ABSTRACT
In 1879 it was revealed to the learned world that the poet Homer had composed his Iliad while serving as deputy chief of the medical staff with Agamemnon’s army before Troy. That he was a doctor was evident from the poem’s remarkable emphasis on wounds and other matters medical; and his position as a staff officer was proved by his access to detailed information on the activities taking place on both sides of the front line. His vantage point, a little above the daily round of the actual fighting, showed that he was not serving on the battlefield itself, although he had seen corpses and casualties, and the position as chief of the medical staff would not have allowed him the leisure for writing of a post only a little less senior. Although this conclusion reveals more about the organisation and prejudices of the Royal Saxon Army in which Oberstabsarzt Frölich served than it does about Homer, it points to one undeniable fact: the poet chose to include many medical details and to treat them in a sophisticated way.1
