1. Homer and History, revisited

(see previous class notes: brief summary, conclusion)

2. Gods and Men in the Iliad

Gods and "Fate"

Gods are very much like the artistocratic human society they watch over and alternately plague or help: the sociology and psychology of the gods parallel those of the heroes in many specific ways:

• they guard individual honor (timê) jealously, and feud with each other
• and their honor is bound up with gifts, both the gifts of their divine province, but also gifts from mortals: Zeus is sad to have Hector die because of his many sacrifices and other gifts (p. 547, book 22)
• the gods are all peers, all lords, but they accept (sort of) Zeus as the "first among equals"
• like the heroes, the gods get angry, exact retribution, even fight in battle

But the gods are very unlike the heroes in important wasy

• their behavior seems amoral: "beyond good and evil", Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy
• life seems a game, men pawns in that game
• they are angry, or sad, or hurt, but the passion is lacking: compare Zeus' grief for Sarpedon with Achilles for Patroclus or Priam's for Hector!
• Zeus accepts the mortal condition as a lamentable fact of humanness, an otherness he perceives as an immortal: to be human is to die: but that is not, for an immortal, an unhuman, material: it is a human problem that gods somewhat aloofly watch.
• But to be human, to die, is core to humanness: for one who is himself mortal, to watch the spear enter and burst out the back of the skull is painful, is to suffer pain and to die vicariously: we can feel the real agony of our comrade. And it is this projection into to the pain of another, this caring for the death of a comrade -- that we see adn feel over and over again in the Iliad -- that strike to the core of an important part of humanness.
• Contrast between blood (food and wine!) and ichor (ambrosia and nectar!): consequence: the gods inhabit a world that is comic, light, fantastic, ultimately rather unserious, certainly without a sense of high ethical purpose
• In contrast: Agony is solely a human condition. Men learn by suffering. And it is this agony of death that makes the world of men matter, that makes it serious, that makes higher ideals such as loyalty, honor, duty worth the pain of suffering, worth consideration as important values.

[We'll return to this topic in more detail when we study the Odyssey]

3. Narrative movement in the Iliad

a. basic structural pattern:

withdrawal, destruction, return & reconciliation

1-9 = quarrel, opening phase of battle, embassy

10-17 = Trojan advance in Achilles' absence, culminating in the death of Patroclus

18-22 = return of Achilles, death of Hector

23-24 = reconciliation of the warrior society, Achilles' reconciliation with Priam

a. Foreshadowing in the Iliad

Example: Achilles:

• (1) Achilles to Thetis (though I am shortlived) (Book 1)
• (2) Thetis to Zeus (most shortlived of all) (1)
• (3) embassy, the fateful choice: "Achilles' choice" (6)
• (4) horse tells him he will die by "a god and a man" (19),
• (5) in struggle with river (21) he declares the god will be Apollo,
• (6) dying Hector (22) names the man as Paris, god as Apollo.
• (7) Ghost of Patroklos (23) reminds him of this.

Most of the tale of Troy is told, certainly all that is important, and yet the central action takes 3-5 days (destruction of Troy/Troy falls with Hektor's death [6, 22, 24] e.g. p. 543f.)

Just as the similes, the scenes within Troy, the scenes with the gods take us away from the physical scene of the grim battle, so these foreshadowings take us away from the time limitations of the battle scene: we do, in effect, see the sons of Priam slain, Achilles killed by Paris and Apollo, Troy sacked and burning, Andromache enslaved, Astyanax's brains dashed out, Priam murdered at the altar

Brilliant narrative technique: for the story has the focus of a tale happening over a limited time period and in one place (tight, causal structure), but manages nonetheless to weave in the background and consequence of these central actions as well

"Suspense" here is that of Greek tragedy: awaiting the known outcome rather than a surprise result, a sense of increasingly inevitability to what is going to happen

4. The Death of Hector

The scene on the Battlescape intensifies:

Significant changes, intensification now occur as we move into Achilles' return into battle

• Achilles as he returns from battle is alone, isolated: no Greeks alongside, no diversion from him as the sole Greek fighter: he is removed from mankind
• Introduction of the fantastic, the surreal: talking horses (19), gods into the combat (20), battle with the river Scamander (21)
• Achilles is increasingly inhuman, "godlike" in the worst sense:
• implacable rage: cf. Hera at p. 479
• "heart like iron", "relentless as Hades": note that Achilles does not relent after Patroclus' death b/c he loses his anger towards Agamemnon, but b/c he has a greater rage now!
• does not eat: pp. 495-496:
• to Odysseus' request that Ach. "show some human kindness", Achilles replies, "I, by god, I'd drive our Argives into battle now, starving, famished .... I have no taste for food-- what I really crave is slaughter and blood and the choking groans fo men!"
• the gods give Ach. ambrosia to keep up his strength-- but only gods eat ambrosia! -- Achilles like a god, or, better, both greater than and lesser than human
• kills suppliants, esp. Lycaon at pp. 522-523: "merciless, brutal man"
• attacks a god: the battle with the river
• Why does Zeus release the gods to intercede in the battle? The need of the gods to prevent Achilles from killing Hector or sacking Troy before its time, against the will of Fate: thus we see how beyond the pale Achilles' rage has become (also of course a contrast: the inconsequential world of divinity, where battle is a clearly a game)

Hector is also removed from mankind, but notice how different the effect:

• Book 22 is almost entirely from Hector's point of view, except where we see the battle from the point of view of Hector's grieving parents, or the now involved and rather sad gods: note that Achilles is the "other", the objective force of power and rage, no humanness, we see almost nothing from his point of view
• Feminine and sexual suggestiveness at p. 545: "like a woman": Hector is human, with human emotions (interesting how women encapsulate this trait, for our society too)
• Finally, some detailed landscape, but too late, too surreal: simply reminds us of the grimness that the fleeing Hector faces - p. 546
• When Hector has doubts, when he gets up his courage, when he flees before Achilles' onslaught, when he stands and fights, thinking that his brother Deiphobus stands beside him, when he realizes that the capricious gods have tricked him, and when he meets his death: we feel his tragedy, his humanness, and by extention we feel the sadness, the human violation, of the sack of Troy that Hector's death both foreshadows and symbolizes
• Meanwhile, Achilles has dismissed the world and covenants of man and human society: p. 550, "There are no binding oaths between men and lions", and, finally, at p. 553: "Beg no more, you fawning dog-- begging me by my parents! / Would to god my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw!"

But, as always, there are cross currents:

• Especially, the resemblances between the deaths of Patroclus and Hector:
• armor
• prophecy
• description of death: exact duplication of the lines: p. 553, cf. p. 440: "Death cut him short etc."
• Which leads us to the reconcilation theme begun in book 23, and finished in book 24: next time

Question for Tuesday: What CHANGES in Book 24: both in the attitude of the gods, and in that of men? and WHY?

Reminders: paper due, exam next week, will post exam sample questions this weekend