Meeting 4: The Greek Myth of War. Reading: Lombardo, Iliad , introduction pp. xvii-xlviii.

Important Figures in the Iliad. (Lombardo , Iliad, pp. 493-501, lists main characters.)

Greeks

Achilles: Son of Peleus and Thetis from Phthia. Central character of the Iliad [parts of the poem concerned with Achilles and his 'rage' are considered by analysts the Achilleid].

Patroclus: Achilles' companion who borrows Achilles' armor and is slain by Hector, chief defender of Troy.

Menelaus: husband of Helen, from Sparta, brother of Agamemnon.

Agamemnon: King of Mycenae, commander of Greek expedition against Troy for the purpose of regaining Helen for his brother Menelaus

Nestor: very old King of Pylos, Agamemnon's main advisor.

Odysseus: king of Ithake (Ithaca), epitome of cleverness.

Ajax: Greek warrior who epitomizes pure warlike ability. Somewhat archaic figure, with tower shield.

Diomedes: son of Tydeus, conspicuous warrior who wounds Aphrodite and Ares.

Phoenix: Achilles' pedagogue (teacher).

[In Book 9 Odysseus, Ajax and Phoenix, on Nestor's advice, form an embassy to supplicate Achilles. They are 'types': (1) Phoenix of fatherly authority; (2) Odysseus of intelligence and cleverness; (3) Ajax of warlike camaraderie.]

Trojans

Priam: King of Troy, father of Hector, Paris.

Hector: foremost Trojan warrior (name = "he who holds, i.e., preserves, defends") the Trojan counterpart of 'Achilles'. Through Hector we perceive the pathos of the warrior-leader who understands the necessity to defend his civilization against enemies.

Paris: son of Priam, who caused the war by taking Menelaus' wife Helen to Troy.

Andromache: wife of Hector who mothered his child Astyanax.

Hecuba: wife of Priam, queen of Troy.

Aeneas: son of Anchises, really a minor figure in the Iliad, but important because Vergil used him as the embodiment of Roman ideals (and also as founder of the Roman state) in the Aeneid.

___________________________________________________________________

The Iliad is the Greek national epic, and we should understand it in terms of the grim struggles taking place constantly within Greek life. In Hesiod the theme of strife is dominant, and the outlook on life in the Works and Days is almost unremittingly bleak. In Thucydides' archaeologia the chief motivating force for the development of civilization in Greece is explained as the need to amass resources and power with which to protect the territory under one's control and which supports the livelihood of one's community.

Murnaghan’s introduction to the Lombardo translation talks about the Iliad as a poem of war and the historical backdrop (pp. xlii-lviii). Warfare as a common and shared experience for citizens of the Greek polis. The polis is a shared experience of citizens. 

In Plato's Laws Cretan participant claims: "Peace is just a name. The truth is that every city-state is, by natural law, engaged in a perpetual undeclared war with every other city-states."

Sparta: entire social system a preparation for warfare. Poems of Tyrtaeus, Callinus. Role of poems in establishing ideology and necessity of fighting for one's country. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Greek-Roman (Horace)-Sassoon.

Athens during the fifth century was at war (declared) more years than at peace. Early 450's Louvre inscription: 171 men of one of the ten Athenian tribes dead: "in war, on Cyprus, in Egypt, in Phoenicia, at Halieis, Aegina, Megara in the same year." [If we extrapolate: 1700 dead out of a total adult male population in 431: 30,000) i.e., almost 6%. Meiggs and Lewis 33 (26) Erechtheid tribe 460-459: would opt for a lower percentage by pointing out that generally the casualties from all ten tribes were listed on a single stele. Here an exception made perhaps because of the unusual number of casualties suffered by this single tribe. 2 generals killed. But why should this reasoning imply that the other tribes, too, did not have high casualties?].

Detailed descriptions of violence. Especially good is Patroclus and Thestor analysis 16.478-89. Simile of fishing. Slaughter robbing victim of dignity. Joy (kharmê) of the fisherman.

Yeats: "terrible beauty" of warfare. Lee at Fredericksburg: "It is well that it is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it." Shared experience of combatants: Achilles and Lykaon (Il. 21.119-128): Achilles addresses him as friend. Luke the Gook.

Achilles as pure war machine. Hektor as model of accomplishment in both peace and war. Necessity of choosing to defend Troy.