Last year I attended a conference where one of the speakers stated that literature starts with Homer. I love to read so I thought that maybe I should see what the fuss is about with the cradle of the written word. I do not like poetry but I said that maybe it is time to learn how to appreciate it. Well, it didn't go well. I appreciate its worth but It was a chore to read and I had to stop after 100 pages or so. No more epic poems for me.

"¡Oh amigos! ¡Sed hombres, mostrad que tenéis un corazón esforzado y avergonzaos de parecer cobardes en el duro combate! De los que sienten este temor, son más los que se salvan que los que mueren; los que huyen ni alcanzan gloria, ni entre sí se ayudan."

La Ilíada, este inmortal poema épico griego que la historia de la literatura le atribuye a Homero (comentaré esto más adelante), es un libro sobre la guerra, pero que también habla de una época, en la que Troya o Ilión es el campo de batalla donde se pone de manifiesto la perfecta conjunción de dioses, héroes y hombres, quienes luchan a la par y en distintos planos, como el terrenal y el del Olimpo.
Este es un libro que habla sobre la cólera de Aquiles y la bravura de Héctor y nos involucra rápidamente como testigos de traiciones y alianzas tanto entre los dioses del Olimpo como en los pueblos guerreros que combaten entre sí, puesto que los dioses apoyan tanto a teucros como a aqueos y sobre ellos inclinan la balanza alterándoles sus destinos, insuflándoles valor o aconsejándolos al punto ante una maniobra o proceder inadecuado. Los héroes, conscientes de sus destinos afrontan con honor y hombría lo que los dioses les imponen sin discusión.
Estas acciones están claramente narradas en un capítulo previo al recrudecimiento de la guerra, casi en su etapa final cuando Homero nos dice: "Así habló el Cronida y promovió una gran batalla. Los dioses fueron al combate divididos en dos bandos: encamináronse a las naves Hera, Palas Atenea, Poseidón, que ciñe la tierra, el benéfico Hermes de prudente espíritu, y con ellos Hefesto, que, orgulloso de su fuerza, cojeaba arrastrando sus gráciles piernas; y enderezaron sus pasos a los troyanos Ares, el de tremolante casco, el intenso Febo Apolo, Artemisa, que se complace en tirar flechas, Leto, el Janto y la risueña Afrodita."
Más allá de que el rapto de Helena de Troya por Paris, hermano de Héctor desencadene la guerra, aunque esta ya estaba esta ya dispuesta por los mismos dioses (algo que anticipaba ya Hesíodo en su Teogonía). Es que es un conflicto ineludible porque así está escrito y efectivamente desencadenará en un enfrentamiento que durará diez años.
La tan famosa cólera de Aquiles, que se desdobla en dos partes: la de su enemistad con Agamenón por apropiarse este de Briseida, una doncella tomada como botín de guerra y por otro lado la muerte de su queridísimo amigo y escudero Patroclo a manos de un capitán licio, con remate de Héctor y ayuda del dios Ares.
Es llamativa y sugerente esta "cólera" de Aquiles ante la muerte de Patroclo. A mí, personalmente, me hizo pensar que Patroclo oficia prácticamente como amante de Aquiles, puesto que es llamativo que haya varios capítulos que hablan del llanto, la pena y el duelo que Aquiles realiza sobre Patroclo, además de los interminables funerales y exequias que a este le dedica.
Pensemos esto: si el primer hexámetro del poema comienza diciendo: "Canta, oh diosa, la cólera del Pelida Aquiles; cólera funesta que causó infinitos males a los aqueos y precipitó al Hades muchas almas valerosas de héroes, a quienes hizo presa de perros y pasto de aves -cumplíase la voluntad de Zeus- desde que se separaron disputando el Atrida, rey de hombres, y el divino Aquiles.", esto evidencia claramente que la hecatombe que viviremos a través de las casi 500 páginas del libro responden a una simple "vendetta" de Aquiles por la muerte de su amadísimo amigo, arrastrando consigo a cuanto guerrero, rey, dios o mujer se encuentre en su camino. Son muchas las muertes que desencadena esta cólera. Es incluso llamativo que los dioses del Olimpo acepten todo este lío.
Además, si uno presta atención al desarrollo de la historia, Aquiles aparece al principio del mismo y luego, enfurruñados por sus demonios internos, desaparece para retornar casi al final del libro, cuando vuelve a la batalla para vengar a Patroclo sobre Héctor. Espero que los fieles lectores de Homero no se sientan ofendidos por este comentario ¡(y que la furia de los dioses griegos no caiga sobre mí!).
Los personajes de la Ilíada son numerosos. Son tantos que cuando el aedo (así le llamaban a los bardos helénicos en su época) narra las hazañas personales de Héctor, Aquiles, Idomeneo, Diomedes o Ajax Telamonio lo hace enumerando decenas de nombres. Son tantos que perdí la cuenta y me pregunto por qué no los anoté. Me atrevería a decir que supera los 559 nombres que Tolstói creó en "La Guerra y la Paz".
Otro detalle interesante son los atributos que Homero le da tanto a dioses como a héroes (Aquiles, "el de los pies ligeros", Apolo "el que hiere de lejos", Zeus "el que nubes reúne", Hera "la de brazos nevados", etc.), esto hace que al atribuirle al personaje características divinas o heroicas lo eleve por sobre los otros de menor linaje o jerarquía. Es un detalle que me agradó sobremanera.
La descripción de las batallas, el realismo, la sangre y la violencia, no lograron convencerme mucho. Se tornan un tanto repetitivas sus descripciones y hipérboles. Recuerdo la forma tan vívida en la que Virgilio relata las de la Eneida y siento que son más reales aún, pero esto es una cuestión más relacionada a la traducción realizada que a los gustos personales.
Los personajes en el libro son variados, como también los son así sus influencias, actitudes y predominancia para la historia. A mí me agradó mucho encontrarme por el lado de los teucros, lisios y dárdanos a Héctor, el del casco brillante, Eneas (personaje principal de la Eneida de Virgilio, uno de mis libros preferidos, que continúa la caída de Troya), Paris, Sarpedón, Polidamante y Agenor. Por el otro lado descubro a aqueos, dánaos y mirmidones y entre ellos a Aquiles, el de las grebas hermosas, a Ulises (quien continuará esta historia en la Odisea), al bravo Menelao, hermano de Agamenón, al intrépido Diomedes, a Ajax Telamonio (valiente guerrero al que ningún dios ayuda) y al polémico Agamenón, parte clave de la historia y que junto a la Odisea, lo narra Esquilo en otro regreso después de la guerra, junto con la Orestíada.
Muy interesante fue leer este poema épico en el otro plano, el de los dioses, puesto que se desarrolla casi a la par el mismo conflicto, ya que, como cito anteriormente, cada dios apoya a quien más quiere. Es fundamental la intervención de Hera, Palas Atenea, Febo Apolo, Ares, Poseidón y Afrodita en la contienda, puesto que hasta entre ellos mismos batallan, causándose graves heridas. Los veo como dioses falibles, demasiado humanos y más notoriamente en Zeus, ya que por momentos, el viejo Crónida es perverso, muy parcial y protector de Héctor, y en otros manipulador e incluso terco y obstinado. De hecho es necesario que por momentos su esposa Hera lo engañe o le haga entrar en razón ante acontecimientos demasiado desfavorables e injustos para con los aqueos.
Por último, me hago una pregunta. ¿Fue realmente Homero quien relató los poemas en forma oral? Me apoyo en la teoría de algunos especialistas que aseguran que fueron varios los aedos que contaban al pueblo la epopeya griega de la Ilíada y la Odisea a partir de distintas historias. Me resulta difícil creer que un hombre complemente ciego pueda narrar con tanto lujo de detalle los ornamentos de los guerreros, la descripción de los dioses, la violencia de las batallas, los ríos, el Olimpo, todo lo que sucede en los mares que surca Ulises en la Odisea, etc. Es más, estoy de acuerdo con que pueda haber dictado los poemas a los que después lo habrían relatado en público, aumentando la cantidad de detalles. Porque no estamos hablando de un Jorge Luis Borges o John Milton quienes quedaron ciegos ya entrados en años sino de un hombre que fue privado de su visión toda su vida.
Pero, por otro lado digo: ¡quién soy yo para cuestionar a semejante poeta! No soy nada más que un simple lector, un gotita de agua en ese vasto océano que es la literatura, que se apasiona con los heroicos versos que narran las hazañas de Aquiles, Héctor, Ulises y tantos héroes y dioses, gracias a la eterna gloria de Homero, uno de los padres de las letras más ilustres.

