CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH: EXAMINING ODYSSEUS’
RAID ON EGYPT IN ITS LATE BRONZE AGE CONTEXT*
JEFFREY P. EMANUEL
Harvard University
Though Odysseus’ tales to Eumaios and Aninoos in Odyssey 14.199–359
and 17.417–44, respectively, are presented as fictional tales within
Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early
Iron Age reality. This article examines these portions of the hero’s false ainoi within
their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those
elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led
nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–
described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have
been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a
subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he
gathered great wealth. Through a comparative examination of literary
and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition
in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’
stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time
in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is
remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’
groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the
‘Sherden of the Sea.’
It has been noted previously – albeit infrequently – that Odysseus’ fictional raids
on coastal settlements in general, and on Egypt in particular, seem to echo events
mentioned in texts dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age1 in the Aegean and
Eastern Mediterranean.2
Though it has been called a “masterpiece of
mythmaking,”3 the “Cretan Lie” of Odyssey 14.199–359, and the retelling of a
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* It is with great pleasure that I dedicate this paper to a great mentor, friend, and
colleague in Gregory Nagy, on the joyous occasion of his seventieth birthday.
For chronology, see Table 1.
2 E.g. Ormerod (1924) 88–92; Sherratt (1990) 819-20; Wood (1998) 223; Yurco
(1999) 876–9; Jackson (2002) 64–7; Louden (2006) 278. The time period(s) reflected
in, and the development of, Homer’s epics, of course, have been widely discussed and
debated; e.g., inter alia, Finley (1957); Blegen (1962); Gray (1968); Snodgrass (1974);
Dickinson (1986); Morris (1986); Wood (1998); Nagy (2010).
3 “As a master of the ainos, Odysseus keeps on adapting his identity by making his
noos fit the noos of the many different characters he encounters…and the multiple ainoi
of Odysseus can thus be adapted to the master myth of the Odyssey”; Nagy (2013)
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JEFFREY P. EMANUEL
portion of this ainos to Antinoos in Od. 17.431–41, is not a “true” story even within
the poetic framework of the epic.4 However, as will be demonstrated here, while
“at any given moment historical myth functions as a cultural artifact
representative of the period in which it circulates rather than the one which it
purports to describe,”5 epic and oral tradition can transmit a measure of historical
truth within the received fiction – or, in the case of Odysseus’ false ainoi, the
fictions within the fiction.6
Three of the many narrative strains embedded within the many–sided man’s
ainos are of particular note here: Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful
maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; his twice–described, ill–fated assault on
Egypt; and his claim not only of having been spared following that raid, but of
having spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which
he gathered great wealth. This article explores these elements of Odysseus’ story
within their fictive Late Bronze–Early Iron Age context for the purpose of
demonstrating not only that they are reflective of historical reality in the time at
which the epic is set, but that the experiences Odysseus describes are remarkably
analogous to the experiences of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups
known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records, the so–called “Šrdn [‘Sherden’]
of the sea” (pictured in figs. 1-2).7
Seaborne Threats and Refuge Settlements
Seaborne threats to coastal polities were present in the Aegean and eastern
Mediterranean long before the end of the 13th century BC. Like all sailing in the
ancient Mediterranean, piracy was a seasonal pursuit, and in many cases the same
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10§45; cf. Nagy (2009) 80; also Schmoll (1990) 67, who notes that “Odysseus is the
only Homeric hero who is renowned for lying.”
4 See Reece (1994) for a convincing argument that a pre–Homeric version (or
versions) of the Odyssey may have included a more central role for Crete within the
epic, as well as Haft (1984) and Perlman (1992) for commentary on the nature and
detail of Homer’s references to Crete during the Late Bronze Age.
5 Finkelberg (2005) 10.
6 E.g. Morris (2003) 8; Finkelberg (n.4); Morris and Laffineur (2007); also
Halbwachs (1950); Parry (1953–1979); Lord (1960; 1991); Vansina (1965) and (1985);
Dickinson (n.2); Tonkin (1992); Assmann (1992); Goody (2000); see further below.
7 Šrdn (also SArdAnA or SArdynA) is commonly glossed “Sherden,” “Shardana” or
“Sherdanu” (the former will be followed here). For a more comprehensive
biographical sketch of this group, see Cavilier (2005), Emanuel (2013), and
Wachsmann (2013).
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
groups seem to have partaken in it on an annual basis.8 Two texts in particular
which will be discussed more fully below, a Hittite document (CTH 27) and a
letter from the Amarna archives (EA 38), speak of “often raiding the land of
Alašiya [Cyprus] and taking captives” and of sea raiders who “year by year seize
villages,” respectively. Additionally, the Tanis II rhetorical stela of Ramesses II,
also discussed in greater detail below, refers to the piratical Sherden as those “whom
none could ever fight against” – a reference which likely means that they, too, had
been raiding coastal settlements for several years prior to that point. Given the
seasonality of shipping and Odysseus’ claim of raiding as an occupation that made
him very wealthy, it seems likely that his claim of nine successful conquests is in
fact a veiled reference to raids that were regularly carried out over the course of
multiple years – perhaps even as many as nine (Hom. Od. 14.229–33):
πρὶν μὲν γὰρ Τροίης ἐπιβήμεναι υἷας Ἀχαιῶν
εἰνάκις ἀνδράσιν ἦρξα καὶ ὠκυπόροισι νέεσσιν
ἄνδρας ἐς ἀλλοδαπούς, καί μοι μάλα τύγχανε πολλά.
τῶν ἐξαιρεύμην μενοεικέα, πολλὰ δ᾽ ὀπίσσω
λάγχανον
For before the sons of the Achaeans set foot on the land of Troy, I
had nine times led warriors and swift–faring ships against foreign
folk, and great spoil had ever fallen to my hands. Of this I would
choose what pleased my mind, and much I afterwards obtained by
lot.9
Evidence from several sources suggests that seaborne threats increased in
number and severity as the age of Bronze gave way to that of Iron.10 In the
Aegean and the East Aegean–West Anatolian Interface,11 scenes of naval warfare
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8 See Wachsmann (1998) 320 for an interesting comparison of seasonal piracy in
the ancient Mediterranean and seasonal Viking raids two millennia later.
9 All translations of Odyssey are from Murray (1919), unless otherwise indicated.
10 Inter alia, Baruffi (1998) 10–13, 188; Hurwit (1985) 49; Nowicki (1996) 285;
Wachsmann (n.8) 320–21. Singer (1983) 217 has suggested that the threat during the
Late Bronze–Early Iron transition remained the same in nature as it had during the
preceding Late Bronze Age, but “the scale of [seaborne] movement” changed, as did
“the ability of the established powers to cope with the problem.”
11 This area (henceforth “Interface”) “forms as an entity between the Mycenaean
islands of the central Aegean and the Anatolian hinterland with Troy at its northern
extremity and Rhodes at its southern one”; Mountjoy (1998) 33, 38 fig. 1, 52 fig. 9.
This is seen in particular in the ceramics of the “East Aegean Koinè,” which developed
in the LH IIIB and flourished in LH IIIC Early and Middle (but which appears to
have excluded Rhodes); Mountjoy (n.11) esp. 51–63; also Mountjoy (2013).
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appear for the first time on Mycenaean pottery in Transitional Late Helladic (LH)
IIIB–IIIC or LH IIIC Early (Figs. 3–5),12 while Linear B tablets from the last days
of Pylos appear to communicate an effort to coordinate a large–scale defensive
action or evacuation in response to a heightened threat from the coast.13 Three
well–known sets of tablets, commonly grouped together, are relevant here. The
first, known as the o–ka tablets, list the disposition of military personnel – both
“watchers” and e–qe–ta (= ἡπέτας) – assigned to the task of “guarding the coastal
areas,” perhaps in the city’s waning days.14 The second relevant record is
comprised of three texts (PY An 610, An 1, and An 724) commonly grouped
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12 Representations of “feather–hatted” (in Cypriot and Egyptian iconography) or
“hedgehog–helmeted” (in painted decoration from the Aegean and Interface)
warriors also appear, seemingly ex nihilo, in martial scenes (including naval combat)
across the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean beginning ca. 1200 BC, with the ship–
borne warriors on the Transitional LH IIIB–IIIC Early krater from Bademgediği
Tepe perhaps being the earliest representation; inter alia, Tsountas (1896) pl. 1;
Epigraphic Survey (1930) pls. 19, 33–4, 37–9, 41–4, 46; Furumark (1941) 240–1,
452–3, fig. 26; Vermeule and Karageorghis (1982) 130–2, 143, 160–1, 222–3, pls.
XI.42–3, XI.45–7, XI.49, XI.51, XI.56–7, XI.64–64.1, XII.32–3; Dothan (1982)
275–7 figs. 11–14; Sandars (1985) 35; Crouwel (1991) figs. 7a–b; Dakaronia (1996)
171 fig.9; Dakaronia and Mpougia (1999) 23; Mountjoy (1999) 1106–7, (2005) 424
and (2011) 484; Yasur–Landau (2010a) 482; but on the possibility of an earlier
representation from Mycenae (a lone fragmentary image which, if accurately
identified, would predate all other known examples from this center by a century), see
Furumark (n.11) 448 n.1 and Vermeule and Karageorghis (n.12) 90, 132, 211, pl.
IX.8.
13 Chadwick (1976) 141; Palmer (1980) 143–67; Popham (1994) 287–8; Dickinson
(2006) 43, 46, 55; Tartaron (2013) 64–5. Consensus about the nature (and even the
existence) of the “crisis” reflected by the Pylian tablets is elusive. As Palaima (1995)
625 has noted, “the evidence is ambiguous,” and we do not know if the measures
recorded in these tablets were “standard operating procedure…in the Late Bronze
Age or extraordinary adjustments to emergency conditions”; also Hooker (1982) 209–
17; Shelmerdine (1997) 583. However, Shelmerdine (1999) 405–10 later approached
a middle ground on the issue by positing that what has been painted as a ‘crisis’ in the
past may instead be better categorized as a “general climate of wariness in the weeks
immediately preceding the destruction,” which came about as a result of “a very
human threat.” Wachsmann (1999) has suggested that the Rower Tablets may show
preparation for an organized evacuation by the Pylian palatial elite as their situation
became precarious late in the LH IIIB (in this vein, see Schilardi (1992) for possible
evidence of a short-lived attempt by mainland elites to recreate the collapsed palatial
system in the Cyclades).
14
Deger–Jalkotzy (1978) 14; Hooker (1987) 264.
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
together and referred to as “rower tablets” for their references to e–re–ta (= ἐρέται)
‘rowers’ being called up to man what was most likely a fleet of galleys (see
below).15 The third, a single tablet (Jn 829), records the collection of bronze from
Pylian temples for the purpose of forging “points for spears and javelins” –
another martial reference, and a further suggestion of increased military readiness
in response to an increasing coastal threat.
Further evidence for a growing threat from the sea at this time can be seen in
settlement changes and destructions around the Aegean and eastern
Mediterranean, including at Odysseus’ fictive home port of Crete, which had
been a key node in the international network that characterized the Late Bronze
Age in the Eastern Mediterranean.16 Settlements across Crete appear to have
been abandoned or destroyed at the end of the Late Minoan (LM) IIIB,17 while
new sites with larger, more concentrated populations were founded in defensible
areas of the island, both inland and on coastal hilltops.18 The inland refuge
settlements seem to have been a reaction to a new, or more serious, threat from
the sea.19 The coastal hilltop settlements, on the other hand, were primarily
founded on rocky promontories overlooking the water. These not only provided
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15 Palmer (n.13) 143–4; Palaima (1991) 286; Wachsmann (n.8) 159–61; Tartaron
(n.13) 64–5.
Kanta (1980) 30; Andreadaki–Vlasaki (1991) 405; Rehak and Younger (1998)
166–8. Because the boom–footed squaresail that was characteristic of sailing vessels
prior to the LH IIIB–IIIC transition could not be effectively sailed into the wind (see
below), merchantmen in the LBA Eastern Mediterranean were largely forced to sail
in a counterclockwise circuit, with ships departing Kommos on the southern coast of
Crete sailing south to Marsa Matruh (Cline (1994) 254; Lambrou–Phillipson (1999)
11; White (1999) 564–7, (2002) 24) or the Ramesside fortress site of Zawiyet Umm el–
Rakham (Snape (2000) 18; Thomas (2003) 528) on the Marmarican coast before
proceeding eastward to Egypt; Vercoutter (1956) 419–22; Bass (1987) 697–9; Pulak
(1988) 36–7; Lambrou–Phillipson (n. 16) 14. However, a direct (“blue water”) route
from the southern coast of Crete to Egypt, aided by the Etesian winds, may have been
used with some frequency from the 15th c. BC; Wachsmann (n.8) 298; Mark (2000)
148; and especially Lambrou–Phillipson (n. 16). The four–day sailing period
recounted in Odyssey from Crete to Egypt is identical to that reported by Strabo
(10.4.5), which suggests that this route and its duration were common long before the
Classical period; Mark (n.16) 148–9.
17 Contemporaneous with the end of LH IIIB.
18 Nowicki (1987) 217; also (2001) 25–36, (2002) 154 and (2011).
19 Nowicki (n.18) 37; also (1994) 268, (2000) 257–63; Desborough (1973) 62–9;
Watrous (1975) 326; Rehak and Younger (n.16) 167; Haggis and Nowicki (1993).
16
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for early warnings of approaching ships, but they may have been used as bases for
seaborne raiding of exactly the type claimed by Odysseus.20
Crew Size and Ship Capacity
The number of vessels outfitted by Odysseus may seem like a rather ineffective
“fleet” at first blush (Hom. Od. 14.248):
ἐννέα νῆας στεῖλα, θοῶς δ᾽ ἐσαγείρ ε το λαός.
Nine ships I fitted out, and the host gathered speedily.
However, it is important to consider the type and potential capacity of the hero’s
ships. It is around this time that new maritime technology appears to have been
introduced in the Aegean (Figs. 3–8). The Mycenaean ascendancy in the LH
IIIA–B21 saw the introduction of the Helladic oared galley,22 a long, narrow, light
vessel propelled primarily by rowers and designed specifically for speed, which
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20 Nowicki (n.10) 285, (2001) 29–30. Similar sites in the Cyclades may have been
used as bases for piracy, as well as possible refuge sites for palatial officials fleeing the
mainland (Schilardi (n.13); Karageorghis (2001) 5), while the promontory site of
Maa–Paleokastro on western Cyprus provides an example of a site that was home to
multiple short–lived but highly–defensible settlements of Aegean–Anatolian nature in
the years surrounding and immediately following 1200 BC, which offered both a
clear view of and easy access to the sea; Symons (1987) 71–2; Karageorghis (1982)
721–2; (1983) 924; (1984) 944–6; (1985) 932; (1986) 850; (1992) 80; (2001) 1;
Karageorghis and Demas (1988) 264, 488; Yasur–Landau (n.12) esp. 143–151, 190.
Relatedly, cf. Catling (1995) and (1996) 645–9 and Muhly (2003) 24–5, 31 for views
of the Subminoan burials at Knossos (tombs 186, 200–202) as returning heroes or
“warrior princes” who lay claim to power in the newly post–palatial world.
21 14th–late 13th c. BC; Mountjoy (n.11) 46 table 1.
Wedde (1999) 468 has placed the galley’s development as early as the LH IIIA
(14th c.; Mountjoy (n.11) 46 table 1), though he admittedly bases this on an
“assum[ption] that the pictorial evidence post–dates the actual invention by some
time,” wherein the value of “some time” is arbitrary. Though the chronology posited
for the beginning of galley development may be high based on present evidence,
Wedde (n. 22) 465 (correctly, in the opinion of the present author) views the
Mycenaean galley as representing “a break with the preceding development” typified
by Minoan sailing vessels, including the craft depicted on the Akrotiri Miniature Wall
Painting (Wedde’s “Type IV” (n 22) 465, pl. LXXXVII), and calls its introduction “a
strategic inflection point in ship architecture.” The first depictions of the vessel type
that is most relevant to this discussion, Wedde’s “Type V,” appear late in the LH
IIIB; Wedde (n. 22) 466–467, pl. LXXXVIII.
