The Iliad and the Odyssey are traditionally seen as works of literature, but students and researchers of ancient medicine and the classics see beyond that label. These Homeric ???? [1] which were referred to as ?????? ,[2] were much more than just stories in the ancient world. In fact, studies show that the medical descriptions featured in Homeric literature provided pre— Hippocratic medicinal knowledge. [3] While both the Iliad and the Odyssey are good evidence of Homeric medicine, the Iliad provides plentiful information regarding not only the treatment and descriptions of illnesses, but battle wounds as well.
While Homer’s Iliad documents the horrors of war and the mortality of humans, there is an underlying benefit hiding between the lines. There is a strong probability that the ancient world looked to the works of Homer as resources for ancient medicine.
The inclusion of the bloody descriptions of the injuries which occurred during the final stages of the Trojan War is what provided pre—Hippocratic medicinal knowledge and instigated curiosity for further anatomical and physiological exploration. In this paper, I will examine how the knowledge of literary ailments helped the people of the ancient world to better understand the human body and provided a smoother transition into the realm of rational Hippocratic medicine.
The Iliad is like a guide to pre—Hippocratic medicine and the treatment of wounds. Of Homer’s epics, the Iliad contains the most information regarding the treatment of injuries. Extensive in length, this ???? spans over 15,000 lines, and has countless different editions and versions available today. The original Iliad was Considered one of the oldest surviving Greek poems, but more importantly, it is believed to be one of the earliest literary sources of ancient medicine,[4] thought to be composed around 750 B.
C. What makes the Iliad a perfect source for this study as opposed to other ancient epics, such as the Odyssey, or the works of Hesiod, is that it provided the people of the Bronze Age in—depth information about early anatomy and physiology prior to medical discoveries or studies and the Hippocratic Corpus. Throughout the poem, Homer uses detailed, gory descriptions of the battle wounds. These descriptions provided people of the ancient world medicinal, anatomical, and physiological knowledge through the imagery. The descriptions of these wounds are so detailed that most of the major abdominal organs and innards are observed.
In the Iliad, Homer mentions one hundred and forty—seven different injuries,[5] most of which are described with surprising anatomical accuracy for the given era. Hermann Frolich, a German surgeon constructed a table that summarized all of the wounds mentioned in the Iliad while studying medicine on the Homeric Battlefield. [6] The table is organized by anatomical location, the type of weapon used, whether the wound was fatal or non—fatal, and how many of each wound there was. By studying Frolich’s Table of Homeric Wounds,[7] ancient medicine students can conclude which wounds were fatal and which were non—fatal, and also should try
to approach the information from the perspective of an aspiring ancient ??????. [8] The fatality rate, depending on the type and location of the wound, helped the people of the ancient world understand what would happen after someone was wounded in say, his neck. It was important to know if it was fatal, if that fatality was preventable, or if it was curable with roots, salves, and or a process of medical treatments. According to the Table, there were a total of thirty–one head injuries in the poem and all of them were fatal. Four of these wounds were stone–inflicted injuries, eight were sword- inflicted, seventeen were by spear, and two were by bow and arrow.
After being exposed to Homer’s Iliad, an ancient physician would gather that a patient wounded in the head was not likely to live, since according to Frolich and the descriptions provided by Homer, head trauma injuries had a one hundred percent mortality rate. A total of sixteen injuries to the neck were mentioned within the Iliad. Of these sixteen wounds, thirteen cases were fatal, one instance was non—fatal, and two cases were recorded as unspecified. Two injuries were stone—inflicted, four of them were sword related, nine were by spear, and one was by bow and arrow.
For example, the death of Hector a result of a neck wound. “… Achilles brandished high in his right hand, bent on Hector’s death, scanning his splendid body—where to pierce it best? The rest of his flesh seemed all encased in armor, burnished, brazen—Achilles’ armor that Hector stripped from strong Patroclus when he killed him—true, but one spot lay exposed, where collarbones lift the neckbone off the shoulders, the open throat, where the end of life comes quickest—there as Hector charged in fury brilliant Achilles drove his spear and the point went stabbing clean through the tender neck but the heavy bronze weapon failed to slash the windpipe— Hector could still gasp out some words, some last reply . . . he crashed in the dust—”[9]
In addition to the above passage, the data proves that survival of a neck wound is rare. According to the data, there was an 81. 2% mortality rate if wounded in the neck, because the two sets of jugular veins which, when wounded, spill out an enormous amount of blood since it relays deoxygenated blood from the cranium back to the heart via the superior vena cava. The windpipe, also located in the neck, (refer to the above passage) was another reason for death due to neck wound.
