Men Are Wretched Things

An explanation of what makes the Iliad a classic

 

            

Men are wretched things, and the gods who have no cares themselves, have woven sorrow into the very pattern of our lives

            Spoken by Achilles   Homer, The Iliad

 

The Wrath of Achilles is my theme, that fatal wrath … So the Iliad begins, the first great work of western Literature. Composed by Homer in the eighth century BC it was based upon a bardic tradition that pre-dated him by five centuries.

In the Thirteenth century BC an army of Achaeans destroyed Wilusa a city state allied to the Hittite Empire. The war may have arisen out of a simple desire for loot, a land dispute, or as indicated by the legend of Jason and the Argonauts a desire to control the approach to the Black Sea. That war forms the basis for the Iliad. Who won the war is not known, but who lost is, Wilusa, a small state ground down in a conflict between two stronger states.  The Iliad was born in bardic songs performed during and after the war in the halls of Achaean lords.  Five hundred years after the war and long after the destruction of Mycenaean civilization songs of the war were still being sung. Composed about 700BC  Homer’s version of the Iliad, the Wrath of Achilles,  is regarded as the first great work of western literature.  One of the reasons is the above quote spoken by Achilles  to King Priam who has come to beg for the body of his son Hector.  The scene is as moving an episode as can be found in either the bible or in Shakespeare.  Like other great works the book is timeless  speaking of truths about the condition of humanity.

I first read the Iliad some fifty years ago.  I expected that it would follow the usual format of Greek legends. Heroes such as Jason or Hercules would fight horrible monsters using supernatural means given to them by the Gods. However the Iliad remained grounded in the physical world of man. The Gods do pop in and out, commenting on what is happening and playing an occasional scene but unlike the Odyssey, no magical creatures appear.  There are no monsters except men.  In understanding the Iliad it helps to avoid the word Greeks. There is too much nationalistic feeling with the word.  It is better to think of the Achaeans as tribes rather than as members of a nation.

The Iliad is not a history of what is known as the Trojan War. Instead it deals with an incident that supposedly occurred during the ninth year of the war.  The mightiest warrior of the Achaeans, Achilles withdraws from the conflict angry at having been slighted by Agamemnon. Before coming to Troy, he had been faced with a choice.  Remain at home, live a long life with a beautiful woman, bear many children and enjoy grandchildren, but his name will be forgotten.  The other choice is to go to Troy. There he will die a young man but his name will live as long as men remember the Trojan War.

The Wrath of Achilles begins with Apollo’s anger against the Achaeans for their dishonouring of his priest Chryses.  The priest had appealed to Agamemnon for the release of his daughter, Chryseis,  who had been taken on a  raid on the Priest’s city. When the king refuses the priest then appealed to the God who laid a plague upon the Achaeans. The scene in which Agamemnon quarrels with Achilles over the division of the spoils reminds one of gangsters carving up their stolen loot

Death stalked the Mycenaean world, death from disease and natural disasters, death from warfare.  Disease and natural disasters as well as death in warfare were attributed to the will of the gods.  The gods demanded obedience. Violating their will risked destruction. The plague that sweeps through the Achaean camp is attributed to the anger of Apollo who has been offended by the seizure of one of his priest’s daughter.  Bowing to the anger of Apollo, and the pleas of his men,  Agamemnon gives up the priest’s daughter but then in a masterstroke of bad leadership he insists on being compensated by seizing what has already been given to the other warriors.  Since Achilles has led the demand for the king to give up the girl Agamemnon turns upon Achilles.   Jealous of Achilles’ military prowess the king knows that he cannot appear to be weak.  Instead of a nation he leads a group of tribes held together by a promise of loot and fear of  Mycenaean power.  His viewing of Achilles as a threat to his leadership explains much of the vehemence of his attack on the strongest warrior the Achaeans have.

“You must let me have another prize at once.”  He demands  that Achilles yield up a prize of his own, Briseis. “ … to let you know that I am more powerful than you.”  The result is that Achilles, feeling insulted, withdraws from the war in one of history’s most famous sulks,  The term wrath does not refer to a simple mood of anger such as one receives from being frustrated or disappointed.  Achilles wrath is man-killing rage.  His response to Agamemnon’s insults is to begin to draw his sword, an act stopped by the goddess Athena.

