How to Write an Epic - Justin Steele (books to read now .txt) 📗

action and help propel the narrative. In poems like the Iliad, war is essentially the plot. Two sides are fighting to either keep or retrieve two maidens.

Army Might

Providing an army the chance to prove its might was almost always done as an expository look at the army of the story teller. It was a chest beating, boastable that served to build up the audience about those who were defending them. And it was usually pretty good. John A. Scott took the opportunity to look at army might in Homeric poetry based on what the man himself said. According to Scott, “...the Greek army at Troy the definite number of 1,186 ships, some bearing fifty men others one hundred and twenty. Assuming the mean of these two numbers as the average crew, the total army would be about 100,000 men.” Now, I don’t know about you, but as the listener of this story, I would sit and listen to this thinking, “Man...who would want to mess with us?!” and if I were talking about the Greeks, I would be right. Until around 400 BCE, that is. Picture that army like this, but you know, less plastic and with more people.

Image source: http://c85c7a.medialib.glogster.com/erinelee/media/ac/ac6eaab5551069354eaa237f372fd9661d8c8579/anc-greek-2.jpg

Works Cited:

Scott, J. (1909). Homer's estimate of the size of the greek army. The Classical Journal, 4(4), 165-174. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3286632

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Publication Date: 11-06-2014

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