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The Iliad is not an Achilleid, although Achilles is the most important character in the epic. One of the most striking features of the poem is the way in which it embraces the action of the whole Trojan War by retrospective and prospective references, rather than by narrating the events in full. In this, as is evident from ancient testimony, the Iliad was markedly different from the ‘cyclic’ epics (see esp. Hor. Ars P. 136–7). The human characters refer to the abduction of Helen, the initial embassy to the Trojans, the mustering at Aulis, the earlier campaigns and clashes; the prophecies and comments of the gods, particularly Zeus and Thetis, anticipate the doom of Achilles and the ultimate fall of Troy, also grimly foreshadowed in other ways. In an important passage which seems to be deliberately reserved for a late stage in the poem, Homer himself looks back to the origin of the whole conflict, the judgement of Paris which aroused the implacable anger of Athena and Hera against Troy.
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Footnotes
1
The commentary by Kirk and others (1985–93) is now the first resource; see also Latacz et al. 2000 - (in progress); Macleod 1982 on Book 24; Griffin 1995 on Book 9; Graziosi and Haubold 2010 on Book 6; and de Jong 2012 on Book 22. For general books on the Iliad in English, see also Bowra 1930; Redfield 1975; Mueller 1984; Schein 1984 (useful but rather derivative); M. W. Edwards 1987a; Silk 1987 (short but acute); Taplin 1992; Louden 2006. In German, Reinhardt 1961 and Schadewaldt 1938 are fundamental. Stanley 1993 is extremely useful for book-by-book bibliography even if one finds his analyses over-schematic. M. L. West 2011c is highly selective but has many interesting observations. More specific studies are mentioned below.
References
2 3.443–6; 3.204–24; 2.301–30; for references to earlier campaigning, see e.g. 2.688–93; 9.128–30, 328–33, 663–8; 19.295–6. For anticipation of the fall of Troy, see e.g. 4.163–5 = 6.447–9; 15.69–71; 18.207–13; 22.410–11, etc. For the death of Achilles see below, p. 118. In general, see e.g. Kullmann 1960: ch. 5; Griffin 1980: 1; Mueller 1984: 66–7; Dowden 1996: 55–6.
3 See esp. Reinhardt 1938; Griffin 1980: 195 n. 49; Richardson 1993: 276–8 (a very careful discussion). M. L. West 2011c: 412 regards this passage as a ‘rhapsodic interpolation’.
4 Taplin 1992, 14–22, with earlier references.
5 G. Nagy, in a series of studies, has described the Homeric epics as ‘pan-Hellenic’ in a different sense, following use of the term by A. Snodgrass: see e.g. Nagy 1990: 70–1, 1995. By this he means that the epic spread widely, and that a common tradition of heroic song was swiftly established throughout the Greek world. It is certainly remarkable that the epic assumes that characters and readers are familiar with place-names and peoples throughout the Greek mainland and islands. This use of ‘pan-Hellenism’, however, would not affect the point made in my text, that the epic is not obviously nationalistic.
6 As the Meleager tale especially makes clear (9.524–99); see also 13.460; 20.178–86; 6.326, 335. Cairns 2003 has a broader discussion of the significance of anger; see also van Wees 1992b: 126–38; Harris 2001; Most 2003.
7 See Page 1959, ch. 6, esp. 248–51, 286–8; Combellack 1944. But see Kullmann 1960: 182–8 on Homer's enlargement of Hector's role. As for Patroclus, Schadewaldt 1965: 178–81 thought it conceivable that he was invented by Homer; Kullmann 1960: 44–5 prefers to think that Homer significantly enhanced his role.
8 Beck 1964; Macleod 1982, esp. 32–5; N. J. Richardson 1993: 1–14. Contrast Seaford 1994: ch. 5 (hardly tenable).
9 In all this discussion it must be borne in mind that the book divisions are unlikely to be the work of the poet. They are first attested in Alexandrian times, and may well be the work of the school of Aristarchus (Janko 1992: 37; for an earlier date, S. West 1967: 18–25; cf. S. West 1988: 39–40). Their inadequacy has been strenuously asserted by Taplin 1992; Heiden 2008 (and in earlier work cited there) tries to defend them and use them for interpretation. It is a major defect of Stanley 1993 that so many of his analyses assume the division goes back to the poet. On the ancient titles given to books or episodes, see Stanley 1993: 418 n. 133.
10 2.699, 721–6, cf. 686–94. In general on the Catalogue, see Kirk 1985:168–87, 237–40; Visser 1997; Sammons 2010; Kullmann 2012.
