INVOCATION IN HOMER’S ILIAD

When we think of the blind poet Homer with relation to

Ancient Greece, the first thing that comes in our mind is the
beautiful epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. While there is
disagreement, whether Homer alone wrote these poems or
many other people, the ‘analysts’ and the ancient Greek
people and the ‘Unitarians’ are on Homer’s side.

Homer’s ancestry can be traced from Odyssey. He was

the son of Meonas and Krithiida. Born around 8th-9th century
B.C. he was said to be a court singer and a story teller. Even
his existence is somewhat doubted, some say he was born on
the island of Chios while some argue that Homer existed in
Ionia. But the dialect and the description in the poems
pointed that Homer lived in Ionia.

In Iliad Homer describes the final year of the Trojan War,

a legendary conflict between alliance of Greek cities and the
city of Troy in Anatolia.
 The Iliad is universally acclaimed as a truly great story.
There is war and gore, honour and betrayal, pain and pathos,
love and hatred, a good few villains and even more heros, all
set in the good old days of a glorious but not forgotten past.
Above all, the Iliad presents the tragic yet thrilling reality of
humanity’s mortality, and as the events unfold, we are even
reminded that our lives are shaped and buffeted by the winds
of ‘Fate’ from which even the central character Achilles,
magnificent warrior that he is, cannot escape.

The Iliad, written sometime in the 8th century BCE, is a

tragic, Hellenic epic poem, traditionally attributed to homer.
It’s set during the Trojan war, the ten-years siege of the city
Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Hellenic states, it tells of the
battles and events during the week of a quarrel between King
Agamemnon and the Warrior Achilles.

Over the course of the story, many gods are invoked and
petitioned.

Homer’s Iliad begins with an invocation of the muse. The

invocation is very common among the Greek myths for
several reasons. The poets who performed the epics at the
time of their composition, would memorize parts and each
poet had a role to play. Often intervention from the muses
were involved as a way to keep the poetry flowing. As there
was no script, performers believed that the muses told them
what to say.

In other cases, the point at which the plea for the muse
appears in an epic, depends a great deal on the meter of the
epic. Many times words were added or taken out, so that the
epic could maintain its meter.
An invocation begins the epic poem and serves as a
prologue to the events to come. A prayers or address is made
to one of the nine muses of Greco-Roman mythology.
An invocation is a request for the spiritual presence and
blessings of a deity during a rite. The poet asks for the
inspiration, skill, knowledge, or the right emotion to finish a
poem worthy of his subject matter.
In Greek mythology, the nine muses are goddess of
various arts such as music, dance and poetry. Their own
giftedness in the arts were unparalleled and helped both gods
and mankind to forget their troubles. They also inspired
musicians and writers to strive to reach greater creative and
intellectual hights.
In Hellenic ritual, it’s common for prayers of invocation
to be offered every time a new deity is invoked, so we can be
sure they will the hymns and prayers of petition offered to
them.

-Apollon:
“O god of the silver bow, that protectest Chryse and holy
Cilia, and rulest Tenedos with thy might...”
“Hear me O king from your seat, may be in the rich land
of Lycia, or may be in Troy, for in all places you can hear the
prayers of one who is distress, as I now am...”

-Helios:
“O Sun, that seest and givest ear to all things, Earth and
rivers...”

-Athena:
“Hear me, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus,
unweariable...”
“Holy Athena, protectress of [Athens] mighty goddess...”
“Hear me, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus, you who spy
out all my ways and who are with me in all my hardships;
befriend me in this mine hour...”
-Zeus:
“Zeus, most glorious, supreme, that dwellest in heaven
and sidest upon the storm-cloud...”

“King Zeus, lord of Dodona, god of the Pelasgi, who

dwellest after, you who hold wintry Dodona in your sway,
where your prophets the Selli dwell around you with their feet
unwashed and their couches made upon the ground – if you
heard me when I prayed to you aforetime, [...] vouchsafe me
now the fulfilment of yet this further prayer...”

Homer seems to be more concerned with universal

truths that the story can reveal, and so, perhaps for the
reason, he jumps right into the story after already nine years
of war and siege.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Homer, The Iliad of Homer, Tr. By Richard
Lattimore, Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1951
• Homer, The Iliad, Tr. By Robert Fagles, New
York: Penguin, 1990
• Lattimore, Richard, Introduction to The Iliad of
Homer, Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1951