On Princes and Carpenters Boxing in Homer

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of sport as mediator between social class and personal merit through the figure of Epeios in Homer’s Iliad. Dated around 800 BCE, the poem provides us with the first complete account of an athletic event in Western literature, the Funeral Games for Patroklos (henceforth: the Games). Among the noble warlords competing at the Games is a soldier of obscure background called Epeios who wins in boxing but loses in weight-throwing. His performance initiates a novel discourse on the philosophy of sport, as his athletic prowess is not concomitant with martial distinction. Introduced into the Iliad through sport and not war, Epeios later achieves renown as the carpenter who built the Trojan Horse. Through close readings of all relevant texts, this paper argues that Epeios’ mini-epic articulates the Problematik of sport as a criterion for meritocracy by reevaluating the social gap between him and his aristocratic fellow-contestants. At the same time, this analysis explicates how the figure of Epeios foreshadows the change in strategy that will bring forth the fall of Troy.