Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey - they were put together from an existing body of oral traditions
Homer - lived (?) in the ninth century B.C.
Homer - made the Mycenaeans the heroes of his epic
            - he describes the successful siege of Troy - which is supported by the archeological evidence
            - the society he describes is not the Mycenaean one (in the epic Mycenaeans cremate their dead and fight as individual champions)
=> he describes a later society => the Dark Ages (the society in which he lived)

13th c B.C. - inaugurated the Dark Age
- an era of population movements - very little information
Classical tradition:

Dorians (a Greek speaking people) - from north - came in - settled in Peloponnese and some Mycenaean centers => movement toward the southern regions (Attica and the islands)
- this triggered the migration of Ionian who displaced others => fled to Asia Minor

? very disputed theory - no archaeological evidence regarding the place of origin for those people

by the 9th c. B.C. - Greece was divided into two major subgroups:
- the Dorians (dominated the peninsula)
- the Ionians ( dominated Attica)

=> the difference is only in language (2 dialects)
     the same culture
     the same ethnic identity (the region called Hellas; referred to themselves as Hellenes)

Religion:

- based on a family of 12 gods - who lived on Mt. Olympus
- Zeus: the father of the Gods
- Hera: his wife
- Poseidon: god of sea and earthquakes (his brother)
- Hestia and Demeter: his sisters
- Aphrodite (goddess of love), Apollo (god of the Sun, music and poetry), Ares (god of war), Athena (goddess of wisdom and fine arts), Hephaestus (god of fire and metallurgy), Hermes (messenger and god of commerce), Artemis (the virgin nature goddess - women prayed for help in childbirth) - his children

=> the Gods were immortal and possessed superhuman power => looked like humans
- the Greeks worshiped their gods: offering prayers and sacrifices => not personal immortality but divine protection and goodwill of the spirits who ruled over particular localities

- very little unity:
    - the common shrines and the Olympic games - unifying elements (physical fitness - an essential component of the good life - prepared them for war; athletic success was seen as godlike)

Society:

war - important
aristocracy - received an important part of the booty, especially when being commanders of the army, like Agamemnon
- aristocrats were the only persons able to organize maritime expeditions, like Odysseus, not only for the simple purpose of adventure, but particularly in order to provide their communities with raw material such as copper, iron, gold, and precious stones
- aristocrats - gradually became "guardians" of their communities, since they were the only experts in warfare

Obs.: this is the situation reflected by another important poet of Homeric times, Hesiod

Hesiod: wrote two major works: "Works and Days" and "Theogonia"
    - he was the son of a merchant, a noble man, who used to travel a lot overseas; his brother, Perses - deprived Hesiod of much of his rightful share in their father's estate -- Hesiod has a striking anti aristocratic mood
    - he shows us that the "bribe swallowing" aristocrats (basilei dorofagoi) required important tribute from their communities in exchange for their
"guardian" role as expert warriors

Commoners: are difficult to describe; their composition is heterogeneous (simple farmers with tiny estates, craftsmen, shepherds - like Eumeus - the first who recognized Ulysses when he came back to Ithaca)
- commoners include a lot of various experts: prophets (Calchas, in Iliad), minstrels rhapsodists of medicine men
Slaves: were exclusively used in the house; especially women - taken captive during raids or wars - like Briseis - the source of conflict between Agamemnon  and Achilles; or the old nurse who recognized Odysseus while washing his feet, on his return to Ithaca
- important in the commoners' class were free itinerant workers, who worked for a small wage paid in grain or meat (products, not money) - thetes -

== all those commoners lived in small communities of no more than hundred people called - oikoi - under the leadership of a noble man (like Agamemnon in Mycenae, or Odysseus in Ithaca) ==

- tendency was that every small oikos was striving to live in complete isolation of the outside world
* Hesiod: it is better to have your stuff at home, for whatever is abroad may mean loss
* this was impossible - since only aristocrats could provide imports in iron, copper, and other raw materials
- since wealth - as Hesiod stated - leads to envy, rich communities were often attacked by their neighbors  -- this is where basilei came to offer their services for the community -- they changed  the society