Catalogue of Ships
Trojan War |
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The Catalogue of Ships (
Historical background
In the debate since antiquity over the Catalogue of Ships, the core questions have concerned the extent of historical credibility of the account, whether it was composed by Homer himself, to what extent it reflects a pre-Homeric document or memorized tradition, surviving perhaps in part from Mycenaean times, or whether it is a result of post-Homeric development.[2] Dörpfeld notes that while in the Odyssey Odysseus's kingdom includes Ithaca, Same, Dulichium, and Zacynthus, the Catalogue of Ships contains a different list of islands, again Ithaca, Same, and Zacynthus but now also Neritum, Krocylea, and Aegilips. The separate debate over the identity of Homer and the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey is conventionally termed "the Homeric Question".
The consensus before the mid-twentieth century was that the Catalogue of Ships was not the work of the man who composed the Iliad,[a] though great pains had been taken to render it a work of art;[b] furthermore, that the material of the text is essentially Mycenaean or sub-Mycenaean, while disagreement centers largely on the extent of later additions.
If taken to be an accurate account, the Catalogue provides a rare summary of the geopolitical situation in early Greece at some time between the
In the most recent extended study of the Catalogue, Edzard Visser, of the University of Basel, concludes that the Catalogue is compatible with the rest of the Iliad in its techniques of verse improvisation, that the order of the names is meaningful and that the geographical epithets evince concrete geographical knowledge. Visser argues that this knowledge was transmitted by the heroic myth, elements of which introduce each geographical section.[7] W. W. Minton places the catalogue within similar "enumerations" in Homer and Hesiod, and suggests that part of their purpose was to impress the audience with a display of the performer's memory.[8]
The most striking feature of the catalogue's geography is that it does not portray Greece in the
Instead the catalogue portrays a loose union of city-states, mostly in mainland Greece, ruled by hereditary families under the overlordship of the High King (ἄναξ, ánax) of Mycenae. Hardly any of them are Dorian.[citation needed] The Ionian Greeks are mainly missing.[citation needed] This political snapshot is possibly one intended to be of Late Bronze Age Greece.[citation needed]
The Catalogue was an important source for solving geopolitical matters. When the Athenians claimed Salamis they cited the Catalogue of Ships which listed it among the Athenian troops, as proof of its moral allegiance to Athens.[9]
Catalogue
In the Iliad, the Greek Catalogue lists twenty-nine contingents under 46 captains, accounting for a total of 1,186 ships.
Line | Ethnic identity | No. of ships | Captains[c] | Settlements |
---|---|---|---|---|
2.494 | Boeotians
|
50 of 120 men each | (First led by Prothoënor and Clonius
|
|
2.511 | Minyans | 30 | Ascalaphus, Ialmenus | Aspledon, Orchomenus |
2.517 | Phocēans | 40 | Epistrophus
|
|
2.527 | Locrians | 40 | Ajax the Lesser | |
2.537 | Abantes of Euboea | 40 | Elephenor | |
2.546 | Athenians | 50 | Led first by Menestheus (then later by Acamas and Demophon, the sons of Theseus) | Athens |
2.557 | Salamineans | 12 | Telamonian Ajax | Salamis |
2.559 | Argives
|
80 | Diomedes with subordinates Sthenelus and Euryalus | |
2.569 | Mycenaeans
|
100 | Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, supreme commander | |
2.581 | Lacedaemonians (or Laconians) | 60 | Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, husband of Helen | Oetylus
|
2.592 | No name given (Messenians) | 90 | Nestor | Pylos, Arēne, Thryon, Aipy, Cyparisseis, Amphigenea, Pteleum, Helos, Dorium |
2.603 | Arcadians
|
60 | Agapenor | Mantinea, Stymphalos, Parrhasia
|
2.615 | Epeans of Elis | 40 | Alesium
| |
2.624 | Men of Dulichium | 40 | Meges | Echinean Islands
|
2.631 | Cephallenians[14]
|
