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History and the Homeric Iliad
study on the Iliad
368 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1959
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 26, 2020
The author combs Hittite documents, the archaeology of Troy, the Linear B documents from Pylos and Knossos, and the Iliad itself to learn what we can about the Trojan War and the composition of the poem. He concludes that the war did actually happen, several of the principal characters were real people, and the poem contains genuine memories of the Mycenaean age and even earlier, although it was modified considerably by a succession of hands in ancient times. The book was written more than 60 years ago, but the arguments are still relevant and indeed quite convincing; these fields continue to be plowed, however, and I have several more books on the subject to read! The six chapters and two appendices are highly readable, and there are extensive notes that can be skipped.
March 2, 2018
Denys Page's "History and the Homeric Iliad" was exactly the book I was hoping it would be. Page painstakingly examines the evidence inside and outside the Iliad to determine the possible historical basis for the poem. I was fascinated from start to finish.
Though he wrote the book (originally a lecture series) about 60 years ago, Page benefitted from two major breakthroughs that were recent to his time: the discovery and translation of Hittite tablets, and the decipherment of the Mycenaean "linear B" writing system. Each chapter deals with a different set of evidence. First, Page establishes from the Hittite tablets that the Hittites were aware of Ahhijawans beyond their borders. It is hard to avoid linking these with Homer's Achaians, the most common term for the Greeks in the Iliad. But Page doesn't give us an easy one-to-one equation; he argues that the Ahhijawans known to the Hittites were strictly from the Isle of Rhodes off the coast of modern Turkey.
Coming into the book, I believed I knew that Troy was an outpost of the Hittite empire. But other Hittite records make clear that it was a separate entity.
A later chapter deals with the archaeological evidence at Troy itself. Most intriguingly, he notes that the same type of pottery appears almost simultaneously in Troy and in mainland Greece. It is a distinctive style that is not otherwise found elsewhere. Could the Trojans and Greeks have been descendants of the same people? Homer has both sides speak Greek to each other, which I took to be a poetic conceit simplifying the reality. But maybe they really would have spoken different, but mutually understandable, dialects of the same mother tongue.
Then Page digs deep into the language of the Iliad itself. First he argues convincingly that the Catalogue of Ships in Book 2 of the poem is of great antiquity. Many of the place names were unknown to later Greeks, but a large number of them are now known to be real places from the Mycenaean period. Could the Catalogue derive from some authentic order of battle?
Then he makes a large case based on the use of epithets. Using the work of Milman Perry on oral poetry techniques, he shows that many of Homer's formulas (such a distinctive feature of the poem in Greek) must come from long before the poem was established in its current form around 750 BC. All interested readers will get a lot out of Page's book, but this section really benefits from a knowledge of Greek.
In the end, Page concludes that there must have been a historical basis for the Trojan War. Many of the events and incidents in the Iliad were surely added and expanded on later, but there is a kernel of truth in the poem, even (he demonstrates) at the level of character names. This was my instinctual reaction to the poem, but now I feel on much firmer footing in my opinion.
The book concludes with an appendix discussing aspects of the Iliad that Page argues show that it is the work of multiple authors. I appreciated his arguments, but felt that he overstated his conclusions. It is clear that, as the product of an oral poetic tradition, the Iliad reflects the work of many generations of poets. But I am not convinced that a few passages of questionable consistency prove that no one poet could have put the work in its final form. I remain a believer in a genius guiding light, "Homer," who shaped the narrative as we have it.
For those interested in the Iliad and the background of the Trojan War, I cannot recommend "History and the Homeric Iliad" more highly! Page's writing is easy to digest, and the subject matter is compelling.
Though he wrote the book (originally a lecture series) about 60 years ago, Page benefitted from two major breakthroughs that were recent to his time: the discovery and translation of Hittite tablets, and the decipherment of the Mycenaean "linear B" writing system. Each chapter deals with a different set of evidence. First, Page establishes from the Hittite tablets that the Hittites were aware of Ahhijawans beyond their borders. It is hard to avoid linking these with Homer's Achaians, the most common term for the Greeks in the Iliad. But Page doesn't give us an easy one-to-one equation; he argues that the Ahhijawans known to the Hittites were strictly from the Isle of Rhodes off the coast of modern Turkey.
Coming into the book, I believed I knew that Troy was an outpost of the Hittite empire. But other Hittite records make clear that it was a separate entity.
A later chapter deals with the archaeological evidence at Troy itself. Most intriguingly, he notes that the same type of pottery appears almost simultaneously in Troy and in mainland Greece. It is a distinctive style that is not otherwise found elsewhere. Could the Trojans and Greeks have been descendants of the same people? Homer has both sides speak Greek to each other, which I took to be a poetic conceit simplifying the reality. But maybe they really would have spoken different, but mutually understandable, dialects of the same mother tongue.
Then Page digs deep into the language of the Iliad itself. First he argues convincingly that the Catalogue of Ships in Book 2 of the poem is of great antiquity. Many of the place names were unknown to later Greeks, but a large number of them are now known to be real places from the Mycenaean period. Could the Catalogue derive from some authentic order of battle?
Then he makes a large case based on the use of epithets. Using the work of Milman Perry on oral poetry techniques, he shows that many of Homer's formulas (such a distinctive feature of the poem in Greek) must come from long before the poem was established in its current form around 750 BC. All interested readers will get a lot out of Page's book, but this section really benefits from a knowledge of Greek.
In the end, Page concludes that there must have been a historical basis for the Trojan War. Many of the events and incidents in the Iliad were surely added and expanded on later, but there is a kernel of truth in the poem, even (he demonstrates) at the level of character names. This was my instinctual reaction to the poem, but now I feel on much firmer footing in my opinion.
The book concludes with an appendix discussing aspects of the Iliad that Page argues show that it is the work of multiple authors. I appreciated his arguments, but felt that he overstated his conclusions. It is clear that, as the product of an oral poetic tradition, the Iliad reflects the work of many generations of poets. But I am not convinced that a few passages of questionable consistency prove that no one poet could have put the work in its final form. I remain a believer in a genius guiding light, "Homer," who shaped the narrative as we have it.
For those interested in the Iliad and the background of the Trojan War, I cannot recommend "History and the Homeric Iliad" more highly! Page's writing is easy to digest, and the subject matter is compelling.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews