Читать книгу A Companion to Greek Warfare - Группа авторов - Страница 20

The new literacy starts with the Iliad, an epic with a mythological plot. A broader concept of authorship and authenticity applies: as a literary work, it widely consists of formulaic passages, verses, and phrases that belong to different periods, in most cases preceding the individuals who fell back on such elements to establish their own versions within epic traditions.²⁸ Such poetry was transmitted orally, constantly revised from generation to generation. Only in the end of the process, when the new system of writing became available,²⁹ were the versions then most esteemed noted down and attributed to a legendary poet under the name of Homer.

Because of the process that precedes Homer, the Iliad is an amalgam, not a mirror of actual stages of warfare; nor does it describe historical societies. Themes and perspectives of the epics are clearly aristocratic, with a view to the audience the rhapsodoi (and aoidoi) appealed to.³⁰ So what we can learn about eighth-century warfare is sparse, if we are looking for the historical situation, whereas examples of aristocratic chivalry (as well as inappropriate behavior) are paramount. But for the Greeks who followed, including Herodotus (7.171.2) and Thucydides (1.9ff.), the Trojan War was an historical event.

To illustrate the transformation of historical recollection into epic poetry by an example, we once more turn to the chariots. In the Iliad, the majority of the heroes can afford such vehicles, not for fighting in units, but to be transported to the battle ground and to have a quick escape if necessary;³¹ they jump off and fight heroically in individual duels (aristeiai),³² whereas drivers wait at a safe distance—and at times take guard of valuable booty.³³ In Homeric battle, chariots are tantamount to taxis, as in peacetime.³⁴