From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 22 1996 - 21:30:55 EST
At 3:23 PM 1/22/96, Timothy Tow wrote:
> I'm posting this question to this list on the advice of a friend.
>I'm not on this mail list so please reply to me directly.
>
> I was re-reading the Odyseey and the Iliad, and I recall reading
>from some literary source that the expression of '10 years' in Homeric
>Greek was a colloquialism for "a long period of time."
>
> I asking this because if Homer's use of the expression '10 years'
>for the duration of siege of Troy is taken figuratively then his stories
>makes more sense chronologically then if it were taken literally.
>
> Then the Trojan War and all of its assorted aftermath events may
>not have taken over 20 years after all. Should I take the '10 years'
>expression literally or figuratively.
>
> Was '10 years' a common colloquialism for a "a long time" even in
>other Greek dialects?
I have never seen or heard anything like this. It is ironic for one not
overly inclined to be especially literal in interpreting the gospel to have
to insist the strong likelihood that ten years in Homer means nothing else
but ten years: ten years for the war and ten more years for the wanderings
of Odysseus. What a lady must fair Penelope have been! To be sure, more
Greeks and Trojans died for Helen's sake than did suitors for the sake of
Penelope, but when all is said and done, Penelope would have been worth
thousands of Helens--20 years of weaving and unweaving--a whole world wide
web's worth!
Sorry, I didn't mean to rant and rave, but the 20 years is underscored
repeatedly in the Odyssey.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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