nick black (the author of midnight's simulacra, see my recent interview) has a link on his website to one of my old posts from 2011 on this blog, on John Merritt's proposal for an Illuminatus! reference book.
When I mentioned seeing the link (I have not heard from Mr. Merritt in years), nick wrote,
"one thing i immediately noticed was his comment about:
'At the beginning of Leviathan is a long list of rock bands going to the big festival at Ingolstadt. How many are/were real and how many fictitious at the time that Illuminatus! was written?'
"looking through the individual bands is interesting, but he's missing the higher-level reference: Homer's Catalogue of Ships!"
As nick notes, that's the list on Book Two of the Iliad of the various units of the Greek army that arrived in ships to take part in the attack on Troy. A few sentences (the Samuel Butler public domain prose translation:
And they that held the strong city of Athens, the people of great Erechtheus, who was born of the soil itself, but Jove's daughter, Minerva, fostered him, and established him at Athens in her own rich sanctuary. There, year by year, the Athenian youths worship him with sacrifices of bulls and rams. These were commanded by Menestheus, son of Peteos. No man living could equal him in the marshalling of chariots and foot soldiers. Nestor could alone rival him, for he was older. With him there came fifty ships.
Ajax brought twelve ships from Salamis, and stationed them alongside those of the Athenians.
The men of Argos, again, and those who held the walls of Tiryns, with Hermione, and Asine upon the gulf; Troezene, Eionae, and the vineyard lands of Epidaurus; the Achaean youths, moreover, who came from Aegina and Mases; these were led by Diomed of the loud battle-cry, and Sthenelus son of famed Capaneus. With them in command was Euryalus, son of king Mecisteus, son of Talaus; but Diomed was chief over them all. With these there came eighty ships.
And so on. I suspect nick is correct about the literary reference.
BTW, when author Ada Palmer was at the Confluence science fiction convention in 2023, I asked her which translation of Homer she prefers, and she recommended Robert Fagles. I bought the ebooks, so I now have the Fagles translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey on my Kindle.
Related: Tyler Cowen's new series on "An Economic Approach to Homer's Odyssey."
1 comment:
Maybe Homer is the grandfather of literary lists, and I assume RAW was aware of it. But a more direct influence, I suspect, would be Joyce doing the same.
I asked nick directly for a copy of Midnight s Simulacra, based on your opinion and interview, Tom. Nick black seems like a very nice and helpful critter, and I am looking forward to read his book. Thanks again for bringing it up to my attention!
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