MI u Ottawa L'Universite canadierme Canada's university FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES run FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'University* eanadieime Canada's university Stephen B. Quinlan AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS Ph.D. (Religious Studies) GRADE/DEGREE Department of Classics and Religious Studies FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMENT/ FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT The Ilaid, the Athlete and the Ancient Greek Polis A Descriptive Study of Homer's Iliad %$>• Hero Myth TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Dominique Cote DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR Anne Vallely CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR Theodore De Bruyn Francisco Gonzalez Gregory Nagy (Harvard Univeristy) Karin Schlapbach Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The Iliad, the Athlete and the Ancient Greek Polis A Descriptive Study of Homer's Iliad as Hero Myth Stephen B. Quinlan Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD in Religious Studies Department of Religious Studies Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Stephen B. Quinlan, Ottawa, Canada, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-66013-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-66013-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre im primes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+• Canada Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 2 Chapter 1. Introduction 3 A. The Greater Panathenaia 4 Table 1. The Periodos and the Panathenaia 7 B. The Iliad and the Polis 10 Chapter 2. Background to this Study 16 A. Athletics, Male Acculturation, and Greek Religion. 16 B. Epic Poetry and Athleticism 23 Table 2. Time in the Iliad as the "Dog Days" of Summer 29 C. Hesiod's Myth of the Mortal Races and the Iliad as Hero Myth 35 D. Hubris and Dike as Existential-Ethical Modes 42 E. The Silver People 42 F. The Golden People 43 G. The Bronze People 47 H. The Former Mortals and the Olympic Games 49 I. The Heroes 52 Chapter 3. The Horse-taming Trojans 62 A. Monarchical Succession and the Foundation Myth of Troy 65 Table 3. The Trojan Rulers 71 B. Priam, King of Troy 71 C. Paris 76 D. Hector 83 E. The Peplos offering to Athena and Hector's Prayer to Zeus 85 F. The Sacrifice in the Plain and Hector's Prayer to the Gods 88 G. Hector Threatens to Murder Polydamas 90 H. Hector Abandons Sarpedon 92 I. The Trojans and the Myth of the Mortal Races 99 Chapter 4. The Bronze-clad Achaeans 102 A. The Achaean Camp as a Polis 103 Table 4. The Achaeans 108 B. The Order of Authority: Agamemnon, Nestor, Idomeneus 109 C. Idomeneus 110 D. Nestor 111 E.Agamemnon 115 F. The Order of Execution: Menelaus, Odysseus, Diomedes. 120 G. Odysseus 123 H. Diomedes 130 Table 5. Features Associating Diomedes and Achilles 133 I. The Order of Preparation: Ajax and the Guardian Youths. 144 J. The Achaeans and the Myth of the Mortal Races 149 Chapter 5. Achilles Remains Behind 151 A. The Quarrel in the Camp 152 B. The Delegation to Achilles' Huts 164 C. The Death of Patroclus 173 D. Achilles Returns to the Battle 182 Chapter 6. Achilles Rises Up 186 A. The Crossing of the Scamander 186 Table 6. Correspondences Between First and Last Days of Battle 189 B. Achilles as the Monstrous Serpent of Hera's Wrath 189 C. The First Leg of Achilles' Race with Scamander 195 D. The Second Leg of Achilles' Race with Scamander 198 E. The Foot Race into the Plain and the Presence of Apollo 201 F. Achilles as Sirius 204 G. The Death Race around Troy 207 H. Achilles and the Corpses 220 Table 7. Features Associating Hector and Patroclus 224 Table 8. Features Associating Hector and Achilles 227 I. Achilles and the Myth of the Mortal Races 237 Conclusion 238 Bibliography 242 Abstract This descriptive reading of the Iliad explores its meaningful reception within the ancient Greek polls. Because it was performed at the Greater Panathenaic Festival at Athens, I have ap­ proached the poem as a religious artefact, or hero myth, that expresses devotional attitudes, be­ liefs and practices specific to its most normative, content defining cultural context, the Panathe­ naic Festival. More precisely, my study identifies an underlying, paradigmatic association be­ tween the heroic characters of the poem's narrative and the male athletes who competed at the Games such as Olympia, which were held in honour of the gods. Building from the association I identify as operating between the heroes of the Iliad, Achilles and the Achaeans especially, and the athletes, I argue that the poem expresses the attitudinal/characterological entailments of the Greek male as he prepares to marry and become a citizen. Acknowledgements My period of doctoral studies, from 2004 to 2009, has been financially supported by the University of Ottawa's Entrance Scholarship Program, and by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program. I must also acknowledge my sincere gratitude to Dr. Anne Vallely and Dr. Theodore De Bruyn for engaging me as their assistant in their respective re­ search projects, thereby providing me with the financial support to extend my own work for an additional year. Far beyond this, I am most grateful for opportunity to have learned from them. In addition to providing me with the opportunity to renew my love of India and anthropological study, Dr. Vallely has been a constant source of support for my thesis writing, my understanding of myth, ritual, iconic art, divinity and cosmology. The impact all of this has had on my understanding of religion has been far too great to adequately express in words of appreciation. Finally, I must acknowledge my gratitude to Dr. Dominique Cote, my director from the outset of my doctoral stud­ ies. He has always expressed great enthusiasm for my attempts to situate my under­ standing of Homer within the polis context and has provided me with great encour­ agement to look at my vastly studied topic with fresh, original eyes. 2 Chapter 1. Introduction This study of the Iliad explores its meaningful reception within the context of the polis, the Greek city-state.1 I aim to demonstrate that the poem was experienced as a hero myth that dramatically elaborated a pedagogy of male acculturation to the require­ ments of life as a citizen. The Iliad, in my reading, related especially to Greek young men who were of an age to compete for the last time in the circuit of sacred games; young men of approximately thirty years of age who had completed their military terms and who were transitioning towards the settled, married life of the householding citizen. Given this focus, I infer that the poem was selected for the programme of con­ tests at the Greater Panathenaia to establish the festival's legitimacy alongside the circuit of pan-Hellenic games that were anchored by the Zeus cult competitions at Olympia. This last point will be expanded upon shortly. Put briefly, underlying this descriptive study is the postulate that the poem was regarded as sacred and therefore served as a devotional medium through which performers and audience experienced their cult en­ tities, their gods and heroes. I am seeking to elaborate a reading that sees in the Iliad an accretion of religious cult or, in other words, a reading that regards the poem as a means by which a potent, 1 Regarding the historical dating of the poem as concurrent with the rise of the polis, see van Wees 1999: 1-13. Also, Nagy 2002: 1-8, who provides a timeline for the shaping of the poetry and presents its per­ formance logistics at the Panathenaic festival. My concern is with the poem's cultural relevance to the polis as a cultural organism and ideological construct and am most concerned with its formal perform­ ance at Athens from the mid sixth century BCE onward through the Classical period.