Professor Edith Hall

And river gods. And river gods. Yeah. No, it's a whole panoply and they've got different status. And there are arguments about status. So the last guy that Achilles kills before he fights the river is called Asteripheus. And he's come very recently to Troy. And he's the son of a Thracian river.

So we have this god-off where it's like, is somebody who's the son of a big river more important than someone who's the son of a sea goddess? It's like the status game. It's a parody, in a way, of status in human life. Like, am I kingier than you? That extends into how much divine blood... Am I goddier than you?

So we have this god-off where it's like, is somebody who's the son of a big river more important than someone who's the son of a sea goddess? It's like the status game. It's a parody, in a way, of status in human life. Like, am I kingier than you? That extends into how much divine blood... Am I goddier than you?

So we have this god-off where it's like, is somebody who's the son of a big river more important than someone who's the son of a sea goddess? It's like the status game. It's a parody, in a way, of status in human life. Like, am I kingier than you? That extends into how much divine blood... Am I goddier than you?

Am I goddier than you? Yeah. It's absolutely wonderful. But the gods' counterpoint is crucial because at the end of the day, you always have this amazing formula like, they just went back to feast and inextinguishable laughter arose amongst the gods. I mean, they're up there just laughing while humans are fighting, dying, and losing their nearest and dearest.

Am I goddier than you? Yeah. It's absolutely wonderful. But the gods' counterpoint is crucial because at the end of the day, you always have this amazing formula like, they just went back to feast and inextinguishable laughter arose amongst the gods. I mean, they're up there just laughing while humans are fighting, dying, and losing their nearest and dearest.

Am I goddier than you? Yeah. It's absolutely wonderful. But the gods' counterpoint is crucial because at the end of the day, you always have this amazing formula like, they just went back to feast and inextinguishable laughter arose amongst the gods. I mean, they're up there just laughing while humans are fighting, dying, and losing their nearest and dearest.

Oh, definitely, without a doubt. In terms of the general pattern, we know this. Linear B is a script that was used by people of the era of Agamemnon and Achilles, right? The Greeks subsequently lost that script and lost it for several hundred years until the writing that came in from the Venetians with which they wrote down the poems in the 8th century.

Oh, definitely, without a doubt. In terms of the general pattern, we know this. Linear B is a script that was used by people of the era of Agamemnon and Achilles, right? The Greeks subsequently lost that script and lost it for several hundred years until the writing that came in from the Venetians with which they wrote down the poems in the 8th century.

Oh, definitely, without a doubt. In terms of the general pattern, we know this. Linear B is a script that was used by people of the era of Agamemnon and Achilles, right? The Greeks subsequently lost that script and lost it for several hundred years until the writing that came in from the Venetians with which they wrote down the poems in the 8th century.

But we know from remains of that script from places in the Peloponnese and Crete that there were raiding parties going out from Greece to get women and booty and stuff from the Eastern Aegean and what's now Anatolia, the west coast of Turkey. This is historically attested fact. That is more historically attested than the actual site of Troy.

But we know from remains of that script from places in the Peloponnese and Crete that there were raiding parties going out from Greece to get women and booty and stuff from the Eastern Aegean and what's now Anatolia, the west coast of Turkey. This is historically attested fact. That is more historically attested than the actual site of Troy.

But we know from remains of that script from places in the Peloponnese and Crete that there were raiding parties going out from Greece to get women and booty and stuff from the Eastern Aegean and what's now Anatolia, the west coast of Turkey. This is historically attested fact. That is more historically attested than the actual site of Troy.

We are not sure whether people have identified there is a Bronze Age palace of the right kind of date. at a place called Hisarlik, which since the mid-19th century, everybody's said is probably Troy. And I think it probably is. But whether actually a man called Agamemnon went and led any of these parties is irrelevant.

We are not sure whether people have identified there is a Bronze Age palace of the right kind of date. at a place called Hisarlik, which since the mid-19th century, everybody's said is probably Troy. And I think it probably is. But whether actually a man called Agamemnon went and led any of these parties is irrelevant.

We are not sure whether people have identified there is a Bronze Age palace of the right kind of date. at a place called Hisarlik, which since the mid-19th century, everybody's said is probably Troy. And I think it probably is. But whether actually a man called Agamemnon went and led any of these parties is irrelevant.

There was a thalassocracy, that means a sea power in the Bronze Age of these Mycenaean Greeks who wrote in Linear B and they were engaged in trading and aggressive activities for trading raiding, I think. in precisely those areas, especially around the Hellespont, which was always a strategic hotspot.

There was a thalassocracy, that means a sea power in the Bronze Age of these Mycenaean Greeks who wrote in Linear B and they were engaged in trading and aggressive activities for trading raiding, I think. in precisely those areas, especially around the Hellespont, which was always a strategic hotspot.

There was a thalassocracy, that means a sea power in the Bronze Age of these Mycenaean Greeks who wrote in Linear B and they were engaged in trading and aggressive activities for trading raiding, I think. in precisely those areas, especially around the Hellespont, which was always a strategic hotspot.

It's very apocalyptic in its imagination. Strangely, a lot of this happens in similes, but you have countless similes that the soldiers descended on the other side like a wildfire sweeping over a mountain, or they rise up like a wave that crashes and destroys everything in its path. earthquake sort of stuff. One mention is of terrible hunger, famine. There's only one, and that's in the last book.