Herbst Humanities Dr. Fredricksmeyer
Iliad
Shame Culture, Martial Excellence and Its Costs
Book 1
Programmatic opening
anger (mênis) of Achilles—death of Greeks
will of Zeus
will of Apollo
Hera suggests assembly
Calchas>Achilles>Agamemnon
Agamemnon/Briseis/Achilles
mênis/eris theme
Apollo’s mênis > mênis of Achilles
Achilles withdrawal = continuation of the plague
shame culture—honor (vs. T. S. Eliot “Achilles little more than a superhuman adolescent”)
timê
kleos
theme of compensation
Chryses/Agamemnon—negative example
Book 2
assembly
channels of communication: Agamemnon vs. Achilles
hierarchy
Thersites vs. aristocrats (kalokagathia)
slave/common soldiers/aristocrats/ruler (king)
aristocrats compete through mêtis and, in Iliad, especially biê
Agamemnon’s authority further undermined
Book 3
duel between Paris and Menelaus
representative of entire conflict, yet second string
vs. Achilles vs. Hector as poetic climax
theft of Helen/Paris’ guilt reenacted
Paris/negative eros-erotic aretê does not belong in Iliadic world (vs. in lyric poetry, e.g., Sappho)
Teichoskopia
Helen’s inversion of normal type-scene; Helen as the earliest femme fatale (proto-feminist)
characterization of major Greek players—Odysseus’ words, his mêtis
Book 4
Hera’s viciousness—no theodicy!
implications for Greek theology
metaphysical interpretation of history
from truce to war
Athena’ role-
Pandarus
reenactment
foreshadowing
double motivation>strict liability (strict code of crime and punishment)
Book 5
Diomedes’ aristeia (etymologically cognate with aristos- and aretê)
ascending scale of conflict up to Ares (coward)-Greek ambivalence toward warfare despite
appreciation for martial aretê
Book 6
Verbal duel between Diomedes and Glaucus-SHAME CULTURE
“He [the father of Glaucus] sent me to Troy with strict instructions
To be the best ever, better than all the rest,
And not to bring shame on the race of my fathers
The noblest men in …”
ascending scale of affection up to Andromache
effeminate Paris and Helen- erotic aretê incongruous
city (female) and battlefield (male)
Paris and Helen vs. Hector and Andromache-proper philia
yet SHAME CULTURE
incompatibility of martial arête and domestic life
suspense and foreshadowing—(pre-mature) leave-taking
location-Western Gates
Book 7
duel between Hector and Ajax
assembly of desperate Trojans
Book 8
Zeus no divine intervention
Greeks losses
Book 9
desperate Greeks
second embassy to the hut of Achilles-
Odysseus’ speech
Achilles’ negative response
biê vs. mêtis
the spectrum of heroic responses to opponents
the hero’s dilemma
Phoenix’ speech
Meleager myth
importance of material goods for timê
Ajax’ speech
Achilles positive response
Book 10
Dolon
problems of Greek style and characterization of Odysseus and Diomedes
Book 11
series of Greek aristeiai cut short by wounding
Agamemnon’s first
comparison to childbirth (vs. Medea)
“Old Peleus / Told Achilles to be preeminent always” (11.827-28)-SHAME CULTURE
Nestor’ suggestion to Patroclus-the seeds of his demise
Myrmidons (see the Gurkhas)
Book 12
lion/boar simile echoes words of Andromache, and adds pathos to Hector’s victory
Sarpedon and Glaucus
heroic code
noblesse oblige
Book 13
Trojan set-back
Book 14
Hera tricks Zeus
catalogue of Zeus’mistresses (poet’s purposes)
Book 15
Zeus awakens
situation reversed to Book 12
no theodicy-implications for Greek theology
metaphysical interpretation of history
Hector and the Trojans-fire to Greek ships
Book 16
Patroclus arrives at the hut of Achilles
Achilles’ strategy to maintain/regain is timê
Achilles’ three warnings to Patroclus/Greek numerology
Patroclus and Achilles’ armor
Patroclus’ death
Book 17
structural requirements-
armor of Achilles to Hector-see the prophecy of Thetis at 18.100-01
body of Patroclus to the Greeks
Book 18
suicidal state of Achilles
visit of Thetis
irony of Achilles’ wish during last visit in Book 1
prophecy: Hector’s death = Achilles’ death (18.100-01)
Achilles: “strife … drips down our throats sweeter than honey / and mushrooms in our bellies
like smoke” (18-112-14)-see Chris Hedges analogy of war and heroin
Achilles’ foreknowledge/acceptance of own death (18.128-29)
Book 19
Achilles and Agamemnon reconcile
Achilles: “nothing matters to me now, / but killing, and blood, and men in agony” (19.225-26)
foreshadows Achilles’ berserking, especially evident in Books 21-22
psychological realism of Briseis and other captive women
Achilles’ sympathetic death: from now till Book 24
Achilles refuses to eat (but is nourished by Athena); nor will he bathe or voluntarily sleep
Achilles in Vietnam—Soldier’s Love as an aspect of warrior culture
Achilles arms for battle
his nomen will now be fully, heroically realized
Book 20
Achilles confronts Aeneas
Aeneas
greater warrior than Hector!
Dardanian ally of Trojans
enmity toward Priam
ultimate Trojan survival
irony of Aeneid (18 BCE) by Vergil
Rome and its conquest of the Greek world
T. S. Eliot “Aeneas … the first adult western hero”: Roman virtus vs. Greek arête
Timeo Danos et dona ferentes
Book 21
Achilles’ aristeia, PTSD, and berserking
dolphin simile—omophagy (like a beast)/allelophagy (like a cannibal)
disruption of the kosmos itself
Achilles vs. Scamander River
Lycaon parallel with Zeus
psychological realism: Achilles in Vietnam; see also Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On
Killing
triggers and symptoms (berserking) of PTSD
Book 22
Hector’s death-
the pleas of Priam and Hecuba
Hector’s response-SHAME CULTURE
Hector’s cowardice
psychological realism
message of Andromache (and the lion simile) fully comprehended
the number 3 (see the funeral procession in Book 23)
Athena’s dual role: malicious and beneficent
location of kill—Western Gates
psychological realism: Achilles in Vietnam—Abuse
Andromache’s lamentation
Book 23
parallel scenes of mourning
Achilles remains the living dead despite revenge
Achilles and the Myrmidons procession around the corpse of Patroclus (23.15-16)
Patroclus visits Achilles in a dream
Funeral games initiated by impious sacrifice-Achilles cuts throats of 12 Trojan youths
Achilles gives away own property
Book 24
gods vs. Achilles’ desecration
revenge remains unsatisfactory
Priam’s katabasis
Hermes
Achilles’ tent
Achilles reminded of Peleus
Achilles’ old-self
return of Hector/Achilles
ending
structural symmetry
emotional resolution
narrative refuses to close—open door to a tragic future
Epilogue-Vergil’s Aeneid Book 2
Review of WDR on Homeric World sheet