著者

藤繩 謙三

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典學研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, pp.14-25, 1961-03-29

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The peculiar use of the chariots in the Iliad is usually explained as being due to Homer's ignorance of their use among the Mycenaeans who must have "fought like the Hittites" (D. Gray). Of course, there are some passages in the Iliad which suggest that the Mycenaeans attempted such chariot fighting (e. g. Nestor's advice to his charioteers, -A 297 ff.), and the Linear B tablets attest the existence of some hundreds of chariots in Knossos and Pylos. In spite of these facts, considering the geographical conditions of Greece, we cannot imagine that such tactics were so effective as to be widely used. So I think the assumption doubtful that Homer had forgotten Mycenaean chariot tactics, and having reexamined the text of the Iliad, I point out some evidence against the assumption. (1) Even among the chief heroes we find some who have no chariot for their own use, to say nothing of chariot troops (e. g. Odysseus, Aias of Salamis, Teukros and Aias of Lokris). As this difference among the heroes must be due to the geographical conditions, it certainly existed in the Mycenaean Age. Moreover, since Odysseus and Aias of Salamis are on equal terms with the other heroes, the possession of chariots must have been of little importance. (2) Among the Achaeans, fifteen persons have epithets relating to horses (or chariots), ten of them being of the former generation (e. g. Pelops, Atreus, Peleus and Nestor), and only five in the prime of life (e. g. Diomedes and Patroklos). This curious ratio shows that, though in earlier times horses (or chariots) had been highly esteemed, their value became lower towards the end of the Mycenaean Age. This change suggests that they were not effective in actual battles. (3) While we find many formulae which depict the scenes of jumping down, falling or making a person fall, from a chariot, there is no set formulae in the Iliad which depict an attack from a chariot. But a few passages show that Homer himself (or his immediate predecessors) aimed to depict attacks from chariots, combining spear-throwing formulae with a falling-from-a-chariot formula (Ε 275-97, Θ116-23). Therefore, strictly speaking, it is not Homer but the stock of the traditional formulae, that is responsible for the treating of the chariots as mere vehicles. We cannot assume that Homer or his immediate predecessors should have left out, if there had been any, fighting-from-chariots formulae, since they sometimes wanted to depict such scenes. Moreover, some parallel cases confirm the possibility that formulae which are inconsistent with each other do co-exist. So it does not seem possible that the fighting-from-chariots formulae arose from the many treatments in chariot fighting in the Mycenaean Epics. One is inclined to conclude that with regard to the use of chariots there was no great difference between the Mycenaean World and the Homeric.