A) Iliad 2.484-493: And now, O Muses, dwellers in the mansions of Olympus, tell me - [485] for you are goddesses and are in all places so that you see all things, while we know nothing but by report [kleos] - who were the chiefs and princes of the Danaans? As for the common warriors, they were so that I could not name every single one of them though I had ten tongues, [490] and though my voice failed not and my heart were of bronze within me, unless you, O Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, were to recount them to me.

B) Iliad 9.525ff.: We [= Phoenix speaking about himself] have heard in song the glories [klea] of heroes of old time, how they quarreled when they were roused to fury, but still they could be won over by gifts, and fair words could soothe them. [527] I have an old story in my mind [memnêmai] - a very old one - and you are all friends [philoi], so I will tell it.

C) Iliad 9.185ff.: When they reached the ships and tents of the Myrmidons, [186] they found Achilles playing on a lyre, fair, of cunning workmanship, and its cross-bar was of silver. It was part of the spoils which he had taken when he destroyed the city of Eetion, and he was now diverting himself with it and singing the glories [klea] of heroes. He was alone with Patroklos, who sat opposite to him and said nothing, waiting till he should cease singing. Odysseus and Ajax now came in - Odysseus leading the way - and stood before him. Achilles sprang from his seat with the lyre still in his hand, and Patroklos, when he saw the strangers, rose also.

D) Odyssey 8.26-84: "Hear me," said he, "aldermen and town councilors of the Phaeacians, that I may speak even as I am minded. This stranger, whoever he may be, has found his way to my house from somewhere or other either East or West… you will join me in entertaining our guest in the cloisters. I can take no excuses, and we will have Demodokos to sing to us; for there is no bard like him whatever he may choose to sing about." … A servant presently led in the famous bard Demodokos, whom the muse had dearly loved, but to whom she had given both good and evil, for though she had endowed him with a divine gift of song, she had robbed him of his eyesight. Pontonoos set a seat for him among the guests, leaning it up against a bearing-post. He hung the lyre for him on a peg over his head, and showed him where he was to feel for it with his hands. He also set a fair table with a basket of victuals by his side, and a cup of wine from which he might drink whenever he was so disposed.

[71] The company then laid their hands upon the good things that were before them, but as soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, the muse inspired Demodokos to sing the feats [kleos] of heroes, and most especially a matter whose kleos at that time reached wide heaven, to wit, the quarrel [neikos] between Odysseus and Achilles, and the fierce words that they heaped on one another as they sat together at a banquet. But Agamemnon was glad in his noos when he heard his chieftains quarreling with one another, for Apollo had foretold him this at Pytho when he crossed the stone floor to consult the oracle. Here the beginning of the evil started rolling down, by the will of Zeus, toward both Danaans and Trojans. [83] Thus sang the bard, but Odysseus drew his purple mantle over his head and covered his face, for he was ashamed to let the Phaeacians see that he was weeping.

E) From Plato's Ion

Ion: …whenever I recite a tale of pity, my eyes are filled with tears, and when it is one of horror or dismay, my hair stands up on end with fear, and my heart goes leaping. (…)

Socrates: Now then, are you aware that you produce the same effects in most of the spectators too?

Ion: Yes, indeed, I know it very well. As I look down at them from the stage above, I see them, every time, weeping, casting terrible glances, stricken with amazement at the deeds recounted. In fact, I have to give them very close attention, for if I set them weeping, I myself shall laugh when I get my money, but if they laugh, it is I who have to weep at losing it.

F) From Philostratus' Heroikos

Many of those who approach the island say that they hear Achilles singing other things as well, but only last year, I believe, did he compose this song, which is most graceful in thought and intentions. It goes like this:

Echo, dwelling round about the vast waters
beyond great Pontus,
my lyre serenades you by my hand.
And you, sing to me divine Homer,
glory of men,
glory of our sufferings,
through whom I did not die,
through whom Patroklos is mine,
through whom my Ajax is
equal to the immortals,
through whom Troy, celebrated by the skilled as won by the spear,
gained glory and did not fall.

 

 

To learn more about the work of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, visit the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature.

An on-line version of Gregory Nagy's 1996 book Homeric Questions is available from the Center for Hellenic Studies and the University of Texas Press.