In Homer’s Iliad, how many ships does the Greek Catalogue of Ships list?

In Homer’s Iliad, the Greek Catalogue of Ships lists 1,186 ships. The catalogue appears in Book 2 and names the contingents that sailed to Troy, along with their commanders and places of origin.

The passage is not simply a troop roster. It functions as a geographical survey of Bronze Age and early Greek communities remembered by the epic tradition. The number of ships is usually treated as a traditional poetic total rather than a modern historical census.

The catalogue includes forces from regions such as Boeotia, Phthia, Crete, Ithaca, and the Peloponnese. It also links important heroes to their home territories, including Achilles, Ajax, and Odysseus.

The corresponding Trojan Catalogue is shorter and names Trojan allies. Scholars debate how closely either list reflects real Late Bronze Age political geography, but the ship total remains a famous numerical detail of the Iliad.