11 Andersen 1978 is a detailed study of Diomedes’ role. See also Reichel 1994: 217–30.
12 Dué and Ebbott 2010; Fantuzzi 2005.
13 The quotation is from Taplin 1992: 253. See further Redfield 1975: 206–12; Macleod 1982: 28–32. Postlethwaite 1995 (correcting a rare error of Macleod's regarding 23.891) argues that tensions among the Greeks remain even at the end of Book 23.
14 J. T. Kakridis 1971, 54–67 rejects simple assertions of Homeric philhellenism; see also E. Hall 1989: ch. 1. Sale 1989 argues that Homer greatly expanded the role of the Trojans.
15 See further Stoevesandt 2004 (there is a useful review of this book by M. Willcock in BMCRev 2006).
16 24.762–75, esp. 767, 771–2.
17 Other ways in which Hector and Achilles are contrasted are discussed below, pp. 71–5.
18 Griffin 1980: 3–6 and 23 overstates the case against Paris. On p. 23 he is mistaken in saying that the wound Paris inflicts on Diomedes is ‘superficial’: Diomedes’ heated response is mere bluff, and he is incapacitated for the remainder of the fighting (see 19.48–9). Collins 1988: 27–39 makes a case for Paris as representing an alternative ‘ethic of Aphrodite’.
19 Macleod 1982: 22 n. 2.
20 See further Schadewaldt 1938: 148; Reinhardt 1961: 63–8; Rabel 1988. Fenik 1974: 172–207 discusses the Odyssey's fondness for ‘character doublets’ (e.g. Eurycleia and Eurynome), and illustrates this tendency also from the Iliad; cf. Fenik 1968: 147–50. On Briseis, see further Dué 2002.
21 5.318–52, 792–865. For another case, see Patroclus’ assault on the wall, 16.698–711 (where he yields ground before Apollo), and his renewed onslaught at 782–804 (where Apollo strikes him down). On the principle see esp. Fenik 1974: 180–7; also M. W. Edwards 1991: 13, 19–21.
22 16.644–55. On retardation in general, see Reichel 1990; also Bremer 1987: 33–7. A related technique, misdirection (that is, leading the audience to expect one development and then surprising them), is also present in Homer, though less important: on this see Morrison 1992 (confined to the Iliad).
23 16.140–2. See further, for explicit cases, e.g. 2.35–40, 419–20; 11.604; 16.46–7; for implicit, e.g. 18.22–7 (pp. 117–18 below); 18.207–13 and 219–22; 22.420–2 (similes which anticipate the sack of Troy). On this whole topic, see Duckworth 1933, Reichel 1994.
24 E.g. 2. 155; 8. 217; 16.698–701; see further Reinhardt 1961: 107–13; de Jong 1987a: 68–81; Nesselrath 1992; Kelly 2007b: 128–32.
25 For detailed analysis, see Fenik 1968: 217; Janko 1992 on 16.830–63; N. J. Richardson 1993 on 22.330–67.
26 12.60–80, 210–50; 13.725–53; 18.249–313. See Schadewaldt 1938: 104–6; Redfield 1975: 272–7; Bannert 1988: 71–81; Reichel 1994: 175–82.
27 The simile applied to Priam at 24.480–4 brings out the extraordinary nature of his situation: see the note in Macleod 1982.
28 For further analysis of corresponding scenes of this type, see Schadewaldt 1938; Taplin 1992.
29 See further Lord 1960: 68–98; Powell 1977; M. W. Edwards 1991: 11–23 (contrast N. J. Richardson 1993: 14–24).
30 Kirk 1985: ix – though he goes on to allow that ‘such dimensions undeniably exist’.
31 I say ‘Iliadic’ deliberately, since it is not necessarily the case that Homer the man held precisely these views in his everyday life: not only are literature and life distinct, but the Iliad itself clearly represents a deliberately selective vision of the heroic world.
32 Morris 1986 and van Wees 1992b: 78–89 argue that the epics serve to ‘legitimize’ kingly rule (similarly Janko 1992: 38). This works well with the Thersites episode, but surely does not represent the primary purpose of the poems.
33 See further Thalmann 1988; Reichel 1994: 106 n. 9; Halliwell 2008: 69–77. It is astonishing that Thersites figures only in a single nugatory footnote in Haubold 2000.
