In a number of passages in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer introduces theomachoi, i.e. “those who battle with the gods”, or hoi proteroi – “the earlier ones”. This generation of heroes precedes the generation of the heroes of the Trojan war and differs from them by, e.g., possessing certain supernatural capacities and by encountering fantastic monsters. This essay discusses the appearances and the function of the theomachoi in the Homeric poems. It is argued that Homer’s consistent use of such tales creates a net of parallelisms between the proteroi and the heroes of the Trojan war, which prompts the reader’s deeper reflection on the latter’s choices and actions.

This paper presents the optimal sizing of PV/Wind/Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid Energy System for energizing a Small Scale Industrial Application or a village domestic load of 200 kW. HOMER software is used for simulation of the complete system. The solar radiation data and wind speed data used in this paper are for the place of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India which is located 11.0183° N longitude and 76.9725° E latitude. The optimized sizes of components of Hybrid Power System (HPS) are found based on Levelised Cost of Energy (LCE) and total Net Present Cost (NPC). The results are presented and compared for five different combinations of HPS components. Suggestions are also presented to choose the low cost system which produces energy at low LCE.