Greek Culture

The Trojan War

Legendary conflict between the early Greeks and the people of Troy in western Anatolia, dated by later Greek authors to the 12th or 13th century BC. The war stirred the imagination of the ancient Greeks more than any other event in their history, and was celebrated in the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, as well as a number of other early works now lost, and frequently provided material for the great dramatists of the Classical Age. It also figures in the literature of the Romans (e.g., Virgil’s Aeneid) and of later European peoples down to the 20th century.

In the traditional accounts, Paris, son of the Trojan king, ran off with Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta, whose brother Agamemnon then led a Greek expedition against Troy. The ensuing war lasted 10 years, finally ending when the Greeks pretended to withdraw, leaving behind them a large wooden horse with a raiding party concealed inside. When the Trojans brought the horse into their city, the hidden Greeks opened the gates to their comrades, who then sacked Troy, massacred its men, and carried off its women. This version was recorded centuries later; the extent to which it reflects actual historical events is not known.

Greek Hospitality Customs

The hospitality of the Greeks is a central theme in Homer’s Odyssey. Much of Homer’s epic poem is devoted to descriptions of the feasting and gift giving by generous hosts. Hospitality is concerned with the relationship between guest and host, and focuses on the exchange of wealth, knowledge and accommodation. The conventions of Greek hospitality serve a number of purposes, such as pleasing the gods, pleasing guests, spreading a good reputation throughout the known world and establishing bonds with other families and cities.

In ancient Greece the practice of hospitality is motivated by a desire to please the Gods. All dinners and feasts are accompanied by libations to the Gods. Guests and hosts make such offerings as honeyed wine and charred meat to Olympian Gods and lesser deities such as nymphs. When Telémachus arrives in Pylos he finds a feast in honour of Poseidon underway. The sacred feast includes the seaside sacrifice of jet-black bulls and offerings of burnt thighbones. Nestor welcomes Telémachus and Athena with these words “Pray now to Lord Poseidon, stranger: we would honour him with this festivity” (42). The guests pray to Poseidon and make offerings of wine from a golden, two-handled cup. When Nestor realizes that the Goddess Athena has visited his feast he prepares an elaborate sacrifice. Nestor proclaims to Athena “I’ll sacrifice to you a broad-browed heifer, one year old, unbroken, not yet subject to yoke, and I shall overlay her horns with gold” (54). Nestor shows his devotion to the Gods in detailed rituals and extravagant sacrifices. Throughout The Odyssey many such rituals and sacrifices occur to gain the favour of Gods and spirits.

The Greeks also believed that treating strangers with hospitality pleased the Gods. Throughout Homer’s Odyssey, Zeus is repeatedly referred to as the God of supplicants and beggars so many libations are poured out to him. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, shames the suitors for their conspiracies and reminds them that the rights of the host are also protected by Zeus “for he is guardian of both host and guest”, and that they are exploiting the wealth of their host (331). Strangers are not only protected by Zeus but also may be a God or Goddess in disguise. Athena appears throughout The Odyssey in different forms. She appears to Telémachus as his old friend Mentor, to Nausícca as a young woman and to Odysseus as a helpful child. Even Odysseus does not recognize her when she does not wish to be recognized. Therefore, it would be unwise to mistreat any stranger when he or she might be a God. This moral is demonstrated when Odysseus himself appears as a beggar in his own home. The suitors and servants, not recognizing him, grievously abuse him. Tossing about footstools and cutting words the suitors reveal their corrupt character. One young man warns the vicious Antinous “You’re doomed if he is one who comes from heaven. For Gods may wear the guise of strangers come from far-off lands…they would see if men live justly or outrageously” (354). These wise words come too late for Antinous as Odysseus is already among them, in disguise, to see which men are just and which are not. Although Odysseus is not a God, his wrath is just as fatal. The suitors would have been wise to treat the stranger graciously. Their deaths emphasize the importance of offering hospitality to strangers; to avoid the disfavour of the Gods and to act in a just manner.

Greek Death Rituals

The ancient Greek conception of the afterlife and the ceremonies associated with burial were already well established by the sixth century B.C. In the Odyssey, Homer describes the Underworld, deep beneath the earth, where Hades, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, and his wife, Persephone, reigned over countless drifting crowds of shadowy figures—the "shades" of all those who had died. It was not a happy place. Indeed, the ghost of the great hero Achilles told Odysseus that he would rather be a poor serf on earth than lord of all the dead in the Underworld (Odyssey, 11.489–91). The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the psyche, or spirit of the dead, left the body as a little breath or puff of wind. The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honored rituals. Ancient literary sources emphasize the necessity of a proper burial and refer to the omission of burial rites as an insult to human dignity (Iliad, 23.71). Relatives of the deceased, primarily women, conducted the elaborate burial rituals that were customarily of three parts: the prothesis (lying out of the body), the ekphora (funeral procession), and the interment of the body or cremated remains of the deceased. After being washed and anointed with oil, the body was dressed and placed on a high bed within the house. During the prothesis, relatives and friends came to mourn and pay their respects. Lamentation of the dead is featured in early Greek art at least as early as the Geometric period, when vases were decorated with scenes portraying the deceased surrounded by mourners. Following the prothesis, the deceased was brought to the cemetery in a procession, the ekphora, which usually took place just before dawn. Very few objects were actually placed in the grave, but monumental earth mounds, rectangular built tombs, and elaborate marble stelai and statues were often erected to mark the grave and to ensure that the deceased would not be forgotten. Immortality lay in the continued remembrance of the dead by the living. From depictions on white-ground lekythoi, we know that the women of Classical Athens made regular visits to the grave with offerings that included small cakes and libations. The most lavish funerary monuments were erected in the sixth century B.C. by aristocratic families of Attica in private burial grounds along the roadside on the family estate or near Athens. Relief sculpture, statues, and tall stelai crowned by capitals and finials marked many of these graves. Each funerary monument had an inscribed base with an epitaph, often in verse that memorialized the dead. A relief depicting a generalized image of the deceased sometimes evoked aspects of the person's life, with the addition of a servant, possessions, dog, etc. On early reliefs, it is easy to identify the dead person; however, during the fourth century B.C., more and more family members were added to the scenes and often many names were inscribed, making it difficult to distinguish the deceased from the mourners. Like all ancient marble sculpture, funerary statues and grave stelai were brightly painted, and extensive remains of red, black, blue, and green pigment can still be seen. Many of the finest Attic grave monuments stood in a cemetery located in the outer Kerameikos, an area on the northwest edge of Athens just outside the gates of the ancient city wall. The cemetery was in use for centuries—monumental Geometric craters marked grave mounds of the eighth century B.C., and excavations have uncovered a clear layout of tombs from the Classical period, as well. At the end of the fifth century B.C., Athenian families began to bury their dead in simple stone sarcophagi placed in the ground within grave precincts arranged in man-made terraces buttressed by a high retaining wall that faced the cemetery road. Marble monuments belonging to various members of a family were placed along the edge of the terrace rather than over the graves themselves.