A Companion to The Iliad

300 Pages·1976·6.709 MB·English

by  Malcolm M. Willcock

A Companion
to the
ILIAD
Based on the
Translation by
Richmond Lattimore
A Companion to the
ILIAD
Based on the Translation by Richmond Lattimore
Malcolm M. Willcock
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1976 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1976
Printed in the United States of America
86 85 84 83 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Willcock, Malcolm M
A companion to the Iliad.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Homerus. Ilias. I. Homerus. Ilias.
II. Title
PA4037.W734 883'.01 75-20894
ISBN 0-226^89854-7 (cloth)
0-226-89855-5 (paper)
Contents
List of Figures
VI
Preface vii
Book One 3 Book Thirteen 144
Book Two 17 Book Fourteen 157
Book Three 39 Book Fifteen 165
Book Four 45 Book Sixteen 176
Book Five 54 Book Seventeen 192
Book Six 66 Book Eighteen 201
Book Seven 76 Book Nineteen 215
Book Eight 85 Book Twenty 222
Book Nine 94 Book Twenty-One 233
Book Ten 113 Book Twenty-Two 240
Book Eleven 123 Book Twenty-Three 249
Book Twelve 137 Book Twenty-Four 266
Appendix A: Transmission of the Text of the Iliad and Com
mentaries on It 277
Appendix B: Methods of Fighting in the Iliad 279
Appendix C: Mythology and the Gods 281
Appendix D: The "Aithiopis Theory" 285
Bibliography 289
Index 291
v
CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
MAP 1. NORTHERN AND CENTRAL GREECE 25
MAP 2. THE PELOPONNESE 29
MAP 3. ASIA MINOR AND THE ISLANDS 36
CHART 1. RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE GREEK CONTINGENTS AT
TROY 116-17
CHART 2. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLEUS 210
VI
Preface
The reader of Homer's Iliad in Greek has a choice of commentaries
to help him understand the text. Readers in translation, whose
numbers must be a hundred or even a thousand times as large, have
no such assistance. It is to fill that gap that the present book has
been written. It is primarily intended for those reading the Iliad for
the first time, although more advanced students also may, it is
hoped, find interest and elucidation in it.
For separate notes it was always evident that a precise point of
reference, and therefore a particular translation, had to be chosen.
The only known predecessor is Л Companion to the Iliad by
W. Leaf (Macmillan, 1892), which was based on the prose transla­
tion by Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf, and Ernest Myers. Through an
admirable combination of qualities, including readability, dignity,
and simplicity, Richmond Lattimore's translation is the outstanding
one for the present age, even more so than "Lang, Leaf, and Myers"
was for the end of the nineteenth century. Consequently, and with
the kind encouragement of the author, the present commentary
uses his text. It may, of course, be employed with other transla­
tions, but less easily, for the precise wording of the references will
be different, and the line numbers may slightly vary.
The reader in translation is in some ways in a better position to
appreciate the whole Iliad than the reader in Greek, in that he can
read more easily, more quickly, and without concern for linguistic
problems. The notes here are directed mostly toward the explana­
tion of words, expressions, and allusions in the text; but they also
include summaries of books and sections, and assistance toward
the appreciation of Homer's broader composition, by drawing
attention to the implications of the narrative and the very effective
vn
PREFACE
characterization of the major heroes. The traditional "Homeric
Question"—the question of the genesis and authorship of this huge
epic, disputed by generations of enthusiastic scholars—is not
forgotten.
I have not felt it desirable to repeat the information about
Homer, his story, characters, and historical background, that is
given in Lattimore's Introduction to his translation (pp. 11-55).
Rather, I have supplemented it by four appendixes on special
topics, which will be found on pp. 277-87. There is also an Index,
referring to discussions in the notes and supplementing the
Glossary of Proper Names in Lattimore.
Some of the notes have already appeared in my Commentary on
Homer's Iliad, Books I-VI, published by Messrs. Macmillan, and
are repeated here with the publishers' permission; I am also
indebted to the same publishers, and to Dr. Stubbings, for permis
sion to reproduce the maps on pp. 25, 29, and 36 from A
Companion to Homer, edited by A. J. B. Wace and F. H. Stubbings.
August, 1975 M. M. WILLCOCK
Vlll
A Companion to the
ILIAD
BOOK ONE
The Greek commander, Agamemnon, is forced by the arguments
of Achilleus at a public assembly to agree to return his captive,
Chryseis, to her father, a local priest. This leads to a violent
quarrel, during which Agamemnon uses his superior rank to
inform Achilleus that he will replace Chryseis with Achilleus' own
captive, Briseis. Achilleus publicly withdraws from the army and
asks his goddess mother, Thetis, to persuade Zeus to help the
Trojans. After an interlude, in which Odysseus sees to the formal
return of Chryseis to her father, Zeus undertakes to do as Thetis
asks; there is then a bad-tempered scene on Olympos between him
and his wife, Hera, which is settled by the efforts of Hephaistos.
It is evident from the way the poet moves straight into his story
after the briefest of introductions that the general tale of the war
against Troy was familiar to his audience, as were the characters.
The Iliad plot is treated as an episode in the long story of
that war.
The composition of Book 1 is simple and natural; it falls into
three sections:
1-430 The quarrel itself, its causes and its immediate conse
quences.
430-492 An interlude showing the passage of time, and allow
ing the return of the girl Chryseis to her home.
493-611 A balancing scene among the gods.
1. The goddess is the Muse, the personification of the poet's
inspiration. The oral poet did not consciously compose his verses.
They came into his mind unbidden; and he believed, or affected to
believe, that the Muse had told him what to say. She is asked to
3
BOOK ONE
sing, because this heroic verse was not spoken but was intoned to a
musical accompaniment. (What was a reality for Homer became a
convention for later poets: "I sing of arms and the man" [Virgil];
"Sing, heavenly Muse" [Milton].)
And the subject that the Muse is to sing of, the subject of the
Iliad, is—we should note—the anger of Achilleus. In other words,
the plot of the Iliad is human and psychological; we are not going
to hear a simple chronicle of the events of the Trojan War but the
causes and consequences of a quarrel between the Greek leaders.
2. The Greeks in the Iliad are called indiscriminately by three
names: Achaians, Argives, and Danaans (LATTIMORE 19).
3. Hades: the god of the underworld.
4-5. It is a common threat in the Iliad that one will give the
enemy's body to the dogs and birds to eat, not allowing his friends
to bury him. In practice, however, no corpses are specifically said
to be eaten by these scavengers; and in Book 7 the two sides will
make a truce for the burial of the dead.
The will of Zeus is a key phrase, meaning, in effect, the plot of
the Iliad. His "will" is to fulfill the promise he makes to Thetis in the
scene starting in line 498. See also 15.61-77 n.
7. Atreus' son. Atreus was the father of the two brothers,
Agamemnon and Menelaos; but when one person is described as
Atreus' son, it will naturally be the elder of the two, the
commander-in-chief of the army, Agamemnon. Such referring to
people by their father's name (their patronymic) is a common
feature of the Iliad.
Lines 1-7 are all that there is of introduction to the Iliad. The
poet now proceeds straight to the quarrel and its cause. We may
notice that, in these introductory lines, the city of Troy has not
even been mentioned; it is worth repeating that the theme of the
poem is the anger of Achilleus, and the disastrous effects it had for
the Achaians.
9-10. Apollo is the most important divine supporter of the
Trojans. He is the archer god, "he who strikes from afar" (15, 21),
the god of disease and healing. The pestilence (plague) which he
sends is further described in 50-52.
4