Homer the Meteorologist – Part 1: The Iliad

 

Homer the Meteorologist – Part 1: The Iliad

            Scientists who have studied painter Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ from 1889 have long wondered whether the artist could ‘see the wind’. They tell us that his brushstrokes capture the precise movement and energy of the wind and accurately display the workings of turbulence in the sky. The mathematical models that are used by astrophysicists today to express atmospheric turbulence are spot on with the patterns that Vincent painted in his pre-dawn sky and in the movement of the cypress trees in this paining completed well over a century ago. If he could not actually ‘see the wind’, then at minimum he had a highly tuned and intuitive take on how the wind acted in the sky. When we read Homer’s accurate descriptions of winds, storms, rain and hail, thunder and lightning and other weather-related events in the Iliad and the Odyssey, we cannot help but wonder if Homer too could ‘see the wind’. If that is not the case, then we can, at the very least, call him an amateur meteorologist because of the in-depth knowledge of the weather and weather-related phenomena that he displayed.

            In Homer’s mind, the weather is most certainly controlled by the gods and there is nothing that mortals can do to alter its course. The only options available to them are to prepare for weather events beforehand, deal with them as they happen, and attempt to recover from them after they have occurred. Homer often refers to Zeus as ‘the cloud-gatherer’ or ‘the thunderer’ or as ‘the Olympian god of lightning.’ His sister/wife Hera is linked to the air and sometimes to the winds. Poseidon, the god of the sea, is known as ‘the earth-shaker’ because of his control over earthquakes. The four winds are deities and Iris is the goddess of the rainbow. Finally, the Horae are the goddesses of the four seasons. The weather is controlled by the gods and they often use that power to sway the fortunes of mankind. This is shown by Homer as a form of divine intervention, but one that is more subtle than any direct action of the gods in the affairs of men.

            In addition to actually presenting weather events to the listener, there are times when Homer uses weather-based similes to describe the action that is taking place. For example, there is an event described by him in Book II of the Iliad. King Agamemnon was trying to rouse his forces to take action against the Trojans. His people were tired of fighting for more than nine years and he suggested that they just quit and go home, thinking that they would rebel against this idea and vow to fight on. Instead, they agreed that this was a good idea and rushed to the ships. Searching for a proper way to describe their onrush and flight, Homer turned to a weather-related simile.

And the whole assembly was stirred up, just like the long waves of the Icarian Sea are excited when the east wind and the north wind have rushed forth from the clouds of father Zeus. And just like when the west wind blows strongly on a rich field of corn and bends the ears, so also was the whole assembly moved and the soldiers rushed to the ships with a great shout.

It is the perfect picture and one can readily see the waves being whipped across the water by the wind and the corn stalks bending in the breeze. His listeners may never have seen a horde of rushing soldiers, but they most certainly would have been familiar with the sea and cornfields being lashed by the wind.

            Homer used another weather simile to describe the movement of troops, this time painting us a picture of the Trojans marching across the plain. He had already described the sound that they made as being like the hoarse cries of cranes fleeing from the thundering storms of winter.

Just as when the South Wind spreads a curtain of mist on the tops of the hills and the result is better for thieves in the night instead of shepherds, and a man cannot see any father than he can toss a rock, such as this was the cloud of dust that was raised up under their feet as they went and they quickly passed over the plain.

            And yet another simile, this time when Homer describes Agamemnon moving among the troops on the battlefield, and approaching them to offer encouragement. His audience would surely have recognized the image because it would have been a reflection of their day-to-day lives.

As when a goatherd from a hilltop sees a cloud sweeping over the sea beneath the roaring Zephyr wind, and it being a great distance from him so that it looks like a great storm blowing, so then he shudders when he sees it and drives his flocks into a cave. In the same way, the thick dense ranks of warlike young men moved toward furious battle armed with shields and spears. So the ruler Agamemnon rejoiced when he saw them and addressed them with winged words.

The comparison continues and finally the storm results in a flash flood.

As when on the pounding shore a wave of the sea crashes following another, having been set in motion by the Zephyr and after raising its head out in the deep, it rolls against the land with a great sound and becoming swollen, it dashes against the rocks spitting out the foam of the ocean. In like manner, the phalanxes of the Danaans moved on to battle incessantly, one after another and each of those in charge urged on his own men.

There arose the wailing and exaltation of men, of those destroying and of those being destroyed, and blood flowed freely across the land. Just as when torrents of water in winter flow down from the mountains and their raging streams are pooled together in one gorge, in a single spring within a hollow ravine, and the shepherd on the mountain hears the faraway thunder roar, so also was the shouting and terror of all those warriors mixed together.

            Homer asks his listeners to think of clouds that stand still over a mountain top, unmoving as long as the raging winds do not blow, and compares them to the stalwart Danaans.

They stood firm, just like clouds that the son of Cronos places on the top of a lofty mountain during a calm period, as long as the strength of Boreas and of other raging winds, which blows with a loud blast and disperses the shadowy clouds, remains still. In the same way, the Danaans awaited the fury of the Trojans and did not flee in fear.

            Oftentimes Homer’s descriptions of weather events are so precise and accurate that one is convinced that he is reporting something that he has actually witnessed. Many people have never seen the strike of a lightning bolt, but those who have can attest to the vivid reality that Homer paints of lightning striking in the midst of the battle.

