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Rape of Troy: Evolution, Violence and the World of Homer

Gottschall, Jonathan

The fierce competitiveness and violence of Homeric society is often remarked upon; throughout the Iliad and Odyssey seemingly minor incidents turn into major quarrels, not least in the case epic Trojan War itself fought over the fate of one woman, and within the Greek forces themselves there is constant one-up-manship and simmering rivalry. Blending anthropological and biological approaches Jonathan Gottschall proposes a highly original explanation for this phenomenon, that the practice of enslaving the women of conquered enemies and concentrating them in the hands of leading men meant that there was a chronic imbalance of available women to men within Homeric society. The constant warring and competitiveness was thus a natural evolutionary behaviour. 221p (Cambridge UP 2008)

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