sense that they had achieved conquests in Asia. The Odyssey gave them scenes of sailing and a charismatic quest hero who embodied an idealized version of the self-reliant, versatile farmer-seafarer of the archaic period, sufficient unto himself and equipped with advanced mental, practical, and social skills. Hesiod’s psychologically astute poems outlined the Greeks’ joint family tree leading back to Hellen, but also crystallized their relations with the gods, their ethical outlook, the power of hatred, revenge, and sex, their identity as farmers who might have to move because of poverty, their
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