There is a comparable economy of place. In fact nearly all the Iliad is set in one of four places, distinct in
topography and significance: the city of Troy, the Greek camp, the plain in between, and Olympus. The
city is ringed by its great walls and gates. Within it has broad streets and fine houses built of ashlar
blocks, dominated by the mighty palace of Priam (described at 6. 242 ff). These houses contain fine
furniture, clothing, treasures; but above all they contain the Trojans' old people, wives, and children. It is
no doubt significant that the first Trojan home we are taken inside is the childless one of Helen and Paris;
but when Hector comes back to Troy in Book 6:
all the wives of the Trojans and their daughters came running about him
to ask after their sons, after their brothers and neighbours,
their husbands ... (283 ff.)In peacetime, before the Achaeans came, Troy had been a prosperous city ornamented with all the
features of a civilized society. The standard epithets of Troy ('with broad streets', 'horse-pasturing', etc.)
act as a constant reminder, almost subliminal in effect, of the constriction of the siege.
For all its fine stonework Troy is vulnerable and may be burned. This is even more true of the Achaean
camp, which consists of wooden ships and shelters. So far the Greeks have felt so secure that they have
not even built defences. At 7. 436 ff. they build a wall and ditch in one day, and this is fought over and
breached in Books 11-15. Unlike Troy, this temporary camp has no past; it had been mere beach, and it
will in time disappear again (7.446ff; 12.1 ff.). Over the years the shelters have grown quite substantial,
and Homer seems to have a clear 'map' of the different bivouacs along the beach, with Achilles at one end
and Ajax at the other. They contain possessions and women taken from neighbouring cities, but they are
not homes. The Greeks have left their wives and children and parents at home. Phrases about 'the ships'
are everywhere throughout the Iliad. They are the 'subliminal' reminder that the Greeks are away from
home in a setting which is not household or city.
For both sides there are turning-points in past and future connected in time and place. For the Trojans the
crucial day was the day the ships arrived on the beach; in the future it will be either the day they depart or
the day that the city is burned. For the Greeks the crucial past event was the day each left his home- an
event often recalled; in the future it will be death or return to parents, wife, and children. This may help us
see why Homer devotes so much trouble to the delightful journey to the city of Chryse in Book 1 (430-
80): it helps to establish the framework of time and place for both sides still at Troy.