O Homeric period of the Greek civilization, between the 12th centuries a. Ç. and VIII a. C., was so called due to the lack of historical sources of his studies besides the poems Iliad and Odyssey, written by the Greek poet homer. The two poems, probably written in the VI century; a., narrate the last year of the Trojan War (Ilion, for the Greeks) and the return of Odysseus (also known as Ulysses) to his kingdom after the war. The poems were written by Homer from oral histories transmitted for centuries by the peoples who inhabited the Hellas (as Greece was known).
The importance of these poems is related to the fact that they express the ways of life of the Greek civilization at that time, as well as their customs, land use and social formation. Despite being the only written sources about the period, there are material elements found by archaeologists that allow us to see that during the Homeric period the Greek civilization returned to the countryside, abandoning countless cities and moving away from the material abundance found in the remnants of Cretan and Mycenaean.
possibly the doric invasions they were responsible for this return to the countryside and for the end of the domination of maritime trade in the Hellas region. During the Homeric period, the Greek peoples were predominantly organized in genos, large families led by a head, the father, which characterized the Gentile communities like patriarchal. Unlike the Cretan civilization, in which women played a preponderant role, in the genos it was men who exercised the main influence on society.
The pater was the highest authority and exercised the functions of judge, in addition to being a religious and military leader. The genos were still economic, political, religious and social units that ensured their livelihood, often living in isolation. The cultivation of land and the use of agricultural instruments took place collectively, with no private property.
However, over time, the increase in population and consumption caused the genos to disintegrate, as the available fertile lands and the instruments of production have not kept up with the increase in the consumption.
This situation led to the occurrence of several wars between the genos, providing the union of some of them to fight against others. This slow process, over time, caused some changes in the organization of Greek society at the time. The approximation between the genos generated the factories, a union to fight common enemies. The union of the factories resulted in the formation of tribes, submitted to a military chief known as Philobasileo. The tribes also started to unite, giving rise to the demos, or the people, whose authority resided in the basileus.
This whole process of union resulted in internal changes to the genos, as the closest relatives to the pater started to have privileges in choosing the land to be cultivated. In this way, the character of collective land use was lost. From this new historical process emerged the eupatrids, the “well-born”, who held the best parcels of land. The more distant relatives kept the rest of the lands, being called georgols (farmers). Finally, the thetis, who were marginalized in this society.
Wars between various tribes also led to the formation of polis, city-states formed from the union of several demos that constituted themselves as independent communities.
Another consequence of the change in genos and the resulting military conflicts was the occurrence of second greek diaspora, when part of the Greek people dispersed through the Mediterranean Sea, forming colonies in various points of the Mediterranean coast, mainly in the Italian Peninsula.
The strengthening of the city-states and the aristocracy of the Eupatrids would lead to the end of the gentile communities, ushering in a new period in the history of Ancient Greece.
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*Image Credit: Lefteris Papaulakis and Shutterstock.com
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