The Greek Age of Heroes: Myth Becomes History

Historically Speaking September 2002 The Greek Age of Heroes: Myth Becomes History Carol G. Thomas In his Sather Lectures of 1984-85, Andiony Snodgrass argued diat archaeology be recognized as more than the handmaid ofhistory—while itdoes illustrate or confirm events known through written sources, its evidence and inferences have an independentscope andvalue. Archaeologyhas specialsignificance forperiodsfromwhichlittle or no written evidence exists. The Greek "Age ofHeroes" is a convincingcase in point. When Heinrich Schliemann set out to demonstrate die historical realityofdie Greek heroic age by digging at a site he judged to be Troy, hewasgreetedbyatleastasmuchskepticism as good will—and probably more. In responsetohis claimdiathehaduncovered diesite ofdieTrojanWar, die popular German magazine Kladderadatsch published a satirical "telegram from TrOy."ItexpandedonSchliemann'sown reports byannouncingdie discoveryof Achilles' grave identified by die ankle bonewhich, naturally, would reveal die pointofAchilles'vulnerability.Therest ofdiebodywas missing.Thenotice concluded , "Achilles stuck in pocket. All well. Schliemann.'' More serious criticism came from contemporary archaeologists like WJ. Stillman, who stated intheLondon Ttmes(January9, 1889): "I hopebeforelongtoputall die evidence ... insuchashapediatnoonecandoubt reasonable that 'Troy' is the Troy of Croesus [i.e. die 6di century B.C.] and TirynsaByzantinepalaceofabout 1000 A.D." That is, die dating would be at least600years—andperhapsmoredian2000— later dian die BronzeAge. There were so few known sites, let alone events, to confirm the accuracy ofdiese particular finds that no consensus had emerged by die time of Schliemann's deadi in 1891. Walter Leafs obituary notice indicated one reason: "Dr. Schliemann was essentially 'epoch-making' in his branch ofstudy, and it is not for epoch-making men to see the rounding offand completion oftheir task."1 Indeed, Schliemann was a pioneer in a discipline mat has only "come ofage" in me last halfcentury. Anodier factor was at work in the criticism of Schliemann's efforts: many scholars refused to find anydiing historical in the Age of Heroes. In 1938, nearly half a century after Schliemann's deadi, die classical scholar S. E. Basse« could still declare in the Sadier Lectures at Berkeley that tt[t]he fabulous age of Greece must have no place in history. [Homer] created a Ufe diat never was on land or sea."2 By contrast, audiors can now state boldly, as J. T. Hooker did in his Mycenaean Greece, "I propose ... to discuss , from a historical point ofview, some of the crucial periods in die development of Aegean lands during the Bronze Age.»3 Hooker's principal focus was on Mycenaean culture from ca. 1600 to 1200 B.C. Within diese four centuries, major phases, events, and developments were dated widi a fair degree ofprecision. How did mydi become historyso suddenly ? An early step forward occurred widi die expansion ofevidence. As atTroy, heroictales suggested certain sites where Bronze Age remains might be discovered. Thus, to prove die reality of die Trojan War, Schliemann needed not only a site for die war but also anodier for die home of die Greek leader of diat campaign, Agamemnon. He excavated successfully at Hissarlik (now generally acknowledged to be die location ofTroy) and Mycenae, which everyreaderofdieIliadknew as die home of Agamemnon. However, two sites whose dating was initially unclear do not constitute a broadly based or chronologically fixed culture. Evidence from more locations was essential, and die island ofCrete presented new data in abundance in die earlyyears of die 20di century. Sir Arthur Evans's excavation of die palace of die (mydiical) labyrindi of die (mydiical) Minos at Knossos was followed by a brace ofsimilar discoveries on die island. Work on die mainland, too, increasingly added dots to die map ofearly Greece. Palaces, grand burial sites, and precious objects are welcome to archaeologists, but another form of archaeology has, in the past diree decades, added considerably to our knowledge of die Age of Heroes. Survey archaeology refocuses attention from major centers to the domain of ordinary people with die goal of understanding die relationship between the land and its use. The lens is wide: one of die first major survey projects, the Minnesota Messenia Expedition, studied the habitation pattern in a region of 1,400 square miles in the soudiwestern Péloponnèse for all periods from die Neolidiic age to die Roman era. Thus it produced a composite picture of...