See J.B. Hainsworth, The flexibility of the Homeric Formula, Oxford 1968, the well-known originator of these observations. Even taking into account the declared limited scope of this book, I have to notice that Jones misses mentioning Hainsworth’s work; yet, he usually cites the bibliographic references after other specific topics are discussed. The same occurs later, when talking about the repeated patterns of common scenes and mentioning some of them (pp. 18-20), Jones omits to quote the very first pioneer work of this kind of studies, W. Arend, Die typischen Scenen bei Homer, Berlin 1933.

He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer – the Iliadand the Odyssey– are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time. The Iliad is one episode among many in Homer’s epics, and it may have been assumed that listeners of the original spoken performance would be familiar with all the players in this war. It is argued by some, including British scholar M.L. West, that The Iliad has had pieces added to it over the years. Stephen Mitchell follows West’s scholarship and strips out the extra passages, a notion expanded upon in a review of Mitchell’s translation by classicist Daniel Mendelsohn in The New Yorker (2011). Mitchell’s translation may be the most readable, the most listenable one in English. It is also the shortest. Mitchell also shortens the lines in English so that they have speed and momentum for an impressive delivery. As works of epic poetry, the Iliad and Odyssey can only fully be appreciated in their original language, with the poetic metre and alliterations intact. Translation can only ever communicate the gist of these masterworks.

While most injuries were instantly fatal, a few wound treatments are reported and give an insight into trauma management in ancient Greece. Non-fatal wounds were most often caused by arrows: treatment involved removing the arrow, cleansing of the wound, and applying medicinal herbs and bandages. Two main medical figures are described in the Iliad: Asclepius’s sons, Machaon and Podaleirios, both fighting on the Achaean side. Interestingly, no equivalent figure is present in the Trojan army: it relied on lay personnel and divine intervention—in fact, all three episodes of divine treatment for battle wounds occur in favor of Trojans (Aphrodite for Aeneas, Apollo for Glaukos, and Zeus for Hector).

Matthew Arnold, On the Classical Tradition, ed. R.H. Super, from The Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1960), p. 102. MARIA CHICCO, DHMSA, MBBS, MRCS, graduated in Medicine from King’s College London in 2016 and is currently a surgical trainee in the Oxford deanery. As part of her studies, she completed the Diploma in the History of Medicine awarded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. In this framework, she conducted research on several topics in medical humanities and published on the development of medical manuals and on the history of the Italian Hospital in London. Odyssey on other hand is about the craftiness and mindfulness of man (or μήτις, a word that disappeared even from ancient Greek, but important enough for books to be written about it - referring especially to the amazing work by Vernant Jean-pierre and Detienne Marcel).Lattimore's version keeps the ambiguity of Homer's wording intact. Like his translation of the beginning of Odyssey where he translates Odysseus as a man of "many ways", which can mean both, goes through many unexpected paths, but also as a man who's resourceful and multi-talented. This is closer to the original meaning. Fagles instead interprets the text by stating that he's a man of many twists and turns, which really only touches upon half of the meaning of the original text. See, e.g., H. Frisk, Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg 1960, pp. 270-271; P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Paris 1968, I, pp. 197-198; B. Snell, Lexicon des frühgriechischen Epos, Hamburg 1979, I, pp. 616-618. The Greeks disperse for reasons unknown and gradually create city-states, personal poetry like Sappho’s, democracy, tragedy, and other components necessary to facilitate and further nurture the emerging individual. Section 2. Heroic Value (pp. 23-26). Here Jones focuses on some basic aspects of the hero’s mentality, from the core-value of kleos to the concept of aidos, from the generic competitiveness and the urgent commitment to be the best on the battlefield to the ability to win in debates, too. Although Jones talks about aidos, the overall explanation omits to emphasize the deep involvement of the so-called ‘shame-culture’ 9 above all in relation to the “central subject” of the poem (p. 24), namely the anger of Achilles following the quarrel with Agamemnon. Achilles’ emotional reaction, from which the whole Iliadic story originates, is a consequence of Agamemnon’s humiliation, having his gift of honour — i.e. the geras, the tangible sign of heroes’ reputation ( time) – publicly removed. It is not accidental that Achilles’ first complaint, when talking to his mother, is the fact that Agamemnon atimazei him ( Iliad 1. 355-356; see also, e.g., 1. 170; 2. 4, 240; 9. 109-111). Thus, his reaction is certainly understandable in a shame-culture perspective. Jones misses unfolding this aspect in the General Introduction as well as in the commentary on the 1st Book (p. 53). He focuses almost exclusively on the following items: the debate as the first reaction of the two heroes to the problem, as according to the heroic code they have to assert themselves and win by debating, too (p. 25); the issue of Agamemnon’s status which does not justify the way he dealt with Achilles’ feelings of injustice (pp. 26, 53). Not to deny the well known importance of the ‘authority’ issue, 10 the impression is that of an one-sided explanation. 11

An ancient Greek epic which underpins the whole of western literature, Homer's The Iliad is a timeless evocation of the struggle to retain a sense of honour and virtue amidst the horrors of war. Several authors have examined the descriptions of wounds in the Iliad from an anatomical perspective, 1,4,5 in particular, the excellent knowledge of vulnerable points in the human body. 6 An ancient Greek epic which underpins the whole of western literature, Homer's The Iliad is a timeless evocation of the struggle to retain a sense of honour and virtue amidst the horrors of war. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Martin Hammond.boldface: Cheers. I'm aware it is a bit too ambitious and stereotyped to describe translations with just a word, but wanted to make it brief. The only evidence that Jones has introduced to support his statement that the Homeric poetry has little substantial to tell us about the Mycenaean Age is questionable; he hints at the written records, the Linear B tablets, whose contents have no relation with the society of the Iliad. In my opinion one should take into account that the discrepancy concerning the Linear B tablets’ contents, as well as other inconsistencies between Homeric poems and the Mycenaean Age, may be due to the inevitable mixture with the traits of the following ages (the Dark Age and the beginning of the Archaic Age) throughout the oral transmission of traditional material. Curiously, Jones never mentions the Dark Age that, covering a considerable length of time between the Bronze Age and the Archaic Age (i.e. the time when it is more or less agreed that Homer composed his poems), has been taken into consideration by the scholarship within the Homeric question (however, see, e.g., M. Ventris & J. Chadwich, Documents in Mycenean Greek Cambridge 1972, p. xx. R. d’A. Desborough, The Greek Dark Age London 1972, p. 321). There are still scholars that date the society described by Homer as late Dark Age (see, e.g., P.A. Draper, Homer. Iliad Book 1 with notes and vocabulary Ann Arbor 2002). Verse translations by W. Cowper, R. Fagles, R. Fitzgerald, R. Lattimore, S. Lombardo, and G. Chapman are available at most bookstores; for prose, those by G. Palmer, E.V. Rieu, and W. Shrewing. More advanced students are served by A. Cook’s translation, and the edition with extensive commentary by R.D. Dawe. For a comprehensive history of English translations of Homer, see Homer in English (New York: Penguin, 1996), ed. George Steiner, pp. 350-355. From battle and the sea. But him
And him alone—though still he longed
For home and wife—the nymph Calypso,
A mighty goddess, kept imprisoned
Within her hollow caves, and longed
To make him there her husband. No,