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Homeric Epithets for TroyAuthor(s): C. M. BowraSource: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 80 (1960), pp. 16-23Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/628372 .
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HOMERIC EPITHETS FOR TROY
THE
publication
of
the fourth volume on the
excavations conducted at
Troy by
the
University
of Cincinnati
in
the
years 1932-19381
enables us
to
review with
more
confidence
the historical
events
which
lie,
no matter
at how
great
a
distance,
behind the Iliad
and
to reconsider
the
Homeric
epithets
for
Troy
in the
light
of
new
knowledge.
We
may
at
the
start
agree
with the writers that
no other
city
in the Troad
except
Hisarlik
has
any
reasonable claim
to be the
site of
1
roy,2
and
it
is
now clear
that
Troy
VI,
which was
gravely
damaged
by
an
earthquake
c.
1275
B.C.,3
was
succeeded
by
Troy
VIIA,
which
had a
real
continuity
with VI
and was
largely
a
rebuilt version of
it,
until
it
perished
itself from
fire
c.
1240
B.C.4
VIIA
has
thus a
substantial
claim to be
the Homeric
city,
and
the date
of
its
destruction agrees with that given by Herodotus for the Trojan War as
Ka-r'
dKrCaKdota
(,"rEa)
duta-ra
E'
E/
(ii
145.4).
We
may
ask
how
relevant
the
Homeric
epithets
are
to
Troy
as we now know it
and when
they may
have
been
introduced into the
oral
tradition
which
Homer
inherited
and
used in
the
eighth
century.
At the
start we
may
say
that,
while
all of them are at
least
adequate
for a
walled
city
on
the site of
Hisarlik,
and some
are
much
to the
point,
not
all
are
equally
individual,
and we
may
classify
them
according
to
their use
for
cities in
general
and for
Troy
in
particular.
In
doing
this we
must
remember
that
in
the
Homeric
poems
cities
need
epithets
as much
as
gods
and heroes
do,
and that
there is
bound
to
be a
certain
overlap
between
one
city
and
another
in
the
epithets
applied
to it.
Though
we
may
postulate
a
pool
of
adjectives
suitable for
cities
from
which
the
poet
draws those
that meet
his
needs most
adequately,
there are some
which
are
confined to
Troy
and
others which
are
specially appropriate
to it.
I.
CONVENTIONAL
EPITHETS
FOR
PLACES
(a)
The
application
of
E'iKT-LEYVOV
to
Troy
occurs
in
the
formulaic
EiiKT
LEVOV
VTT-OA
E(pOV
at
A
33,
O
288,
P
433
and has
recently
come into
prominence
because
of
its
possible
con-
nection
with the
Mycenaean
ki-ti-me-na,
which is
used with
reference to
the
ownership
of
land.5 But the
Homeric
use
of
E'iiK•1•'LEVOV
for
Troy
does
not
conform to
any
of
the mean-
ings suggested
for
the
Mycenaean
word. It
cannot be
applied
to
'private'
as
opposed
to
'communal'
land,
or
to
'cultivated' as
opposed
to
'uncultivated'.
If it
is
connected
his-
torically
with
ki-ti-me-na,
it
has
changed
its
meaning.
When it is
applied
to
cities,
such
as
Phere
(E 543),
Arisbe
(Z 13),
Iolchos
(B
712), Lyktos
(P
6
I1),
Pylos (y 4),
and
Nerikos
(o
377),
it can
conceivably
mean 'well founded' or 'well
built',
but it can
hardly
have
this
meaning
for
Lemnos
(Q
40,
283),
Lesbos
(8
342,
p
133)
or
Ithaca
(X
52).
It
seems
therefore
to
have some
rather
vague meaning
like
'well
established',
and this
is
supported
by
the words
vuaov
diiKqTt11'rV
KaCLovTo
(t
130)
for
Scherie. It
clearly
has
no
special
significance
for
Troy,
and
looks
as
if
it
were
drawn
from
a
pool
of
epithets
suitable for
cities. Even
if
it
has an
ancient
origin,
its
meaning
has been
distorted
and
dimmed
with
time.
(b)
Eip•loAos
I
329,
Z
67,
[
215)
is
certainly
applicable
at
least to
the
Trojan
plain,
but
it
is not
very
distinguishing,
and it
is not
surprising
that
it is
applied
also
to
districts
like
Phthia
(I
363),
Paeonia
(Q
i54)
and
Scherie
(E
34).
(c)
E'pfhac
is a
variant on
bplfwAos,
used for
its
different
scansion in
its
oblique
1
C.
W.
Blegen,
C. D.
Boulter,
J.
