Catalogue of Ships

Part of Iliad, listing towns, war leaders and number of ships

Trojan War

Achilles tending the wounded Patroclus
(Attic red-figure kylix, c. 500 BCE)

Literary sources

* Iliad
* Epic Cycle
* Aeneid, Book 2
* Iphigenia in Aulis
* Philoctetes
* Ajax
* The Trojan Women
* Posthomerica

See also: Trojan War in literature and the arts

Episodes

* Judgement of Paris
* Seduction of Helen
* Trojan Horse
* Sack of Troy
* The Returns
* Wanderings of Odysseus
* Aeneas and the Founding of Rome

Greeks and allies

* Agamemnon
* Achilles
* Helen
* Menelaus
* Nestor
* Odysseus
* Ajax
* Diomedes
* Patroclus
* Thersites
* Achaeans
* Myrmidons

* * *

See also: Achaean Leaders, Catalogue of Ships

Trojans and allies

* Priam
* Hecuba
* Hector
* Paris
* Cassandra
* Andromache
* Aeneas
* Memnon
* Troilus
* Penthesilea and the Amazons
* Sarpedon

* * *

See also: Trojan Battle Order, Trojan Leaders

Participant gods

Caused the war:

* Eris

* * *

On the Greek side:

* Athena
* Hephaestus
* Hera
* Hermes
* Thetis
* Poseidon

* * *

On the Trojan side:

* Aphrodite
* Apollo
* Ares
* Artemis
* Leto
* Scamander
* Zeus

Historicity

* Ahhiyawa
* Alaksandu
* Archaeology of Troy
* Attarsiya
* Hisarlık
* Homeric Question
* Late Bronze Age Troy
* Manapa-Tarhunta letter
* Milawata letter
* Tawagalawa letter
* Trojan language
* Wilusa

* * *

See also: Historicity of the Iliad

Related topics

* Bronze Age Collapse
* Euhemerism
* Homeric Question
* Mycenae
* Mycenaean warfare

* v
* t
* e

The Catalogue of Ships (Ancient Greek: νεῶν κατάλογος, neōn katálogos) is an epic catalogue in Book 2 of Homer's Iliad (2.494–759), which lists the contingents of the Achaean army that sailed to Troy.[1] The catalogue gives the names of the leaders of each contingent, lists the settlements in the kingdom represented by the contingent, sometimes with a descriptive epithet that fills out a half-verse or articulates the flow of names and parentage and place, and gives the number of ships required to transport the men to Troy, offering further differentiations of weightiness. A similar, though shorter, Catalogue of the Trojans and their allies follows (2.816–877). A similar catalogue appears in the Pseudo-Apollodoran Bibliotheca.

## Historical background

[edit]

Map of Homeric Greece

In the debate since antiquity over the Catalogue of Ships, the core questions have concerned the extent of historical credibility of the account, whether it was composed by Homer himself, to what extent it reflects a pre-Homeric document or memorized tradition, surviving perhaps in part from Mycenaean times, or whether it is a result of post-Homeric development.[2] Dörpfeld notes that while in the Odyssey Odysseus's kingdom includes Ithaca, Same, Dulichium, and Zacynthus, the Catalogue of Ships contains a different list of islands, again Ithaca, Same, and Zacynthus but now also Neritum, Krocylea, and Aegilips. The separate debate over the identity of Homer and the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey is conventionally termed "the Homeric Question".

The consensus before the mid-twentieth century was that the Catalogue of Ships was not the work of the man who composed the Iliad,[a] though great pains had been taken to render it a work of art;[b] furthermore, that the material of the text is essentially Mycenaean or sub-Mycenaean, while disagreement centers largely on the extent of later additions.

If taken to be an accurate account, the Catalogue provides a rare summary of the geopolitical situation in early Greece at some time between the Late Bronze Age and the eighth century BCE. Following Milman Parry's theory of Homeric oral poetry, some scholars, such as Denys Page, argue that it represents a pre-Homeric recitation incorporated into the epic by Homer.[6]

In the most recent extended study of the Catalogue, Edzard Visser, of the University of Basel, concludes that the Catalogue is compatible with the rest of the Iliad in its techniques of verse improvisation, that the order of the names is meaningful and that the geographical epithets evince concrete geographical knowledge. Visser argues that this knowledge was transmitted by the heroic myth, elements of which introduce each geographical section.[7] W. W. Minton places the catalogue within similar "enumerations" in Homer and Hesiod, and suggests that part of their purpose was to impress the audience with a display of the performer's memory.[8]

The most striking feature of the catalogue's geography is that it does not portray Greece in the Iron Age, the time of Homer. By then a tribal identity called the Dorians had enveloped western Greece, the Peloponnesus and Crete, while the shores of Ionia were densely populated by a people claiming to descend from families in the now-Dorian regions of Greece. The whole northwestern part of Greece is not mentioned and it is these peoples (Epirotes, Macedonians, some Thessalians etc.) who are thought to be of Dorian descent.

