The Posthomerica: Overview
HEROIC LITERATURE COURSE | Posthomerica overview
The Posthomerica (“After Homer”) is an epic written in the late 300s AD, during the decline of the Western Roman Empire, by Quintus Smyrnaeus. We know little of Quintus except what he tells us in the epic, and what his name suggests: he was a shepherd from Smyrna.
The Posthomerica is written in dactylic hexameter, in close imitation of Homer, and deploys similar language and metaphors. I have not read it in the original Greek in order to compare it to Homer, but in English, the imitation of Homer, in my opinion, is artful. As with any book authored by an individual, you can often sense an self-conscious “artifice” which is absent more ancient, oral texts, but I find Quintus’ Homeric style to enrich rather than distract.
The Posthomerica covers the events following the Iliad and leading up to the Odyssey (and the Aeneid), which were covered in various epics in the Greek Epic Cycle, now lost or fragmentary, such as The Aethiopis, The Little Iliad, and The Ilioupersis.
We do not know which sources Quintus made use of in the composition of his epic. He may have had access to some of the lost epics, or he may have just relied on summaries. Somewhat strangely, Quintus diverges from both the Iliad and the Odyssey.
In the Iliad, it is explicitly stated that Achilles will die by the arrow of Paris with the help of Apollo, but in the Posthomerica, Achilles is killed by Apollo alone, mirroring Patroclus’ death in the Iliad. Was this a bold creative choice by Quintus, or did he not have access to the Iliad during the composition of the Posthomerica?
Similarly, in the Odyssey, we get descriptions of scenes which occur after the Iliad, during the conclusion of the war, which would have provided perfect source material for Quintus. However, Quintus’ rendition of these scenes in the Posthomerica differs significantly from their telling in the Odyssey, often in ways which make for less dramatic and interesting scenes. These inconsistencies will forever remain a mystery.