L.
Caskey,
M.
Rawson,
Troy
iv
(Princeton,
1958).
2
Ibid.
xi.
S
Troy
iii
I I.
*
Ibid.
iv
ii,
50,
90,
176,
5
M.
Ventris
and
J. Chadwick,
Documents
in
Mycenaean
Greek
233.
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HOMERIC
EPITHETS
FOR TROY
17
cases,
accusative
at
F
74,257,
and
dative at
Z
315,
H7
461,
Q
86.
It is
evidently
common
currency,
since it is
used for Larisa
(B
841,
P
301),
Phthia
(1479),
Tarne
(E
44),
Askanie
(N
793),
Paeonia
(P
350),
and Thrace
(Y485).
(d)
'pa-rEv-4
at
E
2Io
has
an emotional
connotation,
but is
in
no
sense
descriptive,
and
is
applied
to
places
so
various as
Augeia
(B
532,583),
Araithuree
(B
571),
Arene
(B 59'),
Mantinea
(B
707),
Emathia
(S 226),
Maeonia
(F
491,
X'
291),
Lakedaimon
(F 239,443),
and Scherie
(-r
79).
(e)
EV'pEta,
used
of
Troy
at
N
433,
Q
256, 494, 774,
a
62,
8
99,
E
307,
A
499,
v
256,
is
limited to
regions
with a certain
amount of
open
land,
and
is
therefore suited
to
countries
like
Lycia (Z
173,210,
H
673,683),
and
Crete
(N 453),
but
also
to cities with
open
land
around
them,
appropriately
for
Knossos
(Z
591)
and
Sparta (A
460),
but less
so
for
Helike
(B 575).
It
is
certainly appropriate
to
the Troad.
(f)
p-4
s
used
twenty-one
times
in
the Iliad for
Troy
and
may
be
connected with
it as
the
seat of
a
temple
of
Athene.
It
also lies
behind
the
phrase
Tpol"r
lEp
Kp7"8E)LVa
1
Ioo).
It too
is
common
currency
and used for
Onchestos
(B
5o6),
Thebe
(A
366),
Sounion
(y 278),
Pylos (01 o8),
Athens
(A 323),
and the
Echinades
(B 625).
Its
frequent appearance
in
the Iliad is
probably
due to its
happy
and useful
union with
"IAtos
at
the end
of the
line.
In
these
cases
epithets
applied
to
Troy
are
evidently
drawn
from a
common
stock
which
was available to
deal
with
most
places.
They
are all
appropriate
enough
but never
very
individual or
illuminating. (a)
refers
to
the
good
work
which
has
gone
to
the
making
of
Troy;
(b)
and
(c)
to
the
fertile land around
it;
(d)
to its
general
amenities;
(e)
to the
extent
of
its
territory,
and
(f)
to
its
cults.
All
of them are
consistent with
what
we
know of
Troy
VI
and VIIA and
indeed
of VIIB
and
VIII.
But
they
do
not
differentiate
it
very
firmly
from
other cities which are
well
founded,
have
lands
around
them,
and
are known
for
local
cults. If
the demands of oral
composition
meant that
Troy
had to
have
epithets,
these
are
adequate enough
but do not
suggest any special knowledge.
2.
EPITHETS
CONFINED
TO TROY
(a)
i'SLyroS,
which
appears
in
the
phrase
dii8tLp'roto
dA-oS
at
Q
516,
is
normally
used
of
towers
(H7
700,
X
195)
walls
(M
36,
v
302,
X
24,126)
and altars
(A
448),
but
is
applied
in
this
single
case
to a
whole
city.
It
suggests
the solid
work
which has
gone
to
its
building
and
is
abundantly justified by
the remains
of
Troy
VI
and
VIIA. It
is
not
used
of
any
other
city
as
such,
and
looks
as
if
it were
given special
duties for
a
clear
impression
of'I
roy
in
its
strength
and
solidity.
(b)
E1••EIXEOS
at A
129,
B
113,288,
E
716,
O
241,
I
20
is
more
specific
than
E'i~p-os..
he
walls of
Troy V1,
which
survived with some
patching
in
Troy VIIA,'
show
how well
deserved the
epithet
is,
and
it
helps
to
explain
why
the
Achaeans
took
ten
years
to
capture
the
city.
Its absence
from other cities
does not
indicate
that
they
lacked
walls
but
suggests
that those of
Troy
were
particularly noteworthy.
(c)
Ei1rvpyos
at H
71
may
be
taken to refer
not to walls
but to
towers in
the
fortifica-
tions,
such as
existed
in VI in
at least four
places,
known
as
V1
g,
V1
h,
VI
i,
VI
k,
and
survived
into VIIA.
