Transcript Iliad (part 1)

Iliad (part 1)
• What is the Iliad?
• Who “wrote” it?
• How old is it? Mycenaean (1600-1200 BCE) elements
(e.g. boar’s tusk helmet) mixed with later elements
datable to Dark Age or Archaic period.
• Fluidity, crystallization, fixation in 5th c. BCE,
transcription
• Who is Homer? Etymology: hom-eros, “one who fits
together”. Significance? Cf. Hesiod, hesi-odos, “one
who makes song arise”.
• Epic poetry and composition in performance
Iliad overview
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51 days of the 10th year of the war focalized through Achilles
Agamemnon and Chryses [Book 1]
Conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon, confiscation of Briseis
Achilles withdraws from fighting
Thetis and Achilles
Duel of Paris and Menelaos [Book 3]
Hector and Andromache, Astyanax [Book 6]
Hector kills Patroclus [Book 17]
Achilles rejoins the fighting in new armor for Achilles [Book 18]
Achilles kills Hector [Book 22]
Priam ransoms Hector’s body [Book 24]
Funerals, laments and funeral games
Beginning of Iliad
Rage (mênis): Sing, goddess, Achilles’ rage,
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades’ dark,
And left their bodies to rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus’ will was done [or “as Zeus’
plan was fulfilled”].
Begin with the clash between Agamemnon—
The Greek warlord—and godlike Achilles.
Which of the immortals set these two
At each others throats? Apollo …
Book 1: The plague
Apollo punishes the Achaeans (Greeks) for refusal to accept
ransom for return of Chryseis to father (priest of Apollo)
Iliad Book 1: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles
Menis – “rage, anger” – normally applied to the anger of a god with cosmic effects and
consequences. Why use this word of Achilles’ anger?
The issue in Book 1 and the Iliad: Who is the “best” of the Achaeans? What does “best” mean?
Most authority? Skill in warfare? Intelligence? Skill in speaking?
Briseis, Achilles’ war-prize
Achilles’ dilemma
• Choice between a short life but full of glory(kleos) or longer life
with return home (nostos) without glory
• Distress at removal of kleos through giving of Briseis to Agamemnon
• Mother Thetis (sea goddess) intercedes with Zeus (cf. Iliad p. 13),
gets him to make Greeks suffer and lose until they honor Achilles
again. Note myth referred to of rebellion against Zeus by other gods
– attempted chaining of Zeus, intervention of Briareus, one of the
hundred-handers.
• Parentage: father Peleus (mortal) and Thetis (goddess). This
marriage as way for Zeus to avert being himself father of Achilles
and producing son more powerful than himself.
• Etymology of name of Achilles: “he who brings akhos [pain, grief] to
the laos [army, people]”. Significance?
Book 3 Duel between Paris and
Menelaus
• Paris proposes to settle the war by single combat with
Menelaus (pp. 30-32)
• Figure of Helen on the walls and identification of Greek
warriors to Priam – why now? (pp. 32-35): shared motif
with figure of Draupadi in Indic epic Mahabharata and
abduction and counter-abduction?
• Aphrodite removes Paris before he can be killed,
transport to bedroom of Helen. Humiliation of both
Paris and Menelaus.
• Dialogue and conflict between Aphrodite and Helen,
Helen and Paris (Iliad pp. 40-42)
Iliad Book 5
• The aristeia (period of being best [aristos] in
battle) of Diomedes, wounding of Aphrodite
(pp. 58-59), wounding of Ares (pp. 67-68)
• Pain and suffering of gods (pp. 60-61)
Iliad Book Six
• Hector (from root (s/h)ekh-, “the one who
holds off, defends”), brother of Paris, returns
to Troy to organize women to pray to Athena
for help
• Visit to mother Hecuba, brother Paris, and
wife Andromache and child Astyanax (“cityruler”)
• Conversation with Helen pp. 76-77,
Andromache pp. 78-81
Iliad Book 9
• Embassy of Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax to
request Achilles to come back to war
• What is Achilles doing when they arrive? Singing
klea andrôn (lit. “glories of men/warriors”) – i.e.
epic poetry and song celebrating the deeds of
heroes. Patroclus waits for his turn p.92
• Rejection of gifts of Agamemnon, pp. 95-98
• Myth of Meleager related by Phoinix as
cautionary example pp.101-103
Athenian red-figure vase, embassy to Achilles’ hut. L to R:
Phoenix, Odysseus, Achilles, Patroclus
Achilles, p. 98 [Book 9]
My mother Thetis …
Tells me two fates sweep me on to my death.
If I stay here and fight, I’ll never return home,
But my glory [kleos] will be undying [aphthiton]
forever.
If I return home to my dear fatherland
My glory is lost but my life will be long…
Undying/imperishable fame
kleos aphthiton
shravas akshitam
(Ancient Greek)
(Vedic, Sanskrit)
Greece, first millennium
BCE
India, second millennium
BCE
Myth within myth: Phoenix tells a story (p.101).
Why does he tell it?
“We all know stories about heroes of old [klea andrôn],
How they were furiously angry, but later on
Were won over with gifts or appeased with words.
I remember a very old story like this, and since
We are all friends here, I will tell it to you.”
Meleager
The Calydonian boar
Aetolians and Curetes
The wrath of Meleager
Meleager nursed his anger at Cleopatra’s side,
Furious because his mother had cursed him,
Cursed him to the gods for murdering his uncle,
Her brother, that is, and she beat the earth,
The nurturing earth, with her hands, and called
upon Hades and Persephone the dread,
As she knelt and wet her bosom with tears,
To bring death to her son. And the Fury
Who walks in darkness heard her
From the pit of Erebus, and her heart was iron….
Meleager comes back
No one could move his heart or persuade him
Until the Curetes, having scaled the walls
Were burning the city and beating down
His bedroom door. Then his wife wailed
And listed for him all the woes that befall
A captured people —the men killed,
The town itself burnt, the women and children
Led into slavery. This roused his spirit.
He clapped his armor on and went out to fight.
And so he saved the Aetolians from doom
Of his own accord and they paid him none
Of those lovely gifts, savior or not.
Kleopatre Patroclus
kleos + pateres
glory +ancestors
Kleo-patre
Patro-clus