Variations on Iliad I 1-16

The two variant proems come from a scholion found in a manuscript called the Anecdotum Romanum or Ve1. Ve1 consists of two mss. which are part of one book, one from Rome, biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele 6, and the other from Madrid, biblioteca Nacional 4626.

The first variant, consisting of only one line, was known to two great Homeric scholars from antiquity, Nicanor and Crates, and was in a copy of the Iliad owned by a book collecter and scholar named Apellicon.

I sing of the Muses and Apollo, famed for his bow

The second, consisting of 3 lines, was an alternative to the first 9 lines of the Iliad as we now know them, and was in some texts of antiquity according to the scholar Aristoxenos.

Tell me now, Muses, you who have homes on Olympus,
how wrath and anger took hold of the glorious son of Peleus
and Leto. For having conceived anger against the king...

These are clear examples of a technique of oral composition known as compression. The great Homeric scholar and Harvard professor Milman Parry has this to say about compression and expansion in oral composition of epic poetry:

"The formula thus is by no means the unit of the singer's poetry, but it nevertheless ever tends to become so, for no singer ever tells the same tale twice in the same words. His poem will always follow the same general pattern, but this verse or that will be left out, or replaced by another verse or part of a verse, and he will leave out and add whole passages as the time and mood of his hearers calls for a fuller or briefer telling of a tale or of a given part of a tale. Thus the oral poem even in the mouth of the same singer is ever in a state of change; and it is the same when his poetry is sung by others." ("Studies in the Epic Technique of Oral Verse-Making. II. The Homeric Language of an Oral Poetry." Making of Homeric Verse, p. 336)

Compression and expansion can be witnessed throughout the Iliad in the form of micro- and macronarratives. A single line, such as that found at Iliad XI 227, could be potentially expanded to an epic of 15,000 lines like that of the Iliad. These micronarratives are more than just signals to the audience of other epic tales in the singer's repetoire. Consider the shield of Achilles in Iliad XVIII. This remarkable piece of armor holds within its design a micronarrative of dispute, which in turn carries with it all kinds of messages for the larger narrative about the anger of Achilles. Close analysis shows us that the anonymous characters on the micronarrative of the shield have their counterparts in the macronarrative. A successful decoding of the shield simultaneously decodes the moral agenda behind the entire Iliad! (For more on the shield of Achilles see Homer's Poetic Justice). In Iliad IX there is another micronarrative which in many ways anticipates the shield in XVIII. This is the story of Meleager, which Phoinix tells to Achilles in an attempt to get him to rejoin the war.

Parry's assistant and student Albert Lord records a remarkable example of expansion from the South Slavic tradition in his groundbreaking book The Singer of Tales. The compressed version of an overnight visit from the song of a singer recorded in a song book is followed by the "adorned" or expanded song of the singer Avdo Mededovic:

They drove on their battle steeds and travelled that second day. They made their lodging far off in the small village of Veselica with the Vlah, Toroman Vuk. There they will spend the second night, and they will be lodged graciously, and graciously received, and graciously served. Then in the morning they will rise early. They pressed forward through the border country.

Here is Avdo's account:

They flew over the green plain even as a star in summer across the sky. They passed villages and crossed mountains. They travelled a whole day until nightfall, and they covered as much of Bosnia as they had planned to that day. They had come to the dwelling of Knez Vujadin. The Knez was at home with his wife and his two sons. They were looking from the window when the two imperial dragons came in sight, all glittering with gold and glorious in their plumes. The horses beneath them were in full panoply. Both heroes were like unto imperial pashas, and much better riders were they. Their array was much better than a pasha's or even a vizier's, or even, indeed, a great imperial general's. The Knez's two sons flew to the window and pressed their foreheads against it. When they saw, they wondered, and they cried out to their father: "O father, here is a wonderful sight that we have never seen before! Here are two heroes on golden horses! They must be either pashas or viziers."

