THE PARLOR

Competitive Human Glory in ’s

Eric S . Meyers

n Book V and Book XXIII of Homer’s Il- Yet, becomes a civilizing force during iad, life tragically intersects with death to the funeral games he holds for when I determine the true nature of heroic glory he confronts mortality and becomes more hu- in competitive human activities. The grim real- mane. Where Achilles once caused only strife, he ity that death results in an afterlife devoid of now reconciles with his bitter enemy Agamem- meaning frames the composite portrait of glory non and mediates conflicts among the irascible these books depict against the backdrop of the Greeks, moreover, where Achilles once viewed Trojan War. Given this tragic reality, the great glory as a winner-take-all proposition, he now warriors of the Iliad seek competitive glory in honors all the warrior-athletes competing in the life within a matrix of death and the applica- funeral games—not just those who win. In this tion of what the philosopher Simone Weil calls manner, a conflict between death and life results “brutal force.”1 At first blush, this appears to in a contrapuntal movement between bestial involve playing deadly and dangerous games savagery and noble grace for Diomedes in Book with only winners and losers, whether it is on V and for Achilles in Book XXIII of the Iliad, as the battlefield of Book V or during the funeral each defines what it means to achieve glory in games of Book XXIII. Closer analysis, however, competitive human activities. suggests a more richly complex vision of glory This contrapuntal movement begins with the in the Iliad, one that may be characterized by a disturbingly bleak conception of the afterlife in conflict between Thanatos, or what Sigmund the Iliad. As Bernard Knox observes, “Homer Freud terms “the death instinct”, and Eros, “the offers no comforting vision of life beyond the instinct of life” that binds civilization together.2 grave.”3 In the Iliad, there is no Elysium with In Book V, Diomedes is not just a ferocious war- “lands of gladness, glades of gentleness” where rior who wounds the goddess Aphrodite, lest “the plains wear dazzling light”, as there is later the Eros she represents diminish his lethality. in Virgil’s Aeneid.4 Nor do resurrection and the He also injures the god Ares in a struggle against possibility of achieving glory through purgation Thanatos, the insatiable desire to kill, that Ares, exist in the afterlife of the Iliad as they do in the the god of war, signifies. In Book XXIII, Achil- Aeneid where some spirits “drink the waters of les exemplifies this thematic conflict between the River Lethe” and return to earth to live again death and life as well. Achilles begins Book XXIII and a “few” enter the most exalted “Fields of preoccupied with death as he mourns his dear- Gladness” as spiritually pure beings.5 Even the est friend, Patroclus, and desecrates the corpse dead Patroclus who returns to earth in Achilles’ of Hector, the Trojan hero who killed Patroclus. dream does so only to ensure his swift burial so

