The Rage of Achilles: Homer's Iliad I-IV

Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 Homer, The Iliad (Books I – IV) ‘From Ancient Grudge Break to New Mutiny’: And “the Will of Zeus” will be Accomplished (How a Quarrel over Honor Provokes a Crisis) My ostensible purpose today is to introduce you to the beginning of this epic poem, The Iliad, one of – if not the – greatest of the great books you will read in this course. My true purpose, though, is to introduce you to the task of reading closely (hopefully, by modeling that kind of close reading for you in this lecture). The ostensible origin, or cause, of the war depicted in Homer’s Iliad is the theft of Helen. The war first began as an expedition by the Achaeans to recover a wife who had been taken from her home – abducted by force, or perhaps seduced. Either way, she was gone. Helen, the most beautiful of all mortal women, had, whether willingly or unwillingly (this is hard to discern), abandoned Sparta and ended up inside the divinely constructed walls of Troy. The Achaeans are led by Agamemnon, on behalf of his offended brother, Menelaus, Helen’s first husband. Together they have marshalled an army of extraordinary proportions, the greatest expedition of the time, in order to reclaim Helen, and with her, their own collective HONOR. Once inside Troy’s walls, Paris and Helen came under the protection of King Priam, Paris’ father, and the allies of his kingdom, who rally to defend the Trojan citadel and repel the Achaean invaders from the Anatolian coast. To abandon the defense of Troy and return Helen would be to submit to force, which Priam deemed impossible because dishonorable. The Trojans and their allies, refusing to return Helen, share in the collective insult against honor suffered by the Achaeans, thus turning a private grievance (between Paris and Menelaus) into a public offense. 1 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 This conflict, in other words, is between the allied Achaeans, on one side, and the Trojans and their allies, on the other side, each of whom stakes a claim to defend what they deem honorable. The conflict thus commences as a war waged for the sake of honor. But when we open The Iliad and begin reading the poem that war has been going on for 9 years already. So, we must wonder: Why does The Iliad begin here, and not at the beginning of the war? I want to argue, in fact, that The Iliad does begin precisely where it ought to begin: at the beginning. And it does so because this epic, The Iliad, is not really about a mundane dispute over an insult to one man’s honor. What originated a decade earlier among the Achaeans as a martial expedition to punish a Trojan violation of hospitality and to reclaim honor is, at the beginning of the epic, being transformed by our poet and the Muse into something else, something more significant and much more compelling. As the last line of the poet’s invocation (or Proem) announces: “Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,” or quarreled in strife against one another, “lord of men, Agamemnon, and godlike Achilles.” (I.7-8) The strife or quarrel in Book 1 between Agamemnon and Achilles signals the first metamorphosis of the conflict from a war of honor, between Achaeans and Trojans, into something else. The Iliad as we read it is no longer about recovering Helen, and with her, honor; the poem is about winning everlasting GLORY through deeds accomplished in war and immortalized in song. We bear witness to this transformation as we silently watch and listen as the swift-footed Achilles stands before the assembled Achaeans in pursuit of the common good but in opposition to Agamemnon, the lord of men and commander-in-chief of the army. In doing so, Achilles thereby implicitly asserts his own claim to be “the best of the Achaeans” – a claim that must not have been self-evident, at least up until this point in the war. Agamemnon, the acknowledged commander of the entire Achaean force, rightly bristles at this challenge and takes offence at the accusation his authority lacks legitimacy. 2 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 In the ensuing war of bitter words, neither hero mentions the name of Helen, nor does either speak of the conventional honor stripped from Menelaus or the collective Trojan insult against Achaeans. Something greater than honor is at stake in Homer’s epic. The crucible of war amplifies a mundane struggle within the human situation to attain and preserve reputation, transforming the war into an heroic quest for glory. As the aim and substance of the heroic life, which is reserved for only an excellent few to seek, “glory” must originate in the pursuit of what is honorable in the eyes of a given community. But ultimately, in striving for glory, a few human beings transcend mere honor in a bid for immortality, or at least a taste of that quality which properly belongs only to the divine. The struggle between “the best of the Achaeans” for immortal glory emerges in Book I, a struggle among human beings to become like gods that drives the Achaeans (and us) beyond a quarrel over honor into a full-blown crisis – a crisis not of Achaeans and Trojans, or between Agamemnon and Achilles, but a crisis of the Human Situation: What is the best life for human beings, and is it just for human beings to pursue that way of life (and all it entails) at any cost? The military consequences of that crisis come quickly to light in the section immediately following our reading for today; that is, in Books 5-8. But the ethical dilemma that this crisis provokes cannot be fully grasped until the section after that, in Books 9-12. For now, in Books 1-4, we must turn our attention to understanding how a quarrel, which first transformed a conflict over honor into a war worthy of epic poetry, turned into a crisis that determines the action of the entire poem. [Now, this observation bears repeating:] The Iliad does not begin with the abduction of Helen, or the arrival of the Greek allied fleet on the shores of Troy; nor does it end with the Trojan Horse and Fall of Troy or even the death of Achilles; the epic begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, and it ends with the funeral of the Trojan hero, Hector, son of the Trojan King, Priam. Why does the epic begin and end thus? 3 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 Homer invokes the Muse in the opening lines (or Proem) of the epic poem to begin singing from that point at which the two Achaean heroes – Agamemnon and Achilles – broke with one another in bitter strife, a quarrel in Book 1 which by the end of Book 2 has turned into a devastating crisis. Regardless of what may have been the original cause (casus belli) of war or the pretext for invasion (which the poem mentions at various points in Books 1-4), Homer calls upon the Muse to begin at the beginning – not the beginning in time, but the beginning of the epic action; which is to say, the epic poem begins where it must begin in order for us to see the crisis that turns the war inescapably towards that end which is fated – the destruction of Troy. In other words, the epic begins right at the beginning of the end. “And thus the Will of Zeus was accomplished.” But before I turn to my interpretive argument in closer detail, which I have previewed here already, let’s first take a look at the transition we are making from the Egyptian Tales of the Old-Middle Kingdom to the Bronze Age Greeks. This introductory lecture, therefore, must move quickly from historical context, through some brief textual analysis, to an interpretation based on close reading; in this way, the content of this lecture should also ascend in importance: 1. I’ll start with a transition from ancient Egypt to ancient Greece, to introduce Homer’s Iliad – in particular, introduce the context for the dramatic action and the reception of the poem in ancient Greece. 2. Then, I’ll provide some basic textual details derived from a careful reading at the text itself, which serves as scaffolding to support and encourage your close reading of the entire poem. 3. And finally, most importantly, I’ll offer an interpretation based on a close reading of both the quarrel and the crisis that occur in the first two Books, an interpretation which arguably is the foundation for understanding the action of the poem as a whole. 4 “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Dr. Gish Fall 2023 1. The Historical Context: Timeline WHEN? 3000 – 1180 BCE Bronze Age Minoan Civilization 2000-1490 Egyptian New Kingdom 1550-1070 Hittite Civilization 1380-1180 Mycenaean Civilization 1490-1100 - development of ship-faring and naval power conquest of Crete by Mycenaeans (around 1490) Linear B, written system of record-keeping (disappears around 1180) Trojan War ca. 1210-1180 - Linear B documents refer to the invading army at Troy as an alliance of warrior-chiefs Cataclysms / Collapse of Civilizations ‘Dark’ Age 1180 – 750 1177 -- sudden, devastating, and wide-spread = no written record (writing disappeared from 1180-750) but there’s a vast archaeological record of civilization (physical evidence: pottery, stratigraphy, architectural construction) Homeric poems were initially oral compositions, looking back to the distant past (the era of the Bronze Age and its heroes) Homeric Poems + “Epic Cycle” (including Cypria and Nostoi) Archaic Age 750 – 500 Homeric poems (Iliad and Odyssey) were written down, in Athens, ca. 550 BCE - By the Classical Age of the Greeks, in the time of Pericles, Euripides and Socrates, the Homeric epics had already become canonical: Homer was a school for all Greeks. 