I currently have no pictures added to this paper, but I might add some in the future.

Homer's Bronze Age Festivities Mycenaean Bronze Age feasts and festivals can be understood and recreated from archaeological digs and using artifacts as guides, but the richness of Homer’s explanations is what helps to bring details together. For the recreating of what such feasts would bring to the senses, Homer’s description is invaluable. Bronze Age life can only be pieced together in a limited way without the recorded words of an epic preserved for over 2500 years. Through Homer’s works the archaeological site of Troy was discovered and many explanations of how items were used.

In many respects, the Homeric data agrees fully with the remains of the Bronze Age although the poems themselves must have taken their final shape several hundred years later. Homer’s epics often consisted of feasting and if it were not for feasting, the Iliad and Odyssey’s only primary activity would possibly be fighting for they provide little of Late Bronze Age society.

In this paper, the author will be looking at Homeric verses and compare them with various theories, and evidence around the Mycenaean mainland to see if we can find out how a standard Mycenaean feast was prepared, established, and documented. Care does need to be given on the interpretation of Homeric epics as truth for both the Odyssey and Iliad settled down to what we know of them now many centuries after the Bronze Age. Though they may shed light, as Forsdyke reminds us, the “use of legendary statements for historical interpretation of material records is a reversal of proper procedure.”¹

Certain elements of the Homeric epics have ringed true. Schliemann would not have found Troy or Mycenae without interpreting the Iliad as he did. The Bronze Age ‘Cup of Nestor’ is similar to that of Homer’s descriptions.

In the Iliad and Odyssey, the festivals were a way to maintain loyalties of individuals and nations. In Iliad 9, Odysseus not only goes to Agamemnon’s feast but also to Achilles’ in a single night. Hayden describes the need for feasts in Late Bronze Age society as a way to mobilize labor, create cooperative relationships and alliances, and solicit favors.² Nearly every feast carries the same kind of food and drink.

Study of Linear B tablets has clarified that proceeds collected by the palatial administration could be intended for ‘the provision of state-organized banquets, whether of a religious or of a secular character.’ Pylos tablet UN 718 describes the social order of a feast with the classification of the sociopolitical system: wanax (‘king’), ra-wa-ke-ta (military leader), da-mo (landowners or the officials who represent the da-mo, namely three te-re-ta) and the worgioneion ka-ma (cultic group). The inventory is driven by the wanax and an official connected with the landowners for collecting the inventory. The scribe started the cataloging by recording ewers that are chosen as pertaining to the wanasseus, (the queen’s officer). The collector then turned to the tripods. He was able to distinguish them by the style of the master tripod-makers who originally manufactured them. This skill was another indication of the position and artistic talent of collector as he functioned on the regal class coupled with this lavish equipment. The collector was also in charge of livestock. In once case, the animals are plainly selected as sa-pa-ke-te-ri-ja, literally animals “for ritual slaughter”. The same root word, pa-ke, reappears in the name of the site that is the religious area at Pylos: pa-ke-ja-ne (“the place of animal slaughter”). The Mycenaean linear B tablet Un 718 from Pylos listed nine properties: cheese, honey anointing oil, wheat, wine, and two types of sacrificial animals: a lone bull donated by the wanax Egkhes-lauon, and male sheep, donated by the ra-wa-ke-ta, the da-mo (landowners), and worgioneion ka-ma (religious officials). It may be assumed that the pre-festival supervisors that delivered livestock and goods embodied in the varied commodity Un tablets represented one of any of these four branches.

In the Homeric epics, there were a notable quantity of feasts, and in those feasts Homer illustrates the importance of the feast by describing the victuals included within them. These correspond well with Un 718.

With every feast bread usually was included in the Homeric epics. “Bread in a beautiful basket” or “heaped up bread in baskets.” Tablet Un 138 explained that the controller supervised large amounts of grain, olives, and wine. Un 718 reads that all four contributors of Pylos (the wanax, ra-wa-ke-ta, da-mo, and worgioneion ka-ma) will provide some kind of grain item and wine. Unlike the other tablets that were recorded after the event, Un 718 anticipates offerings that are about to happen. This festival to Poseidon was about to occur, but possibly did not because of the palace’s destruction. The grain would have most likely been used for baked bread.

The same four gave wine in the ratio of his importance also. The wanax provided 86.4 liters, the da-mo 57.6 liters, the ra-wa-ke-ta 19.2 liters, and the worgioneion ka-ma 9.6 liters of wine. Homer tells us that wine was also a part of the festivals: wine that was always mixed in a bowl and at times mentioned with ivy wood honey-sweet wine.

Animals were the primary ingredients to a good festival, according to Homer for he advertises them every moment he can, and in great amount. From fat goats and fatted pigs to the “heifer of the herd” were all willingly depicted (Od. 20.248). The Theban Wu relates to this well with its sealings plainly recording sixteen sheep (thirteen male and two female), fourteen goats (six male; seven female); ten pigs (six male; two female)- two specifically described “fatted pigs,” two cattle (male and female), and three undefined yearlings. Additional to these animals was a single fragmentary animal ideogram yielding a sum of forty-eight animals.