34 Against Page 1959: 315–24, who argued from Thucydides for late interpolation of the passages concerning the wall, see M. L. West 1969 and Tsagarakis 1969.
35 In the Cycle the solution was magical: Cypria fr. 26; cf. Griffin 1977, 40–1. On the passage in Iliad 7 (466–82) see Finglass 2006, with the reply by Kelly 2008b.
36 In general on the problems concerning Phoenix, see pp. 108–10 below.
37 Janko 1992 ad loc. defends Hector's success in crossing the ditch by appealing to an earlier passage where Apollo opened the way for the Trojan attack (15.358–9), but the lines still seem difficult. However, van Wees 2004 (and earlier articles) argues that modern scholarship has been over-sceptical about the presentation of chariots in Homer.
38 Fundamental treatment by Fenik 1968; see also Strasburger 1954; W. H. Friedrich 1956; Krischer 1971; Kirk 1976: ch. 3; Latacz 1977; Mueller 1984: ch. 3 (a very useful brief account); Kirk 1990: 15–27; van Wees 1992a, 1992b, 2004: ch. 11. Willcock 1983b compares Homeric and Virgilian battle scenes.
39 The brief reference to ambushes by Idomeneus in 13.279–87 (cf. 1.226–7) is abnormal. Contrast the Odyssey, and see further A. T. Edwards 1985: ch. 1. Deception and treachery were more prominent in the Cyclic poems: e.g. Odysseus and Diomedes murdered Palamedes in the Cypria (fr. 27); the same heroes sneaked into Troy and stole the Palladium in the Little Iliad (fr. 11).
40 For another reason for the dropping of this motif, see M. W. Edwards 1987a: 57. Ibid. 261 thinks even Sarpedon's uncertainty is a stock motif, cf. 5.175–6.
41 See Griffin 1980, passim, e.g. 48–9.
42 Taplin 1990; Reichel 1994: 198–203.
43 Bowra 1957: ch. 2 and 1961: ch. 3; also Bowra 1964. More recently, see e.g. van Wees 1992b: 64–5, 69–77, 107–25.
44 Translation from Hammond 1987, slightly modified.
45 See Irwin 1989: ch. 2.
46 For what follows see especially Hammer 2002; Haubold 2000; Barker 2009; Allan and Cairns 2011.
47 Goldhill 1986: 154–61; note also Arist., An. Post. 97b15, identifying Achilles, Ajax, and Alcibiades as men characterized by pride.
48 Andersen 1978; Griffin 1980: 74; Macleod 1982: 25 n. 1.
49 Taplin 1992, 6–7, 50–1, 71–2, 166 against Finley 1979: 113, cf. 115.
50 See 18.105–6, and further Schofield 1986; also Greenhalgh 1972.
51 Dodds 1951: chs. 1–2, esp. 17–18, 28, 47–50. For modern studies of honour and shame, see e.g. J. K. Campbell 1964; Peristiany 1965; also Lloyd-Jones 1990; Scodel 2008. Recent approaches are surveyed by Cairns 2011.
52 Adkins 1960, and many subsequent articles. For criticism, see Long 1970 (contrast Adkins 1971); Lloyd-Jones 1971: ch. 1; Dover 1983; B. Williams 1993; Zanker 1994, esp. ch. 1. A polemical exchange between Adkins, Gagarin, and Lloyd-Jones may be found in Adkins 1987; Gagarin 1987; and Lloyd-Jones 1987. Rowe 1983 is a review of the issues. Yamagata 1994 retraces the ground at book length.
53 Again the terminology derives from Adkins, e.g. 1960, 31–46.
54 Dodds 1951: 15. Cf. Snell 1953: ch. 1, esp. 17–20; Fränkel 1975: 75–80. Contrast B. Williams 1993: ch. 1; also Fenik 1978b, and the works cited in n. 89 below.
55 Lloyd-Jones 1971; Dover 1983.
56 Cairns 1993, an exhaustive treatment; see also B. Williams 1993: ch. 4.
57 See further Segal 1971b; Vermeule 1979: ch. 3; Parker 1985.
58 The standard instance of an impossible wound is 13.545–9. For gruesomeness, see W. H. Friedrich 1956; Griffin 1980: 91; Mueller 1984: 82–6. Saunders 1999 (not for the squeamish) presents the medical facts.
59 On supplication, see above all Gould 1973 (80 n. 39 for a full list) (= Gould 2001: 32 n. 39); also Thornton 1984; Goldhill 1990; Crotty 1994; Naiden 2006.
