The War That Killed Achilles (43 page)

49
“Odysseus kills Astyanax, Neoptolemus receives Andromache as his prize, and they divide up the rest of the booty. . . . Then they set fire to the city, and slaughter Polyxena at Achilles' tomb”;
Sack of Ilion,
argument 4, in West,
Greek Epic Fragments,
147. In the
Little Iliad
it is Neoptolemus who kills Astyanax. See page 81 of this work.

50
Both Pindar,
Nemean
8.23ff., and Sophocles'
Ajax
treat Aias' humiliating loss and death. The
Iliad
declares that Aias was “far the best . . . while Achilles stayed angry” (2.278f.); yet when, in Book Three, Helen identifies key Achaean figures to Priam, her offhand dismissal of Aias—“That one is gigantic Aias, wall of the Achaeans, / and beyond him there is Idomeneus (3.229f.)—seems pointedly slighting.

51
The details of Diomedes' journey westward are obscure and confused, as is the tradition that in Italy his men were transformed into birds. See Gantz, vol. 2, 699f., for the various versions and sources; and Irad Malkin,
The Returns of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998), 234ff.

52
Odyssey
4.238ff.

53
Odyssey
3.103ff.

54
Euripides,
Andromache,
341ff., in David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, eds. and trans.,
Euripides III
(Chicago, 1958), 87.

55
Strabo,
Geography
1.3.2.

56
For the date of the pendant see Irene S. Lemos,
The Protogeometric Aegean: The Archaelogy of the Late Eleventh and Tenth Centuries B.C.,
(Oxford, 2002), 131f. The significance of the exotic quality and antiquity of the Lefkandi burial goods is discussed in Jan Paul Crielaard, “
Basileis
at Sea: Elites and External Contacts in the Euboean Gulf Region from the End of the Bronze Age to the Beginning of the Iron Age,” in Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy and Irene S. Lemos, eds.,
Ancient Greece: From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer
(Edinburgh, 2006), 271-97, especially 286f.

57
See Ione Mylonas Shear,
Kingship in the Mycenaean World and Its Reflection in the Oral Tradition
(Philadelphia, 2004), 82.

58
Quoted from Bryce,
Life and Society in the Hittite World,
99; and also p. 31 on the quality of royal mercy.

59
Gilbert Murray,
The Rise of the Greek Epic: Being a Course of Lectures Delivered at Harvard University
(Oxford, 1924), 92.

60
The transcendence of death through poetic renown is a complex and vast subject. A landmark work on Greek epic's role in immortalizing dead heroes is Gregory Nagy,
The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry
(Baltimore, 1979), especially 174ff. A succinct overview of the Indo-European evidence, and a less formulaic approach, is given by West,
Indo-European Poetry and Myth,
396ff. and 403ff. Challenging the premise that
kléos áphthiton
is in fact a formulaic survival from Indo-European heroic poetry is Margalit Finkelberg, “Is ΚΛΕΟ∑ АФѲІТОΝ a Homeric Formula?,”
Classical Quarterly
36, no. 1 (1986), 1-5. While Anthony T. Edwards, “ΚΛΕΟ∑ АФѲІТОΝ and Oral Theory,”
Classical Quarterly
38, no. 1 (1988), 25-30, concurs that this key phrase does not represent a Homeric formula, as the term is usually understood, he also suggests that oral theory of poetics, as is it increasingly refined, indicates that formulaic status neither proves nor disproves the antiquity of a phrase.

61
A decision in favor of glory has wrongly been ascribed to Achilles since ancient times; see Bruno Snell,
Scenes from Greek Drama
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), 1-22.

62
Aethiopis,
argument 4, in West,
Greek Epic Fragments,
113. The tradition that a pleasant fate awaits chosen heroes after death is also found in the
Odyssey,
where Menelaos is told that:

63
This small scene is also dense with allusions to Achilles' remarkable ancestry. Odysseus' reference to Achilles' exceptional authority in the Underworld evokes the exceptional authority awarded his forebear, Aiakos, for example (see note 30). Also striking is the exchange between Achilles and Odysseus concerning Peleus, who still lives: to Achilles' moving request that Odysseus “tell me anything you have heard about stately Peleus, / whether he still keeps his position among the Myrmidon / hordes, or whether in Hellas and Phthia they have diminished / his state,” Odysseus replies simply, “I have no report to give you of stately Peleus.” The
Iliad'
s striking silence about Peleus' deeds, then, is also carried into the
Odyssey.
The tradition that brought Achilles, so to speak, to Troy, was that of the Thessalian refugees. Does the often-expressed concern for affairs back in Phthia, and for the fate of its old rulers, together with Achilles' wistful yearning to return home, reflect the nostalgia of these immigrant exiles for the land they would never see again? “The men of the Migrations had left their fathers' graves behind them. The ghosts whom they ought to have fed and cared for were waiting in the old lands helpless.” Murray,
The Rise of the Greek Epic,
71.

SELECTED FURTHER READING

While a detailed bibliography can be gleaned from the chapter notes, the following is intended as a guide to works on major themes that are readily obtainable and mostly accessible to the general reader.

T. W. Allen and D. B. Monro, eds.,
Homeri Opera,
2 vols. (Oxford, 1920), reprinted 1976.

M. L. West, ed.,
Homeri Ilias
(Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1998-2000).

The most comprehensive, thorough, and handy commentary is the six-volume series published by Cambridge University Press, of which the late G. S. Kirk was general editor. While the line-by-line commentary can be technical, the series' many essays on general themes (“The Gods in Homer,” “Typical Motifs and Themes”) are clear and readable. The different volumes are:

 

G. S. Kirk,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume I: Books 1-4
(Cambridge, 1985).

—,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume II: Books 5-8
(Cambridge, 1990).

