"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:
- Why is Boeotia given such prominence?
- Identification of the cities it mentions with archaeological
sites is problematic
- Some are clear: Argos
- Sometimes, much later than any plausible date of composition
for the catalog or the rest of the Iliad, a city will
claim to be a particular site in the catalog of ships: there
is definite reason to believe some are false claims.
- Sometimes the name of a city changes ( we know of many such
cases, and we can't know if that is (not) the case where we
have no record of it)
- Many city sites were abandoned, and abandonment occurred
here and there in all eras, but there seems to have been a
particular spate of abandonment as Greece moved into the "Dark
Ages" after the collapse of Mycenaean civilization (which is
the civilization in which the epics are situated): that was
"pre-historic" and we have no good evidence to link those
sites with particular names.
- Some major Mycenaean sites which we know about are not
present Iliad (Midea, Thebes and Orchomenos in Boeotia
are made minor, but were major centers according to
archaeology)
- Some minor Mycenaean sites are exaggerated (e.g. Argos,
which was minor, archaeology tells us, is given a whole area
that actually belonged to Mykenae).
- Sometimes a city moves and a new city acquires the name of
the old city.
- In all, it looks as if the tradition of the poems forgot
several major centers, but retained and exaggerated the roles of
some minor sites
- The catalog does not fit the Mycenaean palatial times as
archaeology reveals them, nor the post-palatial times, nor
does it accurately reflect archaic times (i.e. the time when
the epics were first written down).
Many of these can be explained by:
- Different local traditions: this catalog is certainly
not the same tradition as the rest of Iliad. How it got
into the Iliad is another question.
- Loss and change of "knowledge" over time: in an oral
culture "knowledge" simply is what you remember.
- Confusion: one place for another, one number for another,
etc.
- Something forgotten is filled in with speculation
- Exaggeration
- ...