60 Segal 1971b: 18–47. See also Griffin 1980: 44–6, for Eastern parallels and contrasts.
61 Threatened at 21.27–31, fulfilled at 23.175–83. Cf. G. Murray 1934: ch. 5.
62 Achilles to Hector, 22.346–7; cf. 4.34–6, Zeus to Hera on her hatred for the Trojans; also 24.212–13, Hecuba on Achilles. See Redfield 1975: 197–9; Griffin 1980: 20.
63 See Vermeule 1979, esp. 99–103; Parks 1990.
64 A memorable essay by S. Weil, ‘The Iliad as a Poem of Force’ (Weil 1940–1), emphasizes both the pity and the horror of Homeric warfare; the horror is more cheerfully accepted by Finley 1979: 118 (‘The poet and his audience lingered lovingly over every act of slaughter’) and by Vermeule 1979: 84, 85, 96, 99, 114 (who speaks of ‘wit’ and ‘ballet’ in the battle scenes).
65 E.g. 4.473–89 (well discussed by Schein 1984: 73–6), 5.152–8 (the bereaved father), 11.241–7 (the bride left behind); more examples in Strasburger 1954; Griffin 1980: ch. 4. For similes used to enhance the pathos of death, see e.g. 8.306–7; Porter 1972.
66 On the shield, see Schadewaldt 1965: 352–74; Reinhardt 1961: 401–11; Taplin 1980. There has been much interest in the shield among students of ecphrasis (the formal description of a work of art in literature): e.g. Becker 1995, with earlier bibliography.
67 It is misguided to lay too much stress on the phrases ‘unseemly acts’ and ‘harsh deeds’ (22.395; 23.24, 176), used to describe Achilles’ actions (as is done by e.g. Bowra 1930: 21; Segal 1971b: 13); they do not necessarily convey moral criticisms. See Griffin 1980: 85; Vermeule 1979: 234 n. 11; Hainsworth 1993: 49–50; N. J. Richardson 1993; and de Jong 2012, ad loc.
68 See esp. Griffin 1980: chs. 5–6; Erbse 1986; M. W. Edwards 1987a: ch. 17; Kirk 1990: 1–14; Janko 1992: 1–7. On religion more generally, see above all Burkert 1985 and Bremmer 1994. For illustrations of the gods in art, see Simon 1985.
69 For various consequences of this see Parker 1998.
70 E. Hall 1989, 43–5.
71 Jörgensen 1904.
72 Cf. the stories of Niobe (24.602–9) and of Meleager's father (9.533–7); Page 1973a: 79–83; Weiler 1974.
73 On this case, and on prayers in Homer more generally, see Macleod 1982: 42; more bibliography in Reichel 1994: 73; Pulleyn 1997.
74 R. B. Rutherford 1982: 156–7, with other examples.
75 In general on Thetis’ role in the Iliad, see Slatkin 1991.
76 The scene is discussed in detail by Halliwell 2008: 77–86.
77 Il. 18.117; 3.243–4; Od. 4.561–69; cf. Od. 11.299–304, on Castor and Pollux. See M. L. West 1978 on Hes. Op. 166–7; Griffin 1977: 42.
78 Cf. Od. 17.483–7; Kearns 1982; Lane Fox 1986: ch. 4.
79 Burkert 1985: 119–25.
80 See esp. Lesky 1961; also Willcock 1970; Versnel 2011: 163–78.
81 As 3.164, Priam to Helen; 19.86–138, Agamemnon's apology; more outrageously, Paris at 3.439 (see p. 106 below). See Dodds 1951: ch. 1; Hutchinson 1985 on Aesch. Sept. 4–9; Taplin 1990: 75–7; and M. W. Edwards 1991: 245–7 on 19.85–138.
82 This was the starting point for Dodds's classic discussion, but for criticism of his analysis see already Barrett 1964 on Eur. Hipp. 241. On the interpretation of Ate (‘harm’ or ‘Ruin’), see esp. Cairns 2012.
83 For one particularly complex case, Aphrodite and Helen in Iliad 3, see pp. 104–6 below. Another in which psychic intervention is clearly involved, and which seems to involve some distortion of the mortal's ‘natural’ reactions, is Athena's prompting of Penelope to show herself to the suitors in Odyssey 18, a controversial scene (see R. B. Rutherford 1992: 29–33; D. Steiner 2010: 179–203).
