The “Homeric Question”
These epics are now nearly 3,000 years old. Yet, they are still the subjects of scholarly debate over the “Homeric question,” which is actually a series of questions. Was Homer the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey? When were these epics written down? How were they composed? No archaeological evidence exists to definitely answer these questions. However, the ancient Greeks believed that Homer was the author of the poems.4 Many modern scholars note that both the Iliad and the Odyssey have a total overall unity. These scholars believe that this unity proves that both poems had to be written by the same person.
However, other historians believe that the epics could not have been composed at one time by the same individual. Rather, they are collections of shorter lays, or simple narrative poems. These lays were combined to form the longer epic poem.
Modern scholars believe that the Iliad and the Odyssey are based on a long tradition of oral poetry.5 Both epics use repetition in phrases, word groups, and scenes. For example, the hero Achilles is repeatedly referred to as “godlike” and “swift-footed.” The god Apollo is “one who shoots from afar.” Common actions such as eating a meal or fighting a duel are described in a similar fashion. These repetitious phrases and scenes, or verbal formulas, were developed over the years by many ancient Greek poets. Since writing was not yet in use, the poets had to perform without using a written poem. Instead of memorizing many poems, they gradually learned these verbal formulas. With practice, the poets added more formulas to the collection they had memorized. They could then combine various scenes and phrases to improvise, thus creating long epic poems with little preparation.
But other historians point out that such a view ignores the magnificent scope and beautiful language of Homer’s work. Also, certain repeated phrases flow so poetically that they must have been intentionally created this way, not developed by a verbal formula.6 An in-depth examination of certain types of scenes, such as a warrior arming for battle, has shown that none of the scenes are exactly alike. Even though some of the phrases within them are repeated, the scenes differ.7 All these points make it difficult to believe that Homer depended on oral formulas and did not know how to write. However, there is enough repetition in his work that scholars agree that Homer’s work was based on a long tradition of oral poetry.8 He then used the new technique of writing to refine and lengthen the poem. Most likely, such an effort took his entire lifetime.9
The epics were preserved in writing at the beginning of the ninth century B.C. after the development of the Greek alphabet. Painstakingly, they were hand-copied onto rolls of papyrus, an Egyptian plant cut into strips and pressed to make a paper-type material.10 Each book, or chapter, into which the Iliad and the Odyssey is divided may have originally been transcribed onto a single roll. From the second to fifth centuries A.D., the materials used to copy the books changed dramatically. Parchment pages bound into books replaced papyrus rolls. For 1,000 years after that, Homer’s works were scribed by hand onto paper or vellum, a fine-grained animal skin. The first machine-printed edition of the epics appeared in Florence, Italy, in 1488, and used a form of type that imitated Greek handwriting. Countless translations of Homer have been printed since then.
The Iliad and the Odyssey are the first poems written in Greek literature. As such, they are usually considered the oldest complete books of western civilization.11 Their rich, flowing poetry and colorful, heroic stories are a legacy worthy of continued reading and study.
Map of Homer's World
1
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS
INTRODUCTION
The story of the Trojan War has attracted generations of scholars, archaeologists, and the general public, all of whom would like to prove that the war actually took place. We may never know for sure the relationship between the myths told of Troy and its actual existence. Still, whatever its foundation in historical fact, the Trojan War is considered by many historians and mythologists to be the most important story to have survived in Greek mythology.1
We do know, however, that the poems of Homer and the other bards, or composers of epics, are not history. Rather, they are stories in a historical setting, developed about the emotions of human beings and the choices they face in life. The sometimes tragic results of human choices make for fascinating reading.
The events leading up to the war and those which follow it are known as the Trojan Cycle. The Iliad and the Odyssey make up an important part of the cycle of stories. Other parts of it must be constructed from many later stories, such as those of Greek playwrights of the fifth century B.C. and Roman writers who followed them.
According to legend, the mighty city of Troy flourished more than three thousand years ago. The Greeks and Trojans went to war over the city. The war started because Paris, a prince of Troy, kidnapped Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, and took her to Troy. Menelaus then called upon all the kings and princes of the Greek world to join him in capturing Helen and bringing her back to Troy. The seeds of the war grew from a dispute between three jealous goddesses, Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. Their story is told in the myth, “The Judgment of Paris.”
Homer refers to the myth about the judgment of Paris and its influence on the beginning of the war in Book 24 of the Iliad. His reference makes it clear that the myth was well known to Homer’s audience.2 The following retelling of “The Judgment of Paris” is taken from two other sources. One is the Trojan Women, a play by Euripides, a playwright who wrote at the same time as Homer. The other source is Lucian’s Dialogues. Lucian was a Syrian author who was born in about A.D. 120. “The Judgment of Paris” makes clear how the Trojan War started.
An important part of this myth is the tradition of xenia, or guest-friendship, which the Greeks valued. Hospitality was always offered to a guest. Both guest and host were bound to help each other. Menelaus trusted Paris completely. However, Paris broke this sacred bond when he kidnapped Helen.