Another factor is decapitation. There are many instances in which the head is severed from the neck and body on the Trojan battlefield. Basic knowledge is that decapitation is impossible to survive. There are six decapitations within the Iliad, and all of them tended to be quite detailed, like the death of Illioneus. “… the one Peneleos lanced beneath the brows, down to the eyes’ roots and scooped an eyebrow out— the spear cut clean through the socket, out behind the nape and backward he sat, both hands stretched wide as Peneleos, quickly drawing his whetted sword, hacked him square in the neck and lopped his head and down on the ground it tumbled, helmet and all.
But the big spear’s point still stuck in the eye socket— hoisting the head high like a poppy—head on the shaft… ”[10] Homer gives a detailed description of this killing in the passage, describing the anatomical location of both of the incidences, including the orbit to his occipital area and the loss of the eye, as well as the decapitation. It also entails how it was done, “drawing his whetted sword, hacked him square in the neck and lopped his head… ” and the appearance of the final result.
Of the seventy—nine abdominal (or “trunk” as Frolich refers to it) injuries, sixty—seven of them were fatal injuries, nine were non—fatal, and three were unspecified wounds. Two injuries were stone—inflicted, four cases were sword—related, sixty—seven were spear—related, and six injuries were caused by bow and arrow. “Aetolian Thoas speared him as he swerved and sprang away, the lancehead piercing his chest above the nipple plunged deep in his lung, and Thoas, running up, wrenched the heavy spear from the man’s chest, drew his blade, ripped him across the belly, took his life but he could not strip his armor. ”[11]
There were ten arm wounds within the ?????? , and of these ten, there were only two fatalities (probably due to loss of blood), seven of the instances were non—fatal, and one was unspecified. There was one injury caused by stone, one injury caused by sword, seven by spears, and one injury caused by a bow and arrow. In addition to arm—related injuries, there were a total of eleven leg injuries. Only one of the injuries was fatal, seven were non—fatal, and three were unspecified wounds. Three of these injuries were stone—related, there were no incidences involving swords, six spear injuries, and two bow and arrow inflictions.
From this information, ancient physicians were probably able to conclude that if properly bound and treated, limb injuries were rarely fatal. The instances in which the limb wound was fatal were probably due to great blood loss. Homer includes these scenarios in Homeric Prose almost like poetic case studies to teach the ancient world all that he knows about human anatomy and physiology and the average mortality rate of humans. This is another piece of evidence that supports Hermann Fr? lich’s 1879 theory that Homer could not have written the Iliad unless he was in the actual army as a practitioner. [12]
For example, Harpalion, a prince allied with the Trojans, is struck from behind by an enemy arrow. Homer explains that this was a fatal wound, for although the arrow entered near the right buttock, it sliced through the body, missed the pelvic and pubic bones, and hit the bladder, a necessary organ for human life, which promptly ruptured. [13] This description was not only highly detailed, but anatomically correct. This information helped ancient medicine make the transition to Hippocratic (or rational) medicine, since it was more logical and scientific. It was applied and studied on the battlefield. These injuries were almost like the
closest records of the earliest form of dissection since the insides of the human body were observed, even if they were only briefly noted. There is evidence that Homer was regarded as a figure of authority of all arts and sciences, as well as a source of all wisdom. This concept has been gathered from the details of Plato’s Ion. Socrates tries to figure out how it is that Homer can share such wisdom without any training in the subjects. After much investigation, Socrates decides it is due to divine inspiration. [14] There is also primary evidence that Homer is a source of medical wisdom, like when Machaon treats Menelaus’ wounds.
[15] By observing the physician, Machaon’s treatment of Menelaus, it is evident that Homer is knowledgeable about surgery and the treatment of wounds. The way in which Machaon treats Menelaus is a series of basic steps. The first step is removing the arrow from the wound, then Machaon examines the wound, sucking, squeezing and pressing out the “excess” blood, (since it was believed that any flowing of blood from a wound was “contaminated” or “excess” blood/fluid, which caused pain and ailment and needed to be drained from the body. ) Then Machaon, once removing the excess blood, applies dry drugs, such as dried herbs or concoctions.