22
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
was “best suited for raiding, piracy, and sea–based warfare,”23 and whose
invention has been called “the single most significant advance in the weaponry of
the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean.”24 Sometime around the LH IIB–IIIC
transition, this vessel began to be outfitted with the brailed rig and loose–footed
sail (Figs. 2-3).25 This was a technological revolution in Mediterranean seafaring,26
as, to this point, sailing craft had relied on large square sails held fast by upper and
lower yards.27 While clearly an advantage over oared propulsion alone, this
boom–footed squaresail’s use was limited almost entirely to downwind travel.28
The manipulation of the sail made possible by the addition of brails and removal
of the lower yard (boom), on the other hand, allowed for much greater
maneuverability, as well as the ability to sail much closer to the wind.29 Thus,
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23 Wedde (n.22) 470; also Tartaron (n.13) 63–4. Wedde (n.22) 465 notes that “the
history of the galley is the struggle to place as many rowers as possible into as small a
hull as practical.” This is the opposite principle of that governing merchantmen, on
which rowers “are unpractical because crew and equipment occupy space at the
expense of cargo”; Georgiou (1991); on the size of Bronze Age merchant ships, see
now Monroe (2007).
24 Wedde (n.22) 465.
25 This system consisted of lines attached to the bottom of a sail and run vertically
through rings (also called “fairleads,” possibly Homeric κάλοι, cf. Hom. Od. 5.260,
12.318) sewn into the front of the sail. From there, they were run over the yard and to
the stern. Using this system, sails could be easily raised, lowered, and otherwise
manipulated in a manner similar to a set of Venetian blinds; cf. Roberts (1991) pls.
XVIIa, XIX–XX; Wachsmann (n.8) 251; Mark (n.16) 130 fig. 5.8; on brailed sails in
Odyssey, see, e.g., Monro (1886) 547; Seymour (1914) 314 n.1; Mark (n.16) esp. 138.
The loose–footed sail would become a mainstay of eastern Mediterranean
sailing vessels for the next two millennia; Roberts (n.25) 59.
27 The yards that secured the square sail at top and bottom are referred to as a
“yard” and a “boom,” respectively; hence the term “boom–footed squaresail.” At
least 33 representations of vessels with boom–footed squaresails are known from the
Bronze Age Aegean, including the Akrotiri Miniature Fresco craft; Wedde (2000) 80–
5, nos. 616–7.
28 The windward sailing limit of vessels outfitted with the boom–footed squaresail
was between four and seven points into the wind (hence the counterclockwise circuit
evidently travelled by Eastern Mediterranean merchantmen, noted above); Sølver
(1936) 460; Casson (1971) 273–4; but see Georgiou (n. 23).
29 Roberts (n.25) 57–9; (1995) 314; Wedde (n.27) 90; Emanuel (forthcoming B).
Additionally, Monroe (1990) 87 noted that another advantage of the loose–footed sail
was that “warriors would not be obstructed by [the lower yard] as they moved about
the decks, throwing spears, shooting arrows, etc.”
26
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once outfitted with the brailed rig, the Helladic oared galley became an ideal
vessel for rapid travel and lightning–fast raids on coastal settlements. As Roberts
characterized it:
In the beginning the brailable square sail allowed hull forms quite
unsuited to propulsion by sail of the Thera–type30 the opportunity
to extend their cruising range due to the lightness of gear and ease
of control. Skills learnt in handling the rig coupled with
improvements in gear and fittings enabled effective courses to be
sailed in a wide range of directions other than before the wind. The
ability to conserve the strength of the rowing crew [and the ability
to sail in most directions economically with small crews, given a
slant of wind] opened greater horizons to military adventurers.31
Further, painted pottery provides evidence for the use of pentekonters, or galleys
rowed by fifty men (twenty–five on each side), as early as LH IIIB–C.32 A LH IIIC
pyxis from Tholos Tomb 1 at Tragana (near Pylos) features a ship with twenty–
four vertical stanchions,33 thereby separating the rowers’ gallery into twenty–five
sections (Fig. 6). A LM IIIB larnax from Gazi on Crete features a large ship with
what appears to be twenty–seven stanchions, which could signify a ship crewed by
even more than fifty men (Fig. 7) – though, as the “horizontal ladder” motif used
to represent rowers’ galleries on Late Helladic ship depictions also seems to have
served to address a certain horror vacui on the part of Mycenaean artists,34 it seems
more likely that the Gazi painter intended to portray a pentekonter than a ship with
fifty–four oarsmen.35 ‘Kynos A,’ one of several ship representations found at
Pyrgos Livanaton (Homeric Kynos, north of modern Livanates),36 features 19 oars
and schematically–rendered rowers (Fig. 3, right). This vessel may also have been
intended as a pentekonter that the artist was forced to abbreviate due to space
constraints.37
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30 The traditional boom–footed squaresail (see above).
31 Roberts (n.25) 59.
32 Barako 2001: 134
Stanchions supported the superstructure and partial decking on galleys, while
also serving to divide the rower’s gallery in ship representations.
34 Cf. Wachsmann (n.8) figs. 7.7, 7.27, 7.30–31.
35 Wachsmann (n.8) 138.
36 Hom. Il. 2.531; Finkelberg (2010) 449.
37 Wachsmann (n.8) 132.
33
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The Odyssey itself attests to vessels crewed by fifty men, with one being
attributed specifically to the Phaeacians (Hom. Od. 8.48–54):38
κούρω δὲ κρινθέντε δύω καὶ πεντήκοντα
βήτην, ὡς ἐκέλευσ᾽, ἐπὶ θῖν᾽ ἁλὸς ἀτρυγέτοιο.
αὐτὰρ ἐπεί ῥ᾽ ἐπὶ νῆα κατήλυθον ἠδὲ θάλασσαν,
νῆα μὲν οἵ γε μέλαιναν ἁλὸς βένθοσδε ἔρυσσαν,
ἐν δ᾽ ἱστόν τ᾽ ἐτίθεντο καὶ ἱστία νηὶ μελαίνῃ,
ἠρτύναντο δ᾽ ἐρετμὰ τροποῖς ἐν δερματίνοισι,
πάντα κατὰ μοῖραν, ἀνά θ᾽ ἱστία λευκὰ πέτασσαν.
And chosen youths, two and fifty,39 went, as he bade, to the shore
of the unresting sea. And when they had come down to the ship
and to the sea, they drew the black ship down to the deep water,
and placed the mast and sail in the black ship, and fitted the oars in
the leathern thole–straps, all in due order, and spread the white
sail.
A recently–republished model of a Helladic oared galley from Tomb 611 at
Gurob in Middle Egypt may provide further evidence both for the use of
pentekonters in the years surrounding the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition,40 and
for the employment of the Helladic oared galley by Sherden sailors.41 Like the
vessels shown on LH IIIB and IIIC pottery, the model features stanchions and a
stempost decorated with what may be an upturned bird’s head.42 The ship–cart
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38 Additionally, in the Iliad Philoloctes is said to have led a fleet of seven
pentekonters, and Achilles fifty; Hom. Il. 2.719, 16.169-170. See Kamarinou (2002) for a
brief argument in support of Homeric ship descriptions as reflective of LH IIIC
iconographic representations.
Most likely fifty rowers, a coxswain, and one additional officer or crewmember.
Radiocarbon dating of the Gurob ship–cart model returned a 2σ calibrated age
range of 1256 to 1054 BC; Prior (2013) 241.
41 Wachsmann (n.7); see also below. That the ship model was a cult vessel is
suggested by its wheeled cart, as well as its hole for a pavois, to which bars were
attached for priestly porters to shoulder as they carried a cultic ship over land.
42 Compare to the stemposts on the ships in Figs. 2–6; also cf. Wachsmann (n.7)
78–80 for further discussion, with additional references. For a questioning of Aegean
stempost decoration as bird head representations, see Wedde (2001), Yasur–Landau
(2010b) and Emanuel (forthcoming A), and for a note on the possible inaccuracy of
the “double bird head” motif, see Artzy (2001; 2003). Also present is a bow projection
at the junction of stempost and keel, shown on some depictions of Late Helladic ships,
39
40
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model was painted with a base layer of white, over which black (covering the
bottom half of the hull) and red (a stripe of which appears just below the caprail
and above the oarports) were added.43 This preserved polychrome schema not
only makes the model unique among known representations of Helladic ships,44
but it aligns with Homer’s description of the Achaeans’ ships as μἐλας ‘black’ and
of Odysseus’ ships specifically as μιλτοπάρῃος ‘red–cheeked.’45 The phrase
μἐλαινα ναῦς ‘black ship’ is a common epithet in Homer, appearing 81 times in
Iliad and Odyssey combined.46 This reference alludes to the coating of hull planking
with dark pitch or asphalt, a practice which, though known from at least the
Bronze Age,47 is seen in physical representation for the first time on the Gurob
ship–cart model.48 Flanking the model, between the pitch–covered hull and “red
cheeks,” are rows of black dots, interpreted by Wachsmann as oarports, whose
number and spacing make it probable that the vessel after which the model was
patterned was also manned by fifty rowers (Fig. 8).
