Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer. — John Shaqi
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Philosophy
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer
This estate is called τέμενος; a name never applied in Homer but to the
properties of deities and of rulers. He uses the word with reference to
the glebe-lands of
Spercheius, Il. xxiii. 148.
Venus, Od. viii. 362.
Ceres, Il. ii. 696.
Jupiter, Il. viii. 48.
And to the domains of
Bellerophon, Il. vi. 194.
Æneas (promised by the Trojan community if he should slay
Achilles), Il. xx. 184.
Meleager, Il. ix. 574.
Sarpedon and Glaucus, Il. xii. 313.
The βασιλεὺς on the Shield, Il. xviii. 550.
Iphition (πολέων ἡγήτωρ λαῶν), Il. xx. 391.
Alcinous, Od. vi. 293.
Ulysses, Od. xi. 184, and xvii. 299.
On the other hand, the merely rich man (Il. xi. 68) has an ἄρουρα, not
a τέμενος; and the farm of Laertes is called ἀγρὸς, not τέμενος. And
why? Because it was a private possession, acquired by him apparently
out of savings (Od. xxiv. 206);
ὅν ῥά ποτ’ αὐτὸς
Λαέρτης κτεάτισσεν, ἐπεὶ μάλα πόλλ’ ἐμόγησεν.
The word τέμενος is probably from τέμνω, or from the same root with
that verb, and signifies land which, having been cut off from the
original common stock, available for the uses of private persons, has
been set apart for one of the two great public purposes, of government
or of religion.
~_Revenues and burdens on them._~
Besides their great estates, the kings appear to have had at least two
other sources of revenue. One of these was not without resemblance
in form to what we now call customs’-duties, and may have contained
their historical germ. In the Book of Genesis, where the sons of Jacob
go down to buy corn in Egypt, they carry with them a present for the
ruler; and doubtless the object of this practice was to conciliate the
protection to which, as foreigners, and perhaps as suspected persons,
avowedly seeking their own gain, they would not otherwise have had a
claim. ‘Take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry
down the man a present; a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and
myrrh, nuts, and almonds[120].’ In conformity with the practice thus
exemplified, when Euneus in the Seventh Iliad despatches his ships from
Lemnos to sell wine to the Greek army, in return for which they obtain
slaves, hides, and other commodities, he sends a separate supply, χίλια
μέτρα, as a present to the two sons of Atreus[121]. Agamemnon indeed
is, in the Ninth Book, slily twitted by Nestor with the largeness of
the stores of wine, that he had contrived to accumulate.
[120] Gen. xliii. 11.
[121] Il. vii. 467-75.
So likewise we find that certain traders, sailing to Scheria, made a
present to Alcinous, as the sovereign, of the captive Eurymedusa. When
we compare this with the case of Euneus, the gift obviously appears to
have been a consideration for permission to trade[122].
[122] Od. vii. 8-11.
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