The World of Odysseus
The World of Odysseus is a concise and penetrating account of the society that gave birth to the Iliad and the Odyssey—a book that provides a vivid picture of the Greek Dark Ages, its men and women, works and days, morals and values. Long celebrated as a pathbreaking achievement in the social history of the ancient world, M.I. Finley's brilliant study remains, as classicist Bernard Knox notes in his introduction to this new edition, "as indispensable to the professional as it is accessible to...
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This work is cited in the third edition of Books for College Libraries. Basing his suppositions on close readings of Homer's epics the Odyssey and Iliad, Finley puts forth a sociological argument that the texts, although fictions, reflected actual social realities of the times portrayed. His analysis with regard to the practice of reciprocal gift-giving, though controversial at the time of original publication, has come to be widely accepted. This appears to be a reprint of the 1977 revised edition of the original 1954 text. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR
IntroductionPrefaceMap1Homer and the Greeks52Bards and Heroes183Wealth and Labor464Household, Kin, and Community715Morals and Values109App. IThe World of Odysseus Revisited147App. IISchliemann's Troy - One Hundred Years After166Bibliographical Essay187Index of Passages Quoted197General Index201