5 “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Dr. Gish WHERE? Fall 2023 Maps of the Ancient World Mainland (Thessaly) Troy / Anatolian peninsula Islands Ithaca Peloponnese Attica Crete Egypt WHO? The Trojans and their Allies -- references to Troy (Ilium) in Hittite records (a writing system known as cuneiform) -- major outpost of Anatolian Civilization, with a language closer to Hittite than to Greek -- regional trade center; land routes, not sea; Troy faces the sea but is not a port or sea power -- on the border separating the Greek world and the Hittite world, where East and West meet -- the location invites invasion; sited on a bloody fault line between two empires -- massive circuit walls (1,150 feet around, 30 feet high), citadel (Pergamos) = strong fortress; archaeology however shows Troy was sacked, burned, and rebuilt many times in 2,000-yr span The Greeks -- Homer never uses the word “Greeks” (derived from Latin usage), but instead the poem refers to these people as the Achaeans, Danaans, Argives, or occasionally as the Hellenes. -- Agamemnon’s Mycenae was the strongest of the Achaean kingdoms, but the other Greek powers were relatively independent. Some kingdoms were bound together by blood ties or marriages and others by virtue of their location. Leaving the context of the epic poem behind, let me turn now to the text itself – in order to show how a close reading of the text reveals the temporal structure of the action as well as unnoticed insights into the underlying terms of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles. 6 Dr. Gish 2. “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 Close Reading the Text: How do we tell time in the poem, and why does it matter? A word of advice: Read quickly but read closely. Slow down occasionally and pay attention to the details as you read: Homer or rather the Muse of the poem deliberately signals, to attentive readers, the passage of days and nights. You will notice, if you’re paying attention, that in this lengthy epic and account of the between Achaeans and Trojans, which takes place in the war’s 9th year, actually spans two months. From beginning to end, in other words, if you take note of the fall of night and the coming of dawn, you’ll see that the action of the poem takes place over 54 days (a shade under two months by a lunar calendar). And, what’s more, in the course of those two months which occur in the 9th year of the war, there are only 4 days of battle. Think how strange that is: in an epic poem about war – the greatest poem about war which exists – only on 4 of the 54 days (and nights) in The Iliad are the warriors and heroes engaged on the battlefield. This is indeed an epic about war, yes; but it is also – and this is crucial for our study of the Human Situation – this epic is also about much more than just two ancient armies fighting it out on the field of battle for the sake of honor. Not the conflict of great armies but a struggle in the souls of great human beings is the true subject of this epic. By structuring the epic’s action in light of the passage of time, something tangible for human beings but not gods, Homer and the Muse allow us to discover other significant things, too. Book I of the Iliad, in which we witness the quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, takes place over 24 days and nights. Think about it: almost half of all the days in the poem pass in the first Book. Time flies! But then suddenly, time slows way down: the first two days of battle cover nine Books! And the final two days of battle take thirteen Books! To return now to the beginning, Books 1-4, since no warfare, i.e. no fighting between the armies, occurs until Book 5, we must also wonder: Why does it matter that so much epic time passes, seemingly without any ‘action’ at all? 7 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 Upon reflection, it should seem rather wonderous, in an epic poem about war, that “first blood” in The Iliad is not drawn in the action until Book IV, when Pandarus, a Trojan, firing from the ranks of the gathered Trojan armies, shoots a black arrow at Menelaus, the Achaean warrior-king, who is pacing to and fro, alone, waiting in “no man’s land” for the Trojan Prince Paris, his opponent in a one-on-one fight, to reappear. Pandarus’ arrow, which might otherwise have been a fatal blow for Helen’s raging husband, fails to hit its mark; or rathr, it hits the mark, but not deeply enough. The wound it delivers to Menelaus is merely superficial, drawing much blood but not life from its intended target. Had he succeeded, Pandarus, in a misguided effort to steal victory without a fight, might have altered the course of the war and the poem. But he threw away his shot without effect. When the war does finally recommence in Book 5, which is Day 25 of The Iliad, remember that this first day of battle began at the start of Book II before dawn with the false dream of Agamemnon and that first day of battle does not end until the start of Book VIII. That is a brutal day of warfare – and a pivotal one. By the end of that first day, we witnessed the utterly devastating consequences for all the Achaeans of the abrupt decision by the greatest Achaean warrior of them all, Achilles, not to fight. We also see the unexpected inspiration those consequences have for the Trojans. You will need to think long and hard about Achilles’ decision to remove himself from the war, or at least this refusal to return to the battlefield. Achilles himself will spend seemingly endless hours of day and night doing exactly that – thinking about his decision. This is the ethical dilemma posed (as I mentioned earlier) and elaborated in Books 9-12. 