"Catalog of Ships"

Book 2, near the end, that long list of places, people, and the ships and men they contributed to the host of the Greeks, is called the "Catalog of Ships"

Was it a separate song integrated into the main song? That seems like a very good hypothesis: Many scholars think that there were separate songs and hence what we have is a composition of songs stitched together, more united than not, but showing evidence of some independence.

One piece of evidence that lends a bit of support is that in the "Lives of Homer" (find them under Proclus in the Loeb series) Pisistratus is reported to have gathered together into one song all the "scattered" songs of Homer, and that became the epic we have! This is what is called the "Pisistratean Rescension of Homer."

Back to the Catalog of Ships: Does the composition of the catalog reflect something real: the real geography of Greece at any particular time? the particular provincialism of the version of the Trojan War depicted here? Why so many from Boeotia? Why isn't Agamemnon first, or even first among those from his region (the Peloponnese? Diomedes of Argos is first). Why tell of them in that order?

There are other "catalogs" in Iliad. There's a catalog of Trojans (in book 2 after this big catalog of ships), a tiny catalog of cities offered to Achilles by Agamemnon for marrying one of Agamemnon's daughter's (9.149-153), Achilles' forces (16.168-197), Hektor's forces (13.675-700). Odyssey has a catalog of dead (11.225-330), and Hesiod wrote a Catalog of Women (Hesiod is the first individual author of Greece, dated to around the time of Homer, but usually later). There are other surveys of the scene, such as the view from the walls when Helen explains who's who in the Greek army to Priam, king of Troy.

Is it a separate song?
SOme things we can say with more certainty than others: it probably isn't a later composition than the main body of our Iliad, because it doesn't list Patroklos or Antilochos, two major heroes in our Iliad. They would likely be listed if it was simply a summary of our Iliad. Plus it lists a bunch of people who have no further role in our Iliad!

But the fact that  it doesn't match up with the important heroes of the rest of the Iliad cries out for an explanation.

There are many puzzles about the Catalog of Ships:

Many of these can be explained by: