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April 2007 |
Essay
on the Illiad |
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What are students learning: Faculty Lecture Student Essays Essay on Epicetetus by Carmen Blattman Essay on Arête by Rhonda Busby
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For the second half of "Greek and Roman Mythology," I ask students to write short essays on chapters the textbook we are reading together. I design questions to elicit not only basic information but students' personal wisdom and creative imagination. I supply two examples of excellent writing from questions on Homer's Illiad, that show all these qualities. - Joseph Crane, MA, BCIA Kepler BA TS-332C It has been said that Homer makes the Trojans the “good” side in the war and the Acheans the “bad” side or at least “less than admirable” but this may be a misunderstanding caused by confusing modern values with Greek values. Homer describes the virtues of Arete through contrasts. On the Trojan side, he contrasts Hector as an exemplar of Greek values while his brother Paris is quite clearly portrayed as a coward who spurns Arete. For example, Hector is a prince of Troy who receives Homer’s highest praise: he is described as a warrior and “wise in counsel.” When Hector is dead Achilles drags his dead body behind his chariot, but the remains are protected by Apollo because Hector is honorable and beloved by the gods. About Paris, Homer writes that Diomedes even ridicules him as a coward when Paris shoots him. On the Greek side, Agamemnon is the leader of a loose confederation of independent kingdoms enacting a siege against a settled kingdom with powerful allies. Agamemnon dishonors Achilles by stealing his spoils but makes public apology and generous reparation when advised to by his other “warlords.” Agamemnon is in contrast to Achilles who is the most powerful of the Acheans. Some modern writers describe Achilles as arrogant and sulking, but to Homer he is a complex character who is determined that he will achieve immortal glory and therefore can not brook any disrespect or slight to his reputation. None of the other Achaean leaders reprimands Achilles for inappropriate behavior because he is not behaving inappropriately. They recognize that he is within his rights to withdraw from battle if the leader dishonors him. Another difficulty for the modern reader is to separate the events of the Iliad from the events of the Aeneid or other traditional stories but the events of the sack of Troy and the sacrifice of Iphigenia are not mentioned by Homer and we don’t know how he would have written them. In addition, since the Trojans are the besieged party, we are able to see them in their family units rather than just as would be conquerors. Homer shows arete through Andromache, Hector’s wife, and Priam, Hector’s father, when Priam approaches Achilles to ransom Hector’s body. Another issue is that modern readers are used to war tales that differentiate their protagonists by values. We like it simple. Like the valiant rebels against the evil empire or the fighting leathernecks against the filthy Huns, or the current war of Liberty against the Arab extremists. Homer does not simplify the conflict; in fact, he goes out of his way to show that both sides have potential for honour. Both Acheans and Trojans worship the same gods and have the same cultural values. When protagonists meet on the battlefield they speak to on another in the same language, they are able to wear each other’s armor, and they often have been friends or guests in one another’s homes in the past. While Homer doesn’t make the Trojans and Acheans out to be different at all, he does make these characters of the heroic age out to be different than the people he is writing for, the men of the Hesiod’s iron age. For example, when Hector lifts a rock to break the gate of the Achean wall, Homer says, “Hector laid hold of a stone that lay just outside the gates and was thick at one end but pointed at the other; two of the best men in a town, as men now are, could hardly raise it from the ground and put it on to a wagon, but Hector lifted it quite easily by himself, for the son of scheming Saturn made it light for him.” [1] Assignment: Comment on the virtues and drawbacks of the Homeric concept of arete. Arete (Greek: Άρετή). The Homeric concept of Arete is “excellence, the Greek ideal of excellence and virtue. Arete is also a Greek goddess of virtue.” [2] In the Iliad, it is not enough to be a powerful warrior; one must also be eloquent or wise in counsel. Homer describes this concept through contrasts. Mortals are contrasted with immortals and humans with arete are contrasted with humans without arete. Interestingly, humans with immortal parents are contrasted with each other. Paris is a human without Arete. According to Lucian’s story of the Judgment of Paris, Paris, also