84 For an argument that divine justice is much more significant than I have allowed here, see Allan 2006.
85 Zeus invoked at oath-taking: 3.104, 274, 298–301, 320. See 3.351–4 and 13.625 (Menelaus) for Zeus Xeinios. The oath-breaker Pandarus is indeed killed shortly after his offence, though it is not clear whether this is to be seen as either divine or poetic justice: see A. Parry 1971: lvii n. 1; Taplin 1992: 104–9.
86 Cf. 18.507–8; Hes. Theog. 85–6 with West's note; Hes. Op. 35–6, 250–69.
87 16.458–61. In general, see Greene 1944; Dietrich 1965; Burkert 1985: 129–30; Janko 1992: 4–7.
88 Dodds 1951: 32–4; Lloyd-Jones 1971: 28–32, Fenik 1974: 208–30; Kullmann 1985; Versnel 2011: ch. 2, esp. 156–7.
89 Sharples 1983; Halliwell 1990; Gaskin 1990; M. Clarke 1999: 66–9.
90 These and parallel speeches are discussed by Fenik 1978b and G. Petersmann 1974 .
91 For bibliography on the relationship of Homer to tragedy, see Reichel 1994: 11; ancient texts on the subject are gathered by Herington 1985: 213–15. Some of the connections are discussed in R. B. Rutherford 1982, but I would now lay less emphasis on the Aristotelian concept of tragic error (hamartia). Seaford 1994: 275–8, 338–44, stresses the differences between the genres.
92 On Hector see esp. Redfield 1975: 109–27; also Erbse 1978; Schein 1984: 168–95; Reichel 1994: 156 n. 1 (bibliography).
93 See further Lohmann 1988.
94 The point is emphasized not only by the earlier series of exchanges with Polydamas, but also by the carefully planned contrast between this scene and the corresponding Trojan assembly in Book 8 (note esp. 8.542 = 18.310). Cf. R. B. Rutherford 1985: 135.
95 There are of course setbacks, notably the episode in which Hector is wounded (14.402–522, 15.1–12, 220–70), but this does not affect the overall pattern.
96 For the scholia, see N. J. Richardson 1980: 273–4. Moderns who use the term hubris (a word remarkably rare in the Iliad) are listed and criticized by Fisher 1992: 177–8 (now the standard work on this difficult term; but note the criticisms of Cairns 1996; also Chadwick 1996: 292–7).
97 See also Schadewaldt 1965: 268–351 (translated as Schadewaldt 1997a).
98 On Achilles generally, see the very full bibliography in Reichel 1994: 99 n. 1; also Zanker 1994; Muellner 1996; Burgess 2009.
99 Much rhetorical play is made with this phrase: see 1.91, 244, 412; 2.82, 580, 761, etc.
100 This formulation can stand, even if the case for informality of command structure pressed by Taplin 1990 is accepted in full.
101 See further my remarks in R. B. Rutherford 1982: 157–8, and context.
102 Schadewaldt 1965: 234–67 (translated as Schadewaldt 1997b); Griffin 1980: 163–4.
103 On Homeric rhetoric, see Lohmann 1970; Latacz 1974; R. B. Rutherford 1992: 58–69.
104 The essential discussion is by Griffin 1986, developed in 1995; some criticism in Kirk 1990: 28–35. See also Lohmann 1970, esp. 236–45 on Book 9; Martin 1989, important though vulnerable in some details.
105 Aeschylus’ Myrmidons seems to have been particularly important: see frr. 134–7 Radt, with Dover 1978: 196–201; Halperin 1990: 75–87; M. W. Edwards 1991 on 18.82. Even the favour shown by Zeus to Ganymede is treated in asexual terms in the Iliad, despite reference to the young man's beauty (5.266; 20.232–5). Davidson 2007: 255–60, insists that the Achilles–Patroclus relationship is erotic already in Homer, with much polemic but no new arguments.
106 A. Parry 1956 was seminal in this discussion. For specific criticism see Reeve 1973; Lynn-George 1988: ch. 2 (esp. 93–101); and for development see e.g. Redfield 1975: 3–23, 103–6; M. W. Edwards 1987a: 231–6; Martin 1989: ch. 4.
107 Edwards’ commentary (M. W. Edwards 1991) is invaluable on Book 19, which earlier treatments often underrated; also helpful is Taplin 1992: 203–18. On the importance of feasting together, see Griffin 1980: 14–21, an excellent section; van Wees 1992b: 44–7.
108 For a different approach see Seaford 1994: 159–80, who lays much emphasis on the importance of ritual in re-integrating Achilles into the community.