An ancient ‘encyclopedia entry’

Some more material to consider in addressing our 99 Homeric Problems. The Suda is a Byzantine era compendium of knowledge. In this entry, it provides a summary of many of the contrary things said about Homer in antiquity.

Suda, omicron 251

“Homer, a poet. The son of Meles the river, in Smyrna, and the nymph Kritheis. Some people say that he was the son of Apollo and the muse Kalliope. But Kharaks the historian claims his father was Maion or Metius and his mother was Eumetis or Eumetis. According to others, he was the son of Telemachus and Nestor’s daughter Polykaste.

The line of his genealogy according to the historian Kharaks goes like this: Aithue of Thtrace was Linus’ mother, the father of Pieros, the father of Oegros, the father of Orpheus, the father of Dres, the father of Euklees, the father if Idmonides, the father of Philoterpes, the father of Melanopus, the father of Apelles, the father of Maion. Maion lived at the same time that the Amazons arrived at Smyrna. He married Eumetis, the daughter of Euepes, the son of Mnesigenes, and he fathered Homer.

There’s additional doubt about his country, because the greatness of his nature provided some disbelief about whether or not he was a mortal. Different people say he came from Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Uos, Cyme, Troy,, the region around Cenchreae, Ludia, Athens, Egypt, Ithaca, Cyprus, Knossos, Salamis, Mycenae, Thessaly, italy, Lucania, Gryne, Rome and Rhodes.

He was actually called Melesigenes, because his mother gave birth to him next to the river Meles, according to genealogy provided in Smyrna. He was called Homer because when there was a war between Smyrna and Colophon he was made a hostage (homeros), or because when Smyrna’s people were debating he was divinely inspired and provided war advice to the assembly..

Homer lived 57 years before the the first Olympiad; but Porphyry claims in his History of Philosophy that it was 132 years before. The first Olympiad happened 407 years following the sack of Troy. Some claim that Homer was born mere 160 years after the capture of Troy; but Porphyry just mentioned says it was 275 years after

In Chios he married Gnostor of Cyme’s daughter. Aresiphone. They had two sons and a daughter who then married to Stasinus of Cyprus Their sons were Eriphon and Theolaus.

The Iliad and Odyssey are Homer’s undebated works. But he did not write the Iliad all at once or in sequence, as it now stands. Instead, he composed  and performed individual rhapsodies as he traveled round the cities making a living. He, left them behind; and later on  they were assembled and ordered by many hands, especially Pisistratus the tyrant of Athens.

Other poems are attributed to Homer: the Amazonia; Little Iliad; Nostoi; Epicichlides; Ethiepactos (or Iambi); Battle of the Frogs; Battle of the Mice and Frogs; Battle of the Spiders; Battle of the Cranes; Cerameis; The Expulsion of Amphiaraus; Paegnia; The Capture of Sicily; epithalamia; Cycle; hymns; Cypria.

He was very old when he died and was buried in Ios. He was blind, they say, from the time he was a child, but in reality he was not a slave of desire or ruled by his eyes, and this is where the story of his blindness comes from. On his tomb is the elegy, later composed by the people of Ios: ‘At this spot, the earth covers the sacred head, that divine director of heroic men, Homer.”

