The Greek army at Troy and its logistics . Based on the “Catalog of ships” called “Boeotia” from the second book of Homer’s Iliad

Abstract

The author showed a fragment of the Iliad referred to as the Catalogue of Ships, also called Beotia (Bojotia). The name of this part comes from the Beots, whose troops, arriving at Troy, were listed in the Catalogue as the first. The list contains in-formations about the Greek armed forces, rulers and chiefs of the Greek peoples who took part in the naval expedition and the war against the Trojans. It also determines the number of ships brought by the Greeks to Troy. Eager to go to war, they put themselves in Beocia near the city of Aulis where, on the Strait of Eurypus, a large port was located. It can also be assumed that the Catalogue of Greek troops begins with the army of Beocia because the ports of this land were chosen as the place of concentration of troops for the expedition against Troy. A collection of works called the Trojan Cycle was also characterized, which includes 29 books and from which only small fragments (epitomai) and summaries in the so-called Chrestomatia have survived. Despite such poor literature, they are an important source in reproducing the content of the Trojan cycle. The passage showing the Achaean army at Troy, which is a list of Greek nobility, is often omitted in the editions of the Iliad. However, for those studying the art of war, it is an extremely important record of Europe’s past.