Unit 2

English 201:    Masterpieces of Western Literature

Explication:
Reading:W&H: 162-91.

This is the second of three lessons on The Iliad.  Our theme in this section is honor.

AK refuses to return to the battle because, he says, AG dishonored him by taking Briseis. Ironically, all 3 of the great Greeks lose women: AK loses Briseis, AG lost Khryseis, & MEN lost Helen.  Even Zeus himself lost Thetis.  Only AK finds this wound to his honor unendurable.  With AK out of the battle, the Trojans, led by HK, threaten to overrun the Greek defensive lines, burn their ships, & massacre them.  AG regrets his pride & disrespect:
9.17     with slow tears trickling,
AG addresses the officer corps:
9.20      Friends, leaders of Argives, all my captains,
            Zeus Kronides entangled me in folly
            to my undoing.

AG proposes giving up the siege.  He is not sincere.  His suggestion is a tactic.  Twice we saw AG give orders without any regard for the feelings or those affected.  The first instance was when AG kept Khryseis, disregarding the advice of "all the soldiers" (1.27).  The second instance was when AG took Briseis from AK, against the advice of Nestor: "do not deprive him of the girl" (1.325).  Now in tears, AG demonstrates that he has learned his lesson about arrogance (hubris) & fate.  But he is not a general by accident.  AG knows that he can count on the impetuous Diomedes to oppose his suggestion.  AG proposed:
9.31     Now let us act on what I say:
            Board ship for our own fatherland!  Retreat!

Notice how different AG's tone is from book 1 when he ordered troops to seize Briseis from AK.  At that time he didn't invite anyone to "act on what I say."  AG commanded:
1.377    if he [AK] balks at giving her
             I shall be there myself with men-at-arms
             in force to take her -- all the more gall for him.

Ironically, Diomedes says AG isn't committed enough!
9.46      [You have] no staying power
Who sacrificed his innocent daughter Iphigeneia to see this enterprise through?   Diomedes' stupidity in this incident should cause us to smile when he ends his speech, saying:
9.58      We came here under god.

Nestor is the wise old man.  He has had to relinquish the spotlight on the battlefield to younger men.  But he now enjoys the limelight in giving advice, especially to the great general AG.  How funny that AG pulls the strings to have Nestor advise him to do exactly what AG wants to do.  First Nestor reminds AG that he is responsible for the army & can't simply go home (like AK has done -- at least in retiring from the battle).
9.112     Lord Marshal of the army, AG
             . . . you hold power over a great army
             & are responsible for it

How likely is it that AG forgot this after consenting to kill his daughter & then relinquishing Khryseis, because he said:
1.137     I want the army saved
             & not destroyed

Unlike AK, AG patiently accepts Nestor's stinging judgment:
9.126     you took the girl Briseis
             . . . but not with our consent.
             Far from it; I for one had begged you not to
             Just the same, you gave way to your pride,
             & you dishonored a great prince,
 ...........a hero to whom the gods themselves do honor.

Does Nestor go too far here?  Perhaps.  But Akhaians are dying everyday because AK is absent from the battle.  AK's mother is a goddess; & not just any goddess, but the one that Zeus wanted to marry.  Finally, Nestor loves to give speeches & typically goes a step too far to make sure that his points are entirely clear.

Try to remember AG's demeanor in this scene.  Later we will compare how AG accepted his fate (& guilt) & how AK avoids saying anything comparable (cf. 19.64).    AG:
9.137    Sir, there is nothing false in your account
             of my blind errors.  I committed them;
             I will not now deny it.
9.143     I lost my head, I yielded to black anger
             but now I would retract it & appease him

What is AK worth?  AG hopes to entice him to re-enter the battle by offering him: 7 tripods, 10 bars of gold, 20 caldrons, 12 prize winning horses, 7 skilled women, Briseus (the girl that AG took that caused the problem with AK!), 20 Trojan women of his choice, 7 farms, & one of his daughters.  OD (Odysseus), Aias (Ajax) & Phoinix convey this offer to AK.  Why these three?  Phoinix is a foster father to AK.  OD won't make a mistake (like Diomedes probably would).  Aias is the next greatest fighter after AK.  If he begs AK to return to the battle, that should sate AK's vanity.  (Sort of like having Emmitt Smith tell Troy Aikman, "Troy you have to get back in the game because I can't replace you & we can't win without you").

OD reminds AK that he is his own worst enemy:
9.307     How rightly in your case you father, Peleus
             put it in his farewell [to you]
9.312     Control your passion, though, & your proud heart,
9.316     That was your old father's admonition

OD makes the offer to AK.  This scene should remind us that Paris was only offered one of the 3 values: power, wisdom, or beauty.  AK is offered all of these & more.  OD says that if AK is unmoved by money, power, sex/desire, & the honor that this offer represents, he ought to:
9.367     take pity on the rest [of us],
              all the old army, worn to rags in battle
              These will honor you as gods are honored!

OD continues, saying that if all these enticements are not enough, consider:
9.370     What glory you may win!
              Think: HK is your man this time

Recall that AK's mother is a goddess who responds to his every whim.  Predictably AK prefers self pity:
9.392      What least thing have I
              to show for it, for harsh days undergone
              & my life gambled, all these years of war?

Hopefully you smiled at this scene.  How ridiculous.  What could have kept AK out of war?  War is his life.  He loves it.  It is the only place where he is entirely in control; the place where he is the power that decides everyone's fate; the place where he is honored above everyone else.  If AK is sincere in this speech, why does he linger at Troy?  Why didn't he go home when he quit the battle?  He stays, not only because he knows that he will get back into the fight, but also because this scene is precisely what he has wanted: to be begged; to be told that he (& the kind of power he personifies) is essential; that we (in the polis) literally cannot live without him.  Vanity knows no bounds.  AK is unresponsive:
9.422     he [AG] cannot change my mind.

AK goes on to bluster -- to prolong this honor when the entire army acknowledges that it can only be saved by AK; to bask in self-righteousness.  AK predicted that the day will soon come when:
9.289    You will eat your heart out,
             raging with remorse for this dishonor
& that day is now.  AK says he will not be appeased until AG:
9.472    pays me back
            full measure, pain for pain, dishonor for dishonor.

What could AG do to satisfy AK?  What could Thetis do to make AK happy?  The point is that appetite is insatiable.  The more it is fed, the more it demands, including:
18.124  anger that envenoms even the wise
            & is far sweeter than slow-dripping honey
            clouding the hearts of men like smoke

Interestingly, Gautama Buddha & Homer came to similar conclusions: that because appetite cannot be satisfied, it must be controlled at the time of inception.   Either we control it or it controls us.  Almost all of Homer's characters, except Odysseus, is an addict.  They are addicted to power.  They are addicted to beauty.

AK articulates the Greek outlook on life that continues to influence the West.  He says that he  has:
9.500    two possible destinies
            if on the one hand I remain to fight
            . . . I lose all hope of home
            but gain unfading glory
            if I sail back to my own land my glory
            fails--but a long life lies ahead for me

Paris illustrates the second choice: evade trouble & indulge appetite.  What do we think of Paris?  Even his own brother, HK, is contemptuous of Paris.  Paris is also pathetic because he is too immature to recognize that he has no honor.  Greek myth says that reality was divided into three realms.  Humans are destined never to reach Olympus.  Soon enough we will be shades in underground gloom possessing nothing but our memories of life.  Sarpedon, Zeus' son, defines our human condition:
12.356  could we but survive this war [life is war]
            to live forever deathless, without age,
            I would not ever go again to battle
            nor would I send you there for honor's sake!
            But now a thousand shapes of death surround us,
            & no man can escape them, or be safe.
            Let us attack--whether to give some fellow
            glory or to win it

Our lives are fated to be fleeting.  If you choose to indulge appetite, perhaps you will be happy for a while.  But happiness is bought at the price of anonymity.  The Greek paradox that defines human life is this:the gods trouble those they love. We initially think the opposite: that if God loved us, she (e.g., Thetis) would protect us from trouble.  The problem is that we would never grow up. In struggling to overcome trouble we write an identity.  The best hope for our tragic human condition is to perform honorable acts that we will be proud to remember in the next life when we will no longer possess a body & consequently can no longer act.  Hell is something like post-traumatic stress syndrome causing us to relive formative or defining  moments of panic & crisis & cowardice to eternally feel guilt & shame.  Only one thing could be worse: never to have dared to live at all.  Surprisingly, the text for Rev. Jesse Jackson's motto to "be somebody" is Homer.  OD will provide the model of a person who dared to be great.  AK is great, but he is so instinctive & unreflective that we do not see much of our own humdrum & non-heroic lives reflected in him.

After OD fails to convince AK to return to the battle, Phoinix counsels AK.  He reminds AK that Peleus appointed him to act as a surrogate father to AK:
9.532     For your sake the old master-charioteer,
             Peleus, made provision that I should come
9.588     I who formed your manhood

Phoinix is concerned for AK's sanity:
9.729    do not let your mind go so astray!
            Let no malignant spirit
            turn you that way, dear son!

Old Phoinix tells the charming story about prayer & folly:
9.612    Folly is strong & swift,
            outrunning all the prayers, & everywhere
            arriving first to injure mortal men
9.610    prayers are daughters of almighty Zeus--
            one may imagine them lame
            follow[ing] after passionate Folly.
9.616    they come healing after [Folly has touched us]

AK is unreachable or unresponsive to reason.  When OD reports the failure of the mission to get AK to come back into the battle, Diomedes says:
9.8.49   At the best of time
            he is a proud man; now you have pushed him far
            deeper into his vanity & pride.
            By god, let us have done with him
            whether he goes or stays!
Ironically, this is our feeling about AK.  Our reason tells us something different: that AK is irreplaceable & essential for the polis.

Homer's plot seems to have reached a dead end.  Remember the beginning when AK almost killed AG?  If that had happened the work would never have started.  AK was compelled by a power greater than his own.  Ironically it is Athena (reason).  This is ironic because we have seen that AK will not listen to reason.  When Briseis is taken from AK, he attempts to kill AG for this dishonor.  AK goes into his sulk when he cannot get his way.  The plot now repeats a second version of this sequence.  HK takes AK's protégé PAT.  This time AK can vent his rage in murderous violence.  Ironically AK's rage is now seen as socially constructive.  AK will save the Akhaians.  There is a second irony that repeats Homer's fundamental theme about the attraction of power.  We cheer AK's splendor but when the dust settles, great HK is dead & the polis that he defended will soon be annihilated.

Book 16 opens with irony.  AK has accepted PAT as a kind of military apprentice.  AK is suppose to be both a tutor & role model for PAT.  We find PAT scolding his teacher!
16.35    But you are a hard case,
            AK!  God forbid this rage you nurse
            should master me.  You & your fearsome pride!
            What good will come of it to anyone?
            Have you no pity?

If AK has no pity for his comrades, PAT is determined to turn the tables to show AK how to act:
16.48      Lend me your gear to strap over my shoulders;
              Trojans then may take me for yourself
              & break off the battle.

AK consents.  He must be confident in PAT's military skill.  Indeed, we see PAT kill dozens of Trojans.  AK admonishes PAT:
16.107    You must not,
              for joy of battle, joy of killing Trojans,
              carry the fight to Ilion.
16.111    The Lord Apollo
              loves the Trojans.  Turn back . . . as soon
              as you restore the safety of the [Greek] ships

Once again AK prays for the help of the gods to:
16.282    accomplish what I most desire

AK prays for what we all pray for: success, power, & safety ("to return unhurt").  Tragically:
 16.295   Zeus who views the wide world
              heard him.  Part [of his prayer] he granted, part denied:
              he let PAT push the heavy fighting
              back from the [Greek] ships, but would not let him come
              unscathed from battle.

Caught up in the excitement of the plot, we are likely to forget that The Iliad is poetry. Everything that happens is symbolic.  Life is the battle.  No one remains unscathed.  Ultimately we follow PAT into death.  But there is also a day for greatness; for glory & honor.

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