known as Alexander, is asked to choose the greatest beauty from between 3 goddesses. Hera, possibly anticipating a future Alexander, offers him the mastery of all Asia. [3] Athena offers him victory “as a warrior and a conquering hero” [4] These are most appropriate gifts for a Trojan Prince but he turns them down. Aphrodite offers him the most beautiful woman in the world even though she is another warrior’s wife. She explains that her children, Love and Desire, will guide his journey to Sparta and that Aphrodite herself will arrange for Helen to “succumb” to his charms and return to Troy with him. He accepts regardless of the fact that what she is proposing violates Helen and Menelaus’ marriage and their expectations of Paris as a guest in Sparta. Aphrodite continues to support Paris during his duel with Menelaus, when Paris is in danger she saves him, and when Helen expresses her disgust with his cowardice, Aphrodite sends her to his bed anyway. Morford and Lenardon note that Homer never mentions the story of the judgment of Paris [5] and there is controversy whether he knew it or not. Homer doesn’t dwell on the origin of the Trojan War at all, beginning his narrative in the 9th year of the siege on Troy. He does discuss the fact that Aphrodite gave Paris the power to attract women and that he once insulted Hera and Athena. Paris is compared to his brother Hector who does not welcome death but does not turn from it either. To Homer, arete is about death or the risk of death. The Gods, as immortals, are unable to experience arete. The scenes involving the gods make the gods appear trivial in comparison to the mortals who are fighting for their lives. This is reminiscent of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers in which part of the tension is provided by the reader knowing that the heroics of the musketeers are not to save a kingdom or to prevent war but merely to cover a royal indiscretion. Aeneas has an immortal mother, Aphrodite, who leaves him to his father to bring up with the caveat that he never discloses that she is the boy’s mother. She only involves herself in his life once when she attempts to save him from Diomedes on the battlefield before Troy. Diomedes wounds her and she drops Aeneas and returns to Olympus to be comforted by her mother Dione. She is certainly not valiant nor is she wise in counsel. Zeus’ son Sarpedon gives a beautiful description of arete when he says, “Glaucus, why in Lycia do we receive especial honour as regards our place at table? Why are the choicest portions served us and our cups kept brimming, and why do men look up to us as though we were gods? Moreover we hold a large estate by the banks of the river Xanthus, fair with orchard lawns and wheat-growing land; it becomes us, therefore, to take our stand at the head of all the Lycians and bear the brunt of the fight, that one may say to another, Our princes in Lycia eat the fat of the land and drink best of wine, but they are fine fellows; they fight well and are ever at the front in battle.' My good friend, if, when we were once out of this fight, we could escape old age and death thenceforward and for ever, I should neither press forward myself nor bid you do so, but death in ten thousand shapes hangs ever over our heads, and no man can elude him; therefore let us go forward and either win glory for ourselves, or yield it to another.” [6] Achilles also has an immortal mother, Thetis who, unlike Aphrodite, is very involved with her son. She has attempted to make him immortal and there are two traditions about this. In one story she anoints him, like Demeter does to Demophoon, with ambrosia and places him in a fire. However, Peleus, his father, disturbs the ritual just as Demophoon’s mother disturbs Demeter and prevents his son from becoming immortal. In another story, she holds the baby by his heel and dips him into the river Styx, (this appears to be the version Homer is using because Paris kills Achilles when he shoots him in the heel). [7] Achilles has been in battles risking death for a long time but since his father is still alive and his mother is a goddess he hasn’t really confronted grief until Patroclus’ death. Thetis is well aware of her son’s mortality and she mourns Achilles while he is still alive. She also discusses his choice between two destinies with him. This awareness of his death enables him to fight the way he does, with excellence and without fear or concern for self. Achilles would say that the both the virtue and drawback of arete is death itself. [1] http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.12.xii.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arete [3] Ibid, page 440 [4] Ibid, page 440 [5] Ibid, page 443 [6] http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.12.xii.html [7] Morford & Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Oxford University Press, USA, page 467 |
