Non-Hellenic Peoples in the Epic Poems of Homer

Abstract

Abstract Homer’s epic poems represent their contemporary world. These epics give detailed descriptions about the peoples and cultures living in the Mediterranean area. Several ethnic groups appear in the epics, whose home lay far away from the Greek homeland, in the Balkans. The Odyssey may be regarded as the most valuable source of the two epics from a geographical point of view. For instance, this is the first written source of the Kimmers, even if there are only a few verses about them. During his journeys, Ulysses was able to reach several territories, which were less well known in the age of Homer. This is the reason why we have only a less detailed picture of these peoples, and why our knowledge of these cultures, ethnic groups and civilizations is so fragmentary. In my paper I try to figure out how the author described these peoples, what kind of attributes he employed in their description, and how we could interpret this information. Applying all these we could be able to examine the Greek attitude toward foreigners in the 8th century B.C.