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Bronze Age Greece

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Submitted By arc0127
Words 413
Pages 2
Alexa Cantu
Walters
History 4262 Bronze Age Greece
2/24/2014

Analysis Paper #1

Throughout history the views and beliefs of societies and cultures are often reflected in the literature of the time. Homers epic poem, The Iliad is no different, it is a source for us today to obtain an idea of how the people of Ancient Greece thought and lived. The Iliad is more than a poem about the Trojan War; it is a poem about life, death, struggle, and traditions. The Iliad today is knows as the greatest epic in western civilization. Historians know very little about this time in Greek history and even less about its people. The poem is used to explain, how dark-age Greece peoples understood and thought about the collapse of this great civilization before them that left ruins and artifacts all around Greece. I will argue that The Iliad demonstrated that the people in Greece during the dark ages rejected and Trojan system, politically, economically, and socially. I will also argue that the idea of Greek Unity was seen as an important aspect for dark-age Greece.
Throughout the Iliad there is a common theme of us v. them, the Greeks v. Trojans, this mindset gives insight into how dark age Greeks see the war. It creates a comparison of differences between the two civilizations. Culturally they are the same believe in the same gods, have the same ideals but something keeps the Trojans from being Greek, from being accepted. Troy represents a prosperous state politically, economically, and socially they are unified as Trojans. While the Greeks are seen as warriors and loosely unified, independent yet strong as a whole. These differences are represented in the two heroes’ of the story Hektor and Achilles. The hero’s become defined to their allegiances. While Hektor represents this prosperous civilization of Troy. Achilles represents Greece and its customs

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