[16] Machaon’s treatment methods may have inspired Hippocratic treatments. In fact, there are theories that argue the 1879 theory that Homer was the chief army surgeon in Agamemnon’s army, stating that Machaon and his brother, Podalirius, the sons of Asclepius, were the head chief army surgeons. The way that Machaon treats Menelaus by removing the arrow from the wound and sucking out the blood. The method of sucking out blood and bloodletting is similar to the Hippocratic treatments of venesection and cupping. Venesection was literally, bleeding out the wound, while cupping was a process involving the property of suction.
A bowl—like object or the “cup” was placed over an opening made in the flesh, an incision or wound or etc. Then, blood would be released due to the property of suction. Since the process is very similar, this inclusion of Machaon’s steps in treatment contributed to the development of Hippocratic treatments.
There is also the instance where Patroclus, who cared for the wounds of Eurypylus who was wounded in the thigh[17] (leg wounds in the Homeric poems were noted to be painful, but not typically fatal if treated,) immediately begins to work on him with the knife that was on hand, (while not a major observation, but to be noted, not much thought was given to sanitation at this time) then washed Eurypylus with warm water to reduce pain.
At first, this confused me, because today, cold water and cold compresses, rather than warm are applied to wound or affected areas to reduce swelling. It is possible that the cleaning of the wound helped reduce pain and swelling by flushing out the wound and infection. However, this is one of the first examples of the cleansing of wounds, which may be the first step in medical regard for sanitation.
Then, once Patroclus had finished cleansing the wound and the surrounding areas, he applied a root to Eurypylus’ wound. It is noted that many kinds of roots found everywhere are good for the treatment of wounds, and from this passage, it is evident that Homer also knew that bitter drugs that are good for wounds that need to be dried out, (“excess” fluid/blood which needed to be dried up because too much of something was the reason for the ailment or painful wound or infection, etc. ). [18] However, the one thing that was particularly interesting is that after Patroclus finished treating Eurypylus’ wound, he did not leave his side, he stayed and sat with him and gave him hope with words for he was in pain and needed consolation.
“The brave son of Menoetius answered quickly, ‘Impossible. Eurypylus, hero, what shall we do? I am on my way with a message for Achilles, our great man of war—the plan that Nestor, Achaea’s watch and ward, urged me to report. But I won’t neglect you, even so, with such a wound. ”[19] Homer’s understanding that human emotion may have an effect on the healing process is a very wise outlook. This is evidence that Homer was very smart and understanding of the human being and mental as well as physical health, which is a major theme of the Odyssey.
The anatomical and physiological tidbits that the ancient world learned from Homer’s Iliad made the transition from pre—Hippocratic medicine to Hippocratic medicine much smoother, since people were more knowledgeable about the human body and its inner workings, as well as how to handle and treat wounds and which wounds could and should be treated.
Being exposed to injuries and illness by simply hearing the story was beneficial, since descriptions were made more dramatic when paired with audible and facial expressions which helped to convey the horrors, the bloodshed, and the brutalities of the tale. This skill of the recital of an ???? was said to be passed down from generation to generation along with the ???? itself, a process similar to a giant game of “Telephone. ”
The poems were actually “sung” by an ????? ,[20] however, some scholars are now arguing that the correct term at this point in was known as a ??????? ,[21] and not an ?????. This subject is a topic of great controversy in the realm of ancient studies and is left a mystery. However, Walter Burkert, a great German Greek mythology scholar and professor, argued that the term ??????? was by definition “a performer of a fixed, written text and not a creative oral poet,”[22] which has been accepted by many scholars he has influenced.
This tradition of “singing” a poem is how the term “Homeric hymn” came to classify Homeric poems. An ????? doesn’t actually sing the ???? like an actual song would be sung, but more recited in a rhythmic pattern. This rhythmic pattern is called dactylic hexameter. Dactylic hexameter, or “heroic hexameter,” is a form of poetic meter, and is applied the ancient epics and tales of heroism, such as the Aeneid by Virgil.
This meter is characterized by lines made from six feet,[23] and Homer used a more traditional version of dactylic hexameter, meaning that in most cases that more of the feet would be a ???????? ,[24] but what Homer did that many later embracers of dactylic hexameter did not do was allow for the spondaic fifth foot (a very rare occurrence in his works, but still significant when describing Homer’s dactylic style. ) Homer used this meter to improve the poem’s presentation, and add melodic attributes. It is almost as if Homer altered the word forms and focused on word choice to fit the meter pattern. The words in Homeric verse were arranged in the lines so that there was an interaction between the metrical ictus[25] and the natural, spoken accent of words.