As can be seen from a fresco of Corridor 48 in the Palace of Nestor, at the beginning of a usual feast the people would bring in tripods to cook or boil the meat (see figure 1). Tablet Ta 716 records equipment for the preparation and maintenance necessary for a fire. Portable hearths and tripods were used for the food preparation (with one even showing burned-away legs to show it was used for cooking). The tablet also listed food containers, thrones, stools, and tables for the guests. Also included in the inventory two axes for slaughtering, two sacrificial knives to slit the animals’ throats, and two gold bridle rings and chains to lead the key animals for ritual sacrifice. Often, there were more than one animal that was sacrificed as the Theban Wu sealings of Thebes and the Pylos tablet of Un 138, and Un 138 read of fifty-three animals sacrificed as well as large amounts of grain, olives, and wine.

Along the entrance of the Palace of Nestor’s megaron is a large fresco progressing into the megaron proper (see figure 4, room 6) to the right as one advances to the throne (see figure 2). On it, a large bull strides across the scene presumably for sacrifice with a parade of women and men bearing gifts and shallow angular bowls like a scene from the Odyssey when Nestor and his people give sacrifice to Poseidon (Od. 3.4-6).

Nearly eleven hundred shallow angular bowls used possibly for serving hot food were found in room 21. Next to the kylikes that will be discussed later, this is the most common shape and a valid candidate as a serving container for meat dishes. This is further proven by the traces of fat found through a recent organic-residue analysis of one bowl, though the nature of the fat could not be established.

On a megaron fresco at Pylos matching figures sit at tables and employed in drinking (and possibly feasting). Two tables have men with arms up as if they are raising a kylix in a toasting ritual (although the hands are not preserved). This shares an association of Knossos’ Campstool Fresco. The Pylos fresco makes it useful to consider the Ta tablets found in room 7 (specifically Ta 709.2-.3, 707.1-.3). Palaima counted eleven tables, six thrones and sixteen stools in his interpretation the tablets. The information here may not be random for there are twenty-two pieces of furniture for seating and eleven tables, which would allow for the kind of pairing observed in the frescoes although they look more like “campstools”. This use of the number twenty-two, as Palaima provided, will become important later on in this paper.

It was customary for the Mycenaeans to offer sacrifice for their gods at the feasts. Homer’s description of how the gods were treated suggests they were thought to join it the feast as if they were actually present. We can never really know how they felt about their relationship with the gods, but there is evidence that correspond well with the belief they were present at the feast.

“They feast among us, sitting even where we sit,” Alcinous in Odyssey 7.201 tells his audience. The gods in the Homeric epics knew they couldn’t eat “not bread neither drink flaming wine,” but the gods accepted the gifts from the Mycenaeans all the same and content with the sacrifice offered. Zeus believes that the sacrifice is important:

“For never at any time was mine altar in lack of the equal feast, the drink-offering, and the savor of burnt-offering, even the worship that is our due.” (Il. 4.48)

This use of ‘drink-offering’ as an example of gift giving to the gods may be suggested from the number of kylikes found in Pylos’ rooms 7 and 20. Some twenty to twenty-two kylikes were found in room 7. Blegan and Rawson found eleven of these near a heap of burned bones and labeled more in a container of ceramics with “Room 7: Votive Kylikes.” Room 7 was neither large enough to hold a feast nor offered any support as a shrine. The room was not a place for banquet storage so little could be ascertained on the identity of this room. What is known is that at least half of the kylikes were amassed on the floor in no clear method, all were singed and many destroyed.

How these kylikes were used is unclear, especially since the cups were too small for standard drinking. Only a diminutive amount of liquid could be held in each kylix so it must have been more symbolic than used as a true cup.

More cups were found in the ‘throne room’ of Pylos recovered on a plastered table of offerings and the doorway between room 18 and 20 (see figure 3). Rooms 20 and 60 acted as storehouses of large amounts of simple pottery that may well have been distributed at feasts. This being the case, the author imagines that it is possible for each cup to be given a libation of wine as an offering to the gods. This miniature cup seems to represent a more ceremonial use considering its connection with the burned bones in room 7, the findings of a pair on an offering table in the throne room, and others found in the tombs at Volimidia.

As stated earlier in this paper, Palaima counted twenty-two seats and eleven tables in Pylos Ta series of tablets and suggested that a pair of guests sat at each table. If this is the case, the same number of guests corresponds well with the same number of kylikes. Each guest would have had the opportunity of his own ‘votive cup’ to offer wine for the gods. Pylos Tn 316 reports ritual ‘gift-giving’ of sacred heirlooms vessels by the by the palatial center at some time during a specific month of the sacred calendar. Were these vessels the burned kylikes near the cattle bones in room 7? The answer we will probably never know. The number twenty-two also brings up questions about the importance of twenty-two. After all, a fresco, tablet, and the quantity of kylikes share the same number.

In 1998 also at Pylos, Halstead and Davis observed six excavation units to understand the various burned bones that were found. These burned bones were almost entirely of cattle (5-11 head per site) with elements of single red deer in two of the groups. The bones were highly selective in anatomical composition and consisted mainly of humerus, femur, and mandible bones of adult bulls or steers. Also what was important is that very few fragments were unburned which shows that the bones were deposited with some supervision rather than dumping the material with other refuse.