Crews of roughly this size may also be attested in the aforementioned “rower
tablets” from Pylos. Tablet An 610 records approximately 600 oarsmen, while An
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which would become a standard feature of oared galleys in the Iron Age (see further
below).
43 Davis (2013) 219; Siddall (2013) 243. In all, seven pigments were detected on
the ship–cart model; Siddall (2013) Table 1.
44 Davis (n.43) 219.
45 Odysseus’ ships are also referred to as φοινικοπάρῃος ‘purple–cheeked,’ but
most noteworthy is the fact that only Odysseus’ ships are identified by the “red–” and
“purple–cheeked” epithets.
46 Hom. Il. 1.141, 300, 329, 433, 485; 2.170, 358, 524, 534, 545, 556, 568, 630,
644, 652, 710, 737, 747, 759; 5.550, 700; 8.222, 528; 9.235, 654; 10.74; 11.5, 824,
828; 12.126; 13.267; 15.387, 423; 16.304; 17.383, 639; 19.331; 24.780; Od. 2.430;
3.61, 360, 365, 423; 4.646, 731, 781; 6.268; 8.34, 51, 52, 445; 9.322; 10.95, 169, 244,
272, 332, 502, 571; 11.3, 58; 12.186, 264, 276, 418; 13.425; 14.308; 15.218, 258,
269, 416, 503; 16.325, 348, 359; 17.249; 18.84; 21.39, 307; 23.320; 24.152.
47 References to the use of pitch or asphalt to seal wooden ships can be seen in
such diverse ancient examples as the instructions for building Noah’s Ark (Gen. 6:14)
and the much more chronologically relevant letter (KUB III 82) from Ramesses II to
the Hittite king Ḫattušili II (mid–13th c. BC), in which the pharaoh apparently writes
that he is sending a pair of ships to the Hittite king so that his shipwrights can “draw a
copy” of it for the purpose of building a replica, which they are instructed to coat with
asphalt so the vessel will remain seaworthy; cf. Edel (1994) H4, 283–5; Emanuel
(n.29); also Casson (n.28) 211–2; Kurt (1979) 33; Steffy (1994) 277.
48 Davis (n.43) 220.
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1 lists thirty rowers who are being summoned to man a single ship, a triakonter. If
the ships crewed by the men of An 610 were pentekonters, the 600–man force would
be enough to man only twelve ships. Even if they were triakonters, like the vessel
crewed by the An 1 rowers, there would only be enough to fully man twenty ships.
Whether the ships sailed on Odysseus’ Egyptian raid were in fact fifty–oared
pentekonters or thirty–oared triakonters, his nine vessels may well have carried
between 360 and 450 combatants. This force would certainly have been both
large enough to carry out a raid on a coastal settlement and small enough to be
highly vulnerable to encounters with organized military units (as seen in Hom. Od.
14.262–72, quoted below).
Two late 13th–early 12th c. texts from Ugarit attest to the panic small numbers
of ships could create in the inhabitants of coastal targets. The first, RS 20.238, is
addressed from King Ammurapi of Ugarit to the King of Alašiya (Cyprus):49
“My father, now the ships of the enemy have been coming. They
have been setting fire to my cities and have done harm to the land.
Doesn’t my father know that all of my infantry and [chariotry] are
stationed in Ḫatti, and that all of my ships are stationed in the land
of Lukka? They haven’t arrived back yet, so the land is thus
prostrate. May my father be aware of this matter. Now the seven ships
of the enemy which have been coming have done harm to us. Now if other
ships of the enemy turn up, send me a report somehow(?) so that I
will know.”
The second, RS 20.18, is addressed from the prefect of Alašiya to King
Ammurapi:50
“But now, (the) twenty enemy ships – even before they would reach the
mountain (shore) – have not stayed around but have quickly
moved on, and where they have pitched camp we do not know. I
am writing you to inform and protect you. Be aware!”
The Need for Speed (and Stealth)
The combination of small raiding parties and heavily militarized targets
(with Egypt serving as an excellent example of the latter) meant that success in
piratical endeavors was dependent on a combination of speed, stealth, and –
above all – the avoidance of conflict with professional soldiers.51 As Oliver
Dickinson has noted, “raiders and pirates in the Aegean and
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
49 Beckman (1994a) 27.
50 Hoftijzer and Van Soldt (1998) 343.
51
Ormerod (1924) 31; Wachsmann (n.8) 320.
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elsewhere…historically tended to operate in relatively small groups, whose basic
tactic would be fast sweeps to gather up what could be easily taken, whether
human captives, livestock, or portable loot.”52 Both of Odysseus’ tales illustrate the
catastrophe that could result from contact with regular troops (Hom. Od. 14.262–
72 and 17.431–41):
οἱ δ᾽ ὕβρει εἴξαντες, ἐπισπόμενοι μένεϊ σφῷ,
αἶψα μάλ᾽ Αἰγυπτίων ἀνδρῶν περικαλλέας ἀγροὺς
πόρθεον, ἐκ δὲ γυναῖκας ἄγον καὶ νήπια τέκνα,
αὐτούς τ᾽ ἔκτεινον· τάχα δ᾽ ἐς πόλιν ἵκετ᾽ ἀϋτή.
οἱ δὲ βοῆς ἀΐοντες ἅμ᾽ ἠοῖ φαινομένηφιν
ἦλθον· πλῆτο δὲ πᾶν πεδίον πεζῶν τε καὶ ἵππων
χαλκοῦ τε στεροπῆς· ἐν δὲ Ζεὺς τερπικέραυνος
φύζαν ἐμοῖς ἑτάροισι κακὴν βάλεν, οὐδέ τις ἔτλη
μεῖναι ἐναντίβιον· περὶ γὰρ κακὰ πάντοθεν ἔστη.
ἔνθ᾽ ἡμέων πολλοὺς μὲν ἀπέκτανον ὀξέϊ χαλκῷ,
τοὺς δ᾽ ἄναγον ζωούς, σφίσιν ἐργάζεσθαι ἀνάγκῃ.
But my comrades, yielding to wantonness, and led on by their own
might, straightway set about wasting the fair fields of the men of
Egypt; and they carried off the women and little children, and slew
the men; and the cry came quickly to the city. Then, hearing the
shouting, the people came forth at break of day, and the whole
plain was filled with footmen, and chariots and the flashing of
bronze. But Zeus who hurls the thunderbolt cast an evil panic
upon my comrades, and none had the courage to hold his ground
and face the foe; for evil surrounded us on every side. So then they
slew many of us with the sharp bronze, and others they led up to
their city alive, to work for them perforce.
Thus, both success in piratical endeavors and the very survival of raiding
parties required not only the adoption of new sailing technology, but also the
development of tactics that could satisfy such a life–and–death need for stealth
and celerity. Georgiou has declared, not without reason, that “the island and
coastal populations of the Aegean, the pirates, the raiders and the traders were
surely the most innovative and experimental boat designers”53 One such tactic
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52 Dickinson (n.13) 48.
Georgiou (2012) 527, though this description should not be limited
geographically to the Aegean alone; see, e.g., Artzy (1997, 1998). The attribution that
can be given the ‘Sea Peoples’ for the development, adoption, and transference of
new maritime technologies was explored in “Egypt, the ‘Sea Peoples,’ and the Brailed
53
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
was the deliberate beaching of vessels, which allowed attackers to disembark and
conduct their raid as quickly as possible. The fastest way to land, and disembark
from, a vessel is to row it bow first directly up onto the beach. The
aforementioned keel extensions seen on some depictions of Helladic oared galleys,
on the Sea Peoples vessels in the naval battle at Medinet Habu (Fig. 2), and on the
Gurob ship–cart model may have served as beaching aids, allowing raiders’ ships
to sail more easily up onto land for the purpose of facilitating a rapid
disembarkation.54 Such a technique is described elsewhere in Odyssey, when the
Phaeacians, returning Odysseus to Ithaca, beach their vessel for the purpose of
quickly offloading their human cargo (Hom. Od. 13.113–5):
ἔνθ᾽ οἵ γ᾽ εἰσέλασαν, πρὶν εἰδότες. ἡ μὲν ἔπειτα
ἠπείρῳ ἐπέκελσεν, ὅσον τ᾽ ἐπὶ ἥμισυ πάσης,
σπερχομένη· τοῖον γὰρ ἐπείγετο χέρσ᾽ ἐρετάων
The ship, hard–driven, ran up onto the beach for as much as
half her length, such was the force the hands of the oarsmen
gave her.55
A Growing Threat in the Eastern Mediterranean
Traces of the sea raiders referenced in the aforementioned texts from the last
days of Ugarit can be found in several other Late Bronze Age literary sources, as
well. In both Amarna Letters18 and Hittite documents, they can be found
intercepting ships at sea (e.g. EA 105, 114), conducting blockades (e.g. EA 126),
and carrying out coastal raids (e.g. CTH 147:181; EA 38).56 The Hittites in
particular, who were not historically inclined toward maritime affairs, seem to
have been forced to look to the sea with more interest in the waning years of the
Late Bronze Age, possibly as a result of the threat posed by an increase in coastal
raiding. These raiders may be associated with (or seen as a precursor to) the ‘Sea
Peoples’ of Ramesside Egyptian fame. These heterogeneous, shifting coalitions of
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Sail: Technological Transference in the Early Ramesside Period?,” a paper presented
at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in
Chicago, Illinois. For an expanded analysis, see Emanuel (n.29).
Kirk (1949) 125–7; Wachsmann (n.7) 70; Wedde (n.22) 469. The prominence
of these extensions, which also appear at the waterline in Late Helladic depictions
(Fig. 2, right), and which would become a standard feature of oared galleys in the
Iron Age, serve as the delineating feature between Wedde’s Type V and Type VI
galleys; Wedde (n.22) 467.
55 Trans. Lattimore (1965).
56 On the miši people in the Amarna Letters, see especially Linder (1973).
54
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foreigners, whose name comes from the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah’s (1213–
1202 BC) Great Karnak Inscription (ca. 1207 BC) and from the writings of
French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero,57 included the Sherden among their various
members.58
Two texts especially stand out in this regard. In the first, RS 34.129, the
Hittite king writes to the prefect of Ugarit about the Šikala “who live on ships,”
and requests that a Ugaritian who had been taken captive by them be sent to
Ḫattuša so that the king can question him about this people and their homeland:59
“…I, His Majesty, had issued him an order concerning Ibnadušu,
whom the people from Šikala60 – who live on ships – had abducted.
Herewith I send Nirga’ili, who is kartappu with me, to you. And
you, send Ibnadušu, whom the people from Šikala had abducted, to
me. I will question him about the land Šikala,61 and afterwards he
may leave for Ugarit again.”
The Šikala have been connected to two groups of Sea Peoples from the records
of Merneptah and Ramesses III: the Škrš (= šá–ka–lú–ša ‘Shekelesh’)62 and the Škl (=
ší–ka–ar ‘Sikil’ or ‘Tjeker’).63 The Shekelesh appear alongside the Sherden in the
aforementioned Great Karnak Inscription and the Athribis Stela, two accounts of
Merneptah’s battle against an invading coalition of Libyans and Sea Peoples. The
Shekelesh also appear in Ramesses III’s records at Medinet Habu, while the Sherden
seem to be mentioned in their place in Ramesses’ posthumous Great Harris
Papyrus. The Sikil/Tjeker, on the other hand, are included in both of Ramesses
III’s major accounts.
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57 Maspero (1881).
58 Great Karnak Inscription (5th year of Merneptah): Sherden, Lukka, Shekelesh,
Ekwesh (= Ahhiyawa/ Ἀχαιοι?), Teresh; Year 8 inscription at Medinet Habu
(constructed in the 12th year of Ramesses III): Shelekesh, Peleset (=Philistines), Sikil
(=Tjeker), Denyen (= Δαναοι?), Weshesh; Papyrus Harris I (posthumous record of
Ramesses III): Sherden, Peleset (=Philistines), Sikil (=Tjeker), Denyen, Weshesh.
Trans. Hoftijzer and van Soldt (n.50) 343.
60 LÚ.MEŠ KUR.URU.Ši–ka–la–iu–ú.
61 KUR.URU Ši–ki–la.
62 Lehmann (1979); Yon (1992) 116; Redford (2006) 11.
63 Wachsmann (1982) 297; (n. 8) 359 n.10; Stager (1991) 19 n.23. Rainey (1982)
134 argues for ‘Sikil’ on the basis of Assyrian dialectical features in RS 34.129, while
Redford (n.61) argues for ‘Tjeker’ on the grounds of Egyptian orthography.
59
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The second text, attributed to the last Hittite king, Šuppiluliuma II (ca. 1207–
1178 BC), mentions a series of three naval skirmishes against the “ships of
Alašiya,” followed by a land battle, presumably against the same people he had
fought at sea (KBo XII 38):64
“The ships of Alašiya met me in the sea three times for battle, and
I smote them; and I seized the ships and set fire to them in the sea.
But when I arrived on dry land(?), the enemies from Alašiya came
in multitude against me for battle. I [fought] them, and [……] me
[……]...”
The latter is reminiscent of Ramesses III’s (1183–1152 BC) claims to have
fought land and sea battles against migratory Sea Peoples, which would have
taken place during this same chronological timeframe. Though almost always
ascribed to Ramesses III’s eighth year (1175 BC), these migratory land and sea
invasions were important enough to be mentioned in no less than five inscriptions
at the pharaoh’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu: the Great Inscriptions of
Years 5 and 8, the text accompanying the naval battle relief, the South Rhetorical
Stela of Year 12, and the “celebration of victory over the Sea Peoples.” A
particularly relevant portion of Ramesses III’s Great Inscription of Year 8 reads:65
“Those who reached my frontier [on land], their seed is not, their
heart and their soul are finished forever and ever. Those who came
forward together on the sea, the full flame was in front of them at
the river–mouths, while a stockade of lances surrounded them on
the shore. They were dragged in, enclosed, and prostrated on the
beach, killed, and made into heaps from tail to head. Their ships
and their goods were as if fallen into the water”
This similarity in chronology and narrative raises the question of whether
Šuppiluliuma was facing repeated waves of raiders or migrant warriors, while
clearly reinforcing the aforementioned threat felt from the previously distant
Mediterranean coast during the Hittite Empire’s last days. Rather than belonging
to the Alašiyan state, it is likely that the vessels against which Šuppiluliuma fought
were called “ships of Alašiya” because they had either sailed eastward via, or
launched from a captured portion of, Cyprus.66 While the island had long been a
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64 Güterbock (1967) 78.
65 Wilson (1974) 262–3.
66
Contra Linder (n. 56) 319.
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JEFFREY P. EMANUEL
target of seaborne raids,67 textual evidence also supports the use of Cyprus as a
base for launching raids against coastal polities in the eastern Mediterranean in
the Late Bronze Age,68 much as Odysseus claims to have done from Crete in his
tale to Eumaios.
Pylos, Aḫḫiyawa, and the ra–wi–ja–ja
ἐκ πόλιος δ᾽ ἀλόχους καὶ κτήματα πολλὰ λαβόντες
δασσάμεθ᾽, ὡς μή τίς μοι ἀτεμβόμενος κίοι ἴσης.
There I sacked the city and slew the men; and from the city
we took their wives and great store of treasure…69
ἐμὲ δ᾽ ὠνητὴ τέκε μήτηρ
παλλακίς
a bought woman, a concubine,
was my mother.70
References in Hittite texts to an entity called Aḫḫiyawa frequently mention
both raids and captives (the NAM.RAmeš), and thus may serve as evidence for
Aegean seafarers obtaining slaves and other booty through such means.71 Though
a full discussion of Aḫḫiyawa’s identity and location is beyond the scope of the
present study, it is worthwhile to note that theories about this entity’s location
within the world of the Aegean and the Interface have ranged from Troy in the
north72 to Rhodes in the south.73 Others have placed Aḫḫiyawa everywhere from
the Greek mainland, including Mycenae and Boeotian Thebes,74 to Cilicia, Crete,
and Cyprus,75 to Thrace.76 Though consensus is unlikely in the foreseeable future,
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67 E.g. CTH 27, dating from the 15th–14th c. BC, which speaks of “often” raiding
the land of Alašiya and taking (most likely civilian) captives (see below).