welcome to...THE APRILIAD!

for those of you who are new here and do not yet feel the existential dread and heart-stopping moroseness that a title + month pun inspires in the hearts of many...

1) hi.

and 2) you have been cursed to stumble upon yet another installment of PROJECT LONG CLASSICS, in which i divide up an intimidating book into skinny and appealing chunks, dispersed over the course of a month.

in this case, this stems from one of my defining personality traits: pretending that someday i'll reread the million-page classics i half-read in school.

but now i'm doing it.

let's get into it.

BOOK I: PLAGUE AND WRATH
i love that the greek gods had nothing better to do than mess with human rivalries. it's like if you were allowed to pick fights between people while you watched reality tv.


BOOK II: A DREAM, A TESTING AND THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPS
this chapter was roughly 60% roll call and i have to say...homer, if you think i'm remembering ANY of these names, you are in for a posthumous surprise.


BOOK III: A DUEL AND A TROJAN VIEW OF THE GREEKS
ok...the helen stuff is sadder than i remember...

on a lighter note you have to respect homer's commitment to the wartime #OOTD.


BOOK IV: THE OATH IS BROKEN AND BATTLE JOINED
if i were SHOT by an ARROW and everyone wanted to stand around and poetically recap what had happened for paragraphs on end...i would freak the hell out.

and i certainly wouldn't be all "it isn't mortal because of my sick-ass armor, don't worry about it."


BOOK V: DIOMEDES' HEROICS
huuuuge chapter for fans of tongues getting cut off at the root.


BOOK VI: HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE
helen calling herself a "cold, evil-minded slut" and then going on to discuss how her husband is brainless and annoying...kind of a slay.


BOOK VII: AJAX FIGHTS HECTOR
you have to respect homer — that is a CRAZY matchup for this early in the game. getting the big names out there early.

menelaus really catching strays out here...he's the only one brave enough to say he'll fight hector and then agamemnon gets up and calls him old and washed up in front of everyone... #JusticeForOlympian-BredMenelaus


BOOK VIII: HECTOR TRIUMPHANT
pretty quick turnaround on triumph. hector just got his ass beat by ajax in front of everyone iirc

this chapter alone uses the insults "cry-baby" and "barefaced bitch." the ancient greeks: they're just like us.


BOOK IX: THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES
folks...we're 20 days behind.

i don't know how this happened, but i'm guessing a combination of ennui, laziness, self-pity, distraction, a girls' trip to miami, and a hero's journey of my own involving frozen oreos and learning how to play poker.

but that's just a guess. time to play catchup - 7 days left in april and 15 books left to go!

achilles, petty king.


BOOK X: DIOMEDES AND ODYSSEUS: THE NIGHT ATTACK
i'm going to be honest — this is way, way too many names for me to be keeping active track of who belongs to which long lost city-state. let alone which gods are fans of which one.


