Customer Reviews

The World of Odysseus (New York Review Books Classics Series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fantastic account of an epoch in which the worlds of history and mythology merge together. The historical significance of myriad passages in Homer are discussed and elaborated on. One cannot but stand in awe of Finley's perspicuity in deciphering the historical importance of even the minutest details.

This is a superb reference guide to assist one's journey thru the archaic but wonderous historical niche of the ancient Greeks. For those who have already read the works of Homer, the present work is a very useful tool to examine more closely the subtle information provided in even the most remote passages of the epics.

This book is highly recommended to anyone who has ever read Homer, as well as anyone who would ever like to. For students of Greek history and literature, this one is a can't miss!

Finley only briefly ventures into archaeology in the beginning of _The World of Odysseus_, and only to demonstrate that Mycenean Greece is not the world of the Homeric heroes. From this conclusion he guesses that Homer is likely describing a world that existed between the Mycenean era and the poet's own time.

Finley then goes literary, eschewing anthropology and archaeology and instead analyzing the texts of the Iliad and the Odyssey. From the stories of Homer, he reconstructs the sort of society in the Homeric heroes lived, in terms of its economy, its social structure, and its morals and values.

The picture he draws is interesting and compelling, above all because it is consistent. Its consistency is, of course, an argument in favor of the view that the Homeric world really did exist (i.e., that gods and magic and specific names aside, the cultural world described by Homer is authentic, and not an artistic creation). Moreover, because the culture is consistent, an understanding of it helps a reader to interpret sometimes puzzling actions on the part of Homer's heroes. This is therefore important secondary reading to accompany any reading of Homer.

Reading Finley immediately after you finish Homer allows you to revisit the epics' individual passages and tie them into coherent themes. Finley's discussion of the Greek household, or oikos, is especially good, as are his insights on giftgiving. The world that Homer sang of is a stark contrast to the more familiar, Classical Greece, and yet the seeds of that Greece (and hence our world) are already recognizably there. Perhaps they are there in a truer, less alloyed form.

The only regrettable part of this book is the second appendix, a speech that Finley later gave on Schliemann. It is full of such professional bitterness that one begins to doubt Finley's decency. The publisher produced a gem of a book, but it should seriously consider removing these few pages in future editions.

Moses Finley's WORLD OF ODYSSEUS is that rarest of rarities: it is a work of historical-literary scholarship that so far hasn't dated hardly at all. As such, it makes the perfect edition to the NYRB Classics series: this nifty little study gives the reader a very informative (and mostly very accurate) overview of life during Homer's age, the so-called "Dark Ages" of ancient Greece. The iconoclasm of Finley's approach--his daring refusal to believe the Homeric epics gave accurate portraits of the Mycenaean Age they purported to describe, and his insistence that they rather spoke to Homer's own time--still seems brave and innovative fifty years later, and Bernard Knox does a superb job contextualizing the impact of Finley's study.

M.I. (Sir Moses) Finley belonged to a generation of scholars who wrote gracefully, intelligibly and critically for a broad intelligent, curious audience instead of wasting knowledge and ideas squabbling with colleagues behind the closed door of impenetrable academicspeak. That's one reason to enjoy THE WORLD OF ODYSSEUS. Just as compelling is watching him tackle the slippery slope of locating the poet Homer and the events he sang of in "The Illiad" and "The Odyssey" in time, place and culture. He stood in line a couple of millennia behind the first to probe Homer, and others continue to study and argue the issues, but his remains a classic in the effort.

Finley addresses the sociological, economic and religious systems of the Heroic Age, and gives a close reading of the Homeric texts in doing so. He finds considerable evidence of the preliterate culture he is seeking in the poetry and provides a convincing argument as to why they can be trusted to offer verisimilitude if not fact. The world he opens up is fascinating. My copy is the second edition, to which Finley added appendices in which he sorted through archeological activity and other scholarship in the field, nodding to the difficulty but also the irresistible adventure in pushing back to a time before recorded history to find out what mattered.

Like most liberal arts graduates of the "Baby Boomer" generation, I know a little about Homer's poems "The Odyssey" and "The Iliad" from reading excerpts in high school, and possibly college, and of course the movies "Helen of Troy", and "Ulysses" starring Kirk Douglas. Those means merely scratched the surface of the magnificant works upon which they were based, and this book, beautifully and insightfully written, is a wonderful aide to understanding the poems in their actual context. This work shows how the poems related to "real life" at the time of their composition, and how "reality-based" they may have been. There is the agrument for whether or not there actually was a "Trojan War", and if so, where was it fought. The ancient Greek era is examined in detail, and the customs and mores of various ages are discussed insofar as they relate to portions of the poems. I learned significantly more about these works than I imagined when I began the book, and now I have a heightened admiration for the person or persons known as Homer, and of course for the erudite author of this interesting work of scholarship.