8 Dr. Gish A Quick Aside: “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 What The Iliad Is Not How many of you have read, or seen a movie, about Greek mythology? How many of you have heard of Troy? Heard of Achilles? How many of you have already read Homer’s Iliad [pause] ... in its entirely, that is, all 24 books? So, a word of warning: Don’t think that because you’ve dabbled in mythology that you have any real idea what is happening in the Iliad. You don’t. And the deceiving thought that you do know something about the action of the Iliad will only get you into trouble. The proverb is true: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In this epic poem, Achilles is not the guy with the Achilles’ heel (of course he has one, as all the human beings in the poem do; but not that one – and thinking it defines him in any way is both absurd and misleading). To take another example: Odysseus here is not the Odysseus of Trojan horse fame. Spoiler alert: There is no Trojan horse in the Iliad. In fact, the Iliad has nothing at all to do with the Trojan horse, or the death of Achilles, or even the Fall of Troy, for that matter. Those are all happenings that occur outside of the narrative of this Homeric epic, the one that you are actually reading in this class. Best to put what you think you know about the ancient Greeks out of mind, and just read the poem closely. I would even go so far as to say that – as famous as those events that you think you know are, they have no meaning in and no relevance to the narrative of the epic poem you are reading. No more so than do all of the glorious or tragic events that you may accomplish or may befall you at some unknown point in your future are of any direct relevance to the person who you are right now, and the decisions that you must make in the current moment. The men and women of the Iliad, just like you, live within the confines of the present. They have memories from “the past” haunting their “present” lives, of course, just as you do; and just like you, they harbor in their present lives certain hopes and dreams and fears and delusions about what “the future” holds for them. The people of this poem are not the mythological caricatures you imagine them to be. Even the immortal gods of the Iliad are not what you think; if you want to know what kind of god thundering Zeus is, and what his powers are, or Athena, or Hera, or Hephaestus – read the poem; stop trying to consult the misguided ‘spark notes’ drawn from your juvenile encounters with ‘Greek mythology.’ Ok: enough chastisement. Just read the poem; read it closely. 9 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 So, what does all this focus on time add up to? Whay does it matter? Temporal Structure of Homer’s Iliad Days Books Day 1 [1] Insult of Priest Days 2 - 10 [9] Apollo’s Plague Day 11 [1] Days 12 - 23 [ 12 ] Waiting for Zeus Day 24 [1] The Plan of Zeus [ 24 ] I – II.56 II.57 – VII.487 Day 25 Day 26 [3] VII.488-560 Achaean Assembly 1st day of Battle Armistice for Burials Day 27 VIII – X 2nd day of Battle Day 28 XI – XVIII 3rd day of Battle XIX – XXIII.128 4th day of Battle XXIII.129-258 Armistice for Burials Day 29 [3] Day 30 Day 31 [1] Days 32 - 43 [ 12 ] Day 44 [1] XXIII.259 – XXIV.5 The Funeral Games Despair of Achilles Priam’s Embassy [ 24 ] XXIV.6-944 Days 45 - 53 [9] Burial Preparations Day 54 [1] Funeral of Hector Homer’s Iliad covers only 2 months in the 9th year of what will be a 10-year war. And during that brief time, we witness only four days of actual battle – a few days (and nights) that prove pivotal, because afterwards the destruction of Troy, which could have been averted, becomes inevitable. 