MYCENAEANS IN HOMER'S METER

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Lefteris Kaliambos

September 30, 2018

This poetic work refers to the Mycenaean Greeks of the important prehistoric period of the Mycenaean civilization. The city of Mycenaeans  was located in the northeastern Peloponnesus of ancient Greece. Dating back to the Bronze Age (1600-1100 BC), the Mycenaean civilization is one of the most important ever to have existed and was originally assumed by Homer to be the home of King Agamemnon. In 1876 Heinrich Schliemann began excavations and with his earlier discovery of Troy, the excavations demonstrated that the Homeric epics were based, in part at least, on historical foundations. Located between two hills this huge atmospheric ruined town gave rise to one of the most important early cultures ever. The chief entrance was the famous Lion Gate and the entire complex is enclosed by massive stone walls termed “Cyclopean" by amazed later Greeks.    [1] Its large acropolis is entered through the monumental Lion Gate built about 1250 BC. Here I present the Lion Gate, recorded by E. Dodwellin 1834 before its excavation, in order to show that the Lion Gate with the unburied

megalithic stones revealed always the secret power of the heroes of the Trojan war for more than 3,000 years.

In the Homeric tradition the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon, led the Greeks against Troy, when Helen the wife of his brother the King Menelaus from Sparta was taken to Troy by Paris. Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan war. Upon Agamemnon return from Troy he was killed by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. So I presented the Mycenaean Greeks with the famous stories in the same rhythm of the primordial Homeric poetry. It was written in modern Greek and in English as a part of my book entitled “COSMOGONY IN HOMER’S METER” presented at the 22nd World Congress of Poets that took place on June 29th to July 3th in Larissa (Greece) in 2011. At that international conference I presented not only the stories of the prehistoric Mycenaeans but also the ancient myths of the Olympian Gods and the philosophy of the cosmogonic Greek philosophers.

This primitive rhythm of poems revives the ancient Greek literature for the first time not only in Modern Greek but also in English. As a result, the UNITED POETS LAUREATE INTERNATIONAL awarded me this poetry award.

The Homeric poems (8^th century B.C,) at the start of the historical period of Greeks, particularly the Iliad, preserve echoes of Mycenaean society of a prehistoric period before the use of alphabetic writing (800 B.C.). Today many scholars believe that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks during the Golden Age of the kingdom of Agamemnon. Then the so-called Dark Age is the period from the end of the Mycenaean civilization (1100 BC) to the 9^th  century BC, as the great palaces were destroyed. However the massive stone walls could not be destroyed because of the megalithic structure.       

Although the term “prehistoric” usually refers to periods for which no written documents are available, the Mycenaean clay tablets, written in the so-called Linear B script, are now being deciphered, thus pushing back the frontiers of the historical area at least to the 13^th century B.C. Particularly in 1952 the British architect Ventris using a combinatory method deciphered linear B according to which the Mycenaeans were speaking a primordial Greek language similar to the language of the Homeric epics. Note that using the same method I discovered the math of the great pyramid, and the math of Parthenon, of Caryatids, and of Hephaestion tomb.

The mythical deities of Homer contain the fantastic element of the ancient Greeks, and their poetic representation was deemed convenient by the primitive Homeric hexameter of 17 syllables. So the glorious powers of the Mycenaean Greeks in the victory against Troy under the will of the Olympian Gods lead us to a rich Homeric journey full of emotions and dreams. A rational interpretation certainly kills the joy of the poetic expression of myths, because it compresses emotional creations into deformed logical shapes. This poetic work that I wrote in a Homeric meter with a pause in the eighth syllable (as the first verse of the Odyssey) is inspired by the Greek primordial poems of Iliad and of Odyssey.

MYCENAEAN GREEKS IN A HOMERIC RHYTHM LIKE THE POEMS OF ODYSSEY

Glorious Lion figures, upon Cyclopean stones

over a gate of mortals,  of primitive epics of Homer

shine forever in cosmos for more than three thousand years

bringing  amazing stories,  to look for the kingdom of heroes

like the king Agamemnon, the ruler of golden big culture.

Lord of a tremendous army, as leader of Greeks in the forces

came to fight at Troy, against the forces of Priam

helping his brother from Sparta,  the famous King Menelaus

since his wife of beauty, the beautiful Helen in cosmos

loved the adorable Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy

leaving her husband alone, to live in a cruel despair. 

Greeks of a frightful army, besieging the glorious city

after ten years of battles, became the victors of Troy.

First of all leaders in combats, Odysseus full of wisdom

structured the HORSE of Greek heroes, for bringing the tremendous glory.    

After reading this poem I can recall that the Homeric epics have been written in the so-called finger hex, where the seventeen-sided finger was used mainly for Homeric epics, but later also for philosophy.

The finger hex is composed of six fingers (UU) or combinations of fingers and teeth (-) and has the following sequence:

-UU / -UU / -UU / -UU / -UU / -

where (-) is the long syllable and (U) or short.

However, the Modern Greek language cannot easily restore the musical accent of the ancient, as it does not have a musical but dynamic tone.That is why, in the Modern Greek language, the monotonic system was introduced. Because today's dynamic tone has somewhat replaced the tone of music and because the rhythm of the Iliad generally differs from the rhythm of the Odyssey to the point where the rhapsode should stop to take a pause.

In the Iliad, we generally had a pause behind the seventh syllable, where the last accent gives the impression of a wartime rhythm as shown in the following symbolism:

-UU / -UU / -, UU / -UU / -UU / -

For example, in the first verse of the Iliad we had a pause just behind the seventh syllable as shown below

Μήνιν άειδε θεά,  Πηληιάδεω Αχιλήω

While in the Odyssey we were paused behind the eighth syllable to give the impression of a peaceful rhythm as shown in the example:

-UU / -UU / - U, U / -UU / -UU / -

Because of the first verse of the Odyssey, we paused just behind the word muse as shown below

Άνδρα μοι έννεπε μούσα, πολύτροπον  Ός μάλα πολλά

So, on this basis, I managed to build a similar rhythm in both Modern Greek and in English. In this poem of Mycenaean Greeks it is clear that the pause for breath is just behind the eighth syllable.