Instead the catalogue portrays a loose union of city-states, mostly in mainland Greece, ruled by hereditary families under the overlordship of the High King (ἄναξ, ánax) of Mycenae. Hardly any of them are Dorian.[citation needed] The Ionian Greeks are mainly missing.[citation needed] This political snapshot is possibly one intended to be of Late Bronze Age Greece.[citation needed]

The Catalogue was an important source for solving geopolitical matters. When the Athenians claimed Salamis they cited the Catalogue of Ships which listed it among the Athenian troops, as proof of its moral allegiance to Athens.[9]

## Catalogue

[edit]

In the Iliad, the Greek Catalogue lists twenty-nine contingents under 46 captains, accounting for a total of 1,186 ships.[10] Using the Boeotian figure of 120 men per ship results in a total of 142,320 men transported to the Troad. They are named by various ethnonyms and had lived in 164 places described by toponyms. The majority of these places have been identified and were occupied in the Late Bronze Age. The terms Danaans, Argives and Achaeans or the sons of the Achaeans are used for the army as a whole. In his Library, Apollodorus lists thirty contingents under 43 leaders with a total of 1013 ships,[11] Hyginus lists 1154 ships, although the total is given as only 245 ships.[12]

Line | Ethnic identity | No. of ships | Captains[c] | Settlements

|
|
|
|

Tabular Catalogue[d] 2.494  | Boeotians | 50 of 120 men each  | (First led by Thersander) Later led by Peneleōs, Leïtus, Arcesilaus, Prothoënor and Clonius | Hyria, Aulis, Schoenus, Scolus, Eteonus, Thespeia, Graia, Mycalessus, Harma, Eilesium, Erythrae, Eleon, Hyle, Peteon, Ocalea, Medeon, Copae, Eutresis, Thisbe, Coronea, Haliartus, Plataea, Glisas, Thebes, Onchestos, Arne, Midea, Nisa,[e] Anthedon
2.511  | Minyans | 30  | Ascalaphus, Ialmenus | Aspledon, Orchomenus
2.517  | Phocēans | 40  | Schedius, Epistrophus | Cyparissus, Pytho, Crisa, Daulis, Panopeus, Anemorea, Hyampolis, river Cephissus, Lilaea
2.527  | Locrians | 40  | Ajax the Lesser | Kynos, Opoüs, Calliarus, Bessa, Scarphe, Augeae, Tarphe, Thronium
2.537  | Abantes of Euboea | 40  | Elephenor | Chalcis, Eretria, Histiaea, Cerinthus, Dium, Carystus, Styra
2.546  | Athenians | 50  | Led first by Menestheus (then later by Acamas and Demophon, the sons of Theseus)  | Athens
2.557  | Salamineans | 12  | Telamonian Ajax | Salamis
2.559  | Argives | 80  | Diomedes with subordinates Sthenelus and Euryalus | Argos, Tiryns, Hermione, Asine, Troezen, Eiones, Epidaurus, Aegina, Mases
2.569  | Mycenaeans | 100  | Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, supreme commander  | Mycenae, Corinth, Cleonae, Orneae, Araethyrea, Sicyon, Hyperesia, Gonoessa, Pellene, Aegium, Helice
2.581  | Lacedaemonians (or Laconians) | 60  | Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, husband of Helen | Pharis, Sparta, Messe, Bryseae, Augeae, Amyclae, Helos, Laas, Oetylus
2.592  | No name given (Messenians)  | 90  | Nestor | Pylos, Arēne, Thryon, Aipy, Cyparisseis, Amphigenea, Pteleum, Helos, Dorium
2.603  | Arcadians | 60  | Agapenor | Cyllene, Pheneus, Orchomenus, Rhipae, Stratie, Enispe, Tegea, Mantinea, Stymphalos, Parrhasia
2.615  | Epeans of Elis | 40  | Amphimachus, Thalpius, Diōres, Polyxenus | Buprasium and the lands enclosed by Hyrmine, Myrsinus, Olene, Alesium
2.624  | Men of Dulichium | 40  | Meges | Dulichium, Echinean Islands
2.631  | Cephallenians[14] | 12  | Odysseus (known in Latin as Ulysses)  | Ithaca, Neritum, Crocylea, Aegilips, Same, Zacynthus (islands with mainland opposite)[f]
2.638  | Aetolians | 40  | Thoas | Pleuron, Olenus, Pylene, Chalcis, Calydon
2.645  | Cretans | 80  | Idomeneus, Meriones | Knossos, Gortys, Lyktos, Miletus, Lycastus, Phaistos, Rhytium, others up to 100
2.653  | Rhodians | 9  | Tlepolemus | Lindus, Ielysus, Cameirus
2.671  | Symians | 3  | Nireus | Symi
2.676  | No name given.  | 30  | Pheidippus, Antiphus | Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, Cos, Calydnian Islands
2.681  | Pelasgians, Myrmidons, Hellenes, Achaeans | 50  | Achilles (later led by Neoptolemus)  | Pelasgic Argos, Alos, Alope, Trachis, Phthia
2.695  | No name given.  | 40  | Protesilaus (later led by Podarces)  | Phylace, Pyrasus, Iton, Antrium, Pteleum
2.711  | No name given.  | 11  | Eumelus | Pherae, Boebe, Glaphyrae, Iolcus
2.716  | No name given.  | 7, with 50 oarsmen each who were also archers  | Philoctetes, later by Medon | Methone, Thaumacia, Meliboea, Olizon
2.729  | No name given.  | 30  | Podalirius, Machaon, two sons of Asclepius | Tricca, Ithome, Oechalia
2.734  | No name given.  | 40  | Eurypylus | Ormenius, Hypereia (fountain), Asterius, Titanus
2.738  | (Lapiths)  | 40  | Polypoetes, Leonteus | Argissa,[16] Gyrtone, Orthe, Elone, Oloösson
2.748  | Enienes, Peraebi | 22  | Guneus | Cyphus, Dodona, Gonnos, banks of the Titaresius
2.756  | Magnetes | 40  | Prothoüs | About the Peneus and Mt. Pelion