10 “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Dr. Gish Fall 2023 Catalogue of Achaean Ships and Leaders 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Boeotians Minyans Phocians Locrians Abantes Athenians 50 ships 30 ships 40 ships 40 ships 40 ships 50 ships / / / / / / 6000 men 3600 men 4800 men 4880 men 4800 men 6000 men 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) Salamians Argives Mycenaeans Lacedaimonians Gerenians 12 ships / 80 ships / 100 ships / 60 ships / 90 ships / 1440 men 9600 men 12000 men 7200 men 10800 men 12) 13) 14) Arcadians Epeians Elians 60 ships* / 7200 men 40 ships / 4800 men 40 ships / 4800 men Agapenor [4 leaders] Meges 15) Cephallenians 12 ships / 1440 men ODYSSEUS 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) Aetolians Cretans Rhodians Symeans Calydians 40 ships 80 ships 9 ships 3 ships 30 ships Thoas Idomeneus Tlepolemus Nireus Pheidippus & Antiphus 21) Myrmidons 50 ships / 6000 men ACHILLES 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) Phylacians Pheraeans Thessalians Thessalians Thessalians Thessalians Cyphians Magnetans 40 ships 11 ships 7 ships 40 ships 40 ships 40 ships 22 ships 40 ships Protesilaus Eumelus Philoctetes (Medon) Podaleirius & Machaon Eurypylus Polypoetes Gouneus Prothous 1,196 ships * / / / / / / / / / / / / / 4800 men 9600 men 1080 men 360 men 3600 men 4800 men 1320 men 840 men 3600 men 4800 men 4800 men 2640 men 4800 men 143,520 men Peneleus & Leitus Ascalaphus & Ialmenus Schedius & Epistrophus AJAX Elephenor Menestheus AJAX DIOMEDES AGAMEMNON MENELAUS NESTOR [see Iliad II.600: 120 men per ship] The ships for this contingent of mainlanders, who knew nothing of the sea, were supplied by Agamemnon. 11 “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Dr. Gish Fall 2023 Achaean Naval Contingents, ranged along the shores of Troy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [9] 10 11 12 13 14 (15) 16 17 18 19 20 [21] 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 -------------------- ---- ----- ------ ---------- --- --------------- --- ---------------------- 250 92 100 150 140 12 162 50 240 30,000 41,040 16,800 1,440 19,440 6,000 28,800 ships: men: Mycenae was the seat of a powerful kingdom, with reach across the Peloponnese – into Thessaly. But as powerful as Agamemnon might have been, with the most ships and men in his contingent gathered at Troy, he had no monopoly on military force; Agamemnon was no absolute monarch. Whatever the actual numbers of ships and men, it is clear that the Achaeans were far from home, fighting a war against an outnumbered opponent (10:1 ratio), extremely-well fortified / supplied, with access to resources by land; the naval force gathered on their shore did not have enough men to surround and besiege the city’s walls. Thucydides argues that the Trojan War was not a continuous war or a sustained siege, but rather a series of pitched battles fought out on the plain between the shoreline and the city, punctuated by frequent raids by the Achaeans on smaller settlements along the coastline to acquire supplies. 12 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 How the Quarrel Provokes a Crisis that Sets in Motion the Epic Action In the time that remains, let me return now to both the beginning of the epic, the Proem, which calls our attention to the “Rage” or wrath of Achilles, and to the interpretive argument which I previewed for you at the start of this lecture. A close reading of the opening Books (esp. Books 1-2) reveals an exchange of speeches in front of the entire army which in fact is a struggle to see who is really “the best of the Achaeans.” The dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles – the point at which the epic narrative begins – is not merely one over honor and the distribution of plunder and war prizes among the most prominent warriors. These two heroes of the Achaeans, each excellent in virtue in his own way, are quarreling over what is just: their speeches, thrown at each other like spears, make implicit claims about justice and right; namely, by what right is Agamemnon the commander of the Achaean army, and by what right might Achilles challenge his leadership and stake a claim to that HONOR for himself. This deeper quarrel between the best of the Achaeans over the right to lead the army provokes a crisis. Their rivalry over rightful authority quickly escalates into near violent blows, leaving a simmering rage in the two men, which, if left unresolved, threatens to destroy the Achaean host – it will “cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling the souls of so many heroes down into the House of Hades.” The crisis which their quarrel provokes, in other words, almost does what the Trojans – for nine years – have thus far failed to do: bring an end to the war by sending the Achaeans home defeated. The “contest” (ἀγών), or struggle, in speech that takes place before the eyes of all the Achaeans opens The Iliad, thus setting the stage for the dramatic action of the poem as a whole. But this war of words does not become a civil war, though it comes dangerously close. The divine intervention of Athena persuades Achilles to sheath his sword, at the very moment he is drawing it forth to kill Agamemnon; she persuades him to hurl speeches at Agamemnon instead. Had Achilles refused to listen to Athena, the Achaeans’ war against the Trojans would have ended – and a civil war on hostile shores would have begun. 