The World of Homer. Andrew Lang
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no Aegean work of art in which it is represented.[25]
There is no confusion of military styles in Homer; the trouble is caused when Herr Mülder chooses to say that there is confusion; that a fight of masses is promised (apparently by an Ionian interpolator), and that single combats are given (apparently by the older minstrel).[26] Both sorts of fighting are given in their proper places: the engagement of masses before, the individual valiances after "the battle is scattered," while in the clash of the massed forces, the conduct of prominent assailants and defenders is noted. Mülder's remarks arise from his eagerness to prove that not only the armature is a muddle of anachronisms, which is not the case, but that the fighting, too, is anachronistic and self-contradictory.
The aged Nestor remembers and approves of a mode of fighting which, at Troy, has become obsolete, owing to the new system of dismounting the men-at-arms and arraying them in line or in column of attack. He says to his Pylians (Iliad, iv. 303 seqq.), "Neither let any man, trusting to his horsemanship and valour, be eager to fight the Trojans alone before the rest, nor yet let him draw back. … But whensoever a warrior from his own chariot can come at the chariot of the foe, let him thrust forth with his spear, even so is the far better way," the old way. "The style of fighting is not Epic," says Mr. Leaf. It is meant not to be "Epic"; it is old-fashioned, like Nestor.
We know "the old way" from pictures on Egyptian monuments, showing the charge of squadrons using the bow, and routing an irregular advance of Hittite chariotry, using the spear. But, under Troy, the combatants usually fight dismounted; always, in the opening of a general action. But though Nestor recommends the old chariotry tactics, Herr Mülder says that he is recommending the historic, "the modern method," and attributing it to the old military school of his youth (οἱ πρότεροι).[27] The general purpose is to prove that "edifying passages from the old Ionic hortatory writers seem to have been introduced into Homer."[28]
The tactics and military formations of Homer are as intelligible as those of Chandos and Henry v. They can only be misunderstood by critics under the suggestion of the idea that the Iliad is riddled with Ionian tamperings. The Ionians never touched the matter of the Iliad.
[1] Iliad, xi. 49, αὐτοὶ δὲ πρυλέες σὐν τέύχεσιθωρηχθέντες. Cf. v. 744, πρυλέες "may mean either footmen or champions." Leaf.
[2] Iliad, xi. 59–66.
[3] xi. 67–69.
[4] θαλάγγαι, xi. 90.
[5] Iliad, xii. 3, μάχοντο ὀμιλαδόν. Cf. xii. 35, 36.
[6] xii. 66–107.
[7] Iliad, xiii. 81–124.
[8] xiii. 80–90.
[9] πτύσσοντο, xiii. 134.
[10] xiii. 128–133.
[11] xiii. 144–148.
[12] xiii. 789–906.
[13] xiii. 833–837.
[14] xv. 299–301.
[15] Iliad, xv. 328.
[16] xv. 343–366.
[17] i. 241–244.
[18] i. 409–412.
[19] ix. 653–656.
[20] xvi. 1–155.
[21] Rapid retreat, xi. 359–360. Rapid pursuit, viii. 87–90, 340–349. Leaf on viii. 348. Cf. Caesar, Bellum Gallicum, iv. 33. Chariot in attendance to remove wounded hero, xi. 273, 399. Quick mounting and dismounting, xvi. 426, 427.
[22] Ridgeway, E. A. G., vol. i. pp. 313–315.
[23] R. G. E. pp. 141–143. Homer und die altjonische Elegie, pp. 32–41.
[24] R. G. E. p. 143.
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