From: Timothy Tow (ttow@tow.com)
Date: Mon Jan 22 1996 - 21:53:14 EST
Thanks for the reply. I am trying to find out where I had read that
reference that a Homeric ten years was only a figurative reference as
opposed to a literal one. THe Odyssey was also composed after the Iliad so
perhaps, Homer then decided that ten years was ten years.
Tim
>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/
Tim
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Timothy Tow ttow@tow.com Phone 415 813-6813
3460 West Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94303 Fax 415-493-0281
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