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Thur. May 30

There is much back and forth fighting here, still at the ships, as Neptune (Poseidon) enters the battle in disguise to rally the Greeks. There are many memorable battles between individual warriors.

It strikes me here, and throughout the poem, that although armor is glorified for its quality and provenance, and thus its value as a gift between warriors, in action it seems more decorative than it is effective! When heroes clash, their armor gives them little protection from a well thrown javelin, a forceful spear thrust, or a proper sword stroke. Breast plates, helmets, and greaves are regulary pierced by spear points and sword blades (maybe because they are bronze?) or gaps are found where the armor is bound together. (I don’t think solid plate armour was yet available in the Bronze Age). Homer is famously vivid and even gruesome in his depiction of sudden, unforgiving death on the battlefield. Men die quickly, and in great numbers.

However, I think Homer might be exaggerating the violence for his thematic purposes, to empahsize the heroism of the warriors. Hand-to-hand combat could be deadly of course, but in general, battles were probably not much different than they were in classical Greece, when, according to Thucydides, there was usually a lot of pushing and shoving between massed phalanxes with relatively few casualties. Obviously there were exceptions, as at Thermopylae, but in the Iliad, almostevery battle is a series of duels between heroes, while the common troops simply follow along in their wake. One hero must be the victor, the other must die, or be grievously wounded. Anyone who retreats from death is deemed a coward.