Helen plays an important part in the “The Judgment of Paris.” Because of her, the war was fought. She ran off with Paris, leaving behind her husband and nine-year-old daughter. She did this without considering the consequences of her actions on others. Although Helen was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, she was not happy. She became bored with the vanity of Paris and his lack of bravery compared to Hector, his brother. The Trojans, except for Priam, Paris, and Hector, grew to hate Helen because of her role in the cause of the Trojan War.
The Judgment of Paris
Peleus, king of the Phthia, and Thetis, a sea nymph, were deeply in love. When they planned their wedding feast, they decided not to invite Eris, the goddess of Discord, who always caused problems. On the day of the wedding, all the other Olympian gods gathered in happiness to celebrate the marriage. Eris, furious that she was the only Olympian who had been left out, decided to live up to her name and cause trouble. Into the midst of the wedding banquet hall, she tossed an apple with the words May the Most Beautiful Goddess Take It inscribed on it.
Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena each claimed the apple for herself.
“Surely as the queen of the gods, I deserve this wonderful fruit,” said Hera, as she snatched the apple off the floor.
Aphrodite tried to grab the apple from Hera. “No, as the goddess of beauty, I must claim the prize.”
Powerful Athena wrestled them for the apple as well. “I am both regal and powerful. The apple must be mine!”
“Zeus, my husband, you must choose,” said Hera, confident that he would select her.
Aphrodite nodded. “Yes, in your wisdom, you are the only one who can make the correct decision.”
“Mighty Zeus, since you are king of the gods, we must abide by your choice,” added Athena. Because Zeus was her father, Athena was certain he would rule in her favor, especially if she honored him with her comments.
Zeus, however, decided not to settle the dispute himself. “I love all three of you equally. It is impossible that I could choose among you.” Ze
us knew that these three goddesses had strong tempers. Whoever did not receive the apple would be angry with him, and he did not want to feel the wrath of the other two strong-willed goddesses.
“Go ask Paris, the Trojan prince. He is known as an excellent judge of beauty,” said Zeus. “He lives on Mount Ida, where he keeps his father’s sheep.”
Hera frowned. “You wish for a lowly shepherd to decide among three goddesses?”
“Paris is the son of Priam, king of Troy,” Zeus said. “He must live on the mountain for a seer prophesied that he would cause the destruction of the city.” Zeus handed the apple to Hermes, his winged messenger. Zeus instructed Hermes to tell Paris that he had been chosen to make this important decision because he was so handsome himself and known far and wide as a wise judge in matters of beauty and love.
Hermes flew off with the three goddesses toward Mount Ida, telling them about the young man as they traveled. “Paris is sometimes called Alexander, which means ‘warder-off-of-men,’” said Hermes. “He is so strong that he once single-handedly drove off a band of robbers. He is so strong that we do not want to sneak up on him and risk attack.” Hermes swept down from the sky with the goddesses and landed on the mountain some distance away from Paris. As they approached him, they awoke the young hero from a nap.
“Who are these marvelous beauties who stand before me, Hermes?” asked Paris, who himself was stunningly handsome.
Hermes whispered to Paris the names of the goddesses. As he described the awesome task facing the young prince, the messenger god handed the apple to Paris.
“May the Most Beautiful Goddess Take It,” read Paris. “Hermes, how am I, a mere mortal and a man who lives in the fields, to choose among these three visions of loveliness? Their beauty surrounds me totally.”
“I am not sure how to choose, yet you must obey an order from Zeus,” answered the messenger god.
Paris asked one thing of Hermes: to convince the two goddesses who did not receive the apple to look upon him kindly. “Ask them not to hold their defeat against me. Let them realize that their defeat was in my eyes, not in their wondrous beauty.”
The goddesses agreed not to blame Paris. But one by one, they each offered him a bribe to be chosen as the most beautiful. Hera promised to give Paris control over all of the world. Athena, goddess of war and wisdom, would grant Paris victory in all his battles. Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, promised to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world.
Paris could not resist Aphrodite’s promise, so he chose her as the fairest goddess. Aphrodite then told Paris that he could have the world’s loveliest woman: Helen. Unfortunately, Aphrodite did not tell Paris that Helen was already married.
Helen was so beautiful that every prince and hero of Greece had wanted to marry her. Rich and powerful suitors had come from every corner of Greece to bid for Helen’s hand in marriage. Her father, King Tyndareus, feared that the suitors he did not choose would unite against him. He made them all promise to agree to his decision as to who would be Helen’s husband. Furthermore, all the suitors had to promise to come to the aid of Helen’s husband if any wrong was ever done to him because of his marriage to Helen. After the suitors swore to abide by King Tyndareus’ choice, he selected Menelaus, king of Sparta, to marry Helen.
Because Helen was already married to Menelaus, the only way Paris could win her was by stealing her away from her husband. Paris went to Sparta, where Menelaus welcomed him, as was the custom of the ancient Greeks. Menelaus had no suspicion of Paris’ plan to kidnap his wife.