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that he may, as he must, enter the enshrouding subordinate the pursuit of competitive glory to darkness of the Homeric underworld. Hence, ev- achieve eternal blessedness in heaven. In the Iliad, ery human life in the Iliad inexorably results in however, achieving earthly glory is the supreme a “black death,” as each human “generation … goal where the afterlife is a joyless eternity that dies away” like “old leaves,” the winter winds lacks significance, according to Seth Schein.13 As “scatter … across the earth.”6 In death, each per- the Trojan Sarpedon tells his comrade Glaucus, son loses the animating spirit of life to exist as “Ah my friend, if you and I could escape this fray a “ghost, with no significant physical or mental and live forever … I would never fight on the existence”, according to the scholar Seth Schein.7 front lines again or command you to the field Even great heroes, like Diomedes and Achil- where men win fame.”14 However, Sarpedon les, are inexorably fated to become shadows in fights to win glory, as the “fates of death” await death’s black night in the Iliad. every human.15 Likewise, Diomedes does not The grimness of this afterlife becomes espe- “cringe in fear” or “shrink from battle” because cially evident when one reads Homer’s Iliad in the game of war provides him the opportunity to conjunction with his . During ’ achieve earthly glory he can never attain in the visit to the underworld in Book XI of the Odys- obscuring darkness of this afterlife.16 sey, he greets the dead Achilles and says, “Achil- Achilles also chooses earthly competitive les, there’s not a man in the world more blest glory even though it means his early death. Achil- than you—there never has been, never will be les knows from his “immortal” mother Thetis one.”8 Achilles, however, flatly rejects the notion that “two fates bear [him] to the day of death.”17 that he leads a happy life in what the seer Tire- In one, he chooses a short life with great glory; sias calls, the “joyless kingdom of the dead.”9 in the other, he elects a long life mired in obscu- Indeed Achilles poignantly tells Odysseus, “No rity.18 Achilles questions the wisdom of pursuing winning words about death to me. I’d rather glory because he dejectedly believes at one point slave on earth for another man—some dirt-poor that “the same honor waits for the coward and tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—than the brave … both go down to Death.”19 Although rule down here over all the breathless dead.”10 Achilles “hate[s] … the very gates of Death,” he This statement becomes even more remark- heroically chooses a short life.20 When Achilles able when interpreted in the light of Achilles’ does so, he achieves the only “form of immor- observation in the Iliad that only “the gods live tality” open to him—”the undying glory of his free of sorrows” because Zeus allots “sorrows name.”21 In this manner, Achilles gains “kleios only” or a mixture of “misfortune [and] good aphthiton,” or “glory [that] never dies,” among times in turn” to every mortal.11 Achilles would the living even as the brave and the cowardly seemingly never question the sanity of someone alike endure an eternity of sorrow in the bleak about to exchange the afterlife for the suffering shadow lands of the Iliadic underworld.22 of earthly existence as Aeneas does during his On first analysis, achieving this competitive visit to the underworld in the Aeneid.12 For Achil- glory seems to entail playing a winner-take-all les, the pain and tragedy of life are immeasur- game, which Sarpedon describes to Glaucus ably better than eternal existence in an afterlife when he says that they will either “give our where no one—not even a once towering hero enemy glory or win it for ourselves.”23 The bru- like him—can achieve meaning or attain glory. tality of this kill-or-be-killed contest leads the Such a conception of the underworld of- French philosopher Simone Weil to characterize fers an explanation of the high value of earthly the Iliad as a “poem of force”—one in which war- competitive glory in Book V and Book XXIII of riors turn each person they defeat “into a thing,” the Iliad. If the Iliad expressed a Christian view lest they be objectified themselves by becoming of the afterlife, Diomedes and Achilles might a corpse in battle. As Seth Schein explains, “Weil

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argues that the true hero, the true subject, the binding the power of Eros associated with Aph- center of the Iliad is force.”24 This “force to kill” rodite and the “aggressive instinct” of Thana- becomes readily apparent during Book V when tos.33 Thus, as the Greeks seek to defeat Troy, Diomedes takes the life of one Trojan after an- Diomedes, it seems, must overcome Aphrodite other with stunning ferocity in his “aristeia” or since her Eros, from a Freudian perspective, exhibition of “nobility [in battle skill].”25 Since may animate and unify the civilization Troy Achilles refused to fight following his bitter represents. feud with Agamemnon, Diomedes temporarily More than that, the unifying power of Aph- ascends to become the Greeks’ finest warrior in rodite’s Eros threatens to diminish the man-kill- Book V. Indeed, Book V begins by comparing ing prowess of Diomedes as well as the Trojans Diomedes’ excellence to a “star … rising up to he battles. Aphrodite triggered the Trojan War outshine all other stars.”26 Diomedes exhib- when her Eros enabled the Trojan prince Paris its this excellence by fighting like an inhuman to seize Helen from Menelaus, her Greek hus- force of nature on the battlefield. An epic simile band.34 Yet, her Eros can neuter a warrior’s abil- compares him to a “flash flood” that destroys ity to act honorably on the battlefield. This effect “dikes” or every manmade obstacle the Trojans is evident when Aphrodite whisks Paris from put in his way.27 Not even the injury he suf- battle and then “lays [him] low” with “irresist- fers from the arrow shot by the “shining archer ible longing” to make love to Helen when he Pandarus” stops him.28 Instead, it “spurred his should be fighting Menelaus in a single combat strength” with “raging” fury, as he “mauls” the to decide who will win the Trojan War.35 Paris Trojans like a wounded “lion…piling corpse on is not alone in feeling the influence of Aphro- corpse.”29 dite’s power. In fact, there is a continuing ten- Diomedes further demonstrates his excel- sion in Book V between the desire to win glory lence by wounding the goddess Aphrodite with in the deadly game of war and the longing to the permission of Athena. Diomedes’ violent return home to one’s wife and resume a peace- encounter with Aphrodite suggests that he, as ful, civilized life. Pandarus, the Trojan archer, an agent of Thanatos, or “man’s natural ag- tells Aeneas that he will “smash [his] bow and gressive instinct,” must combat the Eros Aph- fling it in the fire” if he “get[s] home again.”36 rodite represents in order to achieve glory.30 Aeneas, however, “sharply” censures Pandarus This analysis may seem counter-intuitive since by saying there should be “no talk of turning for Diomedes’ apparent love for the terrible beauty home” because thoughts of his “wife and … fine of war might be interpreted as a manifestation house” will weaken Pandarus’ resolve to battle of Aphrodite’s Eros. Zeus, however, makes it Diomedes.37 Likewise, Sarpedon spurs Hector’s clear that the “works of war” lie outside Aph- fighting spirit by describing how he “left [his] rodite’s province by defining her as the goddess loving wife” in “distant Lycia” to become Hec- of “marriage” who instills the “fires of longing” tor’s “ally-to-the-death” in the Trojan War.38 for love through the force of her Eros.31 Inter- Where Aeneas and Sarpedon thus refuse to suc- preted from a Freudian perspective, Aphrodite’s cumb to the longing for wife and home Zeus as- Eros thus “combine[s] single human individu- sociates with Aphrodite, Diomedes earns glory als, and after that families” to form the build- by going one step further and actually wound- ing blocks that interconnect to create “races, ing Aphrodite. His hardheartedness allows Di- peoples and nations, into one great unity, the omedes to achieve great glory in war. Yet, this unity of mankind.”32 In this manner, Freudian glory may come at a horrible cost since the god- Eros unites civilization even as Thanatos seeks dess Dione tells Aphrodite that Diomedes’ wife to rend society asunder. The apparent result is may soon “wail” in mourning because the “man a Freudian “struggle” between the “libidinally” who fights the gods does not live long.”39

