The Homeric Economy

Abstract

Ever since the original publication of M. I. Finley's The World of Odysseus in 1954, scholars have become accustomed to think of the Homeric economy as submerged or embedded in non-economic social relations. This chapter assumes that Homeric society, the social background for the dramatic action, reflects Greek society around 800 B.C. Most of the free population in Homer makes their livings as farmers, herders, or craftsmen. The isolation of the Aegean societies from the wider Mediterranean world began to lift in the tenth century. The word kleros in Homer seems to have much the same meaning as in Hesiod and later writings, a permanent share or allotment of the community's arable land, sufficient to maintain a family. The gift of a temenos is a good example of the finely tuned reciprocity that exists between the community and its leaders in Homeric society.Keywords: Aegean societies; Greek society; Hesiod; Homeric economy; Homeric society; kleros; Mediterranean world; temenos

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