We do not
know how
high they
were,
but
they
were an
integral
and
important
feature
in
the
defences of
Troy
and must
have
presented
an
impressive
spectacle.
Towers
also
existed at
Mykene
and
Tiryns,
but,
since
they
were
built
in
connection with
gates,
and these were
fewer than at
Troy,
the
towers also
were
probably
fewer.
Their
number
at
Troy
certainly
contributed
to the
impression
which
it
made
as a
'well-towered'
city.
6
Troy
v
6,
48,
73,
88.
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18
C.
M.
BOWRA
(d)
8
pvdcraa
occurs
only
once in a
highly
dramatic
passage,
when the
Trojans
burst
into
lamentations
as
they
see the
dead
body
of
Hector
dragged
behind the chariot of
Achilles:
LT
E aA
ap
En
Ev
t
v
aALyKJV WsC
aaa
"Jtogo
dopvd•cra
rrvp
OCLxvOLTO
aT
aKp,•g.
(X
410-411
)
The
adjective
seems to be derived from such
phrases
as
Err
dpv'atc
KaAAMKOA;dVrjY
59)
and
is
explained
by
the Townleian
scholiast as
Ed7l
Cbpv'8rovs
Trdrrov
KEJLLJVY.
t
was
used
in
the seventh
or sixth
century
by
a
Delphic
oracle for Acrocorinth
(Hdt.
v
92
f
3),
and
not
only conveys
a
vivid
impression
of
Troy
on
its
ridge
overlooking
the
plain
but
helps
by
contrast
to
strengthen
the note of
menace
in
its
coming
doom. It is a
general
comment
on
the
forbidding aspect
which the
city
presented,
especially
to
any
possible
attackers.
(e)
ayTv LEyad
B
803,
H
286,
136,278,
0
681,
P
I6o,
0
3o9,
X
35I)
is
not
very
appro-
priate
to the site of
Troy
if
it
refers
simply
to
extent. The
remains
of VI and
VIIA
measure
some
200
yards
at their
widest
diameter
and cover
not more than
five
acres,
nor
does it
take more than
a
quarter
of
an
hour to
walk
round
them without
hurrying.
It is
true
that
in
the
Iliad
Homer
suggests
that a
very large
force is
housed
in
this small
area,
and
that we may well agree with Thucydides when he says EtCOS
T1L
%
TO%
ELOV E
.y
.TOLt71T7V
OV7a
KouaL0jcaa
i Io.3).
But
LLEyd
eed not refer
to
extent,
and
may
well
refer
to
height
and
mass,
as it
is
used for
a
tower
(Z
386)
or a
mountain
(H
297).
Such a
meaning
would
be
highly
appropriate
to
Troy
with
its
formidable
fortifications and
the look
which these
presented
to
anyone
on
the
plain
below.
(f)
Ev'TwAOS
belongs
to
rather
a
different
category
from
the
preceding
cases,
since it is
concerned
with
Troy
not
for its
appearance
but as a
place
famous
for its
horses. As
such
it is connected
with
the
epithet
17rd"aoL0ot,
hich is
used
of
the
Trojans
twenty-one
times
in
the Iliad.
EiV'rroos
s
fully justified
by
history.
Though
no
bones of
horses
have
been
found
in
the first
five
settlements,
they
are
abundant
in
Troy
VI7
and
VIIA8,
but become rare
in
VIIB.9
It
has been
surmised
with
good
reason that the
people
who built
Troy
VI
owed
their success to their use of the domesticated horse,0 and they seem to have left this legacy
to their descendants
who
held
the
city
till
the
destruction of
VIIA.
The
epithets
in
this class are
more
precise
and more
distinctive than
in
the
preceding.
Taken
together they suggest
actual
observation
and local
knowledge.
They
are
more
than
merely
appropriate
to
Troy,
and
were
surely
chosen
with an
eye
to
its
appearance
and character. Since none of them
is
applied
to
other
cities
which
seem to
deserve
them,
it looks as
if
they
were
intended to
give
from
different
angles
an
impression
of
Troy
in
its
striking individuality
with its well-made
walls
and
towers,
its
threatening appearance,
and
its reliance
upon
horses.
3.
EPITHETS
SUITABLE
TO
TROY BUT
NOT
CONFINED
TO
IT
A
third class of
epithets
differs from
the
first
in
not
being
obviously
drawn
from
stock,
and from the second in
not
being
confined
to
Troy.