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Notwithstanding the fury of Diomedes’ bat- as these two forces epically interact to define hu- tle valor, there appears to be more to the glory man competitive glory in Homer’s poem. he represents than just the exercise of the brutal Like Diomedes in Book V and Book VI, Achil- force Weil describes. As Schein observes, Weil’s les in Book XXIII also exemplifies both the kill- interpretation is “one-sided and fails to recog- ing fury of the aggressive instinct for death and nize the nobility and glory” of heroes like Dio- the civilizing nobility of the unifying force of medes.40 This one-sidedness becomes evident Eros . As Book XXIII opens, Achilles displays an when Diomedes battles Ares, the god of war, implacable rage against Hector that is Ares-like with the help of the goddess Athena. On one in its inhuman intensity. After Hector kills Pa- level, this battle arises because Ares fights for the troclus, Achilles is not content merely to exact Trojans whereas Diomedes and Athena battle proportional revenge by killing Hector. Instead, for the Greeks. On a deeper level, however, Dio- Achilles becomes “bent on outrage, on shaming medes may also be battling against the “uncon- noble Hector.”46 In lieu of granting Hector “the trollable rage” and insatiable lust for war that solemn honors owed the dead,” Achilles des- makes Zeus “hate” Ares “most of all the Olym- ecrates the corpse of Hector in Book XXIII. He pian gods.”41 That he does so with Athena’s help announces, “I’ve dragged Hector … for the dogs suggests that the wisdom she represents informs to rip him raw.”47 And he then proclaims, “I’ll his actions. As such, Diomedes may not com- cut the throats of a dozen sons of Troy in all their pletely succumb to what Weil calls the power shining glory, venting my rage on them for [Pa- of war to “intoxicate” the heroes of the Iliad.42 troclus’] destruction.”48 Where Diomedes’ inter- Instead, Diomedes wisely fights against the per- nal battle against the unrestrained fury of war sonification of that power in Ares to establish an becomes externalized when he wounds Ares, the ethos of glory that includes, but also transcends, god-like Achilles personifies this wrath and must Weil’s conception of force. Thus, Diomedes not therefore struggle against himself. The result is only exemplifies Weil’s force by killing Trojans a narrative movement that alternates between and wounding Aphrodite, but he also struggles Achilles’ inhuman fury against Hector and the against that force by battling against Ares. In civilizing force of his emerging humanity. this manner, Diomedes may become a paradigm Though Achilles is “still raging for his friend” for the Freudian conflict between Thanatos and Patroclus, he attends a “feast” that signals the Eros. end of his once overwhelming rage against The same Diomedes who brings death like Agamemnon.49 That ire begins in Book I when a superhuman force of nature also seems to re- Agamemnon seizes Briseis, a beautiful woman alize that he must not lose his humanity in the who is Achilles’ gēra, a “gift” that represents the process. Thus, Diomedes in Book VI rejects the timē or “honor,”50 Achilles won in battle.51 His unyielding application of the ethos of force Weil anger reverberates throughout the Iliad as Achil- describes when he spares Glaucus, “his heredi- les, in his injured pride, “chooses to sit out the tary xenos (guest friend).”43 By doing so, Dio- battle for a time” while the Trojans score victo- medes reveals that the civility of the guest-host ries and many Greeks, including Patroclus, die.52 relationship takes precedence over the “rough One might argue that Achilles is not responsible justice” and brutality of war.44 The result is a for these deaths since these people were fated to curious paradox, for the same Diomedes who die notwithstanding Achilles’ selfish preoccupa- fought against the civilizing force of Aphrodite’s tion with glory. Thus, as Zeus does not intervene Eros now embodies that force by clashing with to prevent the fated death of his son, Sarpedon, the Thanatos Ares represents.45 As such, Dio- it seems unlikely that he would alter the fated medes’ battles against Aphrodite and Ares may death of these Greeks.53 Yet, Zeus changes the represent a conflict between Eros and Thanatos tide of battle when Thetis, at Achilles’ request,

