6. Greek Epic Poetry

Names

It is confusing at first to find that many characters, places, and peoples have multiple names in the epics. The Greeks, for example are never called Greeks. Greek is actually a term the Romans later gave to them.

The Greeks called themselves Hellenes and their land Hellas.

However, at the time of the Trojan war, Greece was not a unified nation but an alliance of various tribes who spoke differing dialects of a common language.

Some of the tribes were the Argives, the Achaeans, and the Daneans.

Sometimes in the epic one of these names is used to represent the whole coalition of Hellenic armies. The poet alternates names sometimes for variety, sometimes for the sake of meter.

Meter for Dummies

Greek poetry has a meter based on patterns of alternating long and short syllables. A long syllable takes approximately twice as long to pronounce as a short syllable. You could think of half-notes and quarter-notes in music.

The meter of epic poetry is called “dactylic hexameter.”

Look at the index finger of your left hand. You will notice three bones, the first being approximately equal in length to the other two combined. The Greek word for finger is dactylos. A finger represents the basic unit of epic poetry: a long syllable followed by two short syllables.

Each unit is called a “foot,” from the practice of tapping out the meter or chanting as one marched. (Imagine putting your left foot down for the first long beat, followed by the right foot for the two short beats combined.) So your finger and your foot can remind you of the meter of epic poetry. There are six feet in a line, thus “hexameter.”

There is a children’s book that talks about

“millions of monkeys drumming on drums:

dum-ditty, dum-ditty, dum, dum, dum.”

“Dum-ditty” is a basic dactyl. The meter would become monotonous were it not for five variations: First a “spondee,” two long syllables, may substitute for a dactyl anywhere except the fifth foot. Second, a foot can be distributed over more than one word. “Millions of” constitutes one dactyl, “monkeys” is a spondee, “drumming on” is another dactyl.

The third variation involves the caesura, a brief pause. The caesura in the second or third breaks a foot in half at a word end; the effect is that the meter is reversed for the next two or three feet. Imagine

“dum-ditty, dum-ditty, dum// ditty-dum, ditty-dum, etc.”

The fourth variation is that the last syllable is not a dactyl but a trochee, two syllables with the first long and the final either long or short. Since the fifth syllable must be a spondee, the combination of the fifth and sixth syllables bring a perceptible end to the line: dum-ditty, dum-dum.

The fifth variation is enjambment, when the sentence or clause continues past the end of a poetic line into the following line, thus reducing the pause at the line end. Enjambment is not especially common in epic poetry. Epic meter is thus fairly simple and yet versatile enough to avoid monotony and express varying moods. A line of all dactyls moves faster; a line consisting mostly of spondees is slower and more solemn. The combination of simplicity and versatility made dactylic hexameter ideal for oral composition.

Metri Gratia

The Latin term metri gratia means “for the sake of meter.”

Sometimes some poetic license was allowed; an otherwise short vowel might be lengthened, for example, to make the words fit the meter.

An important feature of epic poetry is the use of stock phrases and heroic epithets as “fillers.” Poets had these memorized and had a feel for the patterns needed to finish a line. They also became familiar to the hearers of poetry and made listening easier and more enjoyable.

English poetry is based on an alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables rather than long verses short. However, stressed syllables are also prolonged in English, so the effect may be fairly close. The most common English meter is iambic pentameter (a meter the Greeks also used in other forms of poetry). An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (short then long in Greek). Pentameter means five feet per line; so a line of epic meter is longer than a line of iambic pentameter. The longer, slower lines, give epic poetry a more solemn and stately feel.

Longfellow experimented with Greek meters in his English poetry. Dactylic hexameter is difficult to reproduce in English, but Longfellow accomplished it in the poem Evangeline. Try reading this line aloud:

This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pine and the hemlock.

English translations of epic poetry do not try to reproduce the dactylic hexameter. Some use iambic pentameter, others do not commit to a formal pattern but do try to maintain some sense of rhythm. Try reading a few lines of Lombardo’s translation aloud and see if you can sense a rhythmic flow.

It is worth investing some imagination to try to get a feel for the Greek meter and the sound of Greek poetry before moving on to reading in translation. You can listen to professor Lombardo’s dramatic reading of the Greek text at the link listed below. Read the first few lines of the translation, then listen to his reading for a few moments.

Georg Danek and Stefan Hagel have tried to recapture the musical tunes to which the Iliad would have been sung. Try listening to “The Song of Ares and Aphrodite.” (See link below.) Use a little imagination, picture yourself sitting at a royal banquet table and watching and listening to the singer.

The Glory of War

The world of epic poetry is a world permeated by the values of honor, glory, courage, and aggression. These values are displayed on the battlefield.

Yet Homer does not simply glorify war. He also portrays the brutality and stupidity of war. In addition, he paints sympathetic portraits of the enemy.

Someone once said that the Greeks were opposed to war in the same way that they were opposed to earthquakes and hurricanes. War is in a sense, beyond the control of individual humans; like natural disasters, it is an act of the gods. Yet Homer also portrays the human choices that lead to death and destruction. The Iliad is neither a pro-war nor an anti-war tract. It is a depiction of the human consequences of war and the human decisions that play a role in war.

Homeric Similes

Homer is not in a hurry to finish his story; there are many detours and side roads in the epic poems. There is a long description of the shield of Achilles, showing scenes from daily life. There is the famous catalog of ships.

One of his favorite diversions is the extended simile. The similes usually begin with the word “as,” followed by several lines of description, then conclude with a line beginning “so. . .”

On the surface, the similes explain a detail in the narrative; but they also serve another function.

Similes take the reader momentarily away from the battlefield to a scene from nature or everyday life in peaceful times. For the reader, the similes give some relief from the brutality of war. For the poet, they provide an opportunity to display his poetic skill in depicting other scenes. Many of the similes have an independent poetic beauty; after they end, the reader is brought back to the field of battle.

Literary Features

As you read Homer, pay attention to plot, character, mythology, the social world displayed, imagery, and themes. Imagine what it would have been like to have lived in the time of the Trojan war, or to have been a Greek born later and brought up on Homer as the basic textbook of our education. What would it have been like to believe in the Greek gods? Suppose you had grown to love the stories of Achilles and Odysseus and then read in Plato that Homer must be banned. How would you have reacted? Ask yourself, what does Homer want to teach us about the meaning and purpose of human life?

Web Links

Stanley Lombardo reading the Iliad: http://wiredforbooks.org/iliad/

A discussion of Homeric music: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/sh/. Go to the link for “The Song of Ares and Aphrodite.”