BOOK XI: ACHILLES TAKES NOTE
achilles is like...the original person who says they're into self care but is actually just putting an amazing PR spin on being truly selfish and a nightmare to be around.

another crazy bloody chapter. and not in the british way.

although i guess that too.


BOOK XII: HECTOR STORMS THE WALL
this book loves nothing more than having one character say two full paragraphs of dialogue, then having another character parrot the exact same two paragraphs to another audience. it's very me when i'm trying to hit word count-coded.


BOOK XIII: THE BATTLE AT THE SHIPS
literally the only way that the hundreds of character names in this could be harder to track is if it were being read aloud.

which is, you know. the intention.


BOOK XIV: ZEUS OUTMANOEUVRED
look at that fancy spelling. we're in business.

hera is truly #goals in this chapter...i want to spend multiple pages getting all dressed up and be best friends with Sleep. as is we're barely even warm acquaintances.

although i guess your husband listing the various hot women he's slept with and expecting you to be flattered is not ideal.


BOOK XV: THE GREEKS AT BAY
imagine getting killed by a dart to the nipple...tough way to go out.


BOOK XVI: THE DEATH OF PATROCLUS
uh oh. we got here faster than i remembered.

oh, patroclus...you either live slaying or live long along to die seeing yourself become slayed. as the saying goes. (this works on 2 levels, because war is happening and also because patroclus is cool.)


BOOK XVII: THE STRUGGLE OVER PATROCLUS
mess with the body of patroclus and your brain WILL ooze bloody out of the crest-socket...i know that's right!!! patroclus hive we stay winning


BOOK XVIII: ACHILLES' DECISION
uh oh hector!!!!! get your ass ready!!! here the boy comes!!

we just have a dozen pages of the most stunning and poetic and emotive writing of all time to get through first. but then we're on our way.


BOOK IX: THE FEUD ENDS
you might think that if war is raging and we have bodies to collect and there's stolen armor on the lose and the battle is about to be lost that we DON'T have time for 30 pages of emotional exploration via dialogue. rookie mistake.


BOOK XX: ACHILLES ON THE RAMPAGE
i'm gonna say it...go off, king.

also extremely funny to be pleading for your life and fairly convinced it's going to work because you're the same age as your opponent. fellow 25-year-olds, we are in a permanent truce!


BOOK XXI: ACHILLES FIGHTS THE RIVER
he's just that good.

excellent strategy to hear someone's whole life story, all their suffering and sadnesses, plus YOUR involvement in it, and just go "idiot." afterward. this book is like a how-to guide for absolute sass at this point.


BOOK XXII: THE DEATH OF HECTOR
you read this title and you're all hell yeah and then you remember that little scene by the wall with the baby freaked out at the helmet and the wife and and and...

i see what you did there, homer.

and it's only slightly undercut by the beginning of this chapter being about how hector saw achilles and ran away and achilles had to chase him around the city limits thrice.


BOOK XXIII: THE FUNERAL AND THE GAMES
kind of a tough itinerary but okay.

it is a testament to the power and beauty of the conversation between patroclus' spirit and achilles that the reader only spends some time like "okay...kind of insane that we're doing the olympics right now."


BOOK XXIV: PRIAM AND ACHILLES
oh, the humanity!


OVERALL
usually i find the various installments of this project fairly easy to read, because of the whole They Are Very Short thing, but this never ended up feeling effortless. that's fine — what it did feel was incredibly evocative and impressive, a bajillion years after its writing.
rating: 4

Ἰλιάς = The Iliad, Homer

The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer.

Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

Characters: Ajax, Odysseus, Helen of Troy, Menelaus, Paris, Hector, Achilles, Agamemnon, Aeneas, Sarpedon, Priam, Cassandra, Patroclus, Diomedes, Ajax Oileus, Andromache, Briseis, Hecuba, Nestor, Akhilleus.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز نخست ماه ژانویه سال 1973میلادی

عنوان: ایلیاد؛ شاعر: هومر؛ مترجم: سعید نفیسی؛ تهران، بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب، 1334؛ در 720ص؛ موضوع: داستان جنگ تروا از نویسندگان یونان - سده 08پیش از میلاد

عنوان: ایلیاد؛ شاعر: هومر، مترجم: میرجلال الدین کزّازی؛ تهران، نشر مرکز، 1377؛ در 579ص؛ شابک 9643053865؛ چاپ دوم 1381؛ چاپ پنجم 1385؛ چاپ ششم 1387؛ شابک 9789643053864؛ موضوع: داستانهای کهن از نویسندگان یونانی - سده 08پیش از میلاد

اثر حماسی از «هومر»، شاعر نابینای «یونانی» است، داستان جنگ «تروا»، بخاطر ربودن «هلن»، ز�� زیباروی «منلاس»، یکی از فرمانروایان «یونان»، به دست «پاریس» پسر «پریام»، شاه «ایلیون (تروا)» است، خواستگاران «هلن»، باهم پیمان بسته بودند، که چنانچه گزندی به «هلن» رسید، شوی او را برای مکافات مجرم یاری دهند؛ از اینروی سپاهی بزرگ، به فرماندهی «آگاممنون»، و با حضور پهلوانانی همچون: «آشیل»، «اولیس»، «پاتروکل»، «آیاس (آژاکس) »و...؛ آراستند، و به سوی شهر «تروا» روانه شدند، تا «هلن» را از «پاریس» بازپس بگیرند؛

سپاهیان «یونان»، ده سال «تروا» را محاصره کردند، ولی با رشادتهای پهلوانان «تروا»، به ویژه «هکتور» بزرگترین پسر شاه، و برادر «پاریس»، و پشتیبانی خدایانی همچون «زئوس»، «آفرودیت»، و «آپولون» طرفی نبستند؛ در آن سالها «آشیل»، بزرگوارترین پشتوانه ی یونانیان با «آگاممنون» اختلاف داشت، جبهه را رها کرده، و در گوشه ای، به همراه یاران خویش، نبرد را تماشا میکرد؛ تا اینکه «پاتروکل» پسرعموی «آشیل»، با لباس و جنگ ابزار آسمانی «آشیل»، به نبرد رفت؛ ولی با نیرنگ «زئوس»، و دشمنی «آپولون»، و دیگر خدایان هوادار «تروا»، «پاتروکل» شکست خورد، و به دست «هکتور» کشته شد؛ «آشیل» از آن رویداد خشمگین شد، و اختلافش با «آگاممنون» را کنار بگذاشت، و پس از تشییع جنازه ی «پاتروکل»، به نبرد تن به تن با «هکتور» پرداخت، و او را شکست داد

سپس به جنازه ی «هکتور» بی احترامی روا داشت، و آنرا با خود به اردوگاه «یونانیان» آورد؛ «پریام» شاه «تروا»، به یاری خدایان، شبانه خود را به اردوگاه «آشیل» رساند، و با زاری از او درخواست کرد، که جنازه ی پسرش را به او برگردانند، تا بتواند مراسمی در خور بزرگی پهلوان حماسه ساز ترتیب دهد؛ پس از گفتگوی بسیار، «آشیل» پذیرفت؛

داستان «ایلیاد» اثر «هومر»، با توصیف سوزاندن «هکتور» در «تروا»، و به سوگ نشستن مردمان شهر، برای «هکتور» به پایان میرسد؛

در کتاب: «ایلیاد»، و همچنین در کتاب دیگر «هومر»: «اودیسه»، هرگز اشاره و سخنی از نحوه ی پایان نبرد «تروا»، و سرنوشت تراژیک «آشیل» نیست؛ داستانهای «اسب تروا»، در آثار نویسندگان «رومی»، همچون «ویرژیل»، و «اووید» آمده است، و افسانه ی رویین تن بودن «آشیل» و ماجرای پاشنه ی «آشیل» او را نیز، که به مرگش میانجامد، شاعر «رمی» سده ی نخست میلادی «استاتیوس»، در کتاب خود با عنوان: «آشیلید»، برای نخستین بار آراسته، و به آن داستان، پرداخته است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 28/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 28/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Those who are happy travel today with books and stories. Heroes of mythology and victims of confinement had made to get along. Look at Ulysses, for example; everyone knows his story. With a certificate of exit to wage war, he leaves Penelope and goes to Troy. Others, like Vian, would have deserted, but he hasn't. He makes war; it lasts ten years. He could go home, but no: the time heroes are all rebellious, like the gods. It's a true science fiction novel these days! In the Trojan part of the story, Homer is the seat of our emotions: Achile and his anger will lead the Greeks to defeat. In the feelings game, the gods have no example to receive from people. Sure, men have an interest in standing like heroes.

Oh my favourite sins!!! To be enjoyed on this thirteenth stop on the world tour - Ancient Greece.

Pride, wrath, revenge, honour, anger, stubbornness, and the relentless pursuit of glory in war. All constant themes in this godly work of art. A giant in Greek Mythology. A poetic masterpiece which is complex, busy with lots of characters and an abundance of Olympian gods. Fascinating, timeless and unforgettable but not an easy read.

I wish I had reviewed this when I read in my teens because now I have so many images of Achilles - not just the great warrior but also the tempestuous and sulking little devil that the book does not shy away from portraying. In fact, much of this book is told years into the Trojan wars and opens with a quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon which results in Achilles refusing to fight because of the dishonour Agamemnon shows Achilles by stealing his female slave. And so this deadly game or war, revenge and power ensues between the Trojans, Achaeans, Greek heroes, and Olympian gods all making their mark on this richly observed story/ poem.

The contrast of courage and petty quarrels not just among the human characters but Greek gods is fascinating. So too are the themes which makes this historical account captivating and compelling.

I also loved the book ‘Song of Achilles’ because I felt it was more aligned to the way Achilles is portrayed in The Iliad. Watching the films - although blockbusters they are not how Homer depicted the great warrior Achilles who was flawed, stubborn and driven more by rage than common sense.

The Iliad is one of those books you should read in your lifetime. Going in though, remember it’s not what you see in the movies. This is Homer’s story and how he wants you to enjoy this godly world and Greek Mythology.

Its is everything you would expect from Greek literature - dramatic, tragic and heroic.

n  TROY VI: THE INVENTION OF ACHILLESn

“The Classics, it is the Classics!” William Blake is said to have exclaimed, with pointed reference to Homer, “that Desolate Europe with Wars!”

Blake's exclamation might not be as atrocious as it sounds at first. There might be some truth to this, a universal truth.

Significantly however, this is not how the ancients understood it. They understood war as the catastrophe that it is.

Strabo, the Roman geographer, talking about the Trojan wars, puts it thus: “For it came about that, on account of the length of the campaign, the Greeks of that time, and the barbarians as well, lost both what they had at home and what they had acquired by the campaign; and so, after the destruction of Troy, not only did the victors turn to piracy because of their poverty, the still more the vanquished who survived the war.”

It is in this spirit that I chose The Iliad as my first read for The World War I centenary read.

However, over the war-hungry centuries throughout the middle ages and right till the World Wars, this sense of the Epic was twisted by manipulating the images of Achilles & Hector - Hector became the great defender of his country and Achilles became the insubordinate soldier/officer - the worst ‘type’, more a cause for the war than even Helen herself. Of course, Achilles’ romance was never fully stripped but Hector gained in prominence throughout as the quintessential Patriot.

