The Iliad | Historical Context

The Iliad Historical Context

The context in which the Homeric poems were created is clouded by the fact that their creation is a process that spans several centuries. In a very real sense, the poems' historical and cultural background is rather like one of the archaeological sites from which we gather our information about the period: it is deep, it has many levels or layers, and over time things can get pushed up or down from their proper context. Consider, for example, the boars' tusk helmet Odysseus wears in Book 10: we find it depicted in art from the late Bronze Age, but it had long since disappeared from use or living memory by Homer's day in the Iron Age. Moving in the other direction, the cremation burials described in the poem were common in Homer's day, but extremely rare in the Bronze Age when the events he describes would have taken place.