Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2026
Chapter 7 focuses on subsistence and prosperity in the Homeric world. It treats farmers and shepherds, sailors and traders, smiths and craftsmen, and the blurred boundary between commerce and raiding. By tracing how wealth is made, displayed, and lost, the chapter argues that the poems preserve a practical memory of work, vulnerability, and the precariousness of material security.
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