Injuries, Trauma, and Death in the Iliad: A Realistic Account or Exaggeration?
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Advisor
Prudence Jones
Access Type
Event
Start Date
26-4-2024 12:45 PM
End Date
26-4-2024 1:44 PM
Description
The degree of realism in Homer’s descriptions of injuries and deaths in the Iliad has been debated in Classics scholarship, with some scholars hypothesizing that Homer must have had medical training and others concluding that images of wounding exist primarily to communicate heroic ideals. This project re-examines battlefield injuries in the Iliad with reference to ancient medical texts. The methodology includes close reading of the Iliad in order to conduct a quantitative analysis of the type of injuries and their survivability. These data are then compared with evidence from medical writings from Greco-Roman antiquity. The comparison reveals that while the Homeric descriptions lack some of the clinical details contained in medical writings, such as those from the Hippocratic corpus, the fatality level of the wounds mentioned was found to match descriptions of fatality coming as a result of similar injuries described in ancient medical sources. Where Homeric descriptions diverge from medical accounts, the distinctions tend to involve a compression of time in the Homeric narratives, with injury and outcome juxtaposed and details of the recovery or dying process treated briefly if at all. This analysis of battle injuries in the Iliad with reference to ancient medical texts indicates considerable realism with regards to survivability rates from trauma caused by battlefield wounds in the Iliad, as the rates agree with how fatal such wounds were in times when there was no modern medical care.
Injuries, Trauma, and Death in the Iliad: A Realistic Account or Exaggeration?
The degree of realism in Homer’s descriptions of injuries and deaths in the Iliad has been debated in Classics scholarship, with some scholars hypothesizing that Homer must have had medical training and others concluding that images of wounding exist primarily to communicate heroic ideals. This project re-examines battlefield injuries in the Iliad with reference to ancient medical texts. The methodology includes close reading of the Iliad in order to conduct a quantitative analysis of the type of injuries and their survivability. These data are then compared with evidence from medical writings from Greco-Roman antiquity. The comparison reveals that while the Homeric descriptions lack some of the clinical details contained in medical writings, such as those from the Hippocratic corpus, the fatality level of the wounds mentioned was found to match descriptions of fatality coming as a result of similar injuries described in ancient medical sources. Where Homeric descriptions diverge from medical accounts, the distinctions tend to involve a compression of time in the Homeric narratives, with injury and outcome juxtaposed and details of the recovery or dying process treated briefly if at all. This analysis of battle injuries in the Iliad with reference to ancient medical texts indicates considerable realism with regards to survivability rates from trauma caused by battlefield wounds in the Iliad, as the rates agree with how fatal such wounds were in times when there was no modern medical care.