This relatively short work by the famed ancient historian M. I. Finely remains as influential and important today as it was when it was published over 30 years ago, no small feat in field that has seen major shifts in opinion over the same time period. Finley is one of those unique authors that can combine solid historical scholarship within an engaging framework that makes his works accessible to all, from the lay reader to a student of the field. I found the book to be both an interesting companion to The Odyssey as well as an interesting read in its own right, although I have been know to be a bit partial to Greek history. Regardless of ones interests, Finley is a very accessible author who consistently leaves me craving more.

The main goal of the book is too illuminate the obscure world of Greek prehistory using the later of the two major epic poems attributed to Homer, The Odyssey. Finley set himself no small task, for both the Iliad and The Odyssey have been regarded as representing a picture of the Greek Bronze Age to varying degrees since the founding of modern historical scholarship and indeed even before. What Finley proposes is a departure from this line of thought, namely that the epics of Homer recall the memory of the `Heroic Age of the Greeks' that is traditionally associated with the Mycenaean civilization of the later Bronze Age. Instead he suggests that the poems represent a time closer to Homers own, thought to be c. 800-750 B. C. The time period in question is known by various names but is most often called the Greek Dark Age, the period of time between the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization c. 1200 B.C. and the onset of the Archaic Age c. 750. Through an examination of the texts in combination with modern archeological findings, Finley paints a very convincing picture of what life was like in the Mycenaean and Dark Age and how The Odyssey much more closely reflects the latter. Outlining his thesis and the marked resistance it has met from a good portion of the scholarly community, Finley methodically addresses criticisms and in a good many cases turns the table on those that would rather reject his work.

Being that the poem is concerned mainly with the exploits, travels, and trials of Odysseus, mythical King of Ithaca, the social, economic, and cultural conditions exposed are necessarily not representative of the vast majority of the people living in the society. This is something we must be content with in a comparison of text and archeology of this sort, as a rule of thumb epic poems, our only written record of the time, can have nothing to do with the lives of most people, only those at the very apex of society. Although this certainly has its limitations, any light provided for this period no matter how narrow the focus shines a bit more on all the other parts. Particularly interesting are the sections dealing with ancient economy of the ruling class, primarily characterized in a reciprocal gift giving system that conferred the most respect and power to those ruler who could give wealth away to others as `presents' thereby ensuring that they owed him something when need arose. In this means wealth was accumulated in order to be dispersed in exchange for service and the acknowledgement of ones social position. An essential book for anyone trying to find the very real world that lays just beyond on the pages of western literature's greatest epics, a world that Finely brings to life again almost as much as Homer does, if not in a different sphere.

All of Finley's books, are the best analysis of the ancient world. With a few exceptions, all of his arguments are sound. This book is a collection of his arguments about the world of Trojan War Greece. Do not let the title fool you, Finley explores all aspects of the Trojan War era Greek civilization.

This book deduces pre-homeric mores from references to domestic and social arrangements in Homer's works. It covers Homer and his relation to classical Greece; bards and heroes as a social class; wealth and labor; households, kiniships and community; and morals and values. Heavy reference is made to the text of the Iliad and particularly the Odyssey, and there are many close observations. For example, common folk attend assemblies and may react, but do not make proposals or even speak. But there are lapses. The author seems to miss the point that the Ancients thought every departure from reason was inspired by a god. Also, he fails to note that Nestor prays for fame for himself and his wife, a point that vitiates his argument that queens who attend banquets or participate in affairs of state are overstepping their bounds. Otherwise, the book presents plausible customs and morals flowing from the texts. The nobility in every kingdom was separate from commoners, slaves, and indentured freemen. The degree of input that a king wanted from nobles was up to the king. Nobles looked down on those who traded for profit, as ever, but the author overlooks the reason--because concentration of capital threatened the nobility. He omits the most plausible reason for Laertes' self-exile after Odysseus's departure, a directive from Athena. Otherwise, this book explains Homeric customs at a high order of scholarship. Any reader will achieve a deeper understanding of the texts.

This book deduces pre-homeric mores from references to domestic and social arrangements in Homer's works. It covers Homer and his relation to classical Greece; bards and heroes as a social class; wealth and labor; households, kiniships and community; and morals and values. Heavy reference is made to the text of the Iliad and particularly the Odyssey, and there are many close observations. For example, common folk attend assemblies and may react, but do not make proposals or even speak. But there are lapses. The author seems to miss the point that the Ancients thought every departure from reason was inspired by a god. Also, he fails to note that Nestor prays for fame for himself and his wife, a point that vitiates his argument that queens who attend banquets or participate in affairs of state are overstepping their bounds. Otherwise, the book presents plausible customs and morals flowing from the texts. The nobility in every kingdom was separate from commoners, slaves, and indentured freemen. The degree of input that a king wanted from nobles was up to the king. Nobles looked down on those who traded for profit, as ever, but the author overlooks the reason--because concentration of capital threatened the nobility. He omits the most plausible reason for Laertes' self-exile after Odysseus's departure, a directive from Athena. Otherwise, this book explains Homeric customs at a high order of scholarship. Any reader will achieve a deeper understanding of the texts.