68 E.g. RS 20.18 and EA 38, although in the latter the King of Alašiya is quick to
protest that the raiders did not stage from an area under his control. See also the brief
discussion of Maa–Paleokastro above.
69 Hom. Od. 9.41–2.
70 Hom. Od. 14.202–3; trans. Lattimore (1965).
Cf. Hom. Od. 14.229–32 mentioned above; also Bryce (1992) 126–7. For
Aḫḫiyawa = Ἀχαιοι, see especially Finkelberg (1988).
72 Zangger (1995).
73 Mountjoy (n.11).
74 Forrer (1924); Güterbock (1984) 121; Redford (1992) 242–3; Podany (2010)
262; Tartaron (n.13) 63.
75 Niemeier (2011) 18.
71
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this term has most commonly been accepted as referring to territory within the
Interface, if not to Mycenae proper
Further, though it is mentioned in twenty–five Hittite texts between the 15th
and 13th centuries BC, Aḫḫiyawa’s place within the geopolitics of the Late Bronze
Age is only slightly less uncertain than its geographic location. This status is
exacerbated by a late 13th c. suzerain treaty between King Tudhaliya IV of Ḫatti
and King Šaušgamuwa of Amurru (CTH 105), in which the Hittite king
declares:77
And the kings who (are) of equal rank with me, the King of
Egypt, the King of Karadunia (=Kassite Babylonia), the King of
Assyria, the King of Aḫḫiyawa, if the king of Egypt is a friend of
My Sun, let him also be a friend to you, if he is an enemy of My
Sun, let him be your enemy also...
As noted in the excerpt above, the name Aḫḫiyawa was erased shortly after the
document’s writing, perhaps by the original scribe.78 Prior to the Šaušgamuwa
treaty, Tudhaliya IV’s predecessor Ḫattušili III had directly addressed the ruler of
Aḫḫiyawa as an equal in a mid–13th century document erroneously referred to as
the “Tawagalawa letter” (CTH 181 = KUB 14.3), which refers to a conflict
between Aḫḫiyawa and Ḫatti that seems to have centered on Troy.79 This seems
to support the fluid nature of Late Bronze Age geopolitics, particularly on the
periphery of the great empires of the age (Egypt, Babylonia, Ḫatti, and Assyria –
the latter of which, in turn, had supplanted Mittani as a Near Eastern power by
the mid–13th c.),80 while also pointing to the changes that were beginning to take
place in the region as the end of the Bronze Age approached.81
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76 Mellaart (1982) 375; Easton (1984) 33–5; for a further history and
archaeological assessment of theories put forth to date regarding Aḫḫiyawa’s
placement, see Niemeier (1998) 20–3, with references.
Bryce (1998) 343.
78 Beckman (1996) 118 n.23; cf. Bryce (n.77) 343–4; Van de Mieroop (2009) 102,
263 n.2; Podany (n.74) 262.
79 “[I]n that matter of Wiluša [= Ιλιος = Troy] over which we were at
enmity…we have made peace”; Hoffner (2009) 311; also Singer (n.10); Güterbock
(n.74) 120; Bryce (n.77) 323; Baruffi (n.10) 120 n.16.
80 Van de Mieroop (n.78) 34–5; Podany (n.74) 303.
81 As has been noted, the geopolitical world of Homer’s epics – particularly the
Iliad – is in many ways much more reflective of this period, with its tension between
the Hittite empire on the eastern side of the Aegean and the Hellenic (Aḫḫiyawan)
77
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A representative example of the aforementioned references to raiding is also
the earliest mention of Aḫḫiyawa in the Hittite records: the so–called Indictment
of Madduwatta (CTH 27 = KBo 14.1), which refers to frequent Aḫḫiyawan raids
on Cyprus:82
“His Majesty said as follows [about the land of Alašiya]: ‘Because
[the land] of Alašiya belongs to My Majesty, [and the people of
Alašiya] pay [me tribute – why have you continually raided it?’
But] Madduwatta said as follows: ‘[When Attarissiya and] the ruler
[of Piggaya] were raiding the land of Alašiya, I often raided it too.”
The Linear B tablets may provide a glimpse of the results of such raids.
Women from Lemnos (ra–mi–ni–ja = Lâmniai), Chios (ki–si–wi–ja = Kswiai), Miletos
(mi–ra–ti–ja = Milatiai), Knidos (ki–ni–di–ja = Knidiai), Halikarnassos (ze–pu2–ra3 =
Dzephurrai), and Asia (a–*64–ja = Aswiai) are all represented in the Pylian archives,
where they appear among those listed as dependents of the palace, receiving
rations from the state.83 Meanwhile, people referred to as ra–wi–ja–ja (= lâwiai)
‘women taken as booty’ or ‘captives’ also appear in multiple Pylian tablets (PY Aa
807, Ab 596, and Ad 686), though unfortunately no mention is made of their
homeland(s).84
As might be expected, such a theme appears repeatedly in Homer. Consider,
for example, Hom. Od. 9.41–2 (cited above), as well as Il. 20.193 (ληϊάδας δὲ
γυναῖκας ἐλεύθερον ἦμαρ ἀπούρας / ἦγον). More relevantly, consider Od. 14.202–
3 (ἐμὲ δ᾽ ὠνητὴ τέκε / μήτηρ παλλακίς; also cited above) from the Cretan Lie
itself, wherein Odysseus claims to be the son of a woman who was purchased as a
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coalition to the west, than of the first millennium BC; see, most recently, Singer
(2013) 24–5. This is highlighted in particular by the aforementioned reference to
Troy as an object of contention between Ḫatti and Aḫḫiyawa in CTH 181 – not to
mention the subsequent (13th c.) CTH 76‘s mention of Alaksandu as king of Wiluša;
Güterbock (n.72) 120; Beckman (n.78) 82–7; Bryce (n.77) esp. 244–5, 326–60.
82 Beckman (n.78) 151. The Indictment of Madduwatta dates to LH IIIA1 or
IIIA2 Early (ca. 1400–1360 BC; Mountjoy (n.10) 46–7).
83 Bryce (n.77) 62; Morris (n.6) 7; Michailidou and Voutsa (2005) 19; Yasur–
Landau (n.12a) 40.
Chadwick (1988) 80, 83; Bryce (n.77) 62; Ergin (2007) 273; cf. also Efkleidou
(2002). Morris (n.6) 7 writes, “rather than the romantic recovery of native women like
Helen, the enslavement of fresh laborers (as Cassandra and other Trojan women
became the prize of Greek warriors in the epic tradition) was a serious objective”;
Aesch. Ag. 782; also, inter alia, Hom. Il. 1.184; 2.226; 9.125–40, 270–85, 477; 16.830–
33; 19.295–302; Od. 4.259–64; 7.103–6; 9.41–2; 11.400–403.
84
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slave. How the hero’s fictional mother was acquired is not mentioned, but the
apparent precedent in Hittite and Linear B texts for Mycenaeans taking female
captives certainly raises the possibility that she came to Crete via a similar
seaborne raid.
Αἴγυπτόνδε
αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα
Αἴγυπτόνδε με θυμὸς ἀνώγει ναυτίλλεσθαι,
νῆας ἐῢ στείλαντα σὺν ἀντιθέοις ἑτάροισιν.
And then to Egypt did my spirit bid me voyage with my godlike
comrades, when I had fitted out my ships with care.85
‘ἀλλὰ Ζεὺς ἀλάπαξε Κρονίων – ἤθελε γάρ που –
ὅς μ᾽ ἅμα ληϊστῆρσι πολυπλάγκτοισιν ἀνῆκεν
Αἴγυπτόνδ᾽ ἰέναι, δολιχὴν ὁδόν, ὄφρ᾽ ἀπολοίμην.
στῆσα δ᾽ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ποταμῷ νέας ἀμφιελίσσας.