Bryan Hainsworth,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume III: Books 9-12
(Cambridge, 1993).

Richard Janko,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume IV: Books 13-16
(Cambridge, 1992).

Mark W. Edwards,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume V: Books 17-20
(Cambridge, 1991).

Nicholas Richardson,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume VI: Books 21-24
(Cambridge, 1993).

 

Valuable single-book commentaries are:

 

Jasper Griffin,
Homer: “Iliad” IX
(Oxford, 1995).

Simon Pulleyn,
Homer: “Iliad” I
(Oxford, 2000).

Richmond Lattimore,
The “Iliad” of Homer
(Chicago, 1961): the most faithful to Homer's Greek of all translations available in English, both in literal word sense and in epic gravitas. All translations in this book (with the exception of “The Death of Hektor,” which is by the author) are from Lattimore's landmark translation.

Robert Fagles,
The “Iliad”
(New York, 1990): colloquial and modern, a translation that many readers have found to be the most accessible.

Simeon Underwood,
English Translators of Homer: From George Chapman to Christopher Logue
(Plymouth, UK, 1998), gives a succinct (seventy-nine-page) discussion of the most important translations and changing sensibilities.

Epic Cycle: M. L. West, ed. and trans.,
Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Century B.C.,
Loeb Classical Library 497 (Cambridge, MA, 2003); see also Malcolm Davies,
The Greek Epic Cycle,
2nd ed. (London, 2003), a short (ninety-one-page) overview of the many issues associated with these lost poems.

Hesiod: Glenn W. Most, ed. and trans.,
Hesiod: Volume 1, Theogony. Works and Days. Testimonia,
Loeb Classical Library 57 (Cambridge, MA, 2006); and
Hesiod: Volume 2, The Shield. Catalogue of Women. Other Fragments,
Loeb Classical Library 503 (Cambridge, MA, 2007).

Homer,
The Odyssey:
translations by Richmond Lattimore (New York, 1967), used in this work, and Robert Fagles (New York, 1996) are to be recommended.

Homeric Hymns: M. L. West, ed. and trans.,
Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer,
Loeb Classical Library 496 (Cambridge, MA, 2003).

Pindar: C. M. Bowra, trans.,
The Odes of Pindar
(London, 1969).

 

John Chadwick,
The Mycenaean World
(Cambridge, 1976).

—,
The Decipherment of Linear B
(Cambridge, 1990).

Nic Fields,
Mycenaean Citadels c. 1350-1200 B.C.
(Botley, Oxford, 2004).

K. A. and Diana Wardle,
Cities of Legend: The Mycenaean World
(London, 1997).

 

Trevor Bryce,
Life and Society in the Hittite World
(Oxford, 2002).

—,
The Trojans and Their Neighbours
(Abingdon, Oxon, 2006).

Nic Fields,
Troy c. 1700-1250 B.C.
(Botley, Oxford, 2004).

H. Craig Melchert, ed.,
The Luwians
(Leiden, 2003).

Studia Troica:
interdisciplinary periodical dedicated to Troy and the Troad through all their many historical phases; includes the annual report of excavations at Troy. Copies can be ordered through the Project Troia Web site:
www.unituebingen.de/troia/eng/sttroica.html
.

 

G. S. Kirk, “History and Fiction in the
Iliad,
” in
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume II: Books 5-8
(Cambridge, 1990), 36-50.

Joachim Latacz,
Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery,
translated from the German by Kevin Windle and Rosh Ireland (Oxford, 2004).

Carol G. Thomas and Craig Conant,
The Trojan War
(Westport, CT, 2005).

Michael Wood,
In Search of the Trojan War,
rev. ed. (London, 2005): an excellent, exciting, and well-written overview that navigates the Mycenaean and Hittite sources, modern archaeological findings, and the history of the discovery of the primary sites.

M. I. Finley,
The World of Odysseus,
rev. ed. (New York, 1982).

Ian Morris, ed.,
The Dark Ages of Greece
(Edinburgh, 2009).

Robin Osborne, “Homer's Society,” in Robert Fowler, ed.,
The Cambridge Companion to Homer
(Cambridge, 2007), 206-19.

A. M. Snodgrass,
The Dark Age of Greece: An Archaeological Survey of the Eleventh to the Eighth Centuries B.C.,
rev. ed. (Edinburgh, 2000): a detailed and necessarily technical overview of the archaeological evidence.

Carol G. Thomas and Craig Conant,
Citadel to City-State: The Transformation of Greece, 1200-700 B.C.E.
(Bloomington, IN, 1999).

No aspect of Homeric scholarship is more vexed or contentious than the so-called Homeric question, which in fact encompasses several central questions regarding authorship and compositional technique of the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey:
Was “Homer” an individual poet, or is the name a misleading term for the long poetic tradition that passed through many anonymous hands? How faithfully, or innovatively, was this tradition passed on? How and when was it finally recorded? In other words, did Homer write? Did he dictate to a scribe? Was the text of the
Iliad
finally fixed, by writing, centuries after “Homer”? Did the same poet compose the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
?

While many of these questions were raised even in ancient times, modern scholarship is securely dated to the work of Milman Parry, whose methodical analysis of the function and economy of the formulaic language of Homeric poetry securely established the epics' debt to traditional oral-compositional technique. Parry's later work with
guslars,
or professional poets, of Serbo-Croatian heroic poetry, in what was then Yugoslavia, in partnership with his colleague Albert B. Lord, appeared to substantiate his earlier linguistic work. Parry's legacy is most accessible in a single-volume collection of his papers,
The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry,
Adam Parry, ed. (Oxford, 1997); due to the necessarily technical nature of his work, nonspecialist readers may find these landmark papers more complex and obscure than rewarding. More suitable for the general reader is Lord's summation, below.