The subject of Jörg Mull’s book is Mycenaean economic activity from the Late Bronze Age (1600 to 1150 BCE) as reflected in the myths describing heroes’ travels. His work analyzes Greek myths, presumably with Bronze Age roots, using the tools of an economist, as we are told in the preface, with “30 years of experience in international business” and a background education in Classical literature. His focus is to follow the Mycenaean metal explorations and long-distance trade that he could find in the Greek stories. In this attempt, the author uses recent technological developments that helped scientists to identify the origins of the metals used in the manufacturing of weapons and other tools. The technological advancements led archaeologists to reach important conclusions on demographic mobility with quite accurate chronology, instrumental in the author’s pursuit. The question that preoccupies the archaeologists and historians is “whether these objects and influences are evidence for direct contact of Mycenaean mariners, or whether they reached their destination indirectly via trade with other merchants of different origin as intermediaries” (14). Mull begins with the assumption that the Greek travel myths are based on real Mycenaean long-distance journeys that achieved heroic status, events perpetuated in narrative traditions conveyed through mythical language. The investigation of the heroes’ journeys, backed by archaeological evidence, confirms for the author the destinations and chronology of Mycenaean traveling with its pattern of expansion in the Mediterranean Sea and beyond (14).
In chapter 3, after briefly discussing the references to time and date in the Bronze Age, such as documents written before the fifth century BCE, the author states that the general consensus of modern historians regarding early Greek chronology is that such documents offer doubtful information. Chapter 4, “The Historical and Archaeological Framework of Travel and Mobility in the Bronze Age,” addresses the “Neolithic package” (ca. 10000-6000 BCE--animal domestication, farming, and pottery); the Chalcolithic era (ca. 6000-3000 BCE--with the first presence of copper); the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3000-2100 BCE--with the beginning of state formation and arsenic copper production); the Middle Bronze Age (2100-1600 BCE--showing the emergence of dynasties and long-distance economic exchange including metals); and the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1100 BCE--with true bronze production, an alloy of roughly 90% copper and 10% tin).
The long-distance travels discussed in chapter 5 reveal the economic exchanges associated with metal trading as witnessed by the Ugarit archives, proof of the large-scale commercial activity of merchants connected to the palace. Besides the bronze needed for weapons and some luxury items, and the tin as the other component of true bronze, the metal supplies traveled long distances from central Asia, Mesopotamia, and the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean centers. By the end of the Bronze Age large-scale trade came to an end when the Mycenaean palace culture vanished (42).
In addition to the river travel system that favored European trading, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea were important waterways for commercial enterprise during the Bronze Age. Chapter 6 details the shipbuilding in the Bronze Age seen in the archaic pictorial evidence, as the famous “Flotilla Fresco” dating around 1540 BCE (45). The innovative construction of the Helladic oared galley using rowers, possibly invented by Mycenaeans, shows the impressive advancement in transportation during this time, instrumental in the long-distance commercial and diplomatic journeys of Mycenaeans, as analyzed in chapter 7.
In chapter 8, “Reflections of Mycenaean Long Distance Travel in the Mythological Record,” Mull addresses the subject of Greek myths from the premise of their historicity. The author begins his argument with the Greek mythographer Euhemeros from the fourth century BCE, who assumed that the origin of mythical stories lay in real events and persons. The historicity hypothesis is in contrast with the comparative school of mythology that considers the roots of myths to be in immemorial times, and in which any direct relation to real facts is denied (59). For his purpose, the author opts for the historical and geographic information that he intends to find in Mycenaean traveling stories, briefly presenting the historiographers of archaic times, of the Classical period, and during the Hellenistic and the Roman periods of Greece. Citing various researchers’ accounts of myths, legends, and sagas recording exploration themes in Greece and beyond, Mull concludes: “It seems conceivable that instead of being fictional ‘topoi,’ the patterns and the role models of Indo-European or Near Eastern provenience were applied to real and existing people in the Mycenaean Bronze Age, who stood out because of their achievements in battle or distant travels” (75).
Chapter 9, “Mycenaean Contacts with the Civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean,” brings attention to the archaeological evidence of the Myceneans in Anatolia, as reflected in Greek myth; for example, the myth of Bellerophontes, who, at the Lycian king’s request, vanquished the Chimaera with the help of Pegasus, or the myth of Tantalos and Pelops. From the contacts with the Levant, the author mentions the myth of the brothers Belos and Agenor, the latter being the father of Cadmos and Europa. Mycenaean contacts with Cyprus gave the Greeks Aphrodite, Adonis, Teukros, and Agapenor. The long-distance traveling in search for metals reached Egypt in the Early Bronze Age as shown by the silver objects of Mycenaean production. The author references the Greek mythical characters connected to Egypt, among the most important, Dionysos, who traveled with a shipload of wine to Egypt; or Io, who arrives in Egypt as a captive on a Phoenician trading ship. The well-known journeys of Perseus, who, on his way to get the head of the Gorgon, stops in Chemmis, Egypt, or the Atlas Mountains in Libya, in search of the Hesperides by the river Okeanos. The famous Heracles, presumed by the author to be a historical figure bearing this name, had also stopped in Egypt on his way to get the golden apples.
Further, in chapter 10, “Mycenaean Contacts with the Central and Western Mediterranean,” the author details the mythic heroes Daidalos, Perseus, Heracles, and Odysseus, and their travels to Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and to the far-west Iberian Peninsula, the supposed location of the Hesperides, in search of the golden apples, a location thought to be rich in metals. This leads the author to assume the following chronological order for these heroic journeys: between 1350 BCE (Perseus) to ca. 1250 to 1180 BCE (Heracles, Odysseus) (122).
In chapter 11, “Mycenaean Journeys to the Black Sea Area,” the author discusses these journeys and the difficulties the ships encountered in passage through the Dardanelles, the Marmara Sea, and the Bosporus. The myth of Phrixos and Helle, who escaped their stepmother Ino to reach the Black Sea, given the name Hellespont after Helle drowned in it, is considered a precursor of the Argonauts’ journey. Other regions traveled by the Mycenaeans were Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, the far-west Island of the Blessed, and the Hyperboreans’ mysterious far North found by Perseus after slaying the Gorgon—these are subjects of the chapter 12. Mull thinks it’s probable that Perseus’s journeys beyond the Hesperides into Okeanos and north to the Hyperboreans could be interpreted as a potential reflection of metal exploration via the Atlantic route to the mines in Cornwall, or to the Scilly Islands off Britain.
In concluding, the author argues that, although it could be difficult to form a definite idea from individual myths, the mythological references and the archaeological information could offer a picture of Mycenaean geographical knowledge, and even though the mythic heroes were not traders themselves, the contacts in their journeys may suggest key destinations in the search for metal supplies.
Readers interested in Greek naval explorations as preserved in mythic stories will find in Jörg Mull’s book an original way of investigating Mycenaean Late Bronze Age economic activity, a very well written and extensively documented work, ranging from antique writers to contemporary researchers, and supplemented by maps and illustrations. It is unfortunate that, given the large amount of information and references, there is no index or abbreviations list.
Towards the Borders of the Bronze Age and Beyond: Mycenaean Long Distance Travel and its Reflection in Myth opens up two interesting facets regarding the subject of myth: either the journeys and their memories were the reason for the myths describing them, and thus the historical aspect prevails; or, the myths and the heroes’ adventures were the incentive for the travels. In any case, there is no room for a hermeneutic approach in this book, since myths are taken literally, as the only basis for interpreting the heroes’ voyages.
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[Review length: 1419 words • Review posted on May 1, 2023]