ABSTRACT
During the second half of the eighth century, the Greeks became increasingly aware of a vanished heroic age-an age which, on archaeological grounds, we have learned to equate with the Mycenaean world shortly before its collapse. The princes of that remote age had become the heroes of epic poetry; a new respect for them, and a new interest in establishing links with them, appear in three kinds of material evidence. First, there is the rapid growth of hero-cults in several regions, as shown by the new practice of leaving votive offerings in Mycenaean tombs. Secondly, some rich burials of our period seem to have been influenced in various ways by accounts of heroic funerals in epic poetry. Thirdly, in some LG figured scenes there are reminiscences of the heroic age, whether through reference to a specific story, or in details added to lend heroic colouring to a generic theme. With these visible manifestations of interest in the heroic world, this chapter will be largely concerned; but first we should briefly consider their chief cause, the great flowering of epic poetry which culminated in the work of Homer.
