The Dorians honored their parents and treated all old people with respect. The family occupied a huge place in the life of each of the people. In Homer's works, all bad sons were punished by fair goddesses, who cursed them for several generations. The wife was respected. She occupied the most honorable place in the house. The groom “bought” his bride from her father in order to create his own hearth in the future. The Greeks never had polygamy. In any situation, the wife had to be strictly faithful to her husband. In Homer's poems women - Helen, Penelope Nausicaa - personified virtue. They are presented as the most beautiful creatures in the world.

The woman was called "the lady of the house." She not only managed household chores, but also received guests and became a participant in meetings and important meetings. The wife's voice in the house carried great weight, and often her word became decisive.

Most Greek husbands had connections on the side. This was not considered shameful, especially if they were traveling. But marriage a second time was not encouraged.

The houses in which the Dorians lived were not small. They consisted of a large number of rooms, bedrooms, and storage for weapons. There was even a hall with columns. This was the main room of the house. The family gathered there to discuss problems and resolve matters.

Homer portrayed married people as very happy and sincerely loving each other. Women who were caught cheating were punished quite severely. Female infidelity was condemned by everyone without exception.

Children were born to men not only from their wives, but also from concubines - slaves. All children were raised as equals, lived together and had part of their father’s capital after his death. Children of slaves who were born to free men received freedom, but they were given less inheritance than other legitimate descendants.

Social life of the Ancient Greeks who lived in the 10th-8th centuries. BC, was full of all kinds of skirmishes, robberies and even murders. This is due to an imperfect social system. People sincerely hated each other even for the most harmless acts. They vented their anger as best they could. Often it came to bloodshed. There were practically no concepts of law, honor, mercy, moral principles, or forgiveness.

In the foreground are military affairs, conquests, captivity, robberies of foreigners. The bravest warrior who brought rich booty to his homeland enjoyed the greatest respect. None of the men had to shy away from the opportunity to fight and take part in military campaigns.

Homer's poems are full of evidence of friendly relations between the ruler and the soldiers who defend the honor of the state. They were guests of honor at all feasts. At such celebrations there was a lot of singing, dancing and glorification of the commanders. This significantly raised the spirit and gave moral strength for new campaigns.

Scientists have analyzed the archeology of that period

Cultural monuments of that time have not survived. The death of the Mycenaean civilization greatly shook the canons of Greek culture. She stopped developing. The Dorian tribes that invaded from the north wiped out all important and large architectural monuments from the face of the earth. Palaces, buildings, statues were destroyed. Only cemeteries remain. Scientists were able to carry out excavations and found that the population was greatly reduced during that period. Some died at the hands of strangers, others fled and moved to other territories.

The tombs are poor. They are built from wood. Less often - made of brick. It was then fashionable to create household items in a geometric style. The forms and ornaments on pots, vases, and amphorae were subordinate to him. But by the end Homeric era the drawings have become much more complex. Which indicates the gradual revival and development of ancient Greek culture.

Music and musical instruments in Ancient Greece

Music in Ancient Greece was one of the main forms of art. She had a huge influence on the further development of world music in general and Greek music in particular. Very little information has reached us about ancient Greek music. Some of the plays have been preserved on parchment, papyrus, in the form of wall paintings in epigraphy, etc. The Scolium of Seikila, 3 hymns of Mesomedes, and two hymns to Apollo have been completely preserved.

Sports events in Greece

Cycladic civilization - the grandmother of antiquity

The Cyclades archipelago is located in the southern Aegean Sea. Translated from Greek, “Cyclades” means “lying in a circle.” In ancient times, the Cyclades were covered with dense forests. The largest of them - Naxos, Paros, Andros and Tenos - were inhabited by the Ionians, and Melos, Thera and Antiparos - by the Dorians.

Ruins of Mycenae and Lion Gate

Thessaloniki in Greece. History, sights (part four)

Thessaloniki became an important center for the formation and spread of Christianity. The official end of the pagan era in the empire is considered to be the famous Thessalonica decree of Emperor Theodosius (IV century). In Thessaloniki, during his trip to Greece, the Apostle Paul preached Christianity. He founded a community in Thessaloniki, for which he wrote two of his famous letters (“To the Thessalonians”). The First Epistle is believed to be the first written book of the New Testament.