Precisely because of this the Blake exclamation might have been more valid than it had a right to be.

This is why there is a need to revisit the original tragic purpose of the Epic - most commentators would say that (as above) this original purpose was against ALL wars. But there is much significance to the fact that the epic celebrates the doomed fight of two extinct peoples.

The Iliad starts on the eve of war and ends on the eve of war. Of a ten year epic war, the poem focuses its attention only on a couple or so of crucial, and in the end inconclusive, weeks (for it does not end with any side victorious but with Hector’s death).

In fact, it opens with both both Hector & Achilles reluctant and extremely ambivalent towards war. And closes with both Hector & Achilles dead - by mutually assured destruction!

In that clash of the Titans, the epic defines itself and creates a lasting prophecy.

However, before we explore that we need to understand Hector & Achilles better and also the Iliad itself.

In Medias Res

The Iliad opens in medias res, as it were, as if the epic-recitation was already on its way and we, the audience, have just joined. It is part of Homer’s genius that he creates a world already in process. The art of Iliad is then the art of the entrance, the players enter from an ongoing world which is fully alive in the myths that surround the epic and the audience.

The poem describes neither the origins nor the end of the war. The epic cuts out only a small sliver of insignificant time of the great battle - and thus focuses the spotlight almost exclusively on Hector & Achilles, narrowing the scope of the poem from a larger conflict between warring peoples to a smaller one between these two individuals, and yet maintaining its cosmic aspirations. So the important question is who are Hector & Achilles and why do these two heroes demand nothing less than the greatest western epic to define and contrast them?

n  The Long Wait For Achillesn

In Iliad, how single-mindedly we are made to focus on Hector, but all the while, the Epic bursts with an absence - that of Achilles!

After the initial skirmish with Agamemnon and the withdrawal that forms the curtain-raiser, Achilles plays no part in the events described in Books 2 through 8; he sits by his ships on the shore, playing his harp, having his fun, waiting for the promised end.

“The man,” says Aristotle in the Politics, “who is incapable of working in common, or who in his self-sufficiency has no need of others, is no part of the community, like a beast, or a god.”

Hector is the most human among the heroes of The Iliad, he is the one we can relate with the most east. The scene where Hector meets Andromache and his infant son is one of the most poignant scenes of the epic and heightened by Homer for maximum dramatic tension.



On the other hand, Achilles is almost non-human, close to a god. But still human, though only through an aspiration that the audience might feel - in identifying with the quest for kleos, translated broadly as “honor”.

‘Zeus-like Achilles’ is the usage sometimes employed by Homer - and this is apt in more ways than the straight-forward fact that he is indeed first among the mortals just as Zeus is first among the gods.

Zeus and the Gods know the future, they know how things are going to unfold.

Among the mortals fighting it out in the plains of Ilium, only Achilles shares this knowledge, and this fore-knowledge is what allows him (in the guise of rage) to stay away from battle, even at the cost of eternal honor. Fore-knowledge is what makes Achilles (who is the most impetuous man alive) wiser than everyone else.

Hector on the other hand takes heed of no omens, or signs, nor consults any astrologer. For him, famously, the only sign required is that his city needed saving - “and that is omen enough for me”, as he declares. He is the rational man. He is the ordinary man. Roused to defense.

But everything Hector believes is false just as everything Achilles knows is true - for all his prowess, Hector is as ordinary a soldier as anyone else (except Achilles), privy to no prophecies, blind to his own fate. Elated, drunk with triumph, Hector allows himself to entertain one impossible dream/notion after other, even to the extent that perhaps Achilles too will fall to him. That he can save Troy all by himself.

Hector & Achilles: The Metamorphosis

Like other ancient epic poems, the Iliad presents its subject clearly from the outset. Indeed, Homer names his focus in its opening word: menin, or “rage.” Specifically, the Iliad concerns itself with the rage of Achilles—how it begins, how it cripples the Achaean army, and how it finally becomes redirected toward the Trojans. But, it also charts the metamorphosis of Achilles from a man who abhors a war that holds no meaning for him to a man who fights for its own sake.

On the other side, it also charts how the civilized Hector, the loving family man and dutiful patriot Hector becomes a savage, driven by the madness of war.

Before that, an interlude.

The Other Life Of Achilles

One of the defining scenes of the Epic is the ‘Embassy Scene’ where a defeated Agamemnon sends Odysseus & co to entreat Achilles to return to the battle. That is when Achilles delivers his famous anti-war speech. This speech of Achilles can be seen as a repudiation of the heroic ideal itself, of kleos - a realization that the life and death dedicated to glory is a game not worth the candle.

The reply is a long, passionate outburst; he pours out all the resentment stored up so long in his heart. He rejects out of hand this embassy and any other that may be sent; he wants to hear no more speeches. Not for Agamemnon nor for the Achaeans either will he fight again. He is going home, with all his men and ships. As for Agamemnon's gifts, “I loathe his gifts!“

This is a crucial point in the epic. Achilles is a killer, the personification of martial violence, but he eulogizes not war but life - “If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies . . . true, but the life that's left me will be long . . . “  (9.502-4)

n  Hector & Achilles: The Battle Royalen

Notwithstanding Achilles’ reluctance and bold affirmations of life, slowly, inevitably, Homer builds the tension and guides us towards the epic clash everybody is waiting for. But though it might seem as preordained, it is useful to question it closely. The confrontation is crucial and deserves very close scrutiny. We must ask ourselves - What brings on this confrontation?

