Heroicus - Philostratus

A
Literary Saloon
&
Site of Review.

Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Contents:
Main

the Best

the Rest

Review Index

Links

to e-mail us:

support the site

the complete review - dialogue / mythology

Heroicus
(Ηρωικός)

by
Philostratus

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

Title:	Heroicus
Author:	Philostratus
Genre:	Dialogue
Written:	ca. 220
Length:	327 pages
Original in:	ancient Greek
Availability:	in Heroicus • Gymnasticus - US
	in Heroicus • Gymnasticus - UK
	in Heroicus • Gymnasticus - Canada
	in Heroicus • Gymnasticus - India
	Heroikos - Deutschland

Greek title: Ηρωικός
Edited and translated by Jeffrey Rusten
Previously translated as Heroikus by Ellen Bradshaw Aitken and Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean (2001)
The Loeb Classical Library volume also includes Jason König's translation of Gymnasticus and two very short discourses
This is a bilingual edition that includes the original Greek text

- Return to top of the page -

Our Assessment:

B : interesting dialogue on less familiar parts of Greek mythology/belief system and Homer's depiction of the Trojan War

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
BMCR	.	(2014.12.33)

From the Reviews:

"This new Loeb Philostratus is a volume to be welcomed. It provides dependable and eminently readable translations of two major texts and two opuscula, completing the set of Philostratean works. Its introductions and notes are clear and up-to-date, and make a valuable contribution to the broader appreciation of these works. It will be a standard resource in the study of Philostratus for the foreseeable future." - Graeme Miles, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

- Return to top of the page -

The complete review's Review:

Heroicus -- 'On heroes' -- is a dialogue set near Elaious (Ἐλαιοῦς or Elaeus; across the Hellespont from Troy), at the tomb of Protesilaus (Πρωτεσίλαος) -- the first be killed in the Trojan War. A Phoenician, traveling home from Egypt, stops off here; there's not enough wind for him to continue, so he takes a look around and runs into a local 'vinedresser' (αμπελουργός). The vinedresser tells the Phoenician that Protesilaus: "lives here, and helps me farm" -- a surprise to the visitor since the ancient hero has, of course, been long dead: "Has he come back to life, or what ?" he wonders. The explanation lies in Protesilaus' unusual nature, which is part of what the book focuses on: the nature of a specific type of 'hero', beings somewhere between mortals and gods who continue to exist (in some form) even after death.
Protesilaus helps the vinedresser out -- and he also fills him in on the events of yore, including the Trojan War. The Phoenician is skeptical at first -- "I declare I am inclined to distrust mythical stories" -- but the vinekeeper recounts convincing evidence and he is fairly quickly won over. Sensibly, the Phoenician at first isn't convinced by hearsay -- story of gods, myth, and super-sized beings:

It seems I was right to disbelieve such stories, vinedresser; for you to say that you've heard something from your grandfather -- or perhaps your mother or nurse -- but you say nothing on your own authority, unless you talk about Protesilaus.

       Unfortunately, the Phoenician abandons this critical attitude as soon as the vinedresser pulls out the Protesilaus-card, speaking of the hero as if he were a close buddy who shares all sorts of secrets and stories with him (while also helping him tend to his land and crops). Of course, all this too is merely second-hand: the Phoenician (and the reader) has to take the vinedresser's word for all this, since Protesilaus never shows himself in person while the Phoenician is there.
       Regardless of plausibility, much of what the vinedresser then relates is what he's learned from Protesilaus -- and there's no question that he has some interesting stories to tell.
       Heroicus is of particular interest with regards to several less well-known aspects of classical Greek mythology and history. First, there's the stuff about the heroes, and while the debate about just how big they were (often over ten cubits (presumably at least fourteen feet) tall) isn't particularly convincing, the discussion at least gives insight into the hero-cults -- such as that (historic one) around Protesilaus in Elaious -- and what was and could be expected of the heroes.
       Heroicus is then also particularly of interest as a commentary on Homer's (and, to a lesser extent, others') accounts of the Trojan War. Protesilaus admires Homer -- "He calls Homer the founding hero of Troy, since it was through his lament for it that its fame began" -- but he does have a couple of issues with him and The Iliad -- notably (and amusingly):

