To Split a Head in Two and Pop Out Eyeballs: On the Plausibility of Two Injuries in the Iliad

The goal of the present paper is to show the plausibility of two groups of injuries in the Iliad, a skull “split in two” (Il. 16.412–14, 16.578–80, 20.386–87) and the famous popping out of the eyeballs of two warriors hit with a stone in the face (Il. 13.614–18, 16.733–42). Each type of wound is studied by contrasting the descriptions in the poem with current medical research. The conclusions reflect on the issue of realism in the Homeric poems and the impact that the plausibility of the studied wounds have on it.