On first glance, it was fate, but if looked at again, we can see that Homer leaves plenty of room for free-will and human agency - Hector had a choice. But not Achilles - instead, Achilles' choice was exercised by Patroclus.

This calls for a significant re-look at the central conflict of the epic: it might not be Hector Vs Achilles!

Patroclus and Hector instead are the real centerpiece of the epic - Achilles being the irresistible force, that is once unleashed unstoppable. It is a no-contest. Hence, the real contest happens before.

This is because, that unleashing depended entirely on Hector and Patroclus - the two heroes who only went into battle when their side was in dire straits - to defend. Both then got caught up in the rage of battle, and despite the best of advice from their closest advisors, got swept up by it and tried to convert defense into annihilation of enemy - pursuing kleos!

It is worth noting the significant parallels between Hector and Patroclus, while between Hector and Achilles it is the contrasts that stand forth.

Hector, instead of just defending his city, surges forth and decides to burn the Achaean ships. Now, the Achaean ships symbolize the future of the Greek race. They constitute the army’s only means of conveying itself home, whether in triumph or defeat. Even if the Achaean army were to lose the war, the ships could bring back survivors; the ships’ destruction, however, would mean the annihilation—or automatic exile—of every last soldier. Homer implies that the mass death of these leaders and role models would have meant the decimation of a civilization.

Which means that the Achaeans cant escape - in effect, Hector, by trying to burn the ships is in effect calling for a fight to the death!

This decision was taken in the face of very strong omens and very good advice:

In the battle at the trench and rampart in Book Twelve, The Trojans Storm the Rampart, Polydamas sees an eagle flying with a snake, which it drops because the snake keeps attacking it; Polydamas decides this is an omen that the Trojans will lose. He tells Hector they must stop, but Hector lashes out that Zeus told him to charge; he accuses Polydamas of being a coward and warns him against trying to convince others to turn back or holding back himself.

Hector is driven on by his success to overstep the bounds clearly marked out for him by Zeus. He hears Polydamas’ threefold warning (yes, there were two other instances too, not addressed here), yet plots the path to his own death and the ruin of those whom he loves.

Thus, sadly, Hector pays no heed and surges forth. Which is the cue for the other patriot to enter the fray - for Patroclus.



And thus Hector’s own madness (going beyond success in defense) in the face of sound advice brought on a crises for Achaeans to which their prime defender and patriot, Patroclus responded - and then paralleling Hector’s own folly, he too succeeded and then went beyond that to his own death. Thus Patroclus too shows that knows no restraint in victory; his friends too warned him in vain, and he paid for it with his life. By this time Hector had no choice, his fate was already sealed. Achilles was about to be unleashed.

The most important moment in Iliad to me was this ‘prior-moment’ - when Hector lost it - when he lost himself to war fury: Hector’s first act of true savagery - towards Patroclus and his dead-body. “lost in folly, Athena had swept away their senses, “ is how Homer describes Hector and his troops at this point of their triumph.

Achilles, Unchained.

Yet, Homer gives Hector one more chance to spurn honor and save himself and diffuse/stall the mighty spirit of Achilles that had been unleashed on the battlegrounds. In his soliloquy before the Scacan gate, when he expects to die by Achilles' hand, he also has his first moment of insight: he sees that he has been wrong, and significantly enough Polydamas and his warnings come back to his mind. But he decides to hold his ground for fear of ridicule, of all things!

So even as all the other Trojans ran inside the impregnable city walls to shelter, Hector waited outside torn between life and honor (contrast this with Achilles who had chosen life over honor, the lyre over the spear, so effortlessly earlier). Hector instead waits until unnerved, until too late. And then the inevitable death comes.



Thus the Rage was unleashed by two men who tried to do more than defend themselves - they tried to win eternal honor or kleos - the result is the unleashing of the fire called Achilles (his rage) which burns itself and everything around it to the ground. What better invocation of what war means?

I ask again, what better book to read for the centenary year for The World War I?

The Last Book

The last words of The Iliad are : “And so the Trojans buried Hector, breaker of horses.”

Thus, fittingly, Homer starts with the Rage of Achilles and ends with the Death of Hector. This is very poetic and poignant, but it is time for more questions:

Again, why start and end on the eve of battle? Because that is the only space for reflection that war allows. Before the madness of the fury of war or of disaster descends like a miasmic cloud. To use Homer’s own phrase, “war gives little breathing-room”.

Thus, we end the Epic just as we began it - in stalemate, with one crucial difference - both sides’ best men are dead. The two men who could have effected a reconciliation , who had a vision beyond war, are dead.

n  Homer’s Propheciesn

It is made very clear in The Iliad that Achilles will die under Trojan roofs and that Hector will find his doom under the shadow of the Achaean ships - or, both are to die in enemy territory.

Though Iliad leaves us with full focus on Hector’s death and funeral, there is another death that was always presaged but left off from the story - That of Achilles’ own. Why?

Achilles' death is left to the audience to imagine, over and over again, in every context as required. The saga of Hector & Achilles, of the doomed-to-die heroes, leaves one death to the imagination and thus effects a very neat prophetic function.

Once Hector committed his folly, once Patroclus rushed to his death, and once Achilles is unleashed, the rest is fixed fate, there is no stopping it. So Homer begins and ends in truce, but with destruction round the corner - as if the cycle was meant to be repeated again and again, stretching backwards and forwards in time - Troy I, Troy II, … to Troy VI, Troy VII, … where does it end?

Homer knows that the threshold is crossed, the end is nigh - even Troy’s destruction is not required to be part of the epic - with Hector’s death, the death of Ilium is nigh too and so is Achilles’ own death and past the myths, the death of the Greek civilization, and maybe of all civilization?

The epic leaves us with the real doomsday just over the horizon, horribly presaged by it, in true prophetic fashion.

n  The Pity of Warn

The pity of war is The Iliad’s dominant theme, but it uses themes such as love, ego, honor, fear and friendship to illuminate the motive forces behind war. In another ancient epic, Gilgamesh, the death of a friend prompts a quest which ends in wisdom and an affirmation of life; in The Iliad, the death of the fabled friend leads to a renunciation of wisdom and a quest for death itself! In Gilgamesh, the hero learns the follies of life and rebuilds civilization; in The Iliad, Achilles comes into the epic already armed with this knowledge and moves towards seeking death, choosing to be the destroyer instead of the creator.

The Iliad is n  an epic of unlearning.n It mocks optimistic pretensions. In The Iliad, the participants learn nothing from their ordeal, all the learning is left to the audience.

O desenvolvimento do ser humano, sobretudo enquanto felizes petizes, baseia-se no percepcionado pelo meio envolvente, num processo de engrenagem que, iniciado pela visão, a transmuta e trabalha, para modelar peças de conduta. Um animal mecanizado, nesta era industrial, vive, pois, de associações e modelos, numa tentativa constante de aprimorar o produto final. Deste modo, os primeiros gestos são meras tentativas de reprodução daqueles apreendidos, as primeiras palavras as que mais repetidas vezes se escutam. Neste retorno à idade do embalo, torna-se claro que os progenitores sejam considerados como os primeiros heróis, esse título tão apregoado pelos cânones da literatura e massificado pelas histórias dos que, não se cingindo ao mero terreno, lhe adicionam um “super” inabalável.

Este modelo tem vindo a ser cinzelado por benfazejos artífices, desde os primórdios da história, bem exemplificado pelas epopeias trágicas de Homero. Na “Ilíada”, canta-se, numa laúde imensa, a refrega empreendida pelos Aqueus, contra Troianos, fruto das emoções que sempre comandam as, pouco reflectidas, reacções humanas – a paixão fogosa, a cobiça sedenta, o orgulho cego. No centro da batalha, deitando por terra qualquer véu branco que a recobrisse, jaz Helena que, com toda a sua formosura coisificada, é disputada por estes adversários, personificados nos dois protagonistas, Aquiles e Heitor. Heróis em título, encontram-se em pólos opostos, não apenas na batalha, mas também na sua essência – se o primeiro é semideus, por herança (filho de deusa e de mortal), mas se entrega aos vícios e às emoções humanas; já o segundo, sendo humano, é divinizado pelas suas atitudes, colocado no púlpito glorificado, pelos seus congéneres. Partilham as características fundamentais dos heróis – o sentimento de justiça, a valentia brava e o espírito de sacrifício – e isso os aproxima. A tal ponto que, ao bramirem umas nas outras, as armas criam um som que se mantém como eco, por todas as eras, chegando à actualidade.

A mestria de Homero é inabalável, por mais espadas que a tentem ferir, pois suas cnémides são densas como bronze. Com uma escrita minunciosa, digna de um argumento de cinema, ao invés de convidar o leitor a uma experiência meramente contemplativa, o autor suga-o, veste-o das melhores armaduras possíveis, adaptadas a cada um, e entrega-o ao combate. Vai, pois, digladiando-se frente às diferentes personagens citadas, numa tarefa quase hercúlea, mas facilitada pelos bons ares emanados por Homero – ele planta verdadeiras árvores genealógicas, nas suas descrições, criando florestas densas, passiveis de serem desbravadas. Repetições também as há que, podendo ser recriminadas, funcionam como um elo cíclico manufacturado pelo ourives Hefesto, pejado das melhores pedras luzentes. Para além disso, acaricia as nossas faces, sujas no embate, com belas comparações entre homens e os mais diversos elementos da Natureza, relativizando a vil raiva cantada – algo tão natural, como a busca de alimento. Na mesma medida, faz descer, dos altos céus, os deuses olímpicos que demonstram ser tão humanos, como os que pisam a terra sulcada a mortos.

Por mais férrea que seja a camada protectora, o medo permanece porque, nesta luta, os corpos se embrenham e o sangue conflui para uma nascente de um rio escarlate, numa mortandade palpável. A foz? Porventura a mente de quem lê estas palavras apetrechadas de asas que, entre a retaliação final, são decepadas de um qualquer corpo, para as colocar noutro – o nosso, alado literato, que se deixa levar no encantamento. O estatuto de herói é, assim, generalizado, tocando homens, mesmo aqueles que tenham defeitos – também eles inspiram combates terrenos. Vitória ou derrota são relativas. Deparamo-nos, sim, com um processo catártico que exige, a um amante da mitologia grega, enunciar estas palavras, para dar a um desafio portentoso, um funeral digno como ele merece.

"Quando dois se põem a caminho, um discerne antes do doutro
o que é mais proveitoso; ao passo que quando é só um
a discernir, curto é o pensamento e ténue a astúcia."

خب این کتاب هم متاسفانه با وجود اینکه همخوانی بود اما از نصف بیشتر نشده ول شد. میخواستم وقتی سه درصد خوندم ولش کنم اما خودم رو متقاعد کردم تا بیست درصد ادامه بدم ولی به ده درصد نرسیده صبرم تموم شد و رفتم سراغ خلاصه چپترها ولی اونجا هم دووم نیاوردم.
شروع کتاب اینجوریه که انگار یهو پرت میشی وسط کلاس کودکان سه ساله مهد کودک که دارن سر اسباب بازی ها با هم دعوا میکنن اما از قضا این کودکان ما درواقع فرمانروایان سرزمین‌ها و فرماندهان ارتش‌ها هستن که برای زن هایی که به غنیمت گرفتن دارن تو سر و کله هم میزنن!! بگذریم.
احتمالا این سوال برای خیلی از ماها پیش اومده که چطوری مردم تو زمان های قدیم با وجود نبود اینترنت و لوازم تفریحی دیگه حوصلشون سر نمی‌رفته؟ و خب جواب این سوال رو تو ایلیاد میتونید پیدا کنید!!! ده ساله آگاممنون کل یونان رو جمع کرده دم در تروا!! ده ساله نشستن پشت دیوارهای پریام و برنمیگردن خونه هاشون!!! آدم میمونه بخاطر سماجتشون تحسینشون کنه یا بخاطر شدت بیکاریشون بهشون بخنده؟!

