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
