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General SummaryThe Iliad and the Odyssey are not simply the noblest examples of epic poetry which have come down to us from antiquity. To the historian these two poems are the chief source of information for the life and culture of the early Greeks before the dawn of history. It is true that the poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey professes to relate events that in his own time were already ancient; events which we may well believe never happened. But if the stories he has to tell are pure fictions, the manners and customs he describes are not imaginary. The civilization pictured by the poet is mainly that with which he is himself familiar. Homer paints the past in the colors of his own day.
Historical SummaryThe Iliad deals with the events of only a few days during the tenth and last year of the siege of Troy (or Ilium). From other poems we learn how Paris, son of Priam the Trojan king, carried off to Troy the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; and how the Greek chieftains gathered from far and near to avenge the wrong. Under Agamemnon of Mycenæ for nine long years the Greeks besieged the city. But the Trojans kept behind their walls and refused a battle, for they feared the deadly might of Achilles, greatest of the Greek heroes. And now in the tenth year, from King Agamemnon Achilles suffered a grievous insult. Then Achilles withdrew to his hut by the seashore and vowed never again to fight for Agamemnon. To the Greeks, thereby, came woes innumerable, for Zeus the cloud-gatherer had given his pledge that the wrong of Achilles should be avenged on Agamemnon and all his host. So Zeus sent a deceitful dream to Agamemnon beguiling the king with the hope he might take the city of the Trojans. Then Agamemnon called a council of the elders and chieftains telling them of his vision and bidding them call an assembly of the host. "But first I will speak to make trial of them as is fitting, and will bid them flee with their benched ships; only do ye from this side and from that speak to hold them back."
Chapter III Early Greek Society as Pictured in the Homeric Poems1
10. A Popular Assembly2
So spake he, and led the way forth from the council, and all the other sceptered chiefs rose with him and obeyed the shepherd of the host; and the people hastened to them. . . . And the place of assemblage was in an uproar, and the earth echoed again as the hosts sate them down, and there was turmoil. Nine heralds restrained them with shouting, if perchance they might refrain from clamor, and hearken to their kings, the fosterlings of Zeus. And hardly at the last would the people sit, and keep them to their benches and cease from noise. Then stood up Lord Agamemnon bearing his scepter, that Hephæstus1 had wrought curiously. . . . Thereon he leaned and spake his saying to the Argives.2
"My friends, Danaan warriors, men of Ares’3 company, Zeus hath bound me with might in grievous blindness of soul.
Hard of heart is he, for that erewhile he promised me and pledged his nod that not till I had wasted well-walled Ilium should I return. Now see I that he planned a cruel wile and biddeth me return to Argos dishonored, with the loss of many of my folk. So meseems it pleaseth most mighty Zeus, who hath laid low the head of many a city, yea, and shall lay low; for his is highest power. Shame is this even for them that come after to hear; how so goodly and great a folk of the Achæans thus vainly warred a bootless war, and fought scantier enemies, and no end thereof is yet seen. . . . Already have nine years passed away, and our ships’ timbers have rotted and the tackling is loosed; while there our wives and little children sit in our halls awaiting us; yet is our task utterly unaccomplished where-for we came hither. So come, even as I shall bid, let us all obey. Let us flee with our ships to our dear native land; for now shall we never take wide-wayed Troy."
So spake he, and stirred the spirit in the breasts of all throughout the multitude, as many as had not heard the counsel. And the assembly swayed like high sea-waves . . . that east wind and south wind raise, rushing upon them from the clouds of Father Zeus. And even as when the west wind cometh to stir a deep cornfield with violent blast, and the ears bow down, so was all the assembly stirred. And they with shouting hasted toward the ships; and the dust from beneath their feet rose and stood on high. Then each man bade his neighbor to seize the ships and drag them into the bright salt sea. . . .
1 , translated by Lang, Leaf, and Myers. 2d edition. London, 1892. Macmillan and Co. , translated by S. H. Butcher and Andrew Lang. London, 1879. Macmillan and Co.
2Iliad, ii, 84–154.
1 The divine smith.
2 The Greeks at Troy are spoken of by the poet as Argives, Danaans, and Achæans.
3 God of war.
Chicago: S. H. Butcher and Andrew Lang, trans., The Odyssey of Homer in Readings in Early European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), 27–28. Original Sources, accessed December 4, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XN53QVQMGKY7RI4.
MLA: . The Odyssey of Homer, translted by S. H. Butcher and Andrew Lang, in Readings in Early European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1926, pp. 27–28. Original Sources. 4 Dec. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XN53QVQMGKY7RI4.
Harvard: (trans.), The Odyssey of Homer. cited in 1926, Readings in Early European History, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston, pp.27–28. Original Sources, retrieved 4 December 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=XN53QVQMGKY7RI4.
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