Practically nothing is known for sure about Homer,
or indeed whether he existed
at all. The nineteenth
century dispute between one major and manyminor
Homers has been superseded by a general acceptance that
both the Iliad and the Odessey result from reworkings oforalmaterial.
The stories refer to the Doric
invasions and the Bronze
AgeMycenaeans
(before 1100 B), while the poetic
and musicalaffinities
suggest the IndianVedas,
and so may have elements
that go back another thousand years. Legend makes Homer
a blind bard who was a native of the west coast of Asia
Minor, possibly Chios or Smyrna, before 700 BC. Many
readers also feel that, however edited,
there exists a supreme literary intelligence behind these
compositions. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are writtenasdactylichexameters
in a mixture of Greek dialects. Oral poetry is now better
understood, and seems to be composed by formulas
and themes.
The first are epithets, groups of words expressing an essential
idea: they are necessarily in, or create, a poetic pattern
that can be further developed. Themes are the larger outlines,
incidents and stories, which can take many shapes. Oral
poets do not memorise their compositions, but create them
afresh in each retelling by deploying these two types of
building block, exercising (and passing on) a skill that
long practice makes second nature.
Homer's
Iliad
The 24
books of the Iliad
describe a brief
episode in the 10
yearTrojan
War, a conflict brought about by the abduction of Menelaus's
wife Helen
by Paris,
son of Priam. Achilles
is angered when Agamemnon takes the captive woman Briseis
for himself, and retires to his tent. Without their hero,
the Greeks suffer reverses. Odysseus and Diomeded lead expeditions
that end badly. Achilles' great friend, Patroclus,
goes into battle wearing Achilles' armour, but is killed
by Hector. Achilles
is comforted by a visit from his mother Thetis, and has
new armour forged by Hephaestus,
whereupon he enters again into the war and kills Hector,
dragging his body behind his chariot as vengeance for the
death of Patroclus. Eventually, following a visit from Hector's
father, the aged Priam, Achilles relinquishes the body of
Hector, and the rites
proper to war are observed. In both epics, despite the heroic
splendour of the writing, and the occasional inconsistency,
the plotting
and characterisation
bring the protagonists vividly to life.
Homer's
Odyssey
Many scholars think the Odyssey
was written later,
by someone other than Homer. Again in 24 books, the epic
relates the wanderings
of the crafty Odysseus and his companions in their long
return from the Trojan War. The story opens with Odysseus'
son Telemachus seeking news of his father from Nestor at
Pylos and Menelaus at Sparta, where he reports that his
mother Penelope is besieged by suitors wishing to take Odysseus'
kingdom of Ithaca. Menelaus tells Telemachos that Odysseus
has been detained by the nymph Calypso. Zeus
then orders the release of Odysseus, who sails to Phaeacia,
where he recounts to King Alcinoüs his adventures with
Polyphemus, Aelus, Circe,
Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, the Laestrygones and the
lotus eaters — places which can be identifiedaroundtheMediterranean.
Odysseus returns to Ithaca and, with the help of Telemachus
and Athena,
kills the suitors and regains his kingdom.
