Essay for Week 2: The Most Manly of Men, a Look at Heroes in The Iliad

The Most Manly of Men, a Look at Heroes in The Iliad

     By beginning the regular weeks of class with reading The Iliad, I believe that I found a decent motif to begin the class with:  a look at heroes in mythology.  While I could take a more specific look at different elements, I will begin this year fairly broad and try to narrow down to something a bit more specific while looking at heroes.  Before I look at The Iliad, I will try to wrangle down what I believe to be a hero.  I believe that a hero, in the context of this class, is a character who strives for more than an average life and attempts feats that would break a lesser man.  A hero also adheres to a higher purpose or a greater morality, but of course they still possess human qualities and do make mistakes.

Achilles Slays Hector by Peter Paul Rubens. Source:  Artble

      The Iliad is what easily defines what a hero should look like.  Homer gives us numerous heroes to look at, Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, etc., and sets forth standards which these heroes and other heroes can be measured with.  Achilles is a prime example in my opinion of what a hero should look like.  He is physically superior, caring of others, and sticks very closely to his purpose and what he believes to be right and wrong.  Achilles does possess his flaws, but I believe they are not enough to discredit him from being considered a hero.  The prime example of him being a hero, at least in my context, is him doing superhuman feats, such as defeating large amounts of soldiers or chasing down a man aided by a God.  This characteristic to me separates a hero from a protagonist.  Another hero I would consider would be Hector.  While Hector opposes Achilles in battle as a Trojan, I don't believe that he is portrayed as an antagonist in the epic and is instead just another hero who is pitted against Achilles.  Hector would give his life for his comrades, serves his country dutifully, and is no pushover in battle.

     While my decision may change over the course of this class, I will try to look at heroes as a standard guideline for my future projects.

Link to Iliad

Storytelling for Week 2: The Quarrel from my Side, Agamemnon

   The Quarrel from my Side, Agamemnon

After my troops conquered some city and gave my chiefs some of the spoils, they gave me a girl whose name I didn't bother with remembering, but she was apparently a priest's daughter.  This man had the gall to try and buy back his daughter with gold and acted like he was rooting for me.  After he groveled before me for a bit, I became tired and told him:  "Get out of here you stupid old man and don't come back or it will be worse, and you will never see your daughter again."  I laughed to myself at the old man and how pathetic he was while he scurried off like the rat he was.

 Agamemnon by Philippe Chery.  Web Source:  1st Art Gallery

   After that, the weather turned miserable and many of my men died, but thankfully I had plenty of them so it didn't matter, but eventually some bleeding-heart chief of mine decided enough men had died so they put together a meeting.  For most of the meeting, I sat back and listen to the men moan and groan about the problems of dying and whatnot, but eventually my stupid prophet had the nerve to blame me of all people for what was happening and told me to not only give up the stupid girl but to give them a hundred animals.  Of course, I told them what for, "I don't even know why I keep you around you useless prophet.  Also, I don't even want the girl so send her back but none of the loot."  I figured that would make the underlings happy and I could just find another girl anyway, but this Achilles has to keep whining and tries to say he'll pay me even more if I just give them some of my spoils.  Since I am king and they aren't, I'll take my share when and where I want it, and in fact, I laughed a bit when I told them "If you all try to take what's mine, I'll take all of your loot as well."  Achilles began to drone on and on again complaining, I wasn't too sure since I lost attention but I got tired of listening and having him even being near me so I told him:  "I can replace you any day of the week and in fact I will.  Not only that, but the girl you got is mine now, use this as a lesson to learn that I am large and in charge around here."  I finally hit a nerve and he tried to be tough and pull out his sword, but I guess since I am so awesome he chickened out and couldn't pull out his sword.  Afterwards, he had a tantrum and cried about something, trying to insult me and instead broke his own little play stick.

Author's Note:  For this storytelling week, I used The Quarrel from the Iliad.  I decided to tell the story from Agamemnon's perspective because I found him to be very pompous throughout the Iliad and I figured he would be a very greedy, self-indulgent man who assumed everyone else was worthless.  His own greed and pride was his hubris so I figured I would try to add a bit of input since he was still a fairly static character in the epic.

Bibliography:  "The Quarrel" retold by Alfred J. Church, from The Iliad (1907).  Web source:  The Quarrel

Week Two Reading Diary: Homer's Iliad

 Iliad unit
I believe this is the link to the homepage you want

1. Of How the War with Troy Began
    For this Iliad reading diary, I will probably mention the movie Troy due to it being for many people the only knowledge they have of Homer's tale.  I didn't know there was more than one Ajax so I am assuming the one deemed "the Greater" is the one who most people know.  Also I really enjoy how direct this retelling is, I read the Iliad in high school and I remember how I had to drag through it.

2. The Quarrel
    Achilles seems much more honorable than he does in the story than he does in his somewhat recent movie portrayal.  I also enjoy how the gods are involved and play major roles, which makes the tale much more epic instead of just a quarrel among mortals.  My favorite line from this section was "Then he turned to Agamemnon and cried: "Drunkard with the eyes of a dog and the heart of a deer," which is a pretty funny and spelled out insult towards Agamemnon.

3. The Quarrel (cont.)
   Agamemnon's character is even more fleshed out as a greedy and self-serving man, as seen by not taking the advice of one older and wiser than him, Nestor, yet disregards his words.  Also, Achilles' blood lust is also revealed because he was fairly tame and peaceful for the previous excerpts.

4. What Thetis Did for Her Son
  I wish it explained why Thetis would hold Zeus by the beard since I have no idea what this action would mean.  Also why would Agamemnon at the end listen to a dream of Nestor when he disregarded him before.

5. Hector and Andromache
    I am glad the duel section is removed, as I remember it being very tedious reading.  Also Hector has a much more callous heart towards his brother Paris than in the movie and that makes me much happier reading, as I was always mad when Paris and Hector interacted in the film.  I really enjoyed Hector in this telling because he is made to be a very clever and quick man.

6. Hector and Andromache (cont.)
   It is interesting how Achilles killed every one of Andromache's family and I am slightly confused when Andromache says that Achilles "took our city."  Does this mean that Achilles is just besieging the city of Troy or something else?  Also, my favorite line from this section was said by Hector, who again shows himself to be a wise man.   "Do not let these things trouble you. No man will be able to kill me, unless it be my fate to die. But fate no one may escape, whether he be a brave man or a coward."

7. The Embassy to Achilles
  Its odd how much detail is described in telling about the preparation of the feast in this chapter while somewhat large characters are introduced with a sentence or even not at all.  Also, it is odd that Ulysses appeals to Achilles using wealth as a tool, since Achilles showed little concern for riches at the beginning.
  
8. The Embassy to Achilles (cont.)
  I again find Achilles to be wiser and a better speaker than the usually described wise Ulysses.  A lot of what he says shows him to be not as battle hungry as he is usually made out to be.  He even has qualms about fighting and how it was a thankless job where the lazy are rewarded for his actions.

9. The Deeds and Death of Patroclus
  The story of Patroclus is much different than the movie version and it strikes me as odd how the original plays out.  Also, the description of certain things were out of place for me, such as how two of the three horses were immortal.

10. The Deeds and Death of Patroclus (cont.)
   I really liked the use of foreshadowing in this section, where "...Father Zeus heard his prayer:  part he granted, but part he denied."  This section had a lot of more stylistic elements in it compared to the others, such as showing Patroclus's hubris.  Also how did Glaucus realize that it was Patroclus that killed Sarpedon?

11. The Deeds and Death of Patroclus (end)*
   Why would Apollo warn Patroclus to not to take the city and let him go, only to kill him later on.  While I understand how Homer would include the gods in the story, I find it kind of cheap how they intervene in such bold ways; I can understand sending a dream or giving advice, but what Apollo did to Patroclus was just disappointing. 

12. The Rousing of Achilles
  I guess it is a Mediterranean custom by why is there fighting over the remains over the body of a fallen soldier, this is at least the second or third time this is mentioned.  Also I was confused while reading because the use of "arms" is used ambiguously in my opinion.  Another note of mine is how odd it was for the horses of Achilles to be described here, I feel like it was a useless description to be included in this abridged version. 

13. The Rousing of Achilles (cont.)
    Why did Zeus warn Achilles that the Trojans were going to take Patroclus's body, since that would mean doom for Zeus's favored Trojans.  Also how were the chiefs wounded by their own spears?  Did it mean they committed suicide or were they unfortunate enough to have a very unlikely accident?  I liked how the use of foreshadowing was used again at the end.

14. The Slaying of Hector
   This was another instance of how I hate how the gods are so active in this tale.  To me, it detracts on how mighty these men are supposed to be portrayed and instead shown as simply a pawn of the gods, which I think wasn't the purpose of this story to show how weak humanity is.

15. The Slaying of Hector (cont.)
  I like how the gods also disregard that Achilles offered up sacrifice as well, it makes them look very fickle and childish how they all play the human characters against each other.  Also it is very convenient how Hector can hear Priam and his mother over the battle and the retreat of the Trojans back behind the walls.

16. The Slaying of Hector (end.)
   "Men and lions make no oaths to each other, neither is there any agreement between wolves and sheep."  That quote by Achilles is probably one of my favorite quotes in general, it shows how little Hector is compared to the might of Achilles. 

17. The Ransoming of Hector
  Why was Priam angry with his other sons?  Were they like Paris and essentially useless?  Also did the gods protect Hector's body for it to be "...whole, and without blemish," since Achilles drug around the body for apparently several days.

18. The Ransoming of Hector (cont.)
  This was an odd way to end the Iliad since Achilles is not dead.  The whole point of prophesying that Achilles would die if Hector was killed and all of the other hints in the story were wasted.  This ending, to me, would be like ending the gospel of Matthew where Jesus goes to Pontius Pilate.  Do we know what happens to Jesus? Yes but it is slightly annoying not including it regardless.  With this information, including characters like Paris are useless.  I actually had to look up if Achilles died in the original since I didn't remember and I was shocked to realize he doesn't.