13 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 This is no petty dispute. Agamemnon holds rightful authority over the Achaean host – and for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that his contingent represents, by far, the greatest personal contribution and material investment to the war effort of any of the Achaean leaders. In the political and public arena of the assembled Achaeans, the right of Agamemnon to lead the army is universally acknowledged. Even Achilles, up until this point, has recognized it. But something now has changed. The challenge that Achilles now poses to Agamemnon’s rightful authority must be viewed for what it is – it is not a right based simply on Achilles’ natural excellence and his acknowledged superiority on the battlefield. Rather, on this occasion, for the first time, Achilles demonstrates his right to lead the Achaeans based on his capacity to summon the assembly and address their common purpose and defend what is just with respect to the common good of the Achaeans. This, it seems, is the first time that the best warrior among the Achaeans has taken it upon himself to step forward as the best leader of the Achaeans. Agamemnon, however, whatever else you may think of him, or his selfish reasons for rejecting the request of Apollo’s priest, has an argument in defense of his political right to lead; he is right to see that what Achilles is doing now threatens his legitimate authority and his leadership of the Achaeans. This is the point at which the quarrel over honor descends into a full-blown crisis. Here, it bears repeating that you must remember that the greatest of the warriors among the Achaeans are kings in their own right. Agamemnon may be the leader of the expedition, but he is not a monarch with absolute authority over the other Achaean commanders. They submit to his leadership willingly but their deference to his authority is not without limits. For example, you’ll recall from the opening of Book II, that there is a council of leading warriors whom Agamemnon relies upon to support him – Nestor, Odysseus, Diomedes, Ajax, and Menelaus, most prominent among them. After the quarrel with Achilles escalates into a crisis, it is Odysseus – with words and deeds – who restores order and calms the Achaean host in the aftermath of Agamemnon’s spectacular failure of rhetoric attempting to rally the army for war. Nestor, too, in the quarrel itself as well as in the aftermath, plays a crucial role in advising Agamemnon and restoring him to his rightful place as leader of the army. 14 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 As the quarrel over honor spirals into a crisis of authority in Book 1, the dismayed Achaeans watch and witness their command structure collapsing before their eyes. It is no wonder, then, in Book 2, that when Agamemnon tries to exhort them to enter battle once again (after the plague and the public quarrel with Achilles), the Achaeans signal their discontent with a devastating ‘no confidence’ vote in his authority, impetuously bolting for the ships to sail home. This crisis is provoked by the quarrel between these two Achaeans – the most powerful commander and the greatest warrior – has become a public dispute that can no longer be ignored, over which one of them is indeed “the best” and why, or, on what grounds. This crisis strains the very ties that bind them – ties which, for nine years, have been holding together the Achaeans in common purpose as a federation. Their union has now been strained to the breaking point. Retreating back to his ships in rage, Achilles’ refusal to fight throws the Achaeans’ prospects for winning the war utterly into doubt. The fighting spirit of the Achaeans is eventually revived – by Odysseus (through his restoration of order and overcoming of a new threat posed by the ugly Thersites: II.194-397) and by Nestor (through his prudent advice to Agamemnon about what must be done at this point to rally the army for war: II.398-438); and even Agamemnon, chastened by the threats to his authority, manages to recover his reputation as the rightful leader of the army through his speeches and deeds that reinvigorate the spirit of all the Achaeans (II.439-527). Spurred on by the concerted work of “the best of the Achaeans” – Odysseus, Nestor, Agamemnon – and fired up in their souls by Athena herself, “the fighting-fury in each Achaean heart” returned, and their longing for war and the struggle of “battle thrilled them suddenly now more than any thoughts of the journey home.” (II.528-538) And yet, despite the return of the Achaeans to their fierce fighting spirit, which sends quivers through the Trojan armies, the absence of Achilles casts a dark cloud of doom over their return to battle. But the fate of the war depends not on Achaean or Trojan spiritedness, but upon Achilles and