When these two things were combined, they If these two features of the language coincide too frequently, they accentuate one other resulting in a sing—songy effect, hence the “singing. ” For example, the first line of the Iliad reads, “????? ????? , ??? , ????????? ??????? ,”[26] but when you read the line in dactylic hexameter it reads “????? ? | ???? , ?? | ? , ?? | ???? | ??? ??? | ????. ” The meter of the line follows the pattern dactyl, dactyl, spondee, dactyl, dactyl, trochee. [27] The meter of the Iliad was important for the ??????? to know and correctly use, since it gave the poem its rhythm and added to the acoustics of the presentation.
The meter also helped the ??????? remember and better memorize the ???? and recite it easily. This being said, its very possible that this rhythm helped people better memorize and absorb details,[28] just like people have learned their ABCs’ by memorizing it to a rhythm. As a visual learner, I know that it is difficult to learn anything substantial only from auditory information, and seeing an image or diagram or something written is highly beneficial. There is evidence that the Hellenistic people depicted scenes from the Iliad on vases. [29]
The original incentive was to show new and unskilled warriors where to strike the enemy in order to have a lethal effect. This information proves that the people of the ancient world used the Iliad as an primitive anatomical source. The evidence of this can be found within the poem, since there is a large variety of anatomical references. In the Iliad, Homer mentions the encephalon, spinal cord, trachea, lung, heart, liver, bowel, urinary bladder, tongue, diaphragm, cranial bones, cervical vertebrae, clavicle, acetabulum, ankle joint, aorta and external carotid artery. [30] This large variety of anatomical references provided vase painters ample images to conjure.
These images were like ancient—day anatomical diagrams, and were surprisingly accurate and unsparingly graphic. [31] What the artwork also suggests is that the people of the time were educated in anatomy or learned from someone who was, such as a healer or physician or person of great wisdom. “… And the corpse—fires burned on, night and day, no end in sight. ” The Iliad opens with discourse followed by the outbreak of ?????? [32] among the Achaean camps, and the death toll was rising. The Plague of the Iliad is an example of irrational medicine.
Irrational medicine is medicine based on magic and religion and looking to the gods for answers. Rational or Hippocratic medicine is logical and based on evidence and applied study. Depending on the situation, a god could decide to inflict suffering at whim or heal the wounded. This concept of Homeric literature is why the Iliad is considered to be pre—Hippocratic medicine, or irrational medicine. It is relates to a series of ancient beliefs that the gods and mortals intermingled, so war was no exception. For example, in Book I, Chryses had pleaded for Agamemnon to return his beautiful daughter,[33] Chryseis to him, but Agamemnon refused his pleas.
While Chryses was not a god, he was the priest of Apollo, and he prayed to Apollo for help. “… the old priest prayed to the son of sleek—haired Leto, lord Apollo, ‘Hear me, Apollo! God of the silver bow who strides the walls of Chryse and Cilla sacrosanct— lord in the power of Tenedos—Smintheus, god of the plague! ‘”[34] Apollo responded to the prayers of Chryses, and “down he strode from Olympus’ peaks storming at heart,”[35] and sent a horrific plague upon the Achaean army, killing off many Greek soldiers. The great warrior, Achilles is devastated by the desecration of his great army that he had assembled.
In order to put an end to the suffering, Achilles requests a soothsayer to tell him the cause of the plague, and finds the answer in the powerful soothsayer, Calchas, who admitted to Achilles that the plague was a strategy plotted by the god Apollo and Chryses. The ploy worked, and Apollo got his way in the end, and when Chryseis was returned to her father, and sacrifices were made, the plague was lifted. [36] In this instance, the healing of the plague is irrational, since no healing skills or strategies were required, the cure was prayer and the pleasing of the gods.
The soothsayer told Achilles that the plague wouldn’t cease until they “give back the girl with sparkling eyes to her loving father—no price, no ransom paid—and carry a sacred hundred bulls to Chryse town. Then we can calm the god, and only then appease him. ”[37] So what it appears that Homer is implying is that the plague will be cured and disappear with the satisfaction of the gods by prayer or sacrifice. Hippocratic medicine proves that these things are not the key to curing illnesses or injuries, but that the only cure for illness and injury is treatment and cures such as a change in regimen, altering the diet, restoring balance, surgery and the application of salves or roots applied and ingested.