Ὅμηρος ὁ ποιητής, Μέλητος τοῦ ἐν Σμύρνῃ ποταμοῦ καὶ Κριθηί̈δος νύμφης, ὡς δὲ ἄλλοι Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Καλλιόπης τῆς Μούσης: ὡς δὲ Χάραξ ὁ ἱστορικὸς Μαίονος ἢ Μητίου καὶ Εὐμήτιδος μητρός: κατὰ δὲ ἄλλους Τηλεμάχου τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως καὶ Πολυκάστης τῆς Νέστορος. ἔστι δὲ ἡ τοῦ γένους τάξις κατὰ τὸν ἱστορικὸν Χάρακα αὕτη: Αἰθούσης Θρᾴσσης Λίνος, τοῦ δὲ Πίερος, τοῦ δὲ Οἴαγρος, τοῦ δὲ Ὀρφεύς, τοῦ δὲ Δρής, τοῦ δὲ Εὐκλέης, τοῦ δὲ Ἰδμονίδης, τοῦ δὲ Φιλοτερπής, τοῦ δὲ Εὔφημος, τοῦ δ’ Ἐπιφράδης, τοῦ δὲ Μελάνωπος, τοῦ δὲ Ἀπελλῆς, τοῦ δὲ Μαίων, ὃς ἦλθεν ἅμα ταῖς Ἀμαζόσιν ἐν Σμύρνῃ καὶ γήμας Εὔμητιν τὴν Εὐέπους τοῦ Μνησιγένους ἐποίησεν Ὅμηρον. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὴν πατρίδα ἀμφίβολος διὰ τὸ ἀπιστηθῆναι ὅλως εἶναι θνητὸν τῷ μεγέθει τῆς φύσεως. οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἔφασαν γενέσθαι Σμυρναῖον, οἱ δὲ Χῖον, οἱ δὲ Κολοφώνιον, οἱ δὲ Ἰήτην, οἱ δὲ Κυμαῖον, οἱ δὲ ἐκ Τροίας ἀπὸ χωρίου Κεγχρεῶν, οἱ δὲ Λυδόν, οἱ δὲ Ἀθηναῖον, οἱ δὲ Αἰγύπτιον, οἱ δὲ Ἰθακήσιον, οἱ δὲ Κύπριον, οἱ δὲ Κνώσσιον, οἱ δὲ Σαλαμίνιον, οἱ δὲ Μυκηναῖον, οἱ δὲ Θετταλόν, οἱ δὲ Ἰταλιώτην, οἱ δὲ Λευκανόν, οἱ δὲ Γρύνιον, οἱ δὲ Ῥωμαῖον, οἱ δὲ Ῥόδιον.

 καὶ προσηγορεύετο μὲν κυρίως Μελησιγένης: καὶ γὰρ ἐτέχθη παρὰ τῷ Μέλητι ποταμῷ κατὰ τοὺς Σμυρναῖον αὐτὸν γενεαλογοῦντας. ἐκλήθη δὲ Ὅμηρος διὰ τὸ πολέμου ἐνισταμένου Σμυρναίοις πρὸς Κολοφωνίους ὅμηρον δοθῆναι, ἢ ὅτι βουλευομένων Σμυρναίων δαιμονίᾳ τινὶ ἐνεργεία φθέγξασθαι καὶ συμβουλεῦσαι ἐκκλησιάζουσι περὶ τοῦ πολέμου. καὶ γέγονε δὲ πρὸ τοῦ τεθῆναι τὴν πρώτην ὀλυμπιάδα πρὸ ἐνιαυτῶν νζ#: Πορφύριος δὲ ἐν τῇ Φιλοσόφῳ ἱστορίᾳ πρὸ ρλβ# φησίν. ἐτέθη δὲ αὕτη μετὰ τὴν Τροίας ἅλωσιν ἐνιαυτοῖς ὕστερον υζ#. τινὲς δὲ μετὰ ρξ# ἐνιαυτοὺς μόνους τῆς Ἰλίου ἁλώσεως τετέχθαι ἱστοροῦσιν Ὅμηρον: ὁ δὲ ῥηθεὶς Πορφύριος μετὰ σοε#. 