his rage. 15 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 On the Contest (ἀγών) between Right and Right (Rivals in Excellence) Homer describes the assembly of Achaeans as the forum or the arena (ἀγορά) in which human beings win glory (κυδιάνειρα). The only other place where men seek out and win glory, according to Homer, is in battle. But in the crisis precipitated by his quarrel with Agamemnon, the one Achaean warrior and leader who desires immortal glory above all else “rages on” – far from both the assembly-ground and the battlefield (I.581-585). The speeches about justice, about the equitable distribution of goods and honor within the Achaean community; that is, speeches about the common good of the whole, in the heat of thumotic passion give way to insulting attacks of individual esteem and worth. In the arena where counsel and discussion are supposed to arbitrate and resolve conflicts, Agamemnon and Achilles come nearly to blows. Without a formal institution to settle their dispute, a recourse to arms threatens to destroy them all – in a threat of secession which will lead quickly to civil war. The crisis at the core of the epic action of The Iliad thus is the consequence of a profound dispute over Justice. Agamemnon’s legitimate authority rests upon his political right to rule and command, an authority that is buttressed by divine sanction, his investment in the war, the advice of his councilors, consent from the men, and a willingness to set the common good above his own private interest. The plague quietly condemns Agamemnon’s hubris, and everyone silently knows it. When he fails to reestablish his political right through his refusal to make right the wrong he has committed against Apollo and is publicly called out by Achilles for his hubristic conduct, Agamemnon’s legitimacy buckles under the weight of the attack – and as his authority falls in the eyes of all the Achaeans, the legitimacy of Achilles to rule – not just as a warrior in battle but as legitimate leader of the entire host – ascends. This crisis of authority, played out before the assembled Achaeans, reflects a political conflict over who should rule that roils through the ranks of the army. In articulating out loud what the rest of the Achaeans are silently thinking, Achilles stands forth as defender of the common good. Agamemnon refuses to yield, however, and when Achilles withdraws, Odysseus must mend the fragile order. 16 Dr. Gish “The Human Situation: Antiquity” Fall 2023 More so than the explicit terms of his oath not to fight, it is the underlying reasons for Achille’s rage and refusal to fight – which is to say, his devotion to his own honor and glory – that Achilles himself must contemplate in the solitude of his withdrawal to his ships. We gain a sense of the magnitude of his rage in the face of the grave dishonor that he has suffered not only from Agamemnon but also from all the Achaeans, by looking closely at the request he makes of his goddess-mother, Thetis (at the end of Book 1) – and the reasons which he gives for demanding Justice from Zeus. At the behest of Thetis, to whom the great Father of the Immortals owes his own survival of a grave threat to his authority in the past, Zeus nods to the demands of Achilles. But in his dark countenance we suspect that Zeus foresees what Achilles, at this point, seething in rage, simply cannot; that is, the tragic cost and consequences of his demand for Justice. What he begs of his mother, that she persuade Zeus to punish all the Achaeans (not just Agamemnon) for what they have done to him, should be examined in much closer detail. Achilles himself, in his solitude, will soon begin to question the very worth of that honor and that glory to which he has thus far dedicated his life as a warrior. His reflections on his reasons for removing himself from the field of battle, whereupon the greatest warriors win honor and immortal glory, will only drive Achilles deeper and deeper into his rage. But this remains to be seen. For now, we, as readers of the poem, must be clear in our own minds about precisely what is at stake in the opening quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles that sets in motion the epic action of the poem – as well as the beginning of the end of the Trojan war. Only through a close reading of the opening scenes are we thus prepared to contemplate the reasons why that quarrel provokes not only a political crisis, which threatened to destroy the Achaean alliance, but also a rage in Achilles that will prove so cruel that it is capable of destroying friends and enemies alike – that crisis, it turns out, will not be resolved by Agamemnon or by the Achaeans, but only by Achilles himself – and then only at the very end of the poem, after he learns how much he himself must sacrifice to accomplish what he, unwittingly, has fatefully demanded from Zeus — JUSTICE. 17