Ethnicity, Ethnogenesis and Ancestry in the Early Iron Age Aegean as Background to and through the Lens of the Iliad

The prevalence of orality in the 8th/7th centuries BCE and the inherent limits of oral memory, in the wake of centuries of illiteracy, invalidate the conventional premise that the archaizing world of the Iliad somehow represents a Late Bronze Age (LBA) reality: generally, one can look back in time no further than two or three centuries—to the Early Iron Age (EIA), a poorly-documented yet crucial period also known as the Dark Age. Paralleling the eastward expansion of the Mycenaeans and their Greek-speaking successors onto the coast of Anatolia in both the LBA and EIA, another closely-related, yet distinct group similarly expands eastward from its home base in Epirus and Macedonia to the northern coast of Anatolia, the location of Troy; and thence, much farther into the Anatolian heartland to the very slopes of the Caucasus. Adapting an ethnonym from Herodotus 1.56 & 8.43 (Μακεδνὸν ἔθνος), I refer to this group as the Makednians: in linguistic terms (a key criterion of ethnicity), this includes Macedonian, Phrygian, Armenian, and even, it is argued, what is traditionally referred to as “Northwestern Greek.” Not only do they move into Anatolia, but also southward into Greece, thus impacting the evolution of post-Mycenaean society and contributing to the rise of new hybrid ethne, notably the Dorians and the Aeolians. The saga of the Trojan War dramatizes and crystallizes, to an appreciable degree, the many wars throughout the EIA Aegean between the post-Mycenaeans / post-Anatolians and the Makednians, prior to their final coalescence. The Achaeans and the Trojans of epic are so alike and yet different because the (post)-Mycenaeans and Makednians are so alike, yet different. Chapter 1 explores the connection between Trojans and Ionians, primary audience of Homeric performances. Chapter 2 explores the connection between Trojans, Phrygians and Macedonians. Chapter 3 investigates the ways in which the intertwined notions of primordial death, land of the dead and ancestor worship converge in Achilles, his native Phthia and his immediate entourage.Comparative Literatur