Theses
(5)The Iliad owes its distribution to its character as an astronomic teaching poem, as a star catalogue, with the help of which the Greeks, who learned seafaring at that time, were able to navigate safely on the high seas.
(6)Homer legitimizes the claim of the Greeks of Cilicia to take up the Assyrian heritage in political, military and cultural respects. It is comparable to Vergil, whose Aeneid legitimizes the claim of Augustan Rome to succeed the Hellenistic empires and Greek culture.
(7)The legitimation follows the political-military reality in time. The Aeneid is not conceivable before the victory of Octavian at Actium 31 BC, the Iliad not before the withdrawal of the Assyrians from Cilicia between 650 and 630 BC.
Literature
Cancik-Kirschbaum, Eva: Die Assyrer. Geschichte, Gesellschaft, Kultur, Munich 2003
Edzard, Dietz Otto: Geschichte Mesopotamiens. Von den Sumerern bis zu Alexander dem Großen. Munich 2004
Matthiae, Paolo: Ninive. Glanzvolle Hauptstadt Assyriens, Munich 1999
Mayer, Walter: Sargons Feldzug gegen Urartu – 714 v. Chr., in: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin, No. 115 Berlin 1983, pp. 65 – 132
Riemschneider, Margarete: Homer. Entwiclung und Stil, Leipzig 2nd edition 1952
Schrott, Raoul: Gilgamesh, Frankfurt/M., 2nd edition 2006
Schrott, Raoul: Homers Heimat. Der Kampf um Troja und seine realen Hintergründe, Munich, 2nd edition 2008
Wood, Florence und Kenneth: Homer’s Secret Iliad. The Epic of the Night Skies Decoded, London 1999