One day, Menelaus had to leave Sparta to go to a funeral on the island of Crete. As soon as Menelaus left, Paris spirited Helen away to Troy. As soon as Helen had cast her eyes upon the handsome young prince, she was attracted to him. She forgot about her marriage vows to Menelaus and went willingly with Paris to his home across the sea.
When Menelaus returned, he learned immediately that Helen was gone. The mighty king was so furious that he called upon all of her former suitors to help him, as they had promised to do. Kings, princes, and great heroes came from all over Greece to go with Menelaus to Troy to get back his wife. Menelaus would make Paris and Troy pay for the loss of Helen. The Trojan War was about to begin.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: What was the main cause of the Trojan War?
A: Three jealous goddesses (Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite) argued over which of them was the fairest.
Q: Who did Zeus ask to settle this dispute and why?
A: He asked Paris, prince of Troy, who was considered a great judge of beauty. Zeus did not want to become involved because such action would make the goddesses angry with him.
Q: Which goddess did Paris choose as the fairest and what did she promise him?
A: He selected Aphrodite, who promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world.
Q: Who was the most beautiful woman? What was the problem with Paris marrying her?
A: Helen, the most lovely woman, was already the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta.
Q: How did Paris win Helen? What tradition did his action violate?
A: He visited Sparta and stole her away when Menelaus was not there. This action violated the custom of xenia, or guest-friendship. Hospitality was always offered to a guest. Both guest and host were bound to help each other.
Q: What did Menelaus do when he returned to find that Helen was gone?
A: He called upon all of her former suitors to hold to their promise to help him.
EXPERT COMMENTARY
The first city described in Greek literature is Troy. According to Bernard Knox, a scholar of Greek history:
The Greek polis, the city-state, was a community surrounded by potential enemies, who could turn into actual belligerents at the first sign of aggression or weakness. The permanence of war is a theme echoed in Greek literature from Homer to Plato.3
Knox further noted the importance of the city-state:
The city, the polis, as the Greeks called it, was for them the matrix of civilization, the only form of ordered social life they could understand; it is the exclusive form assumed by ancient Greek culture from its beginning to its end. The city was small enough so that the citizens knew one another, participated in a communal life, shared the common joy of festivals, the sorrow of public bereavement, and keen excitement of competition, the common heritage of ancestral tombs and age-old sanctified places. The destruction of a city is a calamity all the more deeply felt because of the close cohesion of its inhabitants and their attachment, reinforced over generations from a mythical past, to its landmarks and buildings.4
Knox pointed out that Troy was a particularly fine example of the polis because:
It is a site chosen with an eye to defensive capabilities, with a high eminence that serves as a citadel, a sacred area for the temples and palaces. It is near the junction of two rivers, and it depends on the produce of the surrounding plain, which is rich plow land and grows wheat. It is fortified against attackers: it is well-walled and well-built, it has steep ramparts and gates. These fortifications enclose a vision of civilized life, the splendors of wealth and peace.5
It was no wonder that the Greeks hoped to win not only Helen, but a share of these riches.
According to myth, Helen and Menelaus had a daughter, Hermione. By abusing the hospitality of Menelaus, Paris caused Helen to make a crucial choice:
Menelaus received Paris warmly, according to the conventions of xenia, “guest friendship.” When Menelaus was called to Crete to attend a funeral, Paris and Helen, irresistibly attracted to one another, gathered up the treasure in the palace and eloped. Thus Helen left behind her lawful husband, her nine-year-old daughter, Hermione, and her good name—such is the power of Aphrodite.6
As the Iliad develops, Hera, the wife of Zeus, and Athena, his daughter, demonstrate a powerful hatred toward Troy. The reason for the hatred is not explained until Book 24, when Homer refers to the Judgment of Paris. According to Bernard Knox:
It
seems clear from the casual, almost cryptic, way Homer refers to the story that it was perfectly familiar to his audience, and Hera’s motive for hating Troy, the insult to her beauty, is perfectly consonant with the picture of Hera as the jealous divine wife Homer presents elsewhere in the Iliad —in her plot against Heracles, Zeus’s child by a mortal woman (14.300-8), and her brutal assault on Artemis, Zeus’s child by another goddess (21.557-66).... And this personal motive has its opposite side: the unfailing support given to the Trojans by the winner of the beauty contest, Aphrodite, and her intervention to save Paris from his fate at the hands of Menelaus (3.439-41).7
2
ACHILLES ARGUES WITH AGAMEMNON
INTRODUCTION
Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces during the Trojan War, quarreled with Achilles, his greatest warrior. They argued violently over the spoils, or prizes, of war. Agamemnon had taken away Briseïs, a slave girl whom Achilles had won. The Greeks considered war prizes to be evidence of a hero’s honor. Thus, Agamemnon’s action slighted Achilles’ honor.
The story of Achilles and Agamemnon is told in the Iliad, which is divided into twenty-four parts called books. In Homer’s day, the Iliad was recited at festivals, where it took two or three days to perform, because it required fifteen sessions of two hours each.1 Most likely, poets took turns reciting it.
Mythology of the Iliad and the Odyssey Page 2