I want to read about ancient gay people!

"E assim foi o funeral de Heitor, domador de cavalos."

Páginas e páginas de cabeças e membros decepados, de tripas pelo chão, onde "a terra corria negra de sangue." Mortos, mortos, mortos sem fim... Ainda assim, serei eu demasiado romântica (e ignorante) ao dizer que a Ilíada é uma história de amor(es)?
O amor entre Paris (Príncipe de Tróia) e Helena. O rapto da mulher de Menelau é a origem do ataque a Tróia pelos gregos, comandados pelo irmão, Agamémnon.
O amor entre Aquiles e Pátroclo. É com a morte deste que o belo herói esquece a ofensa de Agamémnon e renuncia à sua decisão de não lutar mais, iniciando, assim, a queda dos troianos.
O amor de Heitor pela família e pela sua Ília. Por elas, sacrifica a sua "amada vida"; domina o medo que tem de Aquiles e luta até ao fim.
O amor de Príamo pelo filho Heitor. Para recuperar o seu corpo beija as mãos do seu assassino.
O amor de Febo Apolo por Heitor. Com que carinho ele cuida do seu cadáver que todas as noites é arrastado, à volta do corpo de Pátroclo, pelo enlouquecido Aquiles.
O amor de Zeus pelos troianos (entre os quais tem filhos: Sarpédon e Helena) que o obriga a guerrear com outros deuses.

Aquiles é o herói da Ilíada. Porque é invencível na batalha [morre (não na Ilíada) pela seta de Paris, encaminhada por Apolo, por vingança dos deuses]. Mas Aquiles é um mercenário; não luta por um ideal, mas sim pelos despojos de guerra; e por vaidade, para que o seu nome se imortalize.
O verdadeiro herói da Ilíada será Heitor. Mata e morre por dever, por amor. Ele está sempre presente até ao final do poema, que termina com o seu funeral.

Nesta obra, a vida das mulheres tem pouco valor. Pedem aos deuses que protejam os seus entes queridos; choram-nos quando morrem; são usadas como prémios para os vencedores. Mas será que as dos homens valem mais? Para juntar à pira de Pátroclo, Aquiles degolou, sem luta, doze nobres troianos (e dois cães).

A Ilíada é um poema de guerra. Mais de metade das suas páginas são descrições de homens a serem chacinados. No entanto, em momento algum me aborreceu. E tantas vezes o meu rosto se encharcou de lágrimas! Porquê? Se não tem aquelas frases profundas, elaboradas, e com que nos identificamos, tentando-nos a copiá-las e guardá-las. Mas tem humanidade. É um relato da natureza humana - com as suas paixões, ambições, orgulho, crueldade, vaidade, solidariedade, e tantos bons e maus sentimentos - que faz desta obra um poema imortal e infinitamente mágico e belo.


(Jacques-Louis David - The Loves of Paris and Helen)


(Nikolai Ge - Achilles And The Body Of Patroclus)


(Karl Friedrich Deckler - The Farewell of Hector to Andromaque and Astyanax)


(Briton Riviere - Dead Hector)


(Alexander Ivanov - Priam Asking Achilles For Hector's Body)

3***

Sing, O muse, of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.

I REALLY wanted to enjoy this and I just didn’t love it as much as I hoped. I felt like this took me forever to read and found this dragged so much, but I am glad I was able to read and finish this.

The areas for me that dragged the most is Book 2 with the naming of all the ships/captains, Book 12 or 13 were just huge fighting scenes, and then Book 22 about the funeral games. For me, I mainly had to force myself to read these parts and sometimes I would skim read.
In Book 2 I’d say as long as you know the “main” names, it’s fine enough to skip. (Main names for the Argives: Agamemnon, Menelaus, Ajax, Nestor, Diomedes, Achilles, Patroclus. Main names for Troy: Hector, Priam and Paris).

My most enjoyable parts was seeing the Gods get involved; which sides they were taking, how they got directly involved in the war. I loved seeing the Gods in all their pettiness playing with mortal lives and against each other.
I really enjoyed seeing Eris, her looming presence in the war (along with Ares), and basically being the one who caused the whole start of the Trojan War with feeling spurned by not being invited to a wedding, and a golden apple.

I also enjoyed seeing what happened to Aeneas and his story. I’ve never read The Aenid by Virgil but this is his involvement in the Trojan War before that book starts (I believe). Hopefully I’ll be able to read “The Aenid” soon.

I had read Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles” so I was interested to see more of Patroclus and Achilles from their original story. However, Achilles is actually in a strop for most of the book and doesn’t actually get involved until the end of the book which I wasn’t expecting. I did however enjoy the scenes of him and Patroclus.

I also felt so sorry for Andromache and Hector as I know what happens to them after Troy, so reading those scenes caused me grief.

I would say definitely read this if you love action- there is so much of it and it is very bloody! There were just a lot of names in these scenes that it took me out of the action a bit.
Also my edition would sometimes use Roman names or switch between the two, or would call a god by a different name so I’d have to go and research who it was. This would take me out of the book a bit and I’d lose my focus.