γήμας δ’ ἐν Χίῳ Ἀρησιφόνην τὴν Γνώτορος τοῦ Κυμαίου θυγατέρα ἔσχεν υἱεῖς δύο καὶ θυγατέρα, ἣν ἔγημε Στασῖνος ὁ Κύπριος: οἱ δὲ υἱεῖς Ἐρίφων καὶ Θεόλαος. ποιήματα δὲ αὐτοῦ ἀναμφίλεκτα Ἰλιὰς καὶ Ὀδύσσεια. ἔγραψε δὲ τὴν Ἰλιάδα οὐχ ἅμα οὐδὲ κατὰ τὸ συνεχές, καθάπερ σύγκειται, ἀλλ’ αὐτὸς μὲν ἑκάστην ῥαψῳδίαν γράψας καὶ ἐπιδειξάμενος τῷ περινοστεῖν τὰς πόλεις τροφῆς ἕνεκεν ἀπέλιπεν. ὕστερον δὲ συνετέθη καὶ συνετάχθη ὑπὸ πολλῶν καὶ μάλιστα ὑπὸ Πεισιστράτου τοῦ τῶν Ἀθηναίων τυράννου. ἀναφέρεται δὲ εἰς αὐτὸν καὶ ἄλλα τινὰ ποιήματα: Ἀμαζονία, Ἰλιὰς μικρά, Νόστοι, Ἐπικιχλίδες, Ἠθιέπακτος ἤτοι Ἴαμβοι, Βατραχομαχία, Μυοβατραχομαχία, Ἀραχνομαχία, Γερανομαχία, Κεραμεῖς, Ἀμφιαράου ἐξέλασις, παίγνια, Σικελίας ἅλωσις, ἐπιθαλάμια, Κύκλος, ὕμνοι, Κύπρια. γηραιὸς δὲ τελευτήσας ἐν τῇ νήσῳ τῇ Ἴῳ τέθαπται, τυφλὸς ἐκ παίδων γεγονώς: 

τὸ δὲ ἀληθές, ὅτι οὐχ ἡττήθη ἐπιθυμίας ἣ διὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἄρχεται, καὶ παρὰ τοῦτο ἱστορήθη τυφλός. ἐπιγέγραπται δὲ ἐν τῷ τάφῳ αὐτοῦ τόδε τὸ ἐλεγεῖον, ὃ ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰητῶν ἐποιήθη χρόνῳ: ἐνθάδε τὴν ἱερὰν κεφαλὴν κατὰ γαῖα καλύπτει ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων κοσμήτορα θεῖον Ὅμηρον.

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Some additional information from the Scholia to Pindar

Schol. Ad Pin. Nem. 2.1  var.

“Just as the Homeridae”: They used to say in ancient times that the Homeridae were the descendants of Homer who used to sing his poetry in turns. But later on, the rhapsodes no longer attributed their lineage to Homer. But once the performers around Kynaithos became well-known—those ones who people claim composed many verses and inserted them into Homer’s poetry. Kynaithos’ was from Khios and he is said to have composed the Hymn to Apollo among those poems attributed to Homer. This Kynaithos was the first to sing the poems of Homer as a rhapsode among the Syracusians during the sixty-ninth Olympiad, as Hippostratus claims.

 ῞Οθεν περ καὶ ῾Ομηρίδαι: ῾Ομηρίδας ἔλεγον τὸ μὲν ἀρχαῖον τοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ ῾Ομήρου γένους, οἳ καὶ τὴν ποίησιν αὐτοῦ ἐκ διαδοχῆς ᾖδον· μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα καὶ οἱ ῥαψῳδοὶ οὐκέτι τὸ γένος εἰς ῞Ομηρον ἀνάγοντες. ἐπιφανεῖς δὲ ἐγένοντοοἱ περὶ Κύναιθον, οὕς φασι πολλὰ τῶν ἐπῶν ποιήσαντας ἐμβαλεῖν εἰς τὴν ῾Ομήρου ποίησιν. ἦν δὲ ὁ Κύναιθος τὸ γένος Χῖος, ὃς καὶ τῶν ἐπιγραφομένων ῾Ομήρου ποιημάτων τὸν εἰς ᾿Απόλλωνα γεγραφὼς ὕμνον ἀνατέθεικεν αὐτῷ. οὗτος οὖν ὁ Κύναιθος πρῶτος ἐν Συρακούσαις ἐραψῴδησε τὰ ῾Ομήρου ἔπη κατὰ τὴν ξθ′ ᾿Ολυμπιάδα, ὡς ῾Ιππόστρατός φησιν (FHG IV 433).

