The Proem of the Iliad: Homer's Art

Abstract

IN HIS proem (II. 1. 1-7) the poet of the Iliad asks his Muse for the Iliad, and in asking for it has to say what it is. The proem thus states in brief compass the whole of which it is the introductory part. It is a kind of lyric at the head of the epic, a masterpiece of compression; here, even more than elsewhere, every word is made to tell. The proem has been the object of special attention by the philologists.' What follows incorporates much from those predecessors. I shall be concerned, briefly, with establishing and construing the text, and also, at greater length, with interpreting it. These problems require us to set the text within a context, to display its language as a use of epic diction, its emphases as a choice of epic themes, its devices as an exploitation of an epic genre. We thus examine, in this one instance, the interplay between the of the poet and his individual talent. T. S. Eliot reminds us, in the essay from which I draw these terms, that all poets are traditional. Nevertheless, Homer is a traditional poet in a special sense. The Iliad is, or at the very least is like, oral poetry, poetry created in performance by the rapid and relatively unreflective mobilization of traditional means. As we come to understand such poetry better, we begin to invent the philologies appropriate to it. Philology then reveals that the oral poet also is a creator. He handles his materials freely, and therefore meaningfully. I shall often draw attention to expressions atypical of epic usage; such expressions do not separate Homer from his tradition but rather display him as its master. The oral poet, like others, stretches his tradition as he puts it to use. I do not intend, therefore, a contrast between and invented language, but between more and less familiar or expected uses of the formulaic language, between (to borrow a contrast from the linguists) more marked and less marked expressions. Both have their place in epic art; both, indeed, appear in the proem. I begin by setting out a text and offering an (unpoetic) translation: