In a measure, these virtues, these values and capacities, were shared by many men of the period, for otherwise there could have been no distinct age of heroes between the bronze and the iron. Particularly in the Odyssey the word "hero" is a class term for the whole aristocracy, and at times it even seems to embrace all the free men.

Finley provides dazzling yet largely plain-spoken erudition. The expat is also largely certain. Strange behavior, that, for a historian, even a Marxist one Finley didn't pen the book on a tendency or a cantankerous But or If. The world-view of the Iliad and The Odyssey ae explored and situated largely in contrast with the evidence of archeology. The concept of Oikos or the fortified family unit and the practice of gift-giving serve as templates for exploring both narratives. There is a lament at the absence of the common born. Oh and there’s a rancor with the anachronistic.
I was fascinated throughout.