Protesilaus also disapproves of Homer in this, that although his subject was Troy, he drops this story after Hector's death because he is in a hurry to get to the other one -- which he named after Odysseus

Hence, Homer's account missed much of significance -- and the vinedresser also recounts some of these missing episodes that Protesilaus told him about. Protesilaus also points out some of Homer's errors -- most notably the idea that Helen was watching from the walls of Troy (when: "he knew perfectly well that Helen was in Egypt"). (Also making clear just where he stands, Protesilaus complains that Homer: "confuses the gods with men, and says great things about men , but about gods petty and insignificant things".)
The Phoenician is rather easily won over by the vinedresser -- perhaps understandable, since Protesilaus' inside knowledge throws new and plausible light on much that he was already familiar with. Still, Protesilaus remains suspect as an authority and it's disappointing that the Phoenician doesn't press harder, as the vinedresser (and Philostratus) coyly dance around some of the questions -- so for example here:

Phoenician: Did you ever ask Protesilaus about Homer's birthplace, or who his parents were ?
Vinedresser: Many times.
Phoenician: What did he say ?
Vinedresser: He said that he knew; but since Homer himself had not said, to keep all ambitious cities claiming him as their own, and since perhaps some law of the fates ordained that Homer should seem to have no city, he would not please the Muses if he revealed the secret which had redounded to Homer's glory ever after.

       In his Introduction translator Jeffrey Rusten helpfully reminds readers that Homer has not always been the primary source of information about the Trojan War and that, for example, in the Middle Ages "knowledge of the Trojan War was based entirely on" the memoirs of the war by Dictys of Crete (Dictys Cretensis) and Dares the Phrygian (Dares Phrygius). Heroicus, too, offers a different perspective on parts of the Trojan War -- and, in its focus on (and as response to) Homer is more obviously approachable. Certainly, it makes for an interesting complementary text to Homer, and is of considerable interest in this regard.
       The dialogue is quite entertaining. Descriptions of Elaious and the cult-in-miniature (in the form of the vinedresser) around Protesilaus, as well as the whole 'hero' concept, help add variety to Protesilaus' revisionist history of more familiar tales from and about Troy; the addition of some entirely unfamiliar episodes is naturally also of interest.
       As always, the Loeb Classical Library edition is a bilingual one. Philostratus' Greek here is not terribly challenging but also not particularly remarkable (in other words, not necessarily worth the effort, except for the specialist); Jeffrey Rusten's translation reads comfortably, with the major hurdle to ready enjoyment the many names and references that follow in often quick succession in Protesilaus' version of historic events -- it helps to be up on your Homer. Rusten's lengthy Introduction is helpful -- also as summary -- and an extensive bibliography offers more than enough material for readers eager to delve into (m)any of the specifics.
       Primarily of interest as a secondary or supplemental text on the Trojan War and on Homer, Heroicus is a quite enjoyable and interesting dialogue -- if not first choice, so still definitely not just 'minor'.

- M.A.Orthofer, 6 July 2014

- Return to top of the page -

Links:

Heroicus:

Harvard University Press publicity page
Ηρωικός at the Perseus Digital Library (ed. Carl Ludwig Kayser)
On Heroes - translation by Ellen Bradshaw Aitken and Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean

Reviews:

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Other books by Philostratus under review:

Lives of the Sophists

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Greek literature
See Index of Books Written Before 1900
See Index of Bilingual editions under review
See Index of Interviews, conversations, and dialogues
Other books from the Loeb Classical Library under review

- Return to top of the page -

About the Author:

The sophist Philostratus (Φιλόστρατος) lived ca.170 to 250.

- Return to top of the page -