The history of civilization is a constant struggle between collective and individual will.  The egos of Agamemnon and Achilles clash, moderated only by the needs of warfare and the Achaean army. It is not that Achilles lacks a sense of morality. He after all led the demand to return the priest’s daughter. What he lacks is the willingness to submit his pride and  lust for personal glory to the public good.  In this he is not alone. We find it in Agamemnon and  in Paris.   The tribal society in which they live accepts the rule of the strongest moderated only by tribal custom and fear of the gods. Those outside of the tribe if defeated in war may be slain at will, often as human sacrifice.  Agamemnon was willing to sacrifice his own daughter for a fair wind to take him to Troy. Achilles sacrifices twelve Trojan captives to honour Patrocles’ funeral.

The Iliad is an interpretation by Homer of a long-lost Bronze Age Civilization. Living five hundred years after the events portrayed, the Bard was an inhabitant of an Iron age society of city-states He must have known that a civilization, whether that of the Achaeans or by the Greeks of Homer’s own time  is built by the  individual submitting his or her ego to the needs of the community.  There is a long tradition of tales of heroes of outlaws, pirates, of those who will not submit themselves to the need of others.  Such persons make great stories. They do not make civilizations.

The prowess of heroes is a key element in understanding warfare in the Iliad. Among the Plains Indians of North America young men would often ride into battle armed only with a curved stick. They would gallop up to the enemy, touch him with the stick and then gallop off. Mystified  American soldiers could not understand such strange tactics but the logic was quite simple. Status in the warrior’s society depended upon their being perceived as being brave warriors. Counting coup as it was called was a demonstration of courage.  Warfare was desired as a chance to prove their courage.  To many of these warriors as with many of the warriors in the Iliad, war is a not seen as a means by which they can win material gains.  War is the end.  It is what they are trained for, the way in which they find glory and prestige, but also something more. Charmei Gethsonai , the Joy of Battle 

The warriors exult in battle.    When Patrocles,slays Cebriones, he jokes as the Trojan falls from his chariot, “Ha quite an acrobat I see from that grateful dive.”  Patrocles races against the Trojan lines.  “Three times he charged with a terrific cry like the Great God of war, and every time he killed nine men.”

The narcotic like effect  of charmai leads Patrocles to his death, as it has done with so many others.

The Achaeans travel to Troy in search of glory,  loot, and to avenge their honour but they  lack any idea of how to take the city. When the tale opens the war is stalemated. The Achaeans have no siege equipment for it has not yet been invented.  They have not even attempted to surround the city cutting off supplies. Instead they cling to their encampment challenging the Trojans to fight.  All the Trojans have to do is to remain behind their walls and wait until the Greeks tire and leave.  Unable to take Troy, the Achaeanss raid neighbouring cities seeking loot and supplies.  By our standards the sensible thing for the Achaeans to do would be to take their winnings and leave but our standards are not Achaean standards. First, honour prevents  leaving.  Anyway, they are not in a hurry.  These men are bred for war. War, not peace is what they desire. Among the  Achaeans prowess in battle is an  indication of strength.   Besides, warfare is profitable.  Lacking pay, the Achaeans seek wealth by plundering.  

A pattern that recurs in the Iliad is the confrontation between heroes.  They challenge each other to fight, making long speeches about their genealogy.  If one is slain the victor insult the slain and boast of his own prowess while stripping the corpse.  The oddest part of all this is that often the battle will pause as both sides look on.  Often it seems that this is not war but a spectator sport.  Among the spectators are the gods looking down and arguing about the merits of the fighters.

Heroism and the Iliad

Part of the power of the Iliad lies in that unlike other ancient tales the Iliad is not a tale of fantastic duties.  It is rooted in a world built by man.  Heroes are not gods.  To call a supernatural being a hero would be equivalent to calling a card cheat a fair player.  If I think of a hero in the Iliad I think of Homer defending his city, of Patrocles donning Achilles armour to save the Achaeans from defeat.  A hero gives of himself to help others.  No such giving occurs with either Agamemnon or Achilles.

Why is Achilles a hero? Throughout most of the Iliad he remains in his tent brooding on the injuries to his pride. As he broods the war goes on around him. Without Achilles and his Myrmidons the Achaeans are pushed back to their tents.  The more desperate the plight of the Achaeans the greater Achilles’ satisfaction.  Only when the Trojans attack the ships doers he agree to allow Patrocles to don his armor in the belief that the threat of his presence is enough to force the Trojans back.  It is the ordinary man who to defend his home and family challenging Achilles and Agamemnon that is the hero.

Just before his final fight with Achilles Hector offers him an honourable burial if he will offer the same. Achilles replies that “lions do not make terms with men.”  Skilled predators,  they do not negotiate with their prey.   Predators are useful beasts, necessary in nature but they are not heroic.  Certainly there is nothing heroic about how Achilles treats Hectors, He slays him, ties his body to his chariot and drags him around the walks of Troy and back to the Achaean camp. Achilles has triumphed in killing his greatest enemy, a triumph darkened by his brutal arrogance.  He intends to feed Hector’s body to the dogs. The final humiliation of his enemy.

