War and raids for booty in the world of Odysseus

Finley writes, was ‘a typical “war” as narrated by Nestor, a raid for booty. Even if repeated year after year, these wars remained single raids.’ A little later he says, ‘Wars and raids for booty, indistinguishable in the eyes of Odysseus’ world, were organized affairs, often involving a combination of families, occasionally even of communities’. The periods reflected in Homer’s raids for booty are uncertain, for most raids are timeless. The raid on Egypt from Crete, of which Odysseus tells, is not as datable as it may seem. Raids for booty in peacetime appear to be an entirely accepted part of life in Homer’s picture, just as war is. Agamemnon’s greed for gain in the form of booty and prizes from it was excessive, to summarize Achilleus’ frank opinion of it; which need not mean that a normal appetite for it was very restrained

Ancient history · Classical Antiquity Studies · History

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