The World of Homer and the Odyssey
B.C. (approximate dates)
1650-1400The Mycenaean period, also known as the Bronze Age because bronze is widely used in weaponry, comes into flower. Pylos and Mycenae, city-states mentioned by Homer in his writings about this pe riod of Greek history, are powerful and wealthy cen ters of Aegean trade.
1200-1100The fall of Troy ends the Trojan War, which Homer describes so vividly. Dorians invade, the Myce naean culture declines, and the so-called Dark Age ensues. Linear B, the Mycenaeans’ system of writing, is lost. The Homeric epics survive as oral legends.
1100-700Troy is uninhabited, suggesting that Homer’s observations of life in the city predate the twelfth century B.C.
800-750The Greeks adopt the Phoenician alphabet and set down the Iliad and the Odyssey in writing for the first time.
500-400Threatened with a Persian invasion, the Greek city-states turn to Homer as a guide to banding together in the face of a common enemy.
30-19The Roman poet Virgil writes the Aeneid, borrowing heavily from Homer.
A.D.
450With the decline of the Roman Empire, interest in Greek texts and in Homer becomes dormant in the West until learning resurges in the Middle Ages.
600-700Homeric figures begin to appear in the Arabic tales of Sindbad.
1870Heinrich Schliemann, a retired German businessman with a passion for the Homeric epics, begins excava tions at Troy.
1876Schliemann excavates a grave circle at Mycenae and proves that the Mycenaean civilization of which Ho mer wrote indeed existed, inspiring other archaeolo gists to excavate in the region.
1900-1950Sir Arthur Evans excavates ancient Knossos, on the island of Crete. Among discoveries relating to the My cenaean culture are clay tablets with Linear B script. The findings help prove that Homer’s works record historical events in the Mycenaean period.
1920sBased on observations of contemporary verse compo sition in the Balkans, American scholar Milman Parry determines that the Homeric legends survived for many generations as oral stories.