None
the less
they
suit
it
very
well
and are
in
this
respect
close to
the second
class. The
aspects
which
they
stress are
shared
with other
places,
but are
none the less
characteristic of
Troy.
(a)
acdr
(N625),
alrrcw O
71),
and
alcrrwEv
(L
419,682,
N773,
0
558,
P
328)
all
have
the
same
meaning,
and their
usage
is
determined
entirely
by requirements
of
scansion.
All
are
apt
for
Hisarlik,
which
rises
steeply
from
the
plain
on
the north and
west
side,
and
certainly
must
have risen
noticeably,
if
not so
steeply,
on
the
east and
south
sides
before
the
builders
of
Troy
IX did their
great
levelling,
alrcd
s
confined to
Troy,
but
alrELvc4
s
also
applied
to
Kalydon
(N2
17),
Gonoessa
(B
573),
and
Pedasos
(Z
35),
and
is
relevant
7
Troy
iii
123, 136, 182, I88,
etc.
8
Ibid.
iv
51,
66,
70,
73, 92,
1
17,
123.
Ibid.
iv
199.
10
Ibid.
iii
o.
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HOMERIC
EPITHETS FOR
TROY
19
enough
to
what
we know of these
places.
alcjd
has a similar
range,
and is
justifiably
used
of Dion in northern Euboea
(B
538),
where the modern
village
of
Lithada
is set on the
edge
of
a
precipice;
of
Pylos
(y 484,
o
193),
which deserves the
adjective
if the reference
is to
the
Mycenaean
site
of Ano
Englianos;
and of the
mythical
home of the
Laestrygonian
Lamos
in
a mountainous
fjord
(K 87).
Its
application
to
Troy may
have been
suggested
by
the
view which it
presents
to
anyone
who
approaches
it from the north or the
west,
as travellers
who
come
by
sea
normally
do.
(b)
z
i'brvvAos
H
698,
P
544)
is
explained
by Hesychius
as
meaning
6brqA'•s
T'Aag
E'XOV,
and
his
assumption
that
it refers
to
the
number,
as well as
the
height,
of
gates
is
important
for
Troy.
In
Troy
V1
excavation
has revealed the remains
of
gates
VIR in
the
north-
east,
VIs in
the
east,
VIT in the
south,
VIu
in the
south-west,
VIv
in the
west,
VIY
in
the
south,
and
VIz
in the south-west.
Not all of these existed at the same
time,
but
there
must
have
been
at least four
at
most
periods
in
the
life
of
Troy
VI,
and
such
seem
to
have
lasted
through
Troy
VIIA.
Nor
can
we
rule out
the
possibility
that
there
were
other
gates
in the north wall which does
not survive. The
only
other
city
to
which
Homer
applies
OSTI0rvAos
s the
Mysian
Thebe
(Z
416),
and
on this we are in
no
position
to
say
whether
it is justified or not, though Thebe had close relations with Troy and may have resembled
it in
the
manner of its fortifications
in
its
strategic
position
at the head of
the
Adramyttian
Gulf.
The
adjective
might,
we would
think,
have been
applied
to other
citadels
such as
Mykene,
Tiryns,
and
Athens,
but
in
fact
it
is
not.
The
fortifications
of
Mykene,
which
present
so
striking
a
spectacle today,
are
not
hinted
at,
nor
are
those
of
Athens,
while
Tiryns
is
called,
very
appropriately,
-TEXLdec•a
(B
559)
without
any
mention
of
its
gates.
The reason for this
must
be that
Troy
was
unusual
in
the
number
of its
gates,
while
these
other
cities
had
only
one main
gate
and a
postern entry.
A
series
of
lofty gates
at
Troy
would
earn
the
epithet
v4,3/1TvAos.
The
nearest
approaches
to
it are
the
Boeotian
Thebes,
which
is
called
EdiTra-TfrAoLoA
406)
in
accordance
with
legend
and
the
importance
attached
to each
gate
in
the
War
of the
Seven,
and the
Egyptian
Thebes,
which
is
EKaTd"pTrvAo
(I 383), as befits so remarkable a city outside the familiar limits of the Greek world.
(c)
vEbdtoEaaca,
hich
is
found
in
the
formula
"IALov
qvEJLdoEaav
T
305,
O
499,
M
i
5,
N
724,
'
174,
FI
64,297),
is,
as
anyone
who has
visited
Troy
knows,
remarkably
apt,
and
engaged
the
special
attention
of
Schliemann,
who
made
meteorological
inquiries
about it.
The north
wind,
which the
modern
Greeks call
OpaKLc~'S
n
the
winter
and
utEA-r••'L
in
the
summer,"
blows
powerfully
at
most
seasons of
the
year
and
provides
ample
justification
for the
epithet.