Constant signs of knife cuts either from cutting or filleting on many of the bones show that they had been removed of meat prior to burning. Intentional bone fracturing or concentrated wedge marks characteristic of marrow extraction also were not found. With eleven cattle or even as little as five would still be an over abundance to feed twenty-two banqueters, so it is reasonable to think that they were not the only participants to the sacrifice and feasting. As Stocker and Davis point out, the slaughtered animals would have been able to feed nearly the entire population around the palace.

Twenty-two guests at the main event banquet would likely have been symbolic and included the most honored guests. The rest of the feast would likely to have occurred in another location, but none is suggested in any of the provided sources. The additional feast goers would likely be the masses that were important to alliances, assembled forces, revenue collecting or even as an organizing of labor.

Many details of Mycenaean feasts can be discerned from archaeological digs and using artifacts as guides. The richness of Homer’s explanations on feasts is what helps to bring every detail together and set the tempo. For understanding of what such feasts would smell like, look like, and taste like, Homer is invaluable. The rich description of Bronze Age life can only be pieced together in a limited way without the recorded words of a long dead bard.

END NOTES

1. E.J. Forsdyke, Greece before Homer, Ancient Chronology and Mythology (New York, Norton, 1964), 166.

2. B. Hayden, “Fabulous Feasts: A Prolegomenon to the Importance of Feasting,” Feasts: archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power, (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001), 23-64.

3. S.R. Stocker and J.L. Davis, “Feasting at the Palace of Nestor,” Hesperia (2004): 179.

4. Thomas G. Palaima. “Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents,” Hesperia (2004): 230

5. Ibid., 235.

6. Ibid., 225

7. Ibid., 224.

8. Odyssey, 16.47, 20.248.

9. Thomas G. Palaima, “Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents,” Hesperia (2004): 231.

10. S.R. Stocker and J.L. Davis, “Feasting at the Palace of Nestor,” Hesperia (2004): 189.

11. Thomas G. Palaima, “Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents,” Hesperia (2004): 231.

12. Odyssey, 16.47, 20.248.

13. Odyssey, 16.47, 20.248, 20.279; Iliad 9.89-92; 9.199-222; 15.500-502, 24.123.

14. Thomas G. Palaima, “Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents,” Hesperia (2004): 222

15. Ibid., 236.

16. Ibid., 223.

17. Mary K. Dabney, Paul Halstead, and Patrick Thomas, “Mycenaean Feasting on Tsoungiza at Ancient Nemea,” Hesperia (2004): 202.

18. S.R. Stocker and J.L. Davis, “Feasting at the Palace of Nestor,” Hesperia (2004): 190.

19. Thomas G. Palaima, “Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents,” Hesperia (2004): 236.

20. Iliad, 5.341, 9.89, 9.199, 10.576; Odyssey 14.435.

21. Carl W. Blegen, M. Rawson, Lord W. Taylour, W. P. Donovan, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Vol. I. (Princeton UP: Princeton, NJ: 1973), 93.

22. S.R. Stocker and J.L. Davis, “Feasting at the Palace of Nestor,” Hesperia 190. These authors state that the cups could only hold 0.009 to 0.035 of a liter).

23. Carl W. Blegen, M. Rawson, Lord W. Taylour, W. P. Donovan, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Vol. I. (Princeton UP: Princeton, NJ: 1973), 89-91.

24. S.R. Stocker and J.L. Davis, “Feasting at the Palace of Nestor,” Hesperia (2004): 191.

25. Thomas G. Palaima, “Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents,” Hesperia (2004): 219

26. S.R. Stocker and J.L. Davis, “Feasting at the Palace of Nestor,” Hesperia (have 2004): 182. Halstead and Davis’ research was in 1998.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., 193.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blegen, Carl W., M. Rawson, Lord W. Taylour, W. P. Donovan. The Palace of Nestor at Pylos. 3 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1973.

Dabney, Mary K., Paul Halstead, and Patrick Thomas. “Mycenaean Feasting on Tsoungiza at Ancient Nemea.” Hesperia (April-June, 2004): 197-216.

Dietler, Michael and Brian Hayden, eds. Feasts: archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001.

Forsdyke, E.J. Greece before Homer, Ancient Chronology and Mythology. New York: Norton, 1964.

Homer. The Odyssey. trans. A.T. Murray. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1984.

______ The Iliad. trans. A.T. Murray. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993.

Palaima, Thomas G. “Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents.” Hesperia (April-June, 2004): 217-246.

Stocker, Sharon R. and Jack L. Davis. “Animal Sacrifice, Archives, and Feasting at the Palace of Nestor.” Hesperia (April-June, 2004): 179-196.

Sherratt, Susan. “Feasting in Homeric Epic.” Hesperia (April-June, 2004): 301-337.

Wright, James C. “The Mycenaean Feast: An Introduction.” Hesperia (April-June, 2004): 121-132.

_______ “A Survey of Evidence for Feasting in Mycenaean Society.” (April-June, 2004): 133-178.