Memory and material objects in the<i>Iliad</i>and the<i>Odyssey</i>

Abstract

Abstract: Recently, archaeologists have been focusing on material relics as evidence of a historical consciousness. This article examines the Iliad and the Odyssey from the point of view of this ‘archaeology of the past’. Various material objects, ranging from tombs to everyday objects, evoke the past in the epic poems, thereby enriching the narrative and providing reflections on the act of memory. In turn, Homeric evidence sheds new light on the hermeneutics of relics in archaic oral society.