But
it is not
attached
uniquely
to
Troy.
It
is
applied
also to
the
mountain
of
Mimas
(y
172),
which
is
on
the
Ionian
coast near
Erythrae
and
was
the
scene of
a
severe
storm recorded
by
Thucydides
(viii
34-5),
and
to
Enispe
in
Arcadia
(B
66o),
whose
exact
position
is not
known to
us,
as it
was not
known to
Strabo
(388).
But of
course in
Arcadia the
adjective may
well
be
deserved.
(d)
EvlpvdyvLa,
which is applied to Troy eight times in the Iliad and twice in the Odyssey,
presents
a
special problem.
It
used
to
be
thought
that it
referred
to
Troy
VI,
in
which
there is an
unusual
unoccupied
space
between
the
walls and
the
buildings
enclosed
by them.'2
This is
indeed so
unusual that it
might
well call
for
notice
and
deserve
a
special
epithet.
But this
interpretation
is
hardly
tenable,
since the
adjective
is
applied
also
to
Mykene
(A
52)
and
Athens
(r
8o),
where
there
is no such
space.
In
VI1A
this
open
space
was
covered
with houses
when the
city
was
rebuilt after
the
earthquake
of
c.
I275
B.C.,13
and
this
suggests
that
eapvdyvLa
must have
another
meaning,
which
can
only
be 'with
broad
streets'. One
of the
most
noteworthy
features of the
rebuilding
done in
VIIA
is
the
con-
struction of
well-paved
and
well-drained
streets,
notably
Street
7Io,
which
leads
from
the
South Gate to
the
heart of
the
citadel,
and
may
indeed
have been
one of
the
ways by
which
11
I
owe this
information to
Professor C.
Trypanis.
12
W.
Leaf,
Troy
150-1I.
13
Troy
iv
6-7.
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20
C.
M.
BOWRA
the Achaeans
entered
Troy,
since
a bronze arrow-head
has been found in
it.14
This
street,
together
with the remains
of
others,
suggests
that
Troy
VIIA
was
well
planned
for
internal
communications,
and this alone
would
justify
the choice
of the
epithet.
It is
significant
that
E•pvcdyvLa
is
applied
also
to
Mykene,
where
a
royal
road led
through
the
Lion
Gate
to
the
summit,
and to
Athens,
which
had a well-made
approach.
Homeric notions
of
width in streets were not the same as
ours,
and it is
likely
that
any
city
which had a
system
of
streets
would be
noticed for
them.
In
Troy,
as
in
Mykene
and
Athens,
the
epithet
is
amply justified
and seems to fit
Troy
VIIA
better than
Troy
VI.
(e)
Ev6
vatdLLEvov
hich
is
applied
to
Troy
in
the
formula
E
va••oLEvov
7rT-oALEpov
A
164,
B
133, 1402,
N
38o),
seems to mean 'well
populated'.
It
is used also
for
the island
of
Kos,
where Heracles arrives
after the
first
Trojan
War
(?
255,
O
28),
and
for
Sidonie
(v
285).
The
first
may
have been chosen to
suggest
a
flourishing city worthy
of
capture
by
Heracles
(Apollod.
2.7.1;
Strab.
531;
Eustath.
985,35),
and the
second,
even
if
it
is not
the
same
as the historical
Sidon,
must
surely
be a
city
of
the Phoenician
coast
and
as
such
assumed
to be
prosperous
and
suited to such an
epithet.
Hisarlik
VI
cannot have
been
very
populous,
as its
small
area
left room for
houses to
stand
in
their
own
space
without
overcrowding, but VIIA was different. Houses are smaller and more crowded; empty
spaces
are
covered
by
them;
their
stores
are
kept
indoors
in
jars
below
the surface
of
the floor.
When
the
city
was refashioned after
the
earthquake
of c.
1275
B.C.,
special
steps
were
taken
to
make it
accommodate
more
inhabitants without
extending
the
circuit of
its
walls.'5
It
is
therefore
possible
that
this is what is meant
by
EO
vaYLdLEVoV.
Even
if
some
epithets
for
Troy
are so
conventional
as to be
not
very
informative,
others
are
much to
the
point
and
chosen with an
eye
for what
Troy
really
was.
