Laudator Temporis Acti

Homer, Iliad 9.121-130 (some of Agamemnon's proposed recompense to Achilles; tr. A.T. Murray, rev. William F. Wyatt):

In the presence of you all let me name the glorious gifts:
seven tripods that the fire has not touched, and ten talents of gold
and twenty gleaming cauldrons, and twelve strong horses,
winners in the race, that have won prizes by their fleetness.
Not without booty would that man be,
nor unpossessed of precious gold,
who had wealth as great as the prizes my single-hoofed horses have won for me.
And I will give seven women skilled in noble handiwork,
women of Lesbos, whom on the day when Achilles himself took well-built Lesbos
I chose out for myself from the spoil, who in beauty surpassed all the tribes of women.

ὑμῖν δ᾽ ἐν πάντεσσι περικλυτὰ δῶρ᾽ ὀνομήνω
ἕπτ᾽ ἀπύρους τρίποδας, δέκα δὲ χρυσοῖο τάλαντα,
αἴθωνας δὲ λέβητας ἐείκοσι, δώδεκα δ᾽ ἵππους
πηγοὺς ἀθλοφόρους, οἳ ἀέθλια ποσσὶν ἄροντο.
οὔ κεν ἀλήϊος εἴη ἀνὴρ ᾧ τόσσα γένοιτο,        125
οὐδέ κεν ἀκτήμων ἐριτίμοιο χρυσοῖο,
ὅσσά μοι ἠνείκαντο ἀέθλια μώνυχες ἵπποι.
δώσω δ᾽ ἑπτὰ γυναῖκας ἀμύμονα ἔργα ἰδυίας
Λεσβίδας, ἃς ὅτε Λέσβον ἐϋκτιμένην ἕλεν αὐτὸς
ἐξελόμην, αἳ κάλλει ἐνίκων φῦλα γυναικῶν.        130

Bryan Hainsworth ad loc.:

In negotiations with such a character as Akhilleus any number of things could go wrong, so Agamemnon makes sure that no one could criticize him for meanness and lists his gifts publicly. For other lists of gifts, which typify what is counted as wealth in the Homeric world, cf. 8.290-1 (tripod, horses, and concubine), 24.229-34 (clothing, gold, tripods, and cups), Od. 4.128-35 (bathtubs, tripods, gold, distaff, and work-basket), 8.392-3 (clothing and gold), 9.202-5 (gold, crater, wine), 24.274-7 (gold, crater, clothing), [Hesiod] frr. 197 M-W (women, goblets) and 200 M-W (bowl, tripod, gold). To the conventional items (gold and tripods) are added such extras as the donors may be thought to have handy, here horses (124) and slaves (128).

M.M. Austin and P. Vidal-Naquet, Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece: An Introduction (London: Batsford Academic and Educational Ltd, 1977), pp. 196-197:

Nothing is more difficult in the Homeric world than to distinguish — if indeed one must distinguish — between premonetary instru­ments which serve as a standard of value for exchange purposes, objects for hoarding and ostentation¹, goods that were indis­pensable for the daily life of warriors (such as metal in raw or worked form), and landed estates pure and simple. Are these premonetary signs? The ox was the standard of measure: Laertes purchased Eurycleia for the price of 20 oxen (Odyssey I, 430-1), which does not mean that oxen were a means of exchange. The list of presents which Agamemnon proposes to give to Achilles to restore their friendship includes objects which continued to be used for a long time as 'premonetary'² instruments and which as late as the fourth century in the treasures of temples served simultaneously as symbolic wealth and as money³, but it also includes captive women and cities.

1 See the admirable study by L. Gernet, 'La notion mythique de la valeur en Grèce', Journal de Psychologie 41 (1948), pp. 415-62, reproduced in Anthropologie de la Grèce ancienne, pp. 93-137, and M.I. Finley, The World of Odysseus, pp. 70ff.

2 Thus in Crete where a payment 'in cauldrons' is still specified in an inscription from Cnossos of the fourth or third century and where the Gortyn inscriptions regularly provide for payments in tripods or cauldrons till the end of the sixth century; see G. le Rider, Monnaies crétoises (Paris, 1966), p. 167.

3 See for example the inventory of a temple at Thespiae (beginning of the fourth century) republished by P. Roesch and J. Taillardat, in Revue de Philologie 40 (1956), pp. 70-87; one finds there side by side cauldrons, 'spit-drachmae' similar to the Spartan iron currency (below, no 56), tripods, domestic utensils, weapons, etc.