History Presention

Old age in the Greek history

Jun Seok Kim

1. The definition of "old age"

In the old times, there wasn't an advanced technology on medication so human's normal dying age was about 50~60 if not less. So you can think that the average old age in the Greek history is about 40. You become a parent at the age of about 30. So you become a grandparent in the age of 60. So most of the people in the Greek history can't see their grandchildren. So in the Histories and the Iliad if the character has a son or daughter that is more than 10 years old, then that person is very old already.

2. Who are the old people in the books.

(One main old person and their wife from each book and the oldest in the book Iliad)

The Iliad	The Histories
King Priamos. About 60 years old. He is known to have 40 sons and daughters. He had a grandchildren called Astyanax. Hector's son. Estimated age 60	Darius, father of Xerxes. His son Xerxes was the king of Persia and was about 20 years old. Estimated age 50
Nestor. He is the Gerenian charioteer. Son of Neleus. Ruler of Pylos. High reputation for wisdom. (oldest person that appears in Iliad.) According to the introduction. Estimated age 60~65	Atossa, wife of Darius and mother of Xerxes. Estimated age 45
Hecabe. One of the wives of King Priamos. Estimated age 55

3. What is the job for the old people in the war?

Main characters.

Nestor- Doesn't go out to the battle and fight. Stays at the command center and gives advices and other useful information.

King Priamos- Doesn't go out to the battle and fight. Stays at the Trojan fortress and commands the Trojans as the king of the Troy.

King Darius- He doesn't go out and fight either. Since he is the king, he only commands. Unlike Leonidas...

The normal old people at that time.

There aren't any normal people coming out from the books.

They probably went out to the battle too. Because both books are about war, and they needed as much soldiers they can have. So according to my predict, I think that the old people in the war were probably all sent to the battle.

(I did not include female because they didn't had a job in the war anyway.)

Conclusion on the job of old age people.

The high positioned people normally doesn't fight in the battle. They usually command the soldiers. Or just participate on the meeting. However, the old citizens had to go to the war and fight for their country.

4. The difference between the old people in Histories and the Iliad.

I don't think that there are differences between the old people in the Histories and the Iliad. The jobs in the war for the main characters and the normal old people were same. I tried to compare more but there wasn't enough information about old people. So I conclude that there aren't any difference between the old age in the two books

	The Iliad	The Histories
The main characters job in battle	Doesn't fight in the battle only commands.	Doesn't fight in the battle only commands.
The normal old people in battle	They fight in the battle.	They fight in the battle.
Standard old age	No exact age	No exact age

Refrences

The book Iliad: (main characters)

The book Iliad: the whole story

The book Histories: 202~ 228 and book seven~ book nine

(I didn't had much time to read )