HOMER AND HISTORY

The Bronze Age & Oral Tradition

HOMER:IONIAN?

PHANTOM?

'At Cyme Melesigenes sat in the old men's saloons and performed the poems he had

composed, and entertained his hearers in conversation, so that they became admirers of his.

Seeing that the Cymaeans were receptive to his poetry, and drawing his hearers into

familiarity with him, he made an approach to them, saying that if they were prepared to

support him at public expense, he would make their city outstandingly famous. This was

agreeable to them, and they advised him to go to the council and petition the councillors;

they said that they themselves would support him. he followed their advice, and as the

council assembled he went to the council room and asked the duty officer to take him in to

the council. He undertook to do so, and at the appropriate moment he led him in.

Melesigenes took his stand and made the speech about his support that he had made in the

saloons. When he had spoken, he went out and sat down, while they deliberated what

answer to give him. The man who had brought him in was keen, as were those councillors

who had heard him in the saloons, but it is said that one of the law lords opposed his

application, his chief argument being that if they decided to provide for 'homeroi', they would

have a large, useless crowd on their hands. It was from then that the name Homer prevailed

for Melesigenes, from his disability, for the Cymaeans call the blind 'homeroi'; so that

whereas he had previously been called Melesigenes, this became his name, Homer, and

people from elsewhere disseminated it when they spoke of him.'

Pseudo-Herodotus 13-14

'They say that Homer travelled abroad and spent a long period in Ithaca; and that after passing through many places he died on the island of Ios from the following circumstance. Homer was sitting one day on the beach (he was blind) and he became aware of some fishers approaching, to whom he said: "O fishermen from Arcadia, have we caught anything?'And they replied:"All that we caught we left behind, all that we missed we carry.'The meaning is this: as they were on that occasion without anything from their fishing, they de-loused themselves, and those of the lice that they had caught, they had killed and no longer had, while those they had not caught they were carrying about in their clothing. But he, not understanding the utterance, died from depression on the island of Ios.

Anonymous (Vita Scorialensis II)

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Minoan Age: ca. 2500-1500 BCE

Mycenaean Age: ca. 1500-1150 BCE– Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes– Linear B– Heinrich Schleimann, German archaeologist

Dark/Iron Age: ca. 1150-800 BCE

Archaic Age: ca. 800-500 BCE

The Site of Mycenae

Warlike Feudal State

Active Traders

Mycenae: Lions Gate

WORSHIPED OLYMPIAN GODS

HOMER: BRONZE or IRON?

MYCENAEAN BRONZE ARMOR

BRONZE AGE SHIELDS

FIGURE 8 SHIELDS

ACHILLES’ SHIELD

Then verily I thrust in the stake under the deep ashes until it should grow hot, and heartened all my comrades with cheering words, that I might see no man flinch through fear. But when presently that stake of olive-wood was about to catch fire, green though it was, and began to glow terribly, then verily I drew nigh, bringing the stake from the fire, and my comrades stood round me and a

god breathed into us great courage. They took the stake of olive-wood, sharp at the point, and thrust it into his eye, while I, throwing my weight upon it from above, whirled it round, as when a man bores a ship's timber with a drill, while those below keep it spinning with the thong, which they lay hold of by either end, and the drill runs around unceasingly. Even so we took the fiery-pointed stake and whirled it around in his eye, and the blood flowed around the heated thing. And his eyelids wholly and his brows round about did the flame singe as the eyeball burned, and its roots crackled in the fire. And as when a smith dips a great axe or an adze in cold water amid loud hissing to temper it--for therefrom comes the

strength of iron--even so did his eye hiss round the stake of olive-wood. Odyssey, Fagles pp.223-4

8th Century Apollo Statuette with inscription

from The Odyssey

Homer’sIliad

Zeus and Leda

HelenClytemnestra

CastorPolydeuces

Dioscuri - Castor and Polydeuces

Helen - Menelaus

Clytemnestra - Agamemnon

Priam and Hecuba

ParisHector

Marriage of Peleus and Thetis

Judgment of Paris

AthenaHera

Aphrodite

Rubens - Judgment of Paris

Iphigenia at Aulis

The Greek Expedition

Protesilaus

Laodamia

Peleus and Thetis

Achilles

Achilles disguised as a girl on Scyros, and raised with the daugthers of king Lycomedes

Achilles falls in love with Deidamia, and has Neoptolemus with her

Epeus

Wooden Horse

The main Achaean force, setting their camps afire, had boarded the oarswept ships and sailed for home but famed Odysseus’ men already crouched in hiding-in the heart of Troy’s assembly-dark in that horse the Trojans dragged themselves to the city heights. Now it stood there, looming… and round its bulk the Trojans sat debating, clashing days on end. Three plans split their ranks: either to hack open the hollow vault with ruthless bronze or haul it up to the highest redge and pitch it down the cliffs or let it stand-a glorious offering made to pacify the gods-and that, that final plan was bound to win the day. For Troy was fated to perish once the city lodged inside her walls the monstrous woden horse where the prime of Argive power lay in wait with death and slaughter bearing down on Troy. And he sang how troops of Achaeans broke from cover, streaming out of the horse’s hollow flanks to plunder Troy – he sang how left and right they ravaged the steep city. Odyssey, Fagles pp.207-8

Agamemnon

Leader of the Greeks and a great warrior.

Menelaus

King of Sparta and the husband of Helen. A strong warrior.

Diomedes

King of Argos and a great warrior of the Greek army. He

fights Ares himself.

Nestor

King of Pylos. During the time of the Trojan war he is an old man, but he was once a great warrior. He is the wisest Greek leader at

Troy.

Ajax the Great, son of Telamon

Ajax the Great is the son of Telamon. He is a strong warrior, known more for his brawn than

his brains.

Ajax the Less

Ajax the Less is the son of Oileus. A less distinguished warrior than Ajax. He is best known for dragging Priam’s daughter from the temple of Athena where she had taken

refuge during the sack of Troy.

Odysseus

King of Ithaca, known as a great warrior but most prominently as

a very clever and tricky individual. Not wanting to go to

war in the first place, he pretended to be mad, but was

discovered

Achilles

The great hero of the Greeks and the leader of the Myrmidons, son

of Thetis and Peleus.

Patroclus

Also a great warrior. When young, he had killed a man during a game of dice and

Achilles father took him in to be Achilles’ companion; they are perhaps lovers and Patroclus is important for the story of the

Trojan War.

Dardanus

The son of Zeus and the founder of Troy and the ancestor of Priam

and the other Trojans.

Priam and Hecuba

King and Queen of Troy. Priam is said to have had 50 sons and

12 daughters, 19 of which he had with Hecuba. At the time of the

Trojan war they are older parents.

Paris (Alexander)

Son of Priam and Hecuba. A pretty boy, patronized by

Aphrodite.

Hector, Andromache and Astyanax

Prince of Troy, his wife and son. He is the greatest warrior second to Achilles in the battle at Troy. He kills Patroclus, which spurs

Achilles to rejoin the battle to kill him.

Cassandra

Daughter of Priam and prophetess doomed never to be believed. She foresaw the fall of Troy but nobody listened to her.

She is eventually taken as the concubine of Agamemnon.

Aeneas

Son of Anchises and Aphrodite. He escapes Troy with his father

Anchises. He is important in mythology for founding Rome,

which he does after leaving Troy and sailing to Italy.

Glaucus and Sarpedon

The leaders of the Lycians, allies of Troy. They are both great warriors. Glaucus has a famous meeting with the Greek warrior Diomedes in Iliad book 6. Sarpedon is the son of Zeus,

and the greatest Trojan hero after Hector. Sarpedon is killed by

Patroclus.

AntenorThe brother of Hecuba. He is the

greatest of the Trojans who opposed the war and wanted

Helen to be returned to Menelaus. He saved the Greek

ambassadors from being killed at the beginning of the war, and was therefore spared during the sack

of Troy.