“In addition: The rhapsodes etymologize “rhapsodes” because they proceed through Homeric poetry with the rhabdos . Callimachus writes, “I am forever singing the story woven on a rhabdos as a received it…”

Other people claim that Homeric poetry was not brought together into one corpus, but that it was spread around and separated into pieces. When they would act as rhapsodes, they would make something like a series or a stitch as they brought it together into the same composition.

This is what Pindar means too. Some people claim that previously each of the competitors sang whatever part of the separated poem he wanted and that the prize for the victors was a lamb which is why the performers was called “lamb-singers” but that once each of the poems was introduced, the competitors would listen to one another’s parts and go through the whole poem, they were called rhapsodes. Dionysios the Argive claims these things. But Philokhoros says that they were called this from the collocation and stitching of song. Hesiod clearly writes: “Homer and I were then the first singers / who performed at Delos, stitching together song among the new hymns / for Phoibos Apollo, of the golden sword whom Leto bore”. Nikokles says that Hesiod was the first to rhapsodize. Menaikhmos records that rhapsodes were called stikhodes because rhabdoi are called stikhoi by some.

ἄλλως. τοὺς ῥαψῳδοὺς οἱ μὲν ῥαβδῳδοὺς ἐτυμολογοῦσι διὰ τὸ μετὰ ῥάβδου δηλονότι τὰ ῾Ομήρου ἔπη διεξιέναι.
Καλλίμαχος (fr. 138)·
καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ ῥάβδῳ μῦθον ὑφαινόμενον / ἠνεκὲς ἀείδω δεδεγμένος.
οἱ δέ φασι τῆς ῾Ομήρου ποιήσεως μὴ ὑφ’ ἓν συνηγμένης, σποράδην δὲ ἄλλως καὶ κατὰ μέρη διῃρημένης, ὁπότε ῥαψῳδοῖεν αὐτὴν, εἱρμῷ τινι καὶ ῥαφῇ παραπλήσιον ποιεῖν, εἰς ἓν αὐτὴν ἄγοντας. οὕτω καὶ ὁ Πίνδαρος ἐκδέδεκται. οἱ δὲ, ὅτι κατὰ μέρος πρότερον τῆς ποιήσεως διαδεδομένης τῶν ἀγωνιστῶν ἕκαστος ὅ τι βούλοιτο μέρος ᾖδε, τοῦ δὲ ἄθλου τοῖς νικῶσιν ἀρνὸς ἀποδεδειγμένου προσαγορευθῆναι τότε μὲν ἀρνῳδούς, αὖθις δὲ ἑκατέρας τῆς ποιήσεως εἰσενεχθείσης τοὺς ἀγωνιστὰς οἷον ἀκουμένους πρὸς ἄλληλα τὰ μέρη καὶ τὴν σύμπασαν ποίησιν ἐπιόντας, ῥαψῳδοὺς προσαγορευθῆναι. ταῦτά φησι Διονύσιος ὁ ᾿Αργεῖος (FHG III 26). Φιλόχορος (FHG I 417) δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ συντιθέναι καὶ ῥάπτειν τὴν ᾠδὴν οὕτω φησὶν αὐτοὺς προσκεκλῆσθαι. δηλοῖ δὲ ὁ ῾Ησίοδος λέγων (fr. 265)·
ἐν Δήλῳ τότε πρῶτον ἐγὼ καὶ ῞Ομηρος ἀοιδοὶ
μέλπομεν, ἐν νεαροῖς ὕμνοις ῥάψαντες ἀοιδὴν,
Φοῖβον ᾿Απόλλωνα χρυσάορον, ὃν τέκε Λητώ.
ῥαψῳδῆσαι δέ φησι πρῶτον τὸν ῾Ησίοδον Νικοκλῆς (FHG IV 464). Μέναιχμος δὲ ἱστορεῖ τοὺς ῥαψῳδοὺς στιχῳδοῦς καλεῖσθαι διὰ τὸ τοὺς στίχους ῥάβδους λέγεσθαι ὑπό τινων.

“Another version is this: the Homeridai were once the children of Homer and then later on the rhapsodes around Kunaithos. These are the people who remembered the Homeric poetry that had been scattered around and they performed it. But they totally ruined it. They always begin their poems by making a proem to Zeus. And sometimes the Muses.

Ἄλλως. ῾Ομηρίδαι πρότερον μὲν οἱ ῾Ομήρου παῖδες, ὕστερον δὲ οἱ περὶ Κύναιθον ῥαβδῳδοί· οὗτοι γὰρ τὴν ῾Ομήρου ποίησιν σκεδασθεῖσαν ἐμνημόνευον καὶ ἀπήγγελλον· ἐλυμήναντο δὲ αὐτῇ πάνυ. αἰεὶ οὖν τὴν ἀρχὴν ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖστον ἐκ Διὸς ἐποι-οῦντο προοιμιαζόμενοι, ἐνίοτε δὲ καὶ Μουσῶν.

Some links on this passage: Greg Nagy in classical inquiries;  Derek Collins in Master of the Game; Nagy again in Homer the Preclassic; and José M González, ., The Epic Rhapsode and His Craft: Homeric Performance in a Diachronic Perspective.

Multiformity and Variation

In an earlier post on “the plan,” I promised to start with guidelines for how to read Homeric epic and I promise to do that, but I am including some random posts about the beginning of the epic to get warmed up. There will be a handful of posts about preparing for epic and then I will get started on book-specific posts, covering a book a week for the duration. If all goes according to plan, I’ll intersperse these posts with scholia, essays, and observations for each book during its week.

As I discussed in an earlier post the beginning of the Iliad contains thematically resonant language that engages with the larger poetic tradition while also informing audiences what to expect from this poem:

Hom. Iliad 1.1-8

Μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω ᾿Αχιλῆος
οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί’ ᾿Αχαιοῖς ἄλγε’ ἔθηκε,
πολλὰς δ’ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς ῎Αϊδι προΐαψεν
ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν
οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή,
ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε
᾿Ατρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος ᾿Αχιλλεύς.

“Goddess, sing the rage of Pelias’ son Achilles,
Destructive, how it gave the Achaeans endless pains
And sent many brave souls of heroes to Hades—
And it made them food for the dogs
And all the birds as Zeus’ plan was being fulfilled.
Start from when those two first diverged in strife,
The lord of men Atreus’ son and godly Achilles.”

A few things to note from here: this is not the story of the Trojan War. Indeed, it is only clear that it is set in the Trojan War because of the naming of the heroes Achilles and Agamemnon and the invocation of the plan of Zeus. In a way, the proemia of epic poems (the “fore-songs”, if you will) function like the chyrons at the beginning of Star Wars films, inviting audiences to situate the story to be told in some kind of narrative frame.

check this out

When I read the Iliad or the Odyssey with students, I spend an inordinate amount of time on these introductory passages because they do so much to set up the stories to come, both through what they say and leave unsaid.

But what translations often lead out is that these famous lines aren’t the only ones we have for beginning the poems. The manuscript traditions of the Iliad provide in addition to the well-known 8 line proem, a few shorter, alternate beginnings:

D Scholia ad Hom. Il. Prolegomenon in Rom. Bibl. Nat gr. 6:

“An Iliad which appears to be ancient, called Apellicon’s, has this proem

I sing of the Muses and Apollo, known for his bow…

This is recorded by Nikanôr and Crates in his Critical Notes on the Text of the Iliad. Aristoxenus in the first book of his Praxidamanteia says that some had as the first lines:

Tell me now Muses who have Olympian Homes

How rage and anger overtook Peleus’ son

And also the shining son of Leto. For the king was enraged…”

ἡ δὲ δοκοῦσα ἀρχαία ᾿Ιλιάς, λεγομένη δὲ ᾿Απελλικῶνος, προοίμιον ἔχει τοῦτο·

Μούσας ἀείδω καὶ ᾿Απόλλωνα κλυτότοξον

ὡς καὶ Νικάνωρ μέμνηται καὶ Κράτης ἐν τοῖς διορθωτικοῖς. ᾿Αριστόξενος
δ’ ἐν α′ Πραξιδαμαντείων φησὶν κατά τινας ἔχειν·

῎Εσπετε νῦν μοι, Μοῦσαι ᾿Ολύμπια δώματ’ ἔχουσαι,
ὅππως δὴ μῆνίς τε χόλος θ’ ἕλε Πηλεΐωνα,
Λητοῦς τ’ ἀγλαὸν υἱόν· ὁ γὰρ βασιλῆι χολωθείς.

Obviously, these variant beginnings don’t signal a different poem, but they do set up the audience in different ways. The latter variants especially point to a greater emphasis (perhaps) on Apollo. There’s much written on this, but for a start see Vince Tomasso’s comments on these beginnings as rhapsodic alternatives, Greg Nagy’s overview of the importance of Apollo’s rage at the beginning of the Iliad and Casey Dué’s comments as part of a larger discussion of multiformity.

When it comes to these lines, the question is whether they derive from a performance tradition of the story of the rage of Achilles as more or less equally likely options to begin the epic poem we currently have, or they are variants left over from traditions of other Iliads. I am generally agnostic and think that the scholars I have mentioned above all have really good arguments.

I do note here that when I use the word multiform as opposed to variant I (think) I mean a more-or-less equally possible option from the performance tradition. When I use ‘variant’, I mostly mean a less-likely or aesthetically apt alternative (because variant implies a movement from something standard or already extant). But Casey Dué’s (free!) book Achilles Unbound is far more nuanced and informative in discussing these things. I also suggest José M. González’s The Epic Rhapsode and His Craft: Homeric Performance in a Diachronic Perspective

For those with access to modern editions of the Iliad, information like is crammed in the critical apparatus of Allen’s edition of the Iliad (1931):

It is also to be found in West’s more recent edition (1998):

Fun with the Homeric Scholia

Homeric Scholia are the collection of notes included in our medieval manuscripts. As you can see from the image below there are paragraphs of lines in the margins, intralinear notes between the bolder lines of the epic itself, and then other marginal notes more randomly interspersed. Some of these scholia are from commentaries that go as far back as Hellenistic authors like Aristarchus and Zenodotus and many of them include some of the most famous fragments from antiquity (like the quotation from the beginning of the Kypria we call fragment 1.)

The scholia contain many different types of information, from vocabulary glosses and variant forms to manuscript multiforms, mythographical backgrounds, and interpretive problems. Most people who work on Homer today use printed editions of the scholia prepared by editors like Erbse and Dindorf (and to be honest, most of us use digitized versions of them in the TLG). The problem with this is that editors have to choose between different versions of scholia in different manuscripts and do not always include the full range of material in the margins.

Modern scholars have been heavily reliant on the scholia: some commentaries on the epics consist largely of translations or paraphrases of these ancient sources. They present fascinating evidence for intellectual history, but not all of the information presented within them should be equally weighed.

Eleanor Dickey’s Ancient Greek Scholarship remains the most accessible overview for learning how to use the Scholia

For the first line of the Iliad, the scholia will typically list the “lemma” (the word in question) and then, depending on collation or editing, provide grammatical and syntactical/morphological glosses, followed by various kinds of interpretive issues. This tiered-process is reflected in part in the overview provided by Dionysius Thrax, a grammarian from the send century BCE

Dionysius Thrax, Ars Grammatica 1

“The art of grammar is the experience-derived knowledge of how things are said, for the most part, by poets and prose authors. It has six components. First, reading out loud and by meter; second, interpretation according to customary compositional practice; third, a helpful translation of words and their meanings; fourth, an investigation of etymology; fifth, a categorization of morphologies; and sixth—which is the most beautiful portion of the art—the critical judgment of the compositions.”

Γραμματική ἐϲτιν ἐμπειρία τῶν παρὰ ποιηταῖϲ τε καὶ ϲυγγραφεῦϲιν ὡϲ ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ λεγομένων.   Μέρη δὲ αὐτῆϲ ἐϲτιν ἕξ· πρῶτον ἀνάγνωϲιϲ ἐντριβὴϲ κατὰ προϲῳδίαν, δεύτερον ἐξήγηϲιϲ κατὰ τοὺϲ ἐνυπάρχονταϲ ποιητικοὺϲ τρόπουϲ,  τρίτον γλωϲϲῶν τε καὶ ἱϲτοριῶν πρόχειροϲ ἀπόδοϲιϲ, τέταρτον ἐτυμολογίαϲ εὕρεϲιϲ, πέμπτον ἀναλογίαϲ ἐκλογιϲμόϲ, ἕκτον κρίϲιϲ ποιημάτων, ὃ δὴ κάλλιϲτόν ἐϲτι πάντων τῶν ἐν τῇ τέχνῃ.

After glosses menis as different kinds of anger, the scholia go on to wonder why it is the first word of the epic. You can see that several possible explanations are given.

D Schol. ad Hom. Il 1.1

“Sing the rage..” [People] ask why the poem begins from rage, so ill-famed a word. It does for two reasons. First, so that it might [grab the attention] of that particular portion of the soul and make audiences more ready for the sublime and position us to handle sufferings nobly, since it is about to narrate wars.

A second reason is to make the praises of the Greeks more credible. Since it was about to reveal the Greeks prevailing, it is not seemly to make it more worthy of credibility by failing to make everything contribute positively to their praise.”

 Μῆνιν ἄειδε: ζητοῦσι, διὰ τί ἀπὸ τῆς μήνιδος ἤρξατο, οὕτω δυσφήμου ὀνόματος. διὰ δύο ταῦτα, πρῶτον μέν, ἵν’ ἐκ τοῦ πάθους †ἀποκαταρρεύσῃ† τὸ τοιοῦτο μόριον τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ προσεκτικωτέρους τοὺς ἀκροατὰς ἐπὶ τοῦ μεγέθους ποιήσῃ καὶ προεθίσῃ φέρειν γενναίως ἡμᾶς τὰ πάθη, μέλλων πολέμους ἀπαγγέλλειν· δεύτερον δέ, ἵνα τὰ ἐγκώμια τῶν ῾Ελλήνων πιθανώτερα ποιήσῃ. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἔμελλε νικῶντας ἀποφαίνειν τοὺς ῞Ελληνας, εἰκότως †οὐ κατατρέχει ἀξιοπιστότερον† ἐκ τοῦ μὴ πάντα χαρίζεσθαι τῷ ἐκείνων ἐπαίνῳ. |

“It begins with rage, which itself was a summary for the events. Otherwise, [the poet] would have found a tragic introduction for tragedies. For the narration of misfortunes makes us more attentive, just as the best doctor exposes maladies of the spirit and then later applies treatment. So, the Greek anticipates the pleasures near the end.”

ἤρξατο μὲν ἀπὸ μήνιδος, ἐπείπερ αὕτη τοῖς πρακτικοῖς ὑπόθεσις γέγονεν· ἄλλως τε καὶ τραγῳδίαις τραγικὸν ἐξεῦρε προοίμιον· καὶ γὰρ προσεκτικοὺς ἡμᾶς ἡ τῶν ἀτυχημάτων διήγησις ἐργάζεται, καὶ ὡς ἄριστος ἰατρὸς πρῶτον ἀναστέλλων τὰ νοσήματα τῆς ψυχῆς ὕστερον τὴν ἴασιν ἐπάγει. ῾Ελληνικὸν δὲ τὸ πρὸς τέλει τὰς ἡδονὰς ἐπάγειν. |

Menis, “rage” is a big deal in Greek epic and myth thematically. The ancient scholiasts may not have it all figured out. But my first Greek teacher, Lenny Muellner, has some pretty good ideas on this one in his The Anger of Achilles. But Achilles’ strong emotions may not be just about anger. Recent books by Emily Austin (Grief and the Hero) and Rachel Lesser (Desire in the Iliad) explore the complexity of the emotions presented in the epic.

(c. 300 BC) Achilles killing the Ethiopian king Memnon[/caption]