But Zeus, son of Cronos, brought all to naught – so, I ween, was
his good pleasure – who sent me forth with roaming pirates to go
to Egypt, a far voyage, that I might meet my ruin; and in the river
Aegyptus I moored my curved ships.86
The polities of the Aegean, Anatolia, and the Levantine coast were not the
only victims of seaborne attackers during the Late Bronze Age and in the years
surrounding the Late Bronze–Iron I transition. Evidence from the mid–14th c. BC
onward shows that the land of the pharaohs bore no special immunity to maritime
marauding, either. The historical precedents for Odysseus’ raid on Egypt can be
seen both directly, in accounts of coastal attacks, and indirectly, in records of
defensive measures taken to combat such assaults. An example of the latter can be
seen in an inscription of Amenhotep son of Hapu, a public official under
Amenhotep III (1388–1351 BC), which refers to the need to secure the Nile Delta
against a seaborne threat:87
“I placed troops at the heads of the way(s) to turn back the
foreigners in their places. The two regions were surrounded with a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
85 Hom. Od. 14.245–7.
Hom. Od. 17.424–7.
Helck (1958) 1821.13f. The stationing of marines at the “river–mouths”
reinforces the vulnerability of raiding parties to encounters with organized military
forces (discussed above).
86
87
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JEFFREY P. EMANUEL
watch scouting for the Sand–rangers. I did likewise at the heads of the
river–mouths, which were closed under my troops except to the troops of royal
marines.”
Additionally, in a letter to Akhenaten (1351–1334 BC) from the el–Amarna
archive, the King of Alašiya responds to an accusation of Cypriot involvement in
a raid on Egypt by recounting annual raids carried out by “men of Lukki” against
his own villages (EA 38):88
“Why, my brother, do you say such a thing to me, “Does my
brother not know this?” As far as I am concerned, I have done
nothing of the sort. Indeed, men of Lukki, year by year, seize villages in
my own country.”
“He Has Destroyed the Warriors of the Great Green…”
Further evidence for such threats can be found in the formulaic Aswan stela of
Ramesses II’s (1279–1213 BC) second year, in which he claims among other
conquests to have “destroyed the warriors of the Great Green (Sea),” so that
Lower Egypt can “spend the night sleeping peacefully.”89
The Egyptians first give a specific name to these troublesome sea raiders in the
aforementioned Tanis II rhetorical stela, one of twelve “triumph–hymn” stelae
originally erected at Ramesses II’s capital of Pi–Ramesse and later transshipped to
the eastern Delta city of Tanis.90 The stela tells of the “Sherden…whom none could
withstand” who “sailed in warships from the midst of the Sea,” and claims the
pharaoh defeated and imprisoned them:91
“(As for) the Sherden of rebellious mind, whom none could ever
fight against, who came bold–[hearted, they sailed in], in warships
from the midst of the Sea, those whom none could withstand;
[He plundered them by the victories of his valiant arm, they being
carried off to Egypt] – (even by) King of S & N Egypt, Usimare
Setepenre, Son of Re, Ramesses II, given life like Re.”
This recalls the catastrophe that befell Odysseus’ raiding party at the hands of
the pharaoh’s soldiers, cited in part above (Od. 14.268–84):
ἐν δὲ Ζεὺς τερπικέραυνος
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
88 Moran (1992)111.
89 de Rougé (1877) 253.8; Kitchen (1996) 182.
90 Yoyotte (1949) 58; Kitchen (1999) 173 and (2004) 264.
91
Kitchen (n.87) 120.
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
φύζαν ἐμοῖσ' ἑτάροισι κακὴν βάλεν, οὐδέ τις ἔτλη
μεῖναι ἐναντίβιον· περὶ γὰρ κακὰ πάντοθεν ἔστη.
ἔνθ' ἡμέων πολλοὺς μὲν ἀπέκτανον ὀξέϊ χαλκῷ,
τοὺς δ' ἄναγον ζωούς, σφίσιν ἐργάζεσθαι ἀνάγκῃ.
αὐτὰρ ἐμοὶ Ζεὺς αὐτὸς ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ὧδε νόημα
ποίησ'· ὡς ὄφελον θανέειν καὶ πότμον ἐπισπεῖν
αὐτοῦ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ· ἔτι γάρ νύ με πῆμ' ὑπέδεκτο·
αὐτίκ' ἀπὸ κρατὸς κυνέην εὔτυκτον ἔθηκα
καὶ σάκος ὤμοιϊν, δόρυ δ' ἔκβαλον ἔκτοσε χειρός·
αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ βασιλῆος ἐναντίον ἤλυθον ἵππων
καὶ κύσα γούναθ' ἑλών· ὁ δ' ἐρύσατο καί μ' ἐλέησεν,
ἐς δίφρον δέ μ' ἕσας ἄγεν οἴκαδε δάκρυ χέοντα.
ἦ μέν μοι μάλα πολλοὶ ἐπήϊσσον μελίῃσιν,
ἱέμενοι κτεῖναι – δὴ γὰρ κεχολώατο λίην–
ἀλλ' ἀπὸ κεῖνος ἔρυκε, Διὸς δ' ὠπίζετο μῆνιν
ξεινίου, ὅς τε μάλιστα νεμεσσᾶται κακὰ ἔργα.
But Zeus who hurls the thunderbolt cast an evil panic upon my
comrades, and none had the courage to hold his ground and face
the foe; for evil surrounded us on every side. So then they slew
many of us with the sharp bronze, and others they led up to their
city alive, to work for them perforce. But in my heart Zeus himself
put this thought—I would that I had rather died and met my fate
there in Egypt, for still was sorrow to give me welcome.
Straightway I put off from my head my well–wrought helmet, and
the shield from off my shoulders, and let the spear fall from my
hand, and went toward the chariot horses of the king. I clasped,
and kissed his knees, and he delivered me, and took pity on me,
and, setting me in his chariot, took me weeping to his home. Verily
full many rushed upon me with their ashen spears, eager to slay
me, for they were exceeding angry. But he warded them off, and
had regard for the wrath of Zeus, the stranger's god, who above all
others hath indignation at evil deeds.
Life, Prosperity and Health in the Land of the Pharaohs
ἔνθα μὲν ἑπτάετες μένον αὐτόθι, πολλὰ δ' ἄγειρα
χρήματ' ἀν' Αἰγυπτίους ἄνδρας· δίδοσαν γὰρ ἅπαντες.
DONUM NATALICIUM DIGITALITER CONFECTUM GREGORIO NAGY
21
JEFFREY P. EMANUEL
There then I stayed seven years, and much wealth did I gather
among the Egyptians, for all men gave me gifts.92
The Tanis II rhetorical stela marks the first of many Ramesside claims to have
defeated and captured named maritime foes.93 Despite Ramesses II’s typical
bombast, though, not all of those Sherden who were “carried off to Egypt”
languished in prison or spent the rest of their days serving the state as slave
laborers, as the survivors of Odysseus’ fictional raiding party were said to have
done. Rather, like Odysseus himself, they appear to have been welcomed into
Egypt and allowed to profit from the employment of their unique skills, which
were utilized in the direct service of the pharaoh. Already in the fifth year of
Ramesses II’s reign, for example, Sherden appear as members of the Pharaonic
bodyguard at the battle of Qidš (1275 BC) against the Hittite forces of Muwatallis
II94 – surely a place of high honor among soldiers, as well as one requiring great
trust.
The place of honor afforded those Sherden who gave allegiance to Egypt can be
seen in §75 of the Great Harris Papyrus, wherein Ramesses III addresses “the
officials and leaders of the land, the infantry, the chariotry, the Sherden, the many
bowmen, and all the souls of Egypt.”95 Whatever their military role by this point,
it is noteworthy that Sherden is the only ethnikon employed in the pharaoh’s address
to his people, the rest of whom are grouped solely by rank, title, and occupation.