Just
as
Pylos
is called
Cada0io'aaa
ecause of
the
sandy
beaches below
the hill
where the 'Palace
of Nestor'
stands,
and
Mykene
has been
abundantly
justified
in
its
epithet
7roAvXpvaoto
y
Schliemann's
discoveries,
so
Troy
has
epithets
which
are
always
consistent
with
its
site and
appearance
and
often
illuminating
and
picturesque. They
indicate
that at
some
stage
or
stages
a
poet or poets knew the site and found appropriate adjectives for it. This need not have
happened
within a
single,
short
space
of
time,
but
we
ought
to be
able
to
decide
roughly
when
some
of
these
epithets
were
brought
into
poetical
use.
We can do
something
for
this
by
asking
how
appropriate
they
are
to
the
different
cities on
the
site of
Hisarlik. Of
these VI
and
VIIA,
which
may
be
treated
as
a
continuous
settlement,
provided
obvious
opportunities.
The
walls
and
towers
and
gates,
the
well-made
streets and
the
crowded
houses,
even the
breeding
of
horses,
are all
reflected
in
the
epithets.
Troy
VI-VIIA
was
in
contact with
the
Mycenaean
world,
as the
finds
of
pottery
show,16
and
if
information
from
travellers was not
enough,
it
could be
supplemented
by
warriors who
fought
at
Troy
in
the middle of
the
thirteenth
century.
This
is
the
obvious
Troy
for
the
epithets,
but
we
must
first
inquire
whether
some of
them
might
not
come from
a
later
date.
Troy
VIIB
continued in a diminished and presumably poverty-stricken form the life of VIIA and
maintained
some
relations with
mainland
Greece.7
It
is
therefore
not
impossible
that
wandering bards,
who
had
already
parts
of
the
tale of
Troy
in
their
repertory,
added to
the
existing
epithets
others
formed from
a
knowledge
of
the
site,
which
might
indeed
be
partly
ruined
but still
suggest
something
of
its
former
glory.
This
period
would be
from
c. I240
B.C.
to
c.
IIOO
B.C.18
In
it
falls
the
beginning
of the
Dark
Age
and the
vast
destruc-
tions of
c.
I200
and
the
subsequent
movements
of
peoples,
but the
poetical
tradition,
which
was
already
at
work
in
Mycenaean
days,
survived the
catastrophes,
and
there
is no a
priori
reason
why poets
should
not
have
known
Troy
and
made
use of
their
knowledge
in
songs
of the
glorious
past.
From
c.
I Ioo
B.c.
to a little
before
700
B.c.,
when
it
was
refounded
by
Greek
colonists,
it
seems
to
have
been
deserted,
and even if
poets
visited
it,
which
must
14
Troy
iv
48-51.
15
Ibid. iv
7.
16
Ibid.
iii
38;
iv
9.17
Ibid.
iv
145.
18
Ibid. iv 249.
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HOMERIC EPITHETS
FOR
TROY
2I
have been
rare at the
best,
its
remains would
hardly
have
conveyed
much
to them.
Nor
is
it
easy
to believe that the
poet
of our Iliad could
have seen
much of the ancient
town.
If,
as is
likely,
he
lived in the
eighth
century,
he would in
all
probability
have
found
nothing
but a
desolate,
overgrown heap
of
rubble,
and
certainly
not sufficient
ruins
to
provide
him
with
the exact
knowledge
which
the
more
special epithets
imply.
He
might
see
the
actual position where Troy had stood and grasp its relation to the
surrounding
country,
but
he
would
not
see towers or
gates
or
houses or streets.
We
are
forced to
conclude
that
in
so
far as the
epithets
reveal
a real
knowledge
of
Troy,
this
must have been
gained
during
the
existence
of
VI
or
VIIA,
with
perhaps
some small
reinforcements from
VIIB.
We
need not shrink
from the notion
that some Homeric
epithets
go
back
to
Mycenaean
times.
An
oral,
formulaic
style,
like
that of the
Iliad
and
the
Odyssey,may
last for
many
centuries and
preserve
in fixed
phrases
much
information which
dates
from a
remote
past.
Just
as the
poems
carry unexpected
details
about
Mycenaean
civilisation"9
into a
time
when
some
of
them
must have been
almost
unintelligible,
so
they
preserve
information
on
Troy
and
the
Trojan
War
which
must
go
back to
men
who knew
about
them
at
first hand
from their
own
experience.
We cannot
say
exactly
for
what kind
of
poem
these
epithets
were chosen and fashioned into formulae, but they look as if they were made for hexameters,
and
this
suggests
that the
hexameter
existed
in
Mycenaean
times,
and
the
poems
containing
them would
have
been
KAa
cdv8p3v,
which,
whether
they
were
sung
in
praise
of
the
living
or as
tales of
the heroic
dead,
told of
great
doings
at
Troy.
That the
one
kind
of
poem
passes
easily
into
the other is
proved
by
poetical practice
in
many
parts
of
the
world20
and
is
indeed
a
natural
process
as the
high
exploits
of
the
present
recede
into
the
past.
It is
clear that the tale of
Troy
became a
subject
for
song
at an
early
date,
and
it
is
no less
clear
that certain
details
and
episodes,
which are
fully
intelligible
only
in
the
light
of
what we
know about
Troy
VI-VI1A,
were
preserved
for
centuries
as an
integral
part
of
the
tradition,
despite
their minor
relevance to
the
main
story.
It is
no
accident
that
the
faulty
structure
of the
western
fortifications of
Troy,
which
have been
revealed
by
excavation,21
were
known
to Homer's Andromache:
Aaov
84
'
ia-qov
7Tap
yEP
'V,
Evla
/LcfaAtYa
dcjaT•g-
E•-•
7
TAS
KaL
E7TLpo0OV
TAETo
LXOS.
(Z
433-4)
or that
the
batter
of
the
walls,
which is
not
nearly
so
steep
as
at
Mykene
and
Tiryns
and
provides
an
easy
climb
up
to
the
angle,
or
dcyK,6V,
where
the
perpendicular
battlements
on
top
of
them
begin,22
was
enshrined in
Patroclus'
attempt
to
scale
them:
'7plS
FLV
alT
ayKWVOS*
-
TELXEOS
b47o7
H'rjpoKA0os,
p~s
'
avi'rTv
7TrrcE-rv•EA(Ev
AroAAowv.
17
702-3)
If
the
tradition
preserved
details
such
as
these
from
Mycenaean times,
and
it can
hardly
have done
so
from
any
other,
it
is
even
more
likely
to
have
preserved formulae
for the
city
itself,
since
these
were
indispensable
instruments for
any
oral
song
about
Troy.
In
trying
to
decide
which
of
these
epithets
are
likely
to
be
early
we
may
start
with
those
which
gave
a
visual
impression
of
Troy
as a
fortified
citadel.
They
are
Cqpvdicua,
EdEIXEoS,
3•nvAos,
EimvypyoS,
"sir-os.
Some of
these
may
well
be
Mycenaean
words.
The
prefix
eU-
occurs
a
number
of
times
in
proper
names from
Linear B
tablets
from
Knossos
and
Pylos.23
-TELXEOS
ooks
as if
it
were
related
to
to-ko-do-mo
(toikhodomoi,
builders'),24
and
-8~tpros
to
de-me-o-te
demeontes,
who
are
to
build').25
All
five of
these
epithets
are
suitable
19
T.
B. L.
Webster,
From
Mycenae
to
Homer
64-90.
20
C. M.
Bowra,
Heroic
Poetry
9-23.
21
Troy
iii
102-4,
109-13.
Cf.
W.
Leaf,
Troy 156.
22
Troy
iii
87;
cf.
D.
Gray
in
J.
L.
Myres,
Homer
and
his
Critics,258.
24
Id.
182
(PY
An2o).
23
Ventris-Chadwick
408.
25
Id.
174 (PY
Ani4).
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22
C. M.
BOWRA
for
Troy VI-VIIA,
and if we
add
Evpvacyvta
and
Ev
vadoLEvov,
which
we
have seen
to
be
peculiarly
suitable for
VIIA,
we
get
a
fairly
comprehensive
picture
of
Troy
as
it
would look
from
without
and within
in
the
middle of
the
thirteenth
century.
zb'TWAoS
lso
must
be
early,
since
it comes from
the time
when the
Trojans
were
renowned
for
their
horses,
and
this does
not seem to have
been the
case
after the
destruction
of
VIIA.
It,
too,
may
be
an ancient word, since the dual po-ro
appears
on a tablet from
Knossos.26
All these
epithets
look
as
if
they
went back to
Mycenaean
times
and
were
adapted
to
poetry
when
the
events
of
Troy
were
still fresh
in men's
minds,
and the
memory
of
the
city
which
the
Achaeans
had
besieged
and burned
was
fixed
in
these
apt
and
convincing
words.
Against
these
we
may
set other
epithets
which
cannot
be
ascribed
with
equal
confidence
to
Mycenaean
times and
may
indeed
come from
any period
when
men
knew
that
there
had once been
a
city
of
Troy
on a hill in
the
Troad.
They
none
the
less
record
impressions
of the
actual
physical
scene and
setting.
Of
these
the
most
striking
is
vEdLo'Eaa,
which
at least looks like
an
ancient
word,
since it
is
related
to
the
Mycenaean
a-ne-mo27
and
may
well
embody
the memories of
men who
knew
the
hardships
of
a
campaign
in
the
Troad.
But
we
cannot rule out
the
possibility
that it
might
also
convey
an
impression
formed
at a
later date by travellers who knew the site of Troy and marked its wind. Its highly restricted
use
in
the text
suggests
that it is
perhaps
less
fully
acclimatised
than,
for
instance,
evdpvyvta,
hich
is
used
in
more than one
formula,
and
that
its
entry
into
the
poetical
tradition
did
not
come
very early.
ale•wv'4
and
its
cognate
words
suggest
knowledge
of
the hill
but
not
necessarily
of
the
city,
while
EdpP3Aaa
nd
plflwAos
refer
only
to
the
countryside,
and
for
this
reason
we cannot
assign
them
with
confidence to
Mycenaean
times
and
must
concede
that
they
could have been added to
the
repertory
at
any
time
up
to
Troy
VIII.
Once the
right
epithets
for
Troy
had
been
found,
it
was
helpful,
for
reasons of
com-
position,
to
supplement
them with
others,
and
some of
these look
as if
they
were
introduced
by
men
who
did not know
the
look of
Troy
and
therefore
used
words like
EdiiKT•LEVOS,
Epa'-Ewv7,
Vb'p•ta,
g,
which
come
from a
general
stock
of
epithets
for
cities
and
their
territories and imply no specific knowledge of Troy. Some of them may indeed be ancient
words,
but
others have a
more
modern
air,
as
EViKT9LEVOS
eems
to
have
lost
any
close con-
nection
with the
Mycenaean
ki-ti-me-na,
and
"pr•
n
its
contracted
form
is
later
than
the
Mycenaean
i-je-ro.28
But
whether
ancient or
recent,
these
unspecific
epithets
were
evidently
adapted
to
poetry
when bards
had no
actual
acquaintance
with
Troy
and,
feeling
a
need
to
widen
the
range
of
phrases
for
it,
made
use of
more
or
less
standardised
words
which
would be
appropriate
enough
but not
very
distinctive or
revealing.
None of
them
makes
an
unusual
point. They
belong
to
traditional
methods of
introducing
cities,
and
their
applica-
tion
to
Troy may
have
come when
the
city
and
the
landscape
were
no
longer
familiar
and
had to be
treated with
cautious
vagueness.
If
we
think
that the
Iliad
was
composed
in
the
eighth
century
by
a
man
called
Homer,
it
is clear
that he had
very
little
part
in
bringing these epithets for Troy into the epic lan-
guage.
They belong
to
a
tradition
which he
inherited
and
no
doubt
expanded
and
im-
proved.
In this
matter,
as
in
others,
he
seems to
have
been
content
to
operate
with
formulae
which
were for
the
most
part
fixed
and
regularised
before
he
began
to
compose,
and
his
task
was
rather to
use them
with
the
utmost effect
for
his own
vision
of
the
wrath of
Achilles
and
its
dire
consequences.
It is
out of
the
question
that
Homer
saw
Troy
in
its
heyday
or
even
enough
ruins of
it to
give
him
a
clear
notion
of
what it
had
been
some
five
hundred
years
before
his own
lifetime.
But
this
does
not
mean
that he
did
not
know
the
country
round the hill
where
Troy
had
once
stood.
Indeed it
is
difficult
to
imagine
how he
could
have
composed
the
Iliad
unless
he
had
in
his
mind a
far
clearer
picture
of
the
Troad
than
that of
Ithaca in
the
Odyssey,
and the
clarity
of
the
picture,
which
helped
him
to some
of
his
26
Ventris-Chadwick
2Io
(KN
Ca825).
27
Id.
306
(KN
Fpi).
28
KN
Fp363.
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8/16/2019 Homeric Epithets for Troy-Bowra
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/homeric-epithets-for-troy-bowra 9/9
HOMERIC
EPITHETS FOR
TROY
23
dramatic
effects,
must have
been
due in some
degree
to
personal knowledge.
Though
it is more
than
questionable
whether he lived to see
Troy
VIII,
he
may
have seen
the Troad
when
Greeks
were
beginning
to
visit
it
again
as
a
possible
site for a
colony.
But
all that
is another
question.
For the moment
we
must
be
content to
recognise
that the Homeric
epithets
for
Troy go
back
in
part
to the
Mycenaean
age
and
reflect the
sight
which
the
city
must have
presented
to at least one
generation
of Achaeans.29
C. M. BOWRA.
Wadham
College,
Oxford.
29
I
am
grateful
to Professor A. Andrewes
and Mr
W.
G. G. Forrest
for
helpful
criticism.
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