While the Hippocratic Oath starts and ends with the gods, it is based more on the gods of healing and belief in religion, as opposed to the sacrifice of an ox to remove a tumor from a woman’s brain. It is based on the concepts of regimen, balance, and the four humors. My opinion is that the changed outlook on the gods was the turning point in the transition from irrational to rational medicine. Since it marked the movement of praying for healing to actually healing, which provided the incentive to further in medical exploration. Further medical study is what brought us the modern medicine we have today. The
Iliad’s anatomical description provided the ancient world just enough to know where general things were located, but these anatomical descriptions came from the observation of wounds and the method in which one was wounded and then by taking a close look at the actual injury.
This concept of observational study may have sparked inspiration for further steps in anatomical discovery, dissection and autopsy for example. This exposure to wounds and visual knowledge also helped smooth the gap between pre—Hippocratic and Hippocratic medicine. The injuries that are listed within the Iliad have provided a guidebook for the treatment of not only just battle wounds but for almost every type of wound imaginable in the pre—Hippocratic world.
It was not only inspirational in the development of ancient medicine and leading into Hippocratic medicinal studies and procedures, but has allowed for Homer’s skills to shine through the verses. Although I as a student am not yet capable of answering the Homeric Question, whoever Homer or the person behind the Iliad and the Odyssey was brilliant in the field of anatomical knowledge. While we may never know who Homer was and whether the story was made up constructed purely from imagination for entertainment purposes only, or if Homer was a skilled and knowledgeable physician.
There are theories that he was the chief practitioner of Agamemnon’s army and joined the warriors on the battlefield. However, what would be the main preventing factor of this theory is that Homer was said to be a blind bard, travelling from place to place spreading his epics everywhere. In conclusion, my thesis was provable, since there is sufficient information regarding medicinal context within Homer’s Iliad. The epic poem is a jack of all trades. It has served the classics community well over the course of roughly three thousand years.
It has been the core of ancient studies in many courses and the root of many theories. And has also served as reference for early ancient Greek medicine. In fact, it was one of the first references ever for ancient medicine. It teaches lethal battle warfare to inexperienced soldiers, but on a deeper, more advanced level, it teaches physicians how to treat battle wounds and the like.
Gruesome and gory, the Iliad includes does not exempt any details from its descriptive verses, describing such intense imagery and anatomical references, the injury and treatment scenarios read almost like early battle wound case studies.
The Iliad is a work of art in many different fields, and provided the people of the ancient world a basis of medicinal, anatomical, and physiological knowledge. It also made the transition from pre—Hippocratic medicine to Hippocratic medicine much smoother, since people were exposed to the information, they had some knowledge regarding the subject of first aid and medical treatment, and also provided the foundation for rational, more advanced medicine to expand and broaden into the medicine we practice and use today. This study that I have compiled is beneficial for many reasons.
The research I have gathered and analyzed and the theory I have supported will aid scholars of ancient medicine to better understand the basis of Hippocratic medicine, and the motivating factors that inspired the further exploration of the anatomical, physiological, and medicinal aspects of the human body in the ancient world. While I understand that I am not the first scholar of ancient medicine to explore the topic of Homeric medicine, I feel that what my research will do is make the theory stated easier for classics students like myself to understand and better grasp.
It provides the take on Homeric medicine and its contributions to Hippocratic medicine from the view of a college student and provides opinion and insight into a subject that is not commonly explored by classics enthusiasts of such a young age. Bibliography Adams, Henry Foster. “A Note of the Effect of Rhythm on Memory. ” Psychological Review Volume 22. 4 (July, 1915): 289—298 Arieti, James A.. “Achilles’ Inquiry about Machaon: The Critical Moment in the Iliad. ” The Classical Journal 79. 2 (Dec. , 1983—Jan. , 1984): 125-130. Blickman, Daniel R. “The Role of the Plague in the Iliad. ” Classical Antiquity Volume 6. 1 (April, 1987):1—10.
Burkert, Walter. “The making of Homer in the 6th century BC: Rhapsodes versus Stesichorus. ” Papers on the Amasis Painter and his World, Malibu: Getty Museum, 1987: 43–62. Demand, Nancy. “Medicine in Homer. ” The Asclepion. (19 May 2000. ) Graziosi, Barbara. Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic. The University of Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Heraclitus Homeric Problems. Edited and translated by Donald Andrew Russell and David Konstan. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005. Homer. The Iliad. Edited and translated by Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1991. Neal, Tamara.
