Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Philosophy
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer
[486] ii. 681.
There are several reasons, which tend plainly to this conclusion.
The sense of διέκριθεν (815) and the reference to the diversity of
tongues spoken (804) almost require the division of the force between
Troes and allies; it is also the most natural division. The fourth
and fifth contingents are not indeed expressly called Troes, but this
name, already given to the third, may include them. We must, I think,
conclude that it does so, when we find clear proof that they were
not independent national divisions: for the troops of Percote were
in the fifth, but the sons of Percosian Merops command the fourth, a
fact inexplicable if these were the forces of independent States, but
natural enough if they were all under the supremacy of Priam and his
house.
In the great battle of the Twelfth Iliad, the Trojans are πένταχα
κοσμηθέντες (xii. 87). Sarpedon commands the allies with Glaucus
and Asteropæus (v. 101), thus accounting for eleven of the sixteen
divisions in the Catalogue. Æneas, with two sons of Antenor, commands
the Dardanians, thus disposing of a twelfth. Again, Hector, with
Polydamas and Cebriones, commands the πλεῖστοι καὶ ἄριστοι, evidently
the division standing first in the Catalogue. This makes the number
thirteen. The three remaining contingents of the Catalogue are
1. Zelean Troes, under Pandarus, (since slain,) Il. ii. 824-7.
2. Adresteans &c. under Adrestus and Amphius, (828-34,) both slain,
Il. v. 612. vi. 63.
3. Percotians &c. under Asius (835-9).
These three remaining divisions of the Catalogue evidently reappear
in the second and third of the five Divisions of the Twelfth Book.
The Second is under Paris, with Alcathous, son-in-law of Antenor, and
Agenor, one of his sons. In the command of the Third, Helenus and
Deiphobus, two sons of Priam, are associated with, and even placed
before, Asius. The position given in these divisions to the family of
Priam appears to prove, that the troops forming them were among his
proper subjects.
Again, the territorial juxtaposition of these districts, between
Phrygia, which lay behind the mountains of Ida, on the one side, and
the sea of Marmora with the Ægæan on the other, perfectly agrees with
the description in the Twenty-fourth Iliad[487] of the range of country
within which Priam had the preeminence in wealth, and in the vigour and
influence of his sons. Strabo quotes this passage as direct evidence
that Priam reigned over the country it describes, which is rather more
than it actually states; and he says that Troas certainly reached to
Adresteia and to Cyzicus.
[487] Il. xxiv. 543-5.
Again, we have various signs in different passages of a political
connection between the towns we have named and the race of Priam.
Melanippus, his nephew, was employed before the war at Percote[488].
Democoon[489], his illegitimate son, tended horses at Abydus;
doubtless, says Strabo[490], the horses of his father.
[488] Il. xv. 548.
[489] Il. iv. 99.
[490] P. 585.
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