## Authenticity question

[edit]

Some scholars debate whether the Catalogue of Ships was a later addition to the Iliad from some time after the composition of the main work. Evidence for this, they suggest, is the inconsistencies between the Catalogue and the rest of the text, and also the odd way it is inserted into the poem.[9]

## See also

[edit]

* Trojan Battle Order
* Catalogue of Women by Hesiod

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Succinctly expressed by C.M. Bowra (1933),[3] which is a review of F. Jacoby's The introduction of the Ships Catalogue into the Iliad (1932).[4]
2. ^ Crossett (1969) discusses the dramatic function of the Catalogue in the place that it occupies.[5]
3. ^ The dramatic time of the catalogue is early in the war; the place, the shores of the Troad. Captains of those contingents outside the time and place of the catalogue are parenthesized; they are not in the catalogue.
4. ^ The Anglicised spellings and diacritical marks of the names in the table are as they are in Britannica, Great Books of the Western World, Volume 4. The order of contingents is that of the catalogue.
5. ^ Probably ancient Isos in the vicinity of modern Pyrgos, already in ruins by the time of Strabo[13]
6. ^ Compare to Book 1, verse 230[15] where Odysseus' kingdom includes Dulichium, Same, Zacynthus and Ithaca.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Homer 1924, verses 2.494-2.759.
2. ^ Anderson 1995, pp. 181–191.
3. ^ Bowra 1933.
4. ^ Jacoby 1932.
5. ^ Crossett 1969.
6. ^ Page 1959, pp. 132, 134.
7. ^ Visser 1997.
8. ^ Minton 1960.
9. ^ a b Bowra 1963.
10. ^ Luce 1975.
11. ^ Apollodorus & Hyginus 2007, "Library" epitome 3.11.
12. ^ Apollodorus & Hyginus 2007, fable 97.
13. ^ Reece 2009.
14. ^ Autenrieth 1891, Κεφαλλῆνες: "the Cephallenians, collective designation of the subjects of Odysseus on islands and mainland"
15. ^ Homer 1919, verses 1.230-1.279.
16. ^ Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Argura". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray. p. 209(Smith identifies "Argissa" with "Argura" and cites several theories as to its location.)`{{cite encyclopedia}}`: CS1 maint: postscript (link)

## Literature

[edit]

