Prologue: The Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Iliad, 2. 484–760)

Summary

This extract from the Homeric Catalogue of Ships in Iliad book 2 (specifically the Achaean section) stands as a prologue to the collection of texts, reminding us that much ancient Greek geographical writing is a response to Homer, whom authors tended to exalt as the originator of geography. The passage enumerates, with obvious omissions, the allies from Greece and the Aegean who took part in the siege of Troy, arranged in regional ethnic groups, each with its own leader, and names a variety of settlements within each region (or island), the majority of which still existed in the subsequent historical periods. It illustrates the early use of regional identifiers within mainland Greece (and some of the islands), putting down a marker about the longevity of these culture regions throughout the whole ancient history of Greece.