A Rehabilitation of Homer and Linear B: Points of Connection between Anax/Wanax, Potnia, and Temenos

Abstract

The level of cultural continuity between Mycenaean Greece and the Early Iron Age has long been a source of scholarly debate with the majority of scholarship leaning towards caution and rejecting the use of the Linear B corpus and Homeric epic to elucidate such continuity. I suggest a rehabilitation of such an approach and offer a new methodology that involves identifying legitimate and meaningful points of connection. In this MA thesis, I will investigate three lexical similarities (temenos, wanax, and potnia) to demonstrate that the Homeric epics reflect the nexus of relationships and power dynamic between the Mycenaean goddess Potnia, the wanax, and lawagetas.