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asks him to do so because Achilles wants “the force on the Trojan battlefield becomes a “peace- Achaeans to recognize how important he is to maker” who acts with grace and civility during them.”54 As such, Zeus may transform the cir- these funeral games.60 He prevents Oilean Ajax cumstances in which these Greeks die even if he and Idomeneus from “com[ing] to blows” af- does not alter the date of their fated deaths. If ter they begin “trading … stinging insults” by so, Achilles’ anger at Hector “must also be an- reminding them they should act with decorum ger against himself” because Achilles’ “refusal during Patroclus’ funeral games.61 He deftly me- to reenter the battle … is ultimately the reason diates a dispute between Antilochus and Eume- Patroklos [Patroclus] fought in his place—and lus regarding who should be awarded the second died.”55 Interpreted in this light, Achilles’ rage place award in the chariot race.62 He also gra- against Hector confirms and rejects Achilles’ fe- ciously gives the elderly Nestor and Agamem- rocious pursuit of glory. In this manner, Achilles non prizes even though neither competes in the may be exacting revenge against Hector and si- games.63 In this manner, Achilles seems to evolve multaneously berating himself since both he and from a “self-focused” warrior concerned only Hector are responsible for Patroclus’ death. with individual glory to a more “community- Achilles’ rage against Hector also exists hand focused” and humane individual. 64 in hand with his visceral recognition of the com- Through this transformation, a different and mon mortality he shares with all humans. This more genteel Achilles takes center stage in Book realization remained abstract for Achilles so long XXIII. The death of Patroclus still fills Achilles as a lengthy, yet inglorious, life was still one of with “iron rage.”65 Yet, Achilles departs from the the two fates available to him. That abstraction, winner-take-all understanding of glory that fu- however, becomes a reality when Achilles kills eled his anger at Agamemnon. Then his loss of Hector and thereby chooses the fate of a short Briseis became a gain to Agamemnon that fur- and glorious life. Achilles signals this choice ther gifts to Achilles could not recompense—not when he places a “red-gold lock” of his hair on even the return of “the beautiful maiden Bri- the corpse of Patroclus instead of fulfilling his seis” and “one of [Agamemnon’s] daughters to promise to give it to “the river-god Spercheus” wed.”66 Now, Achilles seemingly recognizes that when he returns “home.”56 Achilles’ imminent glory can be individually won and collectively death becomes even more touchingly clear when shared without tarnishing its worth. During the “the ghost of the stricken Patroclus drifted up” funeral games, he thus awards all the contestants, from the underworld to remind Achilles, “your not just the winner, gēras, or gifts, that recognize fate awaits you too, godlike as you are … to die the timē they have won through the excellence in battle beneath the proud rich Trojans’ walls.”57 of their war-like athletic prowess. He declares By recognizing the nearness of his death, the that “Victory goes to both” Ajax and Odysseus god-like Achilles undergoes a transformation— even though their wrestling match results in a one that allows him to achieve even greater “stalemate.”67 Likewise, he announces that Ajax glory by becoming more human. and Diomedes should “[s]hare and share alike” The “humanizing” effect of these changes the winner’s prizes in their fight in full battle becomes evident when Achilles presides over gear when that contest ends in a tie.68 Achilles the funeral games honoring Patroclus.58 These himself passes up the opportunity for personal competitive games, like the Trojan War itself, glory when he “sits out of the chariot race … test the military prowess of the Greeks through he would easily win because he possesses im- athletic activities such as a chariot race, archery, mortal horses.”69 Like Diomedes, Achilles thus single combat, boxing, and wrestling that “bear earns glory through noble conduct that arises a distinct relationship to battle events.”59 Yet, from, yet transcends, his ferocious rage.70 Thus the Achilles who kills the Trojans with furious Book XXIII sets the