L'iperbole numerica nell'epica omerica

In this paper I discuss many passages of the Homeric poems in which numeric figures are used to measure facts or events. My analysis shows that the poet seems to select a very small range of numbers which clearly receive a privileged treatment. That means that Homeric numbers do not have an arithmetic value but a symbolic one. For example, the nine and the ten (and their multiples) are used to express the exceptional dimension of something and to mark its relevance (in particular to stress the difference between the human and divine level). In other words, the formulaic nature of the Homeric language applies also to numbers: numbers are formulae rather than realistic quantities. This is also true for hyperbolic expressions, which are by their very nature unrealistic: their numbers have a magic suggestion, not an arithmetic meaning.