The World of Odysseus

196 Pages·1979·3.617 MB·English

by  Moses I. Finley

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010
http://www.archive.org/details/worldofodysseusOOfinl
PELICAN BOOKS
THE WORLD OF ODYSSEUS
Μ. I. Finley was born in New York City in 1912. He
obtained an M.A. in public law and a Ph.D. in ancient
history at Columbia University. After working as research
assistant in Roman law at Columbia University in 1933-4,
he became editor and translator at the Institute of Social
Research (then affiliated with Columbia University) and
taught history at the City College of New York. He was
Assistant Professor Of History at Rutgers University from
1948 to 1952. In 1955 he became a lecturer in the Faculty
of Classics at Cambridge University and two years later
was elected a Fellow of Jesus College. He became Reader
in Ancient Social and Economic History there in 1966 and
has been Professor of Ancient History since 1970 and Master
of Darwin College since 1976. In 1971 he was elected a
Fellow of the British Academy. Professor Finley contributes
articles and reviews to learned journals and to literary
weeklies in England and the United States.
He is the author of Studies in Land and Credit in Ancient
Athens (1952), The Ancient Greeks (1963), Aspects of Antiquity
(1968, second edition 1977), Ancient Sicily to the Arab
Conquest (1968), Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages
(1970), Democracy Ancient and Modern (1973), The Ancient
Economy (1973), The Use and Abuse of History (1975),
Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (ig8o), co-author (with
H. W. Pleket) of The Olympic Games: The First Thousand
Years (1976), editor of The Portable Greek Historians: The
Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius
(1959), and editor of the series Ancient Culture and Society
(since 1969).

Μ. I. FIN LEY
THE WORLD OF
ODYSSEUS
*
SECOND EDITION
PENGUIN BOOKS
Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, England
Penguin Books, 625 Madison Avenue,
New York, New York 10022, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,
Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Limited, 2801 John Street,
Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1B4
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,
Auckland 10, New Zealand
First published in the United States of America by
The Viking Press 1954
Revised Edition first published in the United States of America by
Viking Compass 1965
Reprinted 1967 (twice) , 1968, 1970, 1972 (twice), 1974, 1976
Second Revised Edition first published in the United States of America by
The Viking Press 1978
Published in Pelican Books in the United States of America 1979
Reprinted 1980, 1982
Revised Edition first published in Great Britain by
Chatto& Windus 1956
Published in Pelican Books in Great Britain 1962
Reprinted with revisions 19Ο7, 1972
Second Revised Edition first published in Great Britain by
Chatto & Windus 1978
Published in Pelican Books in Great Britain 1979
Copyright 1954 by Μ. I. Finley
Copyright © Μ. I. Finley. 1956, 1965, 1977, 1979
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America by
Offset Paperback Mfrs., Inc., Dallas. Pennsylvania
Set in Baskerville
Except in the United States of America,
this book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise,
be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated
without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is
published and without a similar condition
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on the subsequent purchaser
For Mary again
—

CONTENTS
Preface P°gt 9
Map 12-13
i. Homer and the Greeks 15
2. Bards and Heroes 26
3. Wealth and Labour 5i
4. Household, Kin, and Community 74
5. Morals and Values 108
Appendix I The World of Odysseus Revisited 142
Appendix II Schliemann’s Troy—One Hun­
dred Years After 159
Bibliographical Essay 178
Index of Passages Quoted 186
General Index 189