There would have been utter destruction and havoc and the Trojans would have been confined to Ilium like lambs shut up in a sheepfold, if the father of men and gods had not seen what was happening with a sharp eye. Rumbling greatly, he sent forth his bright shining thunderbolt hard into the earth in front of the horses of Diomedes. There arose a burning flame of terrible sulfur and the two terrified horses sought shelter under the chariot.

The flash, the sound, the smell and the terror of the animals - this was not a report based on hearsay evidence. This was without any doubt an eye-witness account.

            In an interesting comparison at the beginning of book X of the Iliad, Homer likens the turmoil in the breast of the sleeping Agamemnon with the uproar created when Zeus chooses to wrack the earth with storms. A strange simile to say the least, but one that his listeners could take to heart and with it, experience themselves the dread and terror that Agamemnon was feeling.

Now all the other leaders of all the Achaeans were overcome by sweet sleep the whole night through near their ships, but Agamemnon the son of Atreus and shepherd of the people did not find rest as he turned over many things in his breast. Just like when the husband of fair-haired Hera casts lightning bolts and makes ready a storm of unspeakable rain or hail or snow, when snowflakes sprinkle the fields or the great mouth of destructive war, in the same manner did the shrewd Agamemnon groan mightily in his breast from the bottom of his heart, trembling within his midriff.

            Homer uses another weather-based image to describe how Hector rampaged through the battlefield killing his enemies. He often uses storm references to describe Hector and other warriors. Once again his effectiveness in describing the action is heightened by his ability to couch the action in terms that his listeners can identify with. They might not have been familiar with battle scenes, but they could certainly relate to the violence of a storm in action. He pulls his audience into the narrative by relating what they are familiar with.

He seized all of these leaders of the Danaans and thereafter the whole throng, just like when the West Wind drives the mass of clouds of the white South Wind and besets them with a violent storm. Many swollen waves roll onwards and the spray is cast and scattered beneath the wild raging wind. In the same way were many of those warriors laid low by Hector.

            We do not think of Greece as being a land that is lashed by violent winter storms, but on more than one occasion, Homer describes scenes where combatants are heaving stones down upon one another from the walls and compares the falling rocks to the pelting snows that Zeus unleashes on the earth.

Just as flakes of snow fall thick on a wintry day whenever Zeus the counsellor decides to make it snow and to make manifest to man his arrows, putting to sleep the winds and pouring forth onto the ground until such time as the tops of the lofty hills are covered and the headlands at the farthest point and the plains overgrown with lotus and the rich fields of men and the promontories and the harbours of the grey sea are covered, even though the swollen waves beat against them and keep it in check, all is enfolded and wrapped within when the heavy storm of Zeus falls upon it. In the same way from both sides the stones flew thickly, some upon the Trojans and some from the Trojans upon the Achaeans were thrown and over above all the wall the din of war arose.

We know for certain from the following passages that Homer had experienced winter first-hand.

Like snowflakes the stones fell to the ground, just like the flakes that a strong-blowing wind shake free from a mass of clouds onto the bountiful earth.

And in Book XV he describes Iris flying down to earth:

Like when from the mass of clouds there flies snowflakes and hail driven by the north wind born in the clear sky, in such manner did swift Iris eagerly rush forth and stood near the glorious earth-shaker and spoke.

            On a recent trip to Delphi, I looked on in awe after a brief rain shower as a rainbow descended from the sky into the valley below, pointing toward the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia. I told my travel companions that we were being visited by Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. Mankind has always been fascinated by rainbows and generally views them as a symbol of peace. Homer mentions them often in his works and in this passage, refers to the rainbow as a portent of war.

As Zeus stretches forth for man a colourful rainbow from the heavens as a portent of war or a chilly winter storm that makes men cease their work upon the earth and upsets the flocks, even so did Athena, enwrapping herself in a mass of heaving clouds, plunged into the throng of the Achaeans and roused up each man.

When Patroclus was killed, his comrade Achilles held funeral games in his honour and then erected a huge pyre on which to cremate his friend’s body. He had some difficulty in getting the pyre to light and prayed to the North Wind and the West Wind to blow heartily to fan the flames. The goddess Iris visited the Winds and beseeched them, on behalf of Achilles and the Achaeans, to do as he asked and to set the funeral pyre ablaze. Homer paints a remarkable picture of the resulting windstorm.

They rose up with a wondrous din and drove the clouds in tumult before them. They came to the ocean to blow upon it and the waves were swollen up beneath the loud blast of the wind. They came to the deep-soiled land of Troy and fell upon the funeral pyre and roused up a fire that seemed like it was kindled by a god. All night long they blew on the flame of the pyre with a shrill blast and likewise all night long…

As we contemplate this last weather-related image in the Iliad, we look back and ask why Homer used such pictures in his narrative. The most common literary device that he used in this regard was the simile. He was certainly attempting to provide vivid and realistic depictions of characters and events and to do so using language and images that were familiar to his audience and with which they could more readily connect. The sheer scope and scale of natural events and weather-related phenomena added to the importance and intensity of what was happening, and the comparison of the beauty and power of the natural world with the horror and destruction of war, allows Homer to point out just how terrible mankind can be when man turns upon man in anger.