Abstract
• Purpose of the study: In this study, I explore the Iliad for evidence of early Greek economic behavior and institutions, including markets, overseas trade, money, and exchange of commodities. In so doing, I test the hypothesis that epic poetry is capable of offering insights into the economic activity and strategic thinking of actors across the socio-political spectrum more broadly.
• Methodology: This project is informed by the approach of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) emphasizing the role of institutions in stabilizing expectations through the establishment of rules governing transactional behavior. I emphasize the effect of institutions in stabilizing expectations, allowing for culturally fluent actors to develop diverse strategies within the context of the prevailing institutional matrix.
• Main Findings: Through a close examination of the text, it is possible to discern evidence for aristocratic economic practices that prioritize and reify elite relationships and status, and non-elite activity in which the relationship between trading partners is secondary to the material conditions of exchange, suggesting a diversity of strategies and the potential for transactions to serve multiple functions simultaneously.
• Applications of this study: The focus on economic activity in relation to customs, status, and political power in the early Greek world engages with numerous fields of study. For example, placing transactional behavior in the context of cultural mores involves economic anthropology, the consideration of ancient Greek political economy is significant to ancient history, and the role of institutions directly relates to neo-institutional economics.
• Novelty/Originality of this study: This study directly challenges the traditional reductive view that economic behavior during this period was subordinated entirely to cultural and social considerations. Instead, relying (in part) on neo-institutional economic theory, I argue for a much more nuanced view that allows for a fuller consideration of diverse motives and strategies on the part of cultural fluent actors.