* Anderson, J.K. (1995). "The Geometric Catalogue of Ships". In Carter, Jane B.; Morris, Sarah P. (eds.). The Ages of Homer. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292712089. OCLC 1145803250.
* Apollodorus; Hyginus (2007) [c. 100 BC; before AD 200]. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Hackett Classics. Translated by Trzaskoma, Stephen M.; Smith, R. Scott. Hackett Publishing Company. OCLC 940867223(Note that for both works authorship and date of creation are contested.)`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
* Austin, John Norman Henry (1965). Catalogues and the catalogue of ships in the Iliad (Ph.D. thesis). University of California, Berkeley. OCLC 993700612. ProQuest 302174287.
* Autenrieth, Georg (1891) [1880]. A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges. New York: Harper and Brothers. OCLC 184883642.
* Bowra, Cecil Maurice (1963) [1930]. Tradition and Design in the Iliad (PDF). London: Clarendon Press. OCLC 310035. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
* Bowra, Cecil Maurice (1933). "The Catalogue of the Ships". The Classical Review. 47 (5). Cambridge University Press: 174. doi:10.1017/S0009840X00062624. JSTOR 699431. S2CID 163022491.
* Crossett, John (March 1969). "The Art of Homer's Catalogue of Ships". The Classical Journal. 64 (6). Classical Association of the Middle West and South: 241–245. ISSN 0009-8353. JSTOR 3296106.
* Homer (1924) [circa 800 BC]. Iliad. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Murray, Augustus Taber. London, New York: W. Heinemann; G. P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 38101377.
* Homer (1919) [circa 800 BC]. Odyssey. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Murray, Augustus Taber). London, New York: W. Heinemann; G. P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 685521.
* Jacoby, Felix (1932). "Homerisches II: Die Einschaltung des Schiffkatalogs in die Ilias" [Homerical II: The introduction of the Ships Catalogue into the Iliad]. Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse (in German). 24. Berlin: Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften: 572–617. OCLC 176744621.
* Luce, John Victor (1975). Homer and the heroic age. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0060127228.
* Minton, William W. (1960). "Homer's Invocations of the Muses: Traditional Patterns". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 91: 292–309. doi:10.2307/283858. ISSN 0360-5949. JSTOR 283858.
* Page, Denys Lionel (1959). History and the Homeric Illiad. Sather classical lectures. Vol. 31\. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. doi:10.1525/9780520319813. ISBN 9780520319813.
* Reece, Steve (2009). Homer's Winged Words - The evolution of early Greek epic diction in the light of oral theory. Mnemosyne, Supplements. Vol. 313\. Leiden; Boston: Brill. pp. 172–180. ISBN 9789047427872.
* Visser, Edzard (1997). Homers Katalog der Schiffe [Homer's catalogue of ships] (in German). Stuttgart; Leipzig: Teubner. doi:10.1515/9783110958591. ISBN 978-3-598-77442-3.

## External links

[edit]

* Detailed map of Achaeans and Trojans

* v
* t
* e

Homer's Iliad

Characters|

| Achaeans|

* Acamas
* Achilles
* Agamemnon (king of Mycenae)
* Agapenor
* Ajax the Greater (king of Salamis)
* Ajax the Lesser
* Alcimus
* Anticlus
* Antilochus
* Arcesilaus
* Ascalaphus
* Automedon
* Balius and Xanthus
* Bias
* Calchas (prophet)
* Diomedes (king of Argos)
* Elephenor
* Epeius
* Eudoros
* Euryalus
* Eurybates
* Eurydamas
* Eurypylus
* Guneus
* Helen (queen of Sparta)
* Ialmenus
* Idomeneus (king of Crete)
* Iphigenia (princess of Mycenae)
* Leitus
* Leonteus
* Lycomedes
* Machaon
* Medon
* Meges
* Menelaus (king of Sparta)
* Menestheus
* Meriones
* Neoptolemus
* Nestor (king of Pylos)
* Nireus
* Odysseus (king of Ithaca)
* Palamedes
* Patroclus
* Peneleos
* Philoctetes
* Phoenix
* Podalirius
* Podarces
* Polites
* Polypoetes
* Promachus
* Protesilaus
* Prothoenor
* Schedius
* Sinon
* Stentor
* Sthenelus
* Talthybius
* Teucer
* Thersites
* Thoas
* Thrasymedes
* Tlepolemus