12 | Odysseus (known in Latin as Ulysses) | Zacynthus (islands with mainland opposite)[f]
|
2.638 | Aetolians | 40 | Thoas
|
|
2.645 | Cretans | 80 | Idomeneus, Meriones
|
, others up to 100 |
2.653 | Rhodians | 9 | Tlepolemus | Lindus, Ielysus, Cameirus |
2.671 | Symians | 3 | Nireus | Symi |
2.676 | No name given. | 30 | Pheidippus, Antiphus
|
Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, Cos, Calydnian Islands |
2.681 | Hellenes, Achaeans
|
50 | Achilles (later led by Neoptolemus) | |
2.695 | No name given. | 40 | Protesilaus (later led by Podarces) | Antrium, Pteleum
|
2.711 | No name given. | 11 | Eumelus
|
Pherae, Boebe, Glaphyrae, Iolcus |
2.716 | No name given. | 7, with 50 oarsmen each who were also archers | Philoctetes, later by Medon | Methone, Thaumacia, Meliboea, Olizon |
2.729 | No name given. | 30 | Machaon, two sons of Asclepius
|
Tricca, Ithome, Oechalia |
2.734 | No name given. | 40 | Eurypylus
|
Titanus
|
2.738 | ( Lapiths )
|
40 | Polypoetes, Leonteus | Oloösson
|
2.748 | Peraebi
|
22 | Guneus | Titaresius
|
2.756 | Magnetes | 40 | Prothoüs
|
About the Peneus and Mt. Pelion |
Authenticity question
Some scholars debate whether the Catalogue of Ships was a later addition to the Iliad from some time after the composition of the main work. Evidence for this, they suggest, is the inconsistencies between the Catalogue and the rest of the text, and also the odd way it is inserted into the poem.[9]
See also
Notes
- ^ Succinctly expressed by C.M. Bowra (1933),[3] which is a review of F. Jacoby's The introduction of the Ships Catalogue into the Iliad (1932).[4]
- ^ Crossett (1969) discusses the dramatic function of the Catalogue in the place that it occupies.[5]
- ^ The dramatic time of the catalogue is early in the war; the place, the shores of the Troad. Captains of those contingents outside the time and place of the catalogue are parenthesized; they are not in the catalogue.
- ^ The Anglicised spellings and diacritical marks of the names in the table are as they are in Britannica, Great Books of the Western World, Volume 4. The order of contingents is that of the catalogue.
- ^ Probably ancient Isos in the vicinity of modern Pyrgos, already in ruins by the time of Strabo[13]
- ^ Compare to Book 1, verse 230[15] where Odysseus' kingdom includes Dulichium, Same, Zacynthus and Ithaca.
References
- ^ Homer 1924, verses 2.494-2.759.
- ^ Anderson 1995, pp. 181–191.
- ^ Bowra 1933.
- ^ Jacoby 1932.
- ^ Crossett 1969.
- ^ Page 1959, pp. 132, 134.
- ^ Visser 1997.
- ^ Minton 1960.
- ^ a b Bowra 1963.
- ^ Luce 1975.
- ^ Apollodorus & Hyginus 2007, "Library" epitome 3.11.
- ^ Apollodorus & Hyginus 2007, fable 97.
- ^ Reece 2009.
- ^ Autenrieth 1891, Κεφαλλῆνες: "the Cephallenians, collective designation of the subjects of Odysseus on islands and mainland"
- ^ Homer 1919, verses 1.230-1.279.
- ^ Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Argura". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray. p. 209(Smith identifies "Argissa" with "Argura" and cites several theories as to its location.)
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Literature
- Anderson, J.K. (1995). "The Geometric Catalogue of Ships". In Carter, Jane B.; Morris, Sarah P. (eds.). The Ages of Homer. Austin, TX: OCLC 1145803250.
- Apollodorus; )
- Austin, John Norman Henry (1965). Catalogues and the catalogue of ships in the Iliad (Ph.D. thesis). ProQuest 302174287.
- OCLC 184883642.
- OCLC 310035. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
- S2CID 163022491.
- Crossett, John (March 1969). "The Art of Homer's Catalogue of Ships". JSTOR 3296106.
- OCLC 38101377.
- OCLC 685521.
- OCLC 176744621.
- ISBN 0060127228.
- Minton, William W. (1960). "Homer's Invocations of the Muses: Traditional Patterns". JSTOR 283858.
- ISBN 9780520319813.
- Reece, Steve (2009). Homer's Winged Words - The evolution of early Greek epic diction in the light of oral theory. Mnemosyne, Supplements. Vol. 313. Leiden; Boston: ISBN 9789047427872.
- Visser, Edzard (1997). Homers Katalog der Schiffe [Homer's catalogue of ships] (in German). Stuttgart; Leipzig: ISBN 978-3-598-77442-3.