Like the Odysseus of the Cretan Lie, the importance of the Sherden within
Egyptian military and society also earned them significant material benefits. This
can be seen in particular in the Wilbour Papyrus, a land registry from the reign of
Ramesses V covering portions of the Fayum region of Middle Egypt, including
Gurob.96 Among those listed in this text as land owners and occupiers are 109
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
92 Hom. Od. 14.285–6.
93 As partially noted above, various Sea Peoples groups, including Sherden, are
claimed by name as victims and captives by Ramesses II in the Tanis II rhetorical
stela and the Poem recounting his “victory” at Qidš; by Merneptah in the Great
Karnak Inscription and Papyrus Anastasi II, as well as on the Aswan Stela, Cairo
Column, Heliopolis Victory Column; and by Ramesses III in three of the five
inscriptions at Medinet Habu that reference the Sea Peoples invasions, on the front
pavilion wall at Medinet Habu, in the Great Harris Papyrus, and on a stela at Deir
el–Medineh; inter alia, Emanuel (2013); Adams and Cohen (2013).
94 Breasted (1906b) 2–3; Spalinger (2005) 256; Hasel (1996) 420.
95 Wilson (n.65) 260.
Gardiner (1941) 40; Faulkner (1953) 44–5. If the Gurob ship–cart model
belonged to one of these Sherden or their descendant, as Wachsmann (n.7) 206 has
proposed, then members of this group may have been sailing Helladic oared galleys
96
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
Sherden, “standard–bearers of the Sherden,” and “retainers of the Sherden.” Of the 59
plots assigned to Sherden in the Wilbour Papyrus, 42 are five arourae in size97 – an
allocation commensurate with priests, standard bearers, stablemasters, and others
of similarly high rank rather than with soldiers, who were generally allotted three
arourae.98 Further, the wealth bestowed on the pharaoh’s Sherden in the form of
land was not limited to a temporary inhabitation of this key Middle Egyptian
oasis. Rather, their significant contributions were repaid with an equally
significant reward: land they could pass down through the generations.99
It would be far from surprising if Sherden fighters, like Odysseus, also
accumulated significant material wealth in addition to land. Papyrus Anastasi I, a
text from the 19th and 20th dynasties that discusses proper preparation and
provisioning for a mission to Canaan, lists 520 Sherden among a mixed force of
5,000 soldiers. This suggests that, by midway through Ramesses II’s reign, they
had already become a standard component of Egypt’s northern expeditionary
forces. With regular exposure to warfare most likely came regular opportunities
for plunder,100 which could be both taken individually and divided among the
conquering forces after a successful siege or battle – much in the way that Sherden
pirates and Odysseus’ raiding crews likely divided the booty after their own
successful raids (Hom. Od. 14.232–4):
τῶν ἐξαιρεύμην μενοεικέα, πολλὰ δ᾽ ὀπίσσω
λάγχανον: αἶψα δὲ οἶκος ὀφέλλετο, καί ῥα ἔπειτα
δεινός τ᾽ αἰδοῖός τε μετὰ Κρήτεσσι τετύγμην.
Of this I would choose what pleased my mind, and much I
afterwards obtained by lot. Thus my house straightway grew rich,
and thereafter I became one feared and honored among the
Cretans.
Rather than being a benefit of Egyptian generosity, then, it seems likely that
the wealth Odysseus characterizes as being amassed via gifts from the Egyptians
(δίδοσαν γὰρ ἅπαντες; Od. 14.286, cited above) was likewise gained through a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
as they plundered the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean – a fact that would tie them
even more closely to the culture that spawned Homer’s Odyssey.
97 One aroura is 100 square cubits (approximately 2/3 of an acre).
98 Katary (1989) 49.
99 E.g. §§59.27.19, and 150.59.9, and 150.59.25, which refer to land belonging to
deceased Sherden being “cultivated by the hand of [their] children.”
100 Lorton (1974) esp. 56, 61–2; Hasel (n.94) 187, 251, 362.
DONUM NATALICIUM DIGITALITER CONFECTUM GREGORIO NAGY
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JEFFREY P. EMANUEL
division of plunder from further raids in which he was a (now–legitimate)
participant.
Conclusion
The “master myth” of the Odyssey is a tapestry woven from many fascinating
micronarratives, each of which has its own individual grounding (or lack thereof)
in historical truth. Though the stories considered here – those told by Odysseus to
Eumaios and Antinoos, respectively – are portrayed as fiction within the Homeric
macronarrative, several of their elements have precedent in archaeological and
literary records dating to the Late Bronze Age and the Late Bronze–Iron I
transition (LH IIIB–IIIC). This is not to say that the Homeric epics in their
current (or classical) form were composed in, or are entirely reflective of, this
period.101 However, a later date of composition and the reflection of geography
and events that fit accurately in an earlier age (in this case, in the fictive period of
the epic’s setting) are not mutually exclusive realities. As Itamar Singer has
recently written:
To be sure, [Homer’s epics] had to be revised and adapted to
contemporary needs, but its basic features had been remembered
and kept alive in all probability without any written transmission. In
evaluating the historicity of a story, a distinction should be made
between its main structure and its secondary details. In other
words, even if Odysseus’s boar–tusk helmet were proven to be late,
there would still remain the general situation described by Homer,
which fits much better the Mycenaean age than his own times.102
Further, Odysseus’ fictitious experiences have a remarkable analogue in a very
real and very specific group of sea raiders, the “Sherden of the Sea,” who set upon
Egypt in their ships around the same time Odysseus claims to have carried out his
ill–fated raid. This people is of uncertain origin, but there is evidence to connect
them to polychromatic, fifty–oared galleys of the type described by Homer – in
one case, in terms reserved specifically for Odysseus’ ships – and seen on Late
Helladic pottery. Further, their story is extraordinarily similar to the tales that
make up Odysseus’ Cretan Lie and the portion that is retold to Antinoos: years of
successful maritime raiding, an ill–fated attempt on the Nile Delta, and a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
101 Whatever the date of “Homer,” countless elements of both Iliad and Odyssey
are clearly anachronistic in their fictive setting, or are wholly appropriate to various
periods within the first millennium BC; see, inter alia, Dickinson (n.2); Sherratt (n.2);
Burkert (1992); Kullmann (1995); Nagy (n.2); West (2011).
102
Singer (n.79) 25; cf. Vermeule (1964) x.
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
subsequent sojourn in Egypt, during which they were valued as a part of society
and made prosperous for their efforts. The two stories diverge as Odysseus’ seven
year stay in Egypt draws to a close: while the nostos that makes up the Odyssey’s
macronarrative dictated that its hero move on, those Sherden who settled in Egypt
were able to create a new home for themselves in the land of the pharaohs,
complete with wives, children, and land they could pass down through
generations.
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Table 1. Comparative chronology of the Late Helladic IIIB–C and
Submycenaean periods in the Aegean and the Late Bronze IIB–Early Iron Ages
in the Near East, with the reigns of relevant Pharaohs included; after Mountjoy
(1998) table 1, Mazar (1990) table 2, (2005) table 2.1, and Kitchen (2000); “Late
Bronze III” after Artzy (2013) 332. All dates BC.
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Figure 1. Captioned image of a captured Sherden “prince,” from an
uncontextualized row of foreign captives on the front pavilion wall of Ramesses
III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu (first half of the 12th c. BC). The image is
captioned SArdAnA n pA ym ‘Sherden of the Sea’; after Epigraphic Survey (1970) pl.
600b.
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Figure 2. Sea Peoples ship N.4 from the naval battle depicted at Medinet Habu
(ca. 1175 BC), crewed by possible Sherden fighters; Epigraphic Survey (1930) pl. 39.
Figure 3. Fragments of a LH IIIC krater from Pyrgos Livanaton (Homeric Kynos)
featuring a naval combat scene; Mountjoy (2011) 485.
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CRETAN LIE AND HISTORICAL TRUTH
Figure 4. Fragments of a locally–made, Transitional LH IIIB–IIIC Early or LH
IIIC Early krater from Bademgediği Tepe featuring a naval combat scene;
Mountjoy (2011) 486.
Figure 5. Fragment of a LH IIIC krater from Pyrgos Livanaton (Homeric Kynos)
featuring a naval combat scene; Wedde (2000) no. 6002.
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Figure 6. Ship painted on a LH IIIC Early pyxis from Tragana; Wedde 2000) 643.
Figure 7. Ship depicted on the side of a Late Minoan IIIB larnax from Gazi;
Wedde (2000) 608.
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Figure 8. (a) Model of a Helladic oared galley from a tomb in Gurob, Middle
Egypt. (b) 3D reconstruction of the Gurob ship–cart model. (© Institute for the
Visualization of History, Inc.)
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