January 26th, 2020
I just finished reading The Iliad by Homer. I’ve already done an overview of the story in a previous post discussing Greek Myths and Legends so I won’t do too much summarizing here. One thing that stuck out to me was that the story featured the perspectives of both sides of the Trojan War. At one point I thought about The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and the fact that it is essentially a good vs. evil story. The Iliad was not Greeks are good/Trojans are bad or vice versa, but a look at the emotions and actions of both sides of the Trojan War.
One thing that was mentioned in the introduction was the role of Agamemnon as the primus inter pares or “first among equals”. While all of the main characters are kings, Agamemnon is the king with the largest storehouse of gifts and the greater number of ships, thus making him the de facto leader of the Greek Army. He seeks counsel among the other principal characters when making decisions in the form of a public assembly or council of peers and his job then is to hear and carry out the will of the group which makes his authority in a sense representative. His actions should embody and unite the will of the collective, but higher than the king is the principle of community. The main conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles which brings the destruction of so many Greeks is Agamemon’s disregard for the will of the group over his own personal desires. I think there is a lesson here in that if you want to be a good leader, you must be willing to consider the well being of the people you lead before you consider your own needs and desires. I’ve seen this idea crop up in some of the leadership books I’ve read, that being a leader requires humility. I would say there is a fine balance between meeting the needs of the group vs. meeting the needs of yourself when it comes to leadership which can be a very difficult balance to keep at times.
One simile that stood out to me was the following from Book VI:
The frail generations of men have scarcely more lineage than leaves. Wind blows the leaves to earth in the fall, but springtime comes and the forest blooms: so one generation of men gives way to another.
The Iliad, Book VI.155-159
This made me think about mortality and how previous generations of people are forgotten as time goes on. One of the big themes of the Iliad is winning glory for oneself so that you are not forgotten. According to this webpage, it’s estimated that approximately 108 billion people have been born between 50,000 years ago and today. All of the people that lived before the invention of writing have been forgotten except for those people that have been unearthed through archeology and anthropology, but still, we know very little about what made them tick or what they achieved in their lifetime. I think everyone wants to be remembered, but only a lucky few end up getting remembered. I certainly want to be remembered at least for a few generations. I want to have a legacy which I think goes hand in hand with fame. I’d like to be famous, but in a way that makes me feel good about myself. I want to be praised for some good work I do for society or for some creative endeavor and I would appreciate the praise and attention I should think. I would also appreciate fame and legacy due to scholarship. I can imagine that I might write a book one day and I think it would be awesome if I was recognized for being well written and best selling. This does kind of run counter to the requirement for a leader to have humility that I was mentioning earlier though. This reminds me of an instance where a leader of a team doesn’t do any work on a project, but yet takes all the glory for the work afterward which seems to be a pretty common phenomenon in corporations as I’ve heard stories about it from time to time. I want also to be a good leader and I suppose I want to be remembered for being a good leader as well.
There is a part in The Iliad that discusses sin which is translated from the Greek ate (an impaired mental state that leads to moral error and further folly). This concept popped up in The Iliad whenever a character did something that resulted in negative consequences such as Agamemnon ticking off Achilles or Achilles sending Patroclus to fight in his stead. For reference, the section that discusses sin/ate is in Book IX.565-584. I don’t necessarily want to dive into this at the moment except to make a comment about my limited exploration into the concept of sin. The most notable version of sin I know comes from Judaism and Christianity where it is defined as a transgression against God’s laws, but I think there is more to the story. I should like to explore sin further to understand the different ways in which it pops up in different cultures and how it’s different from the Judeo-Christian version of it. To me, sin is like something you do that you feel shame about afterwards, but I don’t necessarily think it has to go against God’s laws. I think that is the crux of some folks interpretation of the New Testament in that they feel they’ve sinned in some ambiguous way and they pray to God/Jesus to reprieve them of their sins.
Another part that stood out to me as well was the details about the first person to face Agamemnon in combat, Iphidamas.
Now tell me, O Muses, you that have homes on Olympus, who first came against Agamemnon, whether one of the Trojans or one of their famous allies. It was Antenor’s son Iphidamas, a man both brawny and brave. He had been raised in fertile Thrace, mother of flocks, at the home of his grandfather Cisseus, sire of his pretty mother Theano. And when he grew up a splendid young man, Cisseus attempted to keep him there by giving him one of his daughters to marry. But he was no sooner a bridgegroom than word reached him of Acheans at Troy, and off He went with a company of twelve beaked ships. THese graceful vessels he left at Percote and came on by land to Troy, where now he faced in single combat Atreus’ son Agammemnon. And as they charged each other, the spear of Atrides glanced off to one side, but Iphidamas, putting his trust in the might of he beefy arm, landed his hard-lunging thrust on the war-belt just beneath the King’s breastplate. Still he failed to pierce the all-glinting belt, for the point of his spear no sooner struck the silver than it was bent back like lead. Then the wide-ruling lord Agamemnon, fierce as a lion enraged, seized the spear of Iphidamas and jerked it out of his hand, then loosed the limbs with a sword-blow deep in the neck. Even so, Iphidamas fell and slept the bronze sleep, a hapless young man, aiding his people far away rom his bride, the girl for whom he had given so much but never enjoyed at all. And truly he had given much: A hundred head of fine cattle with a promise of one thousand sheep and goats to come, for such were herded for him in tremendous numbers. Now Agamemnon stripped him and strode off toward the Achean ranks bearing his exquisite armor.
The Iliad, Book XI.244-277
This stood out to me because Iphidamas was recently married and had not even enjoyed it yet before he was called to do battle against the Greeks. While there were certainly tragic deaths in The Iliad, this one seemed to stick out the most, perhaps because Iphidamas’ story was all contained in these few lines. It reminds me of the men who fought in recent wars who get married before deploying only to end up getting killed in action, leaving their wives widows. I feel very fortunate that I haven’t had to experience this tragedy of war in my lifetime.
The last bit that stood out to me was the prophecy of Aeneas’ descendants.
Truly my grief is great for high-souled Aeneas, who soon indeed shall go down to Hades’ halls, killed by Achilles for heeding the word of far-working Apollo – childish fool that he was! For Apollo will not keep sad death from him for a moment, But why should that innocent man suffer woes that belong to others, he who has always given such pleasing gifts to the sky-ruling gods? So come, let us save him from death, for Zeus himself will be angry if now Achilles cuts the man down. It is surely already decreed that Aeneas shall outlive the war, so that Dardanus’ seed may not die and his line disappear, since Zeus adored Dardanus more than he did any other child he had by a mortal woman. For now Cronos’ son has come to despise the house of Priam, and surely the mighty Aeneas shall soon rule the Trojans, and after him the sons of his sons, great princes yet to be born.
The Iliad, Book XX.324-341
I had written something about this a bit earlier, but I failed to save it. Basically, this prophecy was fulfilled by Romulus and Augustus as described in the Aeneid. Some Christians claim to believe the bible is true because Jesus fulfilled X number of Old Testament prophecies and because he did that it means that the Bible is true and by extension Christianity. By that same logic though, I can say that since Augustus fulfilled this Iliadic prophecy, that means The Iliad is true and by extension the Greek myths and religion. I’ll have more to say about this once I read The Aeneid, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
All-in-all, The Iliad was pretty good, although it did drag on a bit in some places. I would probably listen to it on tape the next time I wanted to dive into it.