|

Trojans|

* Aeneas (royal demigod)
* Aesepus
* Agenor
* Alcathous
* Amphimachus
* Anchises
* Andromache
* Antenor (king's brother-in-law)
* Antiphates
* Antiphus
* Archelochus
* Asius
* Asteropaios
* Astyanax
* Atymnius
* Axylus
* Briseis
* Calesius
* Caletor
* Cassandra (princess of Troy)
* Chryseis
* Chryses (priest of Apollo)
* Clytius
* Coön
* Dares Phrygius
* Deiphobus (prince of Troy)
* Dolon
* Epistrophus
* Euphemus
* Euphorbus
* Glaucus
* Gorgythion
* Hector (prince of Troy)
* Hecuba (queen of Troy)
* Helenus
* Hyperenor
* Hypsenor
* Iamenus
* Ilioneus
* Imbrius
* Iphidamas
* Kebriones
* Laocoön
* Lycaon (prince of Troy)
* Melanippus
* Memnon (King of Ethiopia)
* Mentes
* Mydon
* Mygdon of Phrygia
* Othryoneus
* Pandarus
* Panthous
* Paris (prince of Troy)
* Pedasus
* Peirous
* Penthesilea (Queen of the Amazons)
* Phorcys
* Podes
* Polites
* Polydamas
* Polybus
* Polydorus (prince of Troy)
* Polyxena (princess of Troy)
* Priam (king of Troy)
* Pylaemenes
* Pylaeus
* Pyraechmes
* Rhesus of Thrace
* Sarpedon (king of Lycia)
* Scamandrius
* Theano
* Ucalegon

Gods|

* Aphrodite
* Apollo
* Ares
* Artemis
* Athena
* Dionysus
* Eris
* Hades
* Helios
* Hephaestus
* Hera
* Hermes
* Hypnos
* Iris
* Leto
* Poseidon
* Scamander
* Thanatos
* Thetis
* Zeus

Major deities|

* Aphrodite
* Apollo
* Ares
* Artemis
* Athena
* Hades
* Hephaestus
* Hera
* Hermes
* Poseidon
* Zeus

Minor deities|

* Deimos
* Eris
* Iris
* Leto
* Phobos
* Proteus
* Scamander
* Thetis

Sections|

* Catalogue of Ships
* Deception of Zeus
* Judgment of Paris
* Trojan Battle Order
* Trojan Horse

Study|

* Dactylic hexameter
* Homeric scholarship
* Homeric Laughter
* Homeric Question
* Chorizontes
* Jørgensen's law
* Historicity of the Iliad
* "The Iliad or the Poem of Force" (1939 essay)
* Interpretation of Achilles' and Patroclus' relationship
* Milawata letter
* Parallels between Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
* Rediscovering Homer

Manuscripts|

* Ambrosian Iliad
* Codex Nitriensis
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 20
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 21
* Uncial 098
* Venetus A
* Venetus B

Alternate versions|

* Ilias Latina (60-70 CE)
* Dictys Cretensis Ephemeridos belli Trojani (c. 4th century)
* Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia (5th century)
* Hermoniakos' Iliad (14th century)
* Men in Aida (1983)

Translation|

* English translations of Homer
* "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"
* On Translating Homer

Literature|

| Verse|

* Aeneid (19 BCE)
* Priapea 68 (c. 100)
* Roman de Troie (1155)
* De bello Troiano (1183)
* Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1380s)
* The Rape of the Lock (1712)
* The Shield of Achilles (1952)
* War Music (1959)
* Omeros (1990)

|

Novels|

* The Firebrand (1987)
* Black Ships Before Troy (1993)
* Troy (2000)
* Ilium (2003)
* Ransom (2009)
* The Song of Achilles (2011)
* Starcrossed (2011)
* The Silence of the Girls (2018)

Stage|

* Rhesus (5th century BC play)
* Troilus and Cressida (1602)
* The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (1935)
* The Golden Apple (1954 musical)

Films|

* Helena (1924)
* Helen of Troy (1956)
* The Trojan Horse (1961)
* Troy (2004)

Television|

* The Myth Makers (1965)
* In Search of the Trojan War (1985)
* Helen of Troy (2003 miniseries)
* Troy: Fall of a City (2018 miniseries)

Music|

* King Priam (1961 Tippett opera)
* The Triumph of Steel (1992 album)
* "And Then There Was Silence" (2001 song)

Art|

* Tabulae Iliacae
* Achilles and Briseis
* Andromache Mourning Hector
* The Anger of Achilles
* The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles
* The Apotheosis of Homer
* Jupiter and Thetis
* The Loves of Paris and Helen
* Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus
* Orestes Pursued by the Furies
* The Revelers Vase
* Thetis Receiving the Weapons of Achilles from Hephaestus
* Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Phrases|

* "Achilles' heel"
* "Ever to Excel"
* "Hold your horses"
* "In medias res"
* "Noblesse oblige"

Other|

* Warriors: Legends of Troy (video game)
* Age of Bronze (comics)
* Sortes Homericae
* Heraclitus
* Weighing of souls
* Where Troy Once Stood
* Blood rain

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa