Unit 1

English 201:    Masterpieces of Western Literature

Explication:
Reading: W&H (Wilkie & Hurt, 4th ed.): 129-62.

If we were in a traditional classroom, I would quote the following lines & explain why they are important in several contexts, e.g.: to the plot, to Homer's themes, to Western values.  We can do almost the same thing here.  The numbers preceding the quotation refer to the chapter & line in The Iliad. Our theme for this unit is power.

1.1      Anger be now your song, immortal one,
 .........Akhilleus' anger, doomed & ruinous
The invocation to the muse identifies our national problem (as Greeks/Westerners), which is not sin (disobedience of authority), but rage (uncontrolled violence).  Rage will destroy not only the individual (AK, PAT), but the polis as well.

1.12    The Greeks are suffering plague (typhoid?) why?  Because AG has sought to evade his fate to keep his prize of war, a girl aptly named Khryseis.  Her father is a priest of Apollo.

1.26    The soldiers murmured their assent:
           "Behave well to the priest.  & take the ransom!"
           But AG would not. It went against his desire.
The idea is: evade your duty, avoid troublesome obligations, & do what you desire.  The result is that AG's comrades suffer, AG's leadership suffers, & ultimately he is compelled to accept fate.  The Homeric metaphor for this is that we suffer until "our knees buckle" & we kneel to accept our fate. The point is that we would have avoided much of the suffering, if we had simply had the wisdom to accept fate.  On the other hand, this is not fatalism or passive acceptance of everything & anything.  Sometimes you must struggle to determine if, indeed, some event is fate.

1.131   Yes, if you like, I rate her
            higher than Klytaimnestra, my own wife!
            For all of that, I am willing now to yield her
            if it is best; I want the army saved
Notice the word "rate."  AG doesn't say he loves Khryseis more than his wife; he rates higher.  She is a marker to gauge AG's status.  This is obvious as he continues his speech:
         You must prepare, however,
            a prize of honor for me . . .
            that I may not be left without my portion
Power is the only thing our warriors are interested in.  Honors (including women, money, formal recognition) gauge power.  In the beginning, the rivalry between AG & AK is about which kind of power is more necessary for the polis?  The kind of brutal power exhibited by AK or the less tangible power of military tactics & leadership represented by AG.

AK speaks up, knowing that if AG relinquishes his prize, he will appropriate the next best prize, which belongs to AK.  AG's response makes it clear that the rivalry is not about the women they supposedly love (Khryseis & Briseis), but about power & honors.  AG asks AK:
 1.157  What do your really ask [AK]?  That you may keep
            your own winnings, I [the general & leader] am to give up mine?

Notice how the scene proceeds grimly & slowly, almost like stalking or circling before a fight.  AG is daring AK to defy his authority.  Thus AG grimly says:
 1.211  Khryseis being required of me by Phoibos Apollo,
            she will be sent back . . . .
            That done, I myself
            will call for Briseis at your hut & take her
            . . . to show you here & now who is the stronger
            & make the next man sick at heart -- if any
            think of claiming equal place with me.

AK is a big baby who only knows his immediate needs or appetites.  His mom (Thetis) is a goddess who has always given AK whatever he wanted.  But no one, even if his mother is a goddess, gets exactly what he wants all the time.  Moreover, even when AK gets what he wants, it turns out not to be what he wants!  His response is frustrated rage.  He has no patience or temperance to accept reality.  Here AK is about to kill AG.  The joke is that The Iliad promises to end before it even gets started!
1.226   as he slid
            the big blade slowly from the sheath, Athena
            came to him from the sky.
            & Athena, stepping
            up behind him, visible to no one
            except AK, gripped his red-gold hair.

What would you expect God to say?  Yahweh says to Adam: obey or suffer.  Athena says pretty much the same thing: "obey me (the personification of reason/wisdom) by resisting the impulse to indulge your immediate emotions":
1.242   It was to check this killing rage I came
            from heaven, if you will listen.
1.251   But hold your hand.  Obey.

AK is so brutal & such a narcissist that it is important to recognize that he does obey the direct commands of power greater than his own.  Consequently, he is  not guilty of hubris:
 1.254  When you two immortals [Athena & Hera -- the goddesses Paris spurned]
            speak, a man
            complies, though his heart burst.

Forbidden to kill AG, AK sulks, promising AG:
1.289    You will eat your heart out,
             raging with remorse for this dishonor

1.294    Nestor is an important character.  He is a father or grand-father figure who consistently counsels temperance, cold blooded analysis, caution.

Notice what AK does after turning Briseis over to AG:
1.404    The girl went, loath to go
1.407    Often he [AK] spread his hands in prayer to his mother [Thetis]

AK asks mom (Thetis) to have Zeus kill his friends or comrades!
1.470     [Ask] if he will take the Trojan side
AK does not want the Trojans to annihilate the Greeks.  He wants the Greeks to recognize that AG cannot save them, but that he (AK) could.  AK wants the troops to beg him to return to the battle.  Remember that everything in Homer is symbolic, not historic.  What does this scene suggest?  AK hopes to demonstrate that his kind of power [battlefield violence] is more essential to the survival of the polis than AG's kind of power [political].

Notice that Zeus' relationship with his wife Hera also illustrates a struggle for power.
1.645   Your guesses [about what I plan to do] . . . are near [the mark]
            But there is not one thing that you can do about it
1.650   Sit down, be still, obey me
            or else not all the gods upon Olympos
            can help in the least when I approach your chair
            to lay my inexorable hands upon you

We have seen two magnificent heroes: AK & AG.  We are about to meet a third: HK (Hektor). AK & AG are narcissists who care for nothing but their own power.  Notice how different HK is.  First of all, he is approachable:
6.281   Now, when HK reached the Skaian Gates
            daughters & wives of Trojans rushed to greet him
            with questions about friends, sons, husbands, brothers.
Imagine AK or AG in HK's place.  How would they respond?  They would probably answer the women's questions so they ended up flattering them: "if they are alive, it is because I led them, I protected them, etc."  HK never forgets destiny, the gods, & harsh reality.  HK's answer: "Pray to the gods!" that fate is kind.

6.306    No, my dear mother, ladle me no wine.
HK has come home from the battle & his mother offers him a cold beer.  Typically, HK ignores his own needs to serve others.  He says that he has only come from the battle in order to pray.  Who would you expect HK to pray to?  Obviously an Olympian patron for the Trojan side.  Who would that be?  Naturally Aphrodite, but is she the divinity you want to invoke in order to win a battle?  Who else is on the Trojan side?  You recall that AG had to offer his daughter Iphigeneia to . . . whom?  In effect he offered to trade Iphigeneia for Helen: innocence for power/beauty.  He sacrificed his daughter to Artemis, the goddess of innocence.  She is a prepubescent tomboy hunter, so she might be a likely Olympian for HK to invoke.  If you looked Artemis up, you found that she is the twin of Apollo & he is the great power who defends Troy.  So we expect HK to pray to Apollo for victory.  Instead HK prays to the patron of his enemies, to Athena!  Notice what he prays for: simple survival:
6.319   If in her mercy
            relenting toward our town, our wives & children
            she keeps Diomedes out of holy Troy

So prince HK puts the concerns of his citizens above his own & respects the values of his enemies (Athena).  At least he will defend his brother.  Wrong!
6.326   If only earth would swallow him [Paris] here & now!
            What an affliction the Olympian
            brought up for us in him--a curse for Priam
            & Priam's children!  Could I see that man
            dwindle into Death's night, I'd feel my soul
            relieved of its distress!

Maybe HK is too hard on Paris?
6.372   He found his brother in the bedchamber
            handling a magnificent cuirass & shield
            . . . while Helen
            among her household women sat nearby
Paris is playing with his toy soldiers in his bedroom, while HK & the Trojans fight in his defense!  He plays with his toys even though Helen is in the room!  I thought he was willing to sacrifice anything to gain Helen!  Doesn't this cause us to wonder how mature Paris is?  Or even if he is entirely sane. AK is not the only narcissist in The Iliad.

6.379   Unquiet soul, why be aggrieved in private?
            Our troops are dying out there . . . .
            The hue & cry of war, because of you
Paris seems bored by the war.  He says:
6.396   Victory falls to one man, then another.

We meet Helen for the first time; beauty that inspires violence.  HK is morality personified.  Paris seems vacuous & infantile; mere appetite.  How would you characterize Helen?  She speaks to HK, her brother-in-law:
6.401   Brother dear--
            dear to a whore, a nightmare of a woman!
Paris apparently has no sense of responsibility for his thoughtless action.  So what does Helen do?  She tells HK what he wants to hear; what Paris failed to tell him.  There is another dimension to this speech.  Does she expect HK to agree that she is a whore & a nightmare who has brought nothing but death & suffering to Troy?  Remember that Helen as much as AK is a personification of power.  She never says anything that is direct or sincere.  Everything she says & does is manipulative, designed to augment her power & diminish or control the other person.  Thus she flirts with HK in front of Paris:
6.409   I wish I had had a good man for a lover
            who knew the sharp tongues & just rage of men.
            This one--his heart's unsound, & always will be.
6.414   You are the one afflicted most
            by harlotry in me & by his madness

Paris & Helen seem to deserve each other.  Paris is a pathetic addict incapable of recognizing anything beyond his immediate infatuation.  Helen seems to be something like a black hole that devours the lives of everyone around her.  These two unhealthy types are contrasted by the noble couple, HK & Andromakhe.  AND has every reason to hate AK:
6.483   Father is dead, & Mother.
            My father great AK killed . . . .
6.492   Then 7 brothers that I had at home
            in one day entered Death's dark place. AK
            prince & powerful runner, killed all 7
Instead of dwelling on how much she hates AK, she talks about her many losses only to state her dependence on HK:
6.500   I have none but you,
            nor brother, HK; lover none but you!
            Do not bereave your child & widow me!

Should HK play in his bedroom like Paris to avoid peril?  If he did, we would still have more respect for him than we do for Paris.  Because he would be motivated by concern for AND; whereas Paris simply indulges his appetite.  HK's answer is -- as always -- patriotic instead of self-serving:
6.514   I should die of shame
            before our Trojan men & noblewomen
            if like a coward I avoided battle
In fact, HK does die in a scene that repeats this idea of shame (dike).

We have already been presented with several moral dilemmas:

• Can beauty be evil?  What is the relationship between beauty & morality?
• Why does Paris deserve beauty?
• Why is HK destined for tragedy when he is morally superior?  Why should he defend the ignoble (Paris)?
• Of the 3 great champions, HK is morally superior to AK & AG, yet he is the only one destined to perish in The Iliad.  What does this say about power or fate or the divine?

HK is magnificent because, unlike AK & AG who sense nothing beyond their own narcissism, HK knows there is a world that moves with no regard for him.  Unlike Christianity, the message here is that neither man nor justice is at the center of the universe.  The universe is first & foremost an eruption & manifestation of power.  We must respect that, even if we ultimately oppose some of its fated movements.  Thus HK tells his wife that he would rather be dead than live with the guilt that he would have, if he failed to give his life for love:
6.538    [& I am the] one man who could keep you out of bondage.
            Let me be hidden dark down in my grave
            before I hear you cry or know you captive!

HK is the perfect Greek, anticipating Socrates & Plato.  One is responsible only for one's own life.  You cannot change the world.  You cannot be immortal, nor make your family & city immortal.  Time is all powerful.  Fate is all powerful.  We cannot entirely understand why beautiful time consumes & destroys the vigor of life & love.  But we must accept reality.  For the only other options are madness (AK's rage) or suicide (AK knows that indulging his rage is suicidal):
6.566   You know no man dispatches me
            into the undergloom against my fate;
            no mortal, either, can escape his fate.

Interestingly, Homer does not end book 6 with this image of HK as metaphysical philosopher.  Instead, he ends with the image of HK as moralist, as patriot.  Like Thetis who cannot help her son, nor change his destiny, HK cannot change Paris nor save AND from her hard fate.  Love cannot so easily affect power.  Yet power so often seems to revolve around beauty.  In any case, HK tells Paris:
6.606   My strange brother!  No man with justice in him
            would underrate your handiwork in battle;
            you have a powerful arm.  But you give way
            too easily, & lose interest, lose your will.
            My heart aches in me when I hear our men,
            who have such toil of battle on your account,
            talk of you with contempt.

Go to the top & click on the next section: Questions.