Homer’s Influence on Western Literature

  Homer’s Influence on Western Literature

Homer has long been called the father of western literature and his two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are considered foundational works, with the epic genre becoming the crowning achievement for poets for centuries after his time. His works established for all time the poetic conventions of the epic narrative, shaped the identity of the Greek nation, set the bar for the study of human psychology in poetry and established the heroic archetype.

The Iliad and the Odyssey were not the first epic poems written. The earliest known epic is the Epic of Gilgamesh, written on clay tablets about 2100 BCE in Sumerian cuneiform script and surviving only in fragments today. It is thought that some of the original parts of the ancient Indian epics written in Sanskrit, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, dated to around Homer’s time, but were not finalized until much later, even as late as the 4^th century CE. Beowulf, written in Old English, is considered to be the earliest surviving English epic, dating from around 700-750 CE. The Epic of Gilgamesh laid the foundation for later epics, but Homer established the prototype for epic, a grand poetic narrative that others like Vergil, Dante and Milton used as the medium for their works, the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost respectively. Though not an epic poem, the modern 20^th century novel Ulysses, by James Joyce, parallels the Odyssey’s structure and characters.

Homer’s use of literary devices has been copied by many other authors, but his talent with these devices has never been matched. We credit Homer with the invention of the epic simile, an elaborate and extended comparison that links an abstract or unfamiliar event to something concrete and relatable from nature or from daily life, in an attempt to create a more vivid and comprehensive understanding of the event in the mind of the listener. For example, a goatherd who was listening to the bard singing his tale by the campfire, might never have seen an army in action, but certainly would be familiar with a swarm of bees, flocks of birds, flowers and leaves and clouds of flies.

Like a swarm of bees coming forth from a hollow rock and flying in clusters towards spring flowers, so also these combatants of many nations rushed forth from all sides of the ships and tents by the deep seashore and massed in assembly with one another.

Just as the many flocks of winged birds like geese, cranes and long-necked swans fly here and there about the Asian meadow above the streams of the Cayster and exult in their wings and settle with such a noise that the meadow resounds, so also did the many tribes pour forth from the ships and the tents onto the Scamadrian plain so that the earth resounded mightily under the feet of the soldiers and their horses. And they stood in the Scamadrian plain in just the same numbers as the multitude of leaves and flowers that are produced in the springtime.

Like so many clouds of flies which hover above a sheepfold in the spring when the milk overflows the buckets, so also were the number of long-haired Achaeans standing in the plain hoping in their hearts to destroy the Trojans in front of them.

            Homer was also a master of the descriptive epithet and this literary device, like the Homeric simile, became a stalwart of western literature as well. These formulaic epithets were repeated adjectives or phrases that Homer used to characterize and more deeply describe people, places or things and they added style and rhythm to his poetry and also helped the singing bard memorize long passages of text. Examples include swift-footed Achilles, the fair-cheeked Briseis, the sons of Atreus, the well-greaved Achaeans, the wine-dark sea, rosy-fingered dawn, the earth-shaker Poseidon, bright-eyed Athena, the horse-taming Trojans, Zeus the cloud-gatherer, lofty-towered and wide-streeted Troy and the swift ships of the Achaeans.

            Another literary device used by Homer and copied by many authors who followed him, was the technique of starting a story in media res, or in the middle of the action. The Iliad starts in the final year of the Trojan War and Odysseus has already been wandering for a decade when the Odyssey starts. Dante Alighieri used the same technique in The Divine Comedy, often viewed as inspired by Homer. Other epics that used the same device and copied Homer include Vergil’s Aeneid, Milton’s Paradise Lost and The Lusiads by the Portuguese writer Luis de Camoes.

            It has been said that all stories are either about a hero leaving home, a hero wandering about, or a hero returning home. Odysseus fits the bill on all accounts. In his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Joseph Campbell describes the concept of the monomyth:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, we watch as the hero undertakes just such a journey. Homer’s Odyssey established the archetypal journey of the wandering hero who has to overcome many trials and tribulations in order to return home safely. His narrative about the wandering hero would be repeated again and again by writers around the world, once more establishing Homer’s great influence on western literature.

The same can be said for his description of the epic hero. Homer defines for all time what it means to be a hero and through his heroes he explores the complexities of the concepts of fate, free will, honour, morality and mortality. We come to know full well how a hero achieves kleos and the trade-offs that he is willing to make to achieve it. For example, the choice that Achilles makes for kleos and a short life, versus obscurity and death at an old age.

Homer’s epics display a fully developed understanding of human psychology and in his narratives he portrays very real emotions in his characters, most often from a tragic perspective. No greater example of this immense psychological understanding of his can be found than the actions and emotions that he describes concerning the wrath of Achilles. His wrath is the basis for the narrative of the Iliad and there are those scholars who view the epic as a textbook on human psychology. We know from the opening lines what this story is about:

Let wrath be your song O Goddess! Sing of the accursed rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought untold woes to the Achaeans and banished to Hades many stalwart souls of heroes, turning them into carrion for dogs and birds of prey, thereby bringing to final fulfillment the plan of Zeus.

            The wrath of Achilles intensifies as the war progresses, peaks when his beloved friend is slain, rages out of control when he desecrates the body of Hector, and dissipates when he reconciles with King Priam and agrees to return his son to him. Homer’s understanding of human psychology and his description of the shamed, petulant, suffering, raging and resigned Achilles reminds me very much of the murdering student Raskolnikov, as I watch him deal with similar emotions in Crime and Punishment. Surely Fyodor Dostoevsky was inspired by Homer.

            Through his descriptions of the complexities of characters like the wrathful Achilles and the cunning Odysseus, his understanding of the human experience in love and hate, war and peace, destiny and free will, his portrayal of the gods acting like humans and humans acting like gods, Homer displays at every turn a mastery of poetic and artistic excellence and sets the stage for all those who follow him. The Iliad and the Odyssey are indeed foundational to western literature and many famous works that we enjoy today, from some of Shakespeare’s plays to Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter would never have been written had Homer not composed his two epics. Homer was able to elevate oral storytelling to a new level. He was able to structure a long, complex and monumental narrative that had never been witnessed before, but would be copied by many who came after him. But Homer set the bar of excellence so high that none of those who followed him were able to achieve the same level of artistry.