SOME RECENT BOOKS

Jasper Griffin, Homer on Life and Death. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980.
Pp.xvi + 218. Hardback, $41.95. Also available in paperback, approx.
$20.00. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983.

The poetic qualities o f the Iliad and Odyssey (especially the former) are the
focus o f this unassuming but attractive book. Griffin largely bypasses
peripheral Homeric issues and the drier scholarly debates such as orality,
authorship and dating. This approach is refreshing and welcome in a field
where many publications are inaccessible or indigestible or both.
While expressing reservations about the am ount o f light the oral theory
actually sheds on Hom er, G. accepts Near Eastern influence without much
actual discussion. The examples he cites, however (e.g. on p.45) are cultural,
modes o f behaviour rather than specific stories.
In the first chapter, G. analyses a number of scenes to show how subtly
the poet uses association-laden objects and actions. His arguments are
mostly convincing, though occasionally silly (for example on p. 13: what else
but a spear could H ektor have at hand to lean on as the Trojans catch their
breath after attacking the Greek camp, II.8 493-6?). It is valuable to have
the symbolic im portance o f meals spelt out, and also the genuineness of
divine or superhuman factors. The latter are not mere metaphors; they ex­
press the pervasive supernatural influence which is explicit in other
literatures such as Ugaritic (A qhat’s bow) or Irish (Cuchulainn’s battle-
frenzy). In Hom er such ‘events are given a character exclusively in terms of
heroism; but behind the heroic the audience is aware o f other powerful cur­
rents . . . ’ (p.47)
The chapter on characterization is valuable for its careful discussion of
hidden motive and changeable (but not necessarily inconsistent) behaviour.
G. argues cogently against the view (which should have been decently buried
years ago) th at only what is on the surface in Hom er is real, and any
subtleties are the m odern reader’s illusions. Surprisingly, he makes heavy
weather o f the dinner-party with Helen and Menelaos in Odyssey 4. By
describing Menelaos as ‘reconciled with Helen’ (p.77) he shows that he has
missed the key to this little gem o f unspoken discontent and suppressed
bickering.
G. disagrees with both Parry and Redfield about Achilles’ behaviour in
Iliad 9: Achilles neither rejects the heroic code nor carries it to extremes, but
the compensation offered has lost its symbolic value for him. This seems to
mean th at Achilles is disillusioned with the way the code is working in his
own specific case. But it does not really explain why Achilles does not ‘tod­
dle safely home and die in bed’ (p.99 — the flippancy is unhelpful).
138 SOME RECEN T BOOKS

In dealing with the brief vignettes o f slain warriors (ch.IV) G. stresses,

rightly, that the Iliad is not about battle, but about death and fate. Pathos
pervades the poem, even in patches o f ‘objective’ narrative. These little
tragedies are consistent with the whole outlook of the poem, ‘not merely an
ornam ent but a vital part o f its nature’ (p. 143).
In two different chapters (III and V), separated but related in content, the
view is developed that the gods play a real and vital part in Hom er. H om er’s
characters truly believe. When Apollo strikes o ff P atroklos’ helmet (II.
16.786ff) for example, it is a genuine divine intervention, a mystery evoking
reverence and awe.
Largely by reductio ad absurdum, G. criticises the opinion o f Kirk and
others that Greek myth, by comparison with other mythologies, is limited
and lacking in imaginative fantasy. Perhaps neither Kirk nor Griffin takes
sufficient account o f the fact that our surviving Greek myths come from
sources that can in a broad sense be called literary. Hom er and the classical
authors (but possibly not Hesiod, who deserves more attention in G riffin’s
argument) were using myth to illuminate and deepen their portrayal of
hum an characters and predicaments. The less sophisticated myths quoted
approvingly by Kirk and derisively by Griffin were told for their own sake,
and so are not entirely comparable.
Finally G. turns his attention to the less admirable side o f the gods: their
(relatively) heartless enjoyment o f hum an strife. He compares this to the
enjoyment H om er’s characters (and his audience) obtained from sporting
contests. The divine audience gives a unique perspective to hum an achieve­
ments and suffering, enabling us to see both the greatness and the littleness
o f hum an life. Thus H om er’s gods are both real, awesome divinities and a
literary device.
G riffin’s style could perhaps be called ‘agglutinative’. The chapters
(several of which have appeared as articles) could be put in almost any
order, and on a smaller scale he works by adding example to example, often
to the great illumination o f each but to the detriment o f a clear line o f argu­
ment. Occasionally the examples so take over the text that generalities are
relegated to footnotes (e.g. note 9 on p. 109; note 20 on p. 113).
This rather diffuse character makes the book somewhat hard to read,
especially for undergraduates—just those who desperately need books of
this type: sound, thorough, interesting and accessible. In many ways this
would be an ideal book for a fairly advanced Classical Studies reading list.
Technicalities are largely confined to footnotes. Q uotations are given in the
original, but are also accurately translated (though a Latin tag on p. 195 is
not). References are generous and meticulous, and I only noticed one
misprint (ή for ή on p. 109); in fact the presentation is o f a standard that few
 SOME RECENT BOOKS 139

publishers but Oxford give us these days.

To sum up: a most valuable book, full o f interest for scholar and student
alike, but the reader must be prepared to work for his reward.

Mary Knox

Cartledge, P ., Sparta and Lakonia - A Regional History 1300-362 B.C.

London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1979. Pp.xv + 410. £10.50.

C .’s ambitious and successful study o f Spartan history liberates in many

ways. In the first place, it is comprehensive. No more need Sparta appear
only on and o ff as the chronicle continues. A fter a few thoughtful pages
(3-12) on what regional history could and should be, C. launches (chs.2,3)
into a detailed analysis of terrain and climate, which reveal both learning
and autopsy and indicate that far more than a token bow is being made
towards the French school o f modern history and its ‘possibiliste’ inter­
pretations. It is particularly good to see Vidal de la Blache, and the
Geographie Universelle generally, given a proper valuation. That done, C.
conducts the reader (ch.4) through the little-known subject o f the Stone and
Bronze Ages in this area, relating recent archaeological discoveries to
general surveys such as J. T. H ooker’s The Mycenaeans, in the same series.
His notice of the Menelaion is an exemplary mix of archaeological history
and current hypothesis.
Part II, Preclassical Lakonia C.1300-500B.C. (chs.5-10) show C. at his
most original. A sparkling essay on historiography ancient and modern
(and why there was none in Sparta) is followed (chs.6,7) by a careful
analysis o f what can and cannot be said of the Dorians: here C., almost a
contre-coeur (p.88), is inclined to accept a Dorian invasion, on the basis of
Lakonian proto-geometric, though recognizing the pitfalls. A useful sum­
mary (pp.92-100) sets his conclusions in perspective, guessing at 950 B.C.
for the terminus p o st quern o f the newcomers and accepting, with modern
parallels, an early idea that the Dorians first appeared as transhumance
pastoralists, with the Helots as the dispossessed locals. The conquest of
Messenia, the Messenian Revolt, the Great Rhetra, the Tegeate connection
and (at some length) the conflict with Argos for the Thyreatis are integrated
into a reasonable and developing picture, where C. has neither been afraid
to accept tradition (the Rhetra) nor to abandon it (no Argive Kynouria).
The section ends with an unusual reconstruction o f preclassical Lakonia’s
crops and herds and a detailed discussion of helots and perioikoi.
P art III, Classical Lakonia c.500-362 B.C. (chs.l 1-13) is distinguished by
C .’s synthesis of Spartan history round the theme of ‘oliganthropia’, as