When the Knez looked and saw the son of Smail the Pilgrim with his plumed cap and the feather of an alajbey on it, and beneath him his winged horse, and when he saw the standard-bearer, that might hero, on his fine steed, then did Vujadin feel distressed, for here was the son of the Pilgrim in person. He recognized him because of Osman and his white horse, for all the Border knew Osman, and all the Kingdoms too. Then said Vujadin too his sons: "Run quickly to open the courtyard gate; open both portals wide before the two imperial dragons! Give them greeting and stand at attention, as if they were pashas or viziers, for to you they are indeed pashas and viziers. Tonight you shall neither sleep nor sit in their presence, but you must cross your arms upon your breast and speak no word, but serve the heroes in silence. Show that you honor them highly, both for my sake and for the prestige of your house, that in the years when I am no more you may bring it good repute!

The Knez's two sons watched, and then they ran even as tow mountain wolves and opened the courtyard gate. The two heroes drove in their horses. They said: "Good evening!" and the youths in the courtyard replied, and bowed low before them. Then they embraced the youths. Old Vujadin came flying from the house to the bottom of the stairs. He shouted greeting to the heroes and took them by their lordly hands. His two sons seized the horses by the bridle and walked them up and down. Then Lady Vujadin took the two spears from the saddlehorn and carried them to the upper chamber of the house to the master's room, where but few guests are admitted. That room was kept for such heroes as these. It was strewn with Venetian cloth, and round about were silk couches and fine pillows covered with white silk and embroidered in the center with gold. They parted the curtained doorway of the room and entered. Then came his two dear daughters-in-law, like unto white mountain spirits. They took the men's boots and socks and the swords from their waists. When the two youths were seated, they gazed at the ornaments in the room, at the cushions on the couch, all silk and embroidered with gold. In the middle of the room was a table spread with Venetian cloth and on it a metal platter heaped with all sorts of food; and on the table were coffee-urns with golden handles, and cups of crystal. Next to this was a mother-of-pearl table with a six-winged cask holding forty stone, two pitchers adorned with mother-of-pearl, and four three-liter glasses covered with a silk napkin. Around the table were four chairs…

[Glasses are filled, and talk begins. Vujadin says to Meho:]

"What is happening on the Austrian border? How are the lords of the Border? Do you still lead raiding bands over the hills, raiding bands and larger armies? Do you reach even as far as the Austrian Empire, broadening the borders of Sulejman's kingdom? Have the young men become better than their elders? What think you, Mehmed; are the old men better than the young?" And Mehmed answered: "Thoughts differ, but mine shall ever be that the old men are better."…

In the meantime the boys had brought back the tired horses from their walk, had taken off the golden saddles and the girths and all the trappings. They sponged the horses and dried their manes with a cloth. Then they covered them with blankets, gave them barley, and waited for the beasts to eat it. They put hay in the mangers, closed the door of the stable, and went into the house to continue to do service. Their hats they left on the pegs, and they stood bareheaded before Mehmed and his standard-bearer Osman…

Finally the couches were spread for sleep, and the youths settled comfortably. All night the boys watched over their lords, lest, tired from drink, they should be disturbed and seek either wine or water.

When dawn broke, Osman called to Mehmed: "O Mehmed, we have slept too long." Vujadin and his sons tried as best they could to persuade their guests to stay longer, but it was of no avail. The Knez's sons prepared the horses. Meantime the youths were ready and descended to the courtyard. The maidens brought their spears, the boys led out their horses, and the youths mounted. The night had passed and now the day-star shone and dawn unfolded its wings.

Mehmed put his hand into his pocket and gave each of the maidens five gold pieces. But the Knez's children would not accept them: "No, Mehmed, you shall not pay for your lodgings. This is not an inn or a tavern, but a dwelling for men of breeding." But Mehmed would not listen: "This is not pay, my children, but a gift of love. Let the girls buy combs and powder!"

Then he rode to the courtyard gate, and behind him Osman on his white stallion, even as a star across a clear sky. Dawn spread its wings and soon the two youths were riding by the cool Klim near Budim, four hours away. (Singer of Tales, pp. 107-108)