The Wounded Hero: Non-Fatal Injury in Homer’s Iliad. Switzerland: Peter Lang AG, 2006. Nutton, Vivian. Ancient Medicine. Edited by Liba Taub. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2004. Plutarch. Essay on The Life and Poetry of Homer. Edited by John J. Keaney, Robert Lamberton. Oxford University: Oxford University Press, 1996. Paipetis, S. A. Science and Technology in Homeric Epics. Springer Science + Business Media B. V. , 2008: 280. Ranta, Jerrald. “The Drama of Plato’s “Ion. ” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Volume 26. 2 (Winter, 1967): 219-229. Renouard, Pierre-Victor. History of Medicine: From its Origin to the Nineteenth Century.
Translated by Cornelius G. Comegys, M. D.. Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co. , 1856. Sapounakis, C. G. Rallis C. Mourouzis E. Konsolaki C. Tesseromatis. “Injuries to the head and neck in Homer’s Iliad. ” British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Volume 45. 2 (March, 2007): 112—115. Saunders, K. B.. “Frolich’s Table of Homeric Wounds. ” The Classical Quarterly New Series 54. 1 (May, 2004): 1-17. Sieben, R.. “The Homeric Concept and Practice of Medicine. ” Stanford Medical Bulletin (August 20, 1962): 130-136 Smith, Wesely D.. “Physiology in the Homeric Poems. ”
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 97 (1966): 547-556. Urso C. “Anatomical references in Homer’s Iliad. ” Pathologica Volume 89. 1 (February, 1997): 26—30. Viale, G. “An intriguing fragment of pre-hippocratic medicine in Aeschylus. ” Neurosurgery Volume 55. 4 (October 2004): 761—766. Warren, C. P. “Some Aspects of Medicine in the Greek Bronze Age. ” Medical History Volume 14. 4 (October 1970): 364–377. ———————– [1]Pronounced epos; Greek term for word, story, poem, speech. [2]Pronounced epikos; Ancient Greek term (also used as an adjective) meaning epic poem; the adjective A??
IA referred to the type of poem or genre; derived from the Greek word A? A. [3]Warren, 365. [4]Viale, 761-5; 765-6. [5]Saunders 2004, 2. [6]Saundersadjective) meaning epic poem; the adjective ?????? referred to the type of poem or genre; derived from the Greek word ????. [7]Warren, 365. [8]Viale, 761-5; 765-6. [9]Saunders 2004, 2. [10]Saunders 2004, 1. [11]See Figure 1 on the disc included [12]Pronounced iatros; Greek term for “healer” or “physician. ” [13]Homer Iliad 22. 376—388. [14] Homer Iliad 14. 576—584. [15]Homer Iliad 4. 611-616. [16]Paipetis, 280. [17]Homer Iliad 13. 640—653.
[18]Ranta, 219—229. [19]See Figure 7 on disc included. [20] Homer Iliad 4. 241-252. [21]Homer Iliad 11. 989—1015. [22]Saunders 1999, 345-363. [23]Homer Iliad 11. 1000-1005. [24] Pronounced aoidos; Greek term for “singer;” skilled at the recital of Homer’s ?????? poems and hyms [25]Pronounced rhapsodos; Greek term for rhapsode; “ a performer of a fixed, written text and not a creative oral poet,” (see 17) [26]Burkert, 43—62. [27]Meters use feet as the basic units that describe the underlying rhythm of a poem or verse. A foot consists of a specific number of syllables depending on the form of meter.
[28]Pronounced daktulos; Greek term meaning “finger;” English translation is dactyl; the type of foot preferred by Homer. [29]The first long syllable of each foot; in classic verse, the ictus could be independent of the syllabic accent, which was a difference in tone or pitch. The ictus regularly attached itself to a long time or syllable as contrasted with one or more shorts, but a long or longs could be metrically unaccented. The conflict between ictus and accent in ancient poetry may be exemplified by the line. (Summary of definition from the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia) [30]Homer Iliad 1.
1. Translated: “sing, goddess, the wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles,” [31]Term for a metrical foot used in formal poetry consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, creating a “rolling” effect when read and pronounced properly. [32]Adams, 289-298. [33]Paipetis, 269—274. [34]Urso, 26—30. [35]See Figures 2 and 3 on disc included. [36]Pronounced loimos; meaning “a pestilence;” plague in this context; can also mean hunger and death and destruction. [37]Homer Iliad 1. 22—24. [38]Homer Iliad 1. 41—46. [39]Homer Iliad 1. 51. [40]Blickman, 2. [41]Homer Iliad 115—118.