Is the Odyssey Mycenaean?

The later Greeks told stories about the Mycenaeans who preceded them, like the poet Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. In the eyes of the later Greeks, the Mycenaeans were larger than life.

What famous story comes from the Mycenaeans?

Mycenae is perhaps best known in mythology as the city of Agamemnon, the son of Atreus. King Agamemnon led the expedition against Troy during the Trojan War, which Homer accounted in his epic poem the Iliad.

What did the Mycenaean civilization reflect?

The Mycenaean civilization would so inspire the later Archaic and Classical Greeks from the 8th century BCE onwards that the Bronze Age period came to be seen as a golden one when people respected the gods, warriors were braver and life was generally less complicated and more decent.

What is Mycenaean art?

The term “Mycenaean” or “Mycenean” culture is used to describe one of the strands of Aegean Art that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean area. It is also used sometimes to describe early mainland Greek art as a whole, during the late Bronze Age (c. 1650-1200 BCE).

What influenced Mycenaean art?

In art as expressed in fresco, pottery, and jewellery, the earlier Minoan culture on Crete greatly influenced Mycenaean art. Terracotta figurines of animals and especially standing female figures were popular, as were small sculptures in ivory, carved stone vessels, and intricate gold jewellery.

What contributions the Mycenaeans made to Western civilization?

The Mycenaeans first built their trade networks within Greece by constructing the first roads in Europe to bring wheat from Thessaly and oil from Attica to the primary Mycenaean cities of Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns on the Peloponnese peninsula.

What was the Mycenaean culture named after?

Mycenae
Mycenaean is the term applied to the art and culture of Greece from ca. 1600 to 1100 B.C. The name derives from the site of Mycenae in the Peloponnesos, where once stood a great Mycenaean fortified palace. Mycenae is celebrated by Homer as the seat of King Agamemnon, who led the Greeks in the Trojan War.

What scenes do mycenaeans like in art?

Popular motifs include abstract geometric designs, animals, marine life, or narrative scenes. The presence of nature scenes, especially of marine life and of bulls, seems to suggest a Minoan influence on the style and motifs painted on the Mycenaean pots.

Why did the Mycenaeans take over Crete?

Mycenaeans Conquer the Minoans Archeologists think this might have been due to a natural disaster such as an earthquake. The Mycenaeans took over the islands of the Minoans and adopted much of the Minoan culture. They adapted the writing of the Minoans to their own language. Today this writing is called “Linear B.”

What is the evidence for Mycenaean poetry?

The evidence for Mycenaean poetry and for its probable subjects was discussed at length by Webster (Webster 1958, esp. 64-135). Although some of this discussion has become outdated, the existence of Mycenaean poetry is now even more securely attested.

What culture does the Odyssey take place in?

The Odyssey, in contrast, mainly takes place outside of that common culture and describes contact with pre-Mycenaean Mediterranean cultures. The story focuses on Odysseus and his family’s struggle to recover from the Trojan war’s after effects and, primarily, with Odysseus struggle to make it back home.

Does the Iliad reflect the Mycenaean period?

But some material objects in the Iliad, particular some arms and armour (discussed below) do seem to reflect the Mycenaean period. And, despite some unexplained anomalies and some so-called ‘omissions’, the Catalogue of the Ships in the Iliad gives a remarkably good overall portrayal of Mycenaean Greece.

What is the historical background of the Iliad and Odyssey?

The Iliad and Odyssey: Historical Background. These epic stories are about the Mycenaean or Bronze Age, ancient Greeks, who flourished from about 1600-1100 BC.