He returns to the Achaean camp to prepare Patrocle’s funeral. Hector’s body he leaves in the dust. In the day that follows during the mourning feasting and games for Patrocles, Hector’s body remains there a ghoulish memorial to Achilles victory.  Every morning for eleven days Achilles drags the body behind his chariot around Patrocles barrow.

He again is compared  to a lion, this time by Apollo.  “the brutal Achilles … who has no decent feelings in him … but goes through life in his own savage way … Achilles like the lion has killed pity.”

Even the Gods agree that Achilles has gone too far. 

To understand a society it often helps to look at the gods that society worships.  The Olympian gods were not the Gods of Wilusa   Neither were they truly  those of the Achaeans.  They were the gods of Homer’s world and in a sense speak for him.

The Mycenean god list derived from translation of Linear B tablets  indicates that many of the deities of classic times had earlier bronze age roots.  Among the gods listed in Mycenean times were some of the Olympian namesHermes, Ares, Posridon and Zeus.  Appulius, a Wilusan god may be a forerunner of Apollo, possibly explaining why Apollo favours the Trojans.  More important is how the gods are viewed by the world of the Iliad.  The one word that seem to sum up the Achaean attitude towards the Gods was fear.

Men are seen as the victims of fate. Disease, accidents, acts of nature are all determined by the gods.  Again and again Homer refers to man’s fate being determined by fate, who is not a philosophical concept but a manifestation of the gods.  “You are going to meet your doom” says Sarpedon  to  Tlepolemus. Whom he slays.  Eventually Sarpedon in turn falls to Patrocles. Patrocles is slain by Hector. The killings reach their climax in the slaying of Hector by Achilles.  There it could have ended with Achilles triumphant but it did not and because it did not the Iliad survives today not as an historical relic but as a living work of art.

Achilles has secured his vengeance but Homers that is not enough.  It is one thing to punish a villain but Hector is not a villain.  He deserved a better fate and so, for that matter, if you believe that he is more than a man-killing animal,  does Achilles.  The Gods angered at his treatment of Hector’s body, sends emissaries to both Achilles and Priam. Thetis the Sea Nymph, mother of Achilles visits him to plead with him to give the body up or risk divine displeasure.  She reminds him that his own doom is near and suggests that he seek solace for the loss of Patrocles in a woman’s love.  He agrees to give up the body. Zeus also sends Iris to Priam to convince the old king to ransom his son from Achilles.

After the mourning for Patrocles, the feasting and the games Achilles sits in his hut.  In comes an old man who falls to his knees and kisses Achilles hands.  Amazed Achilles realizes that the man is King Priam.   Achilles could behead him.  The man is his enemy. Instead,impressed by the old man’s courage. He treats Priam as an honoured guest.  Having already decided to bow to the will of the Gods and return Herctor he accepts the ransom for his body.  The sight and words of Priam also reminds Achilles of his own father Peleus, whom he knows he will never see again.  It is then that and the Iliad turn into something more than just a manslayer sand his story.

Achilles, the man killer still bubbles up, threatening Priam into silence.   Even so, he keeps his word and releases Hector to his father.  Putting aside his longing for glory and an immortal name he thinks of his own aging father, Peleus.  Before leaving for Troy Achilles had been given a choice, to live out his life in peace, to live to a great age,  to  marry and have children.

Achilles praises Priam for his courage. “You have a heart of iron. ”  He tells the old man to sit and try to take some comfort.

“We men are wretched things and the gods, who have no care themselves,  have woven sorrow into the very patterns of our lives.”  Each life is filled with misfortune. Using the analogy of two jars he describes how Zeus mixes joy and  sadness in each man’s life.  He describes his father Peleus, blessed with good fortune amd yet “with an only son doomed to untimely death.”

 The climax of the Iliad is in this scene between Achilles and Priam.  It is suffused with a sense of Pathos, Greek for suffering or experience.  This is the one moment when the reads feels sympathy for Achilles for Achilles himself has shown sympathy for all men.  He has turned away from being an animal and regained his humanity. . He is still Priam’s enemy  Yet, Homer through the voice of Achilles, has reminded his listeners that all men must suffer.  This is what gives the scene its power and secures the Iliad its place as an enduring  literary classic.

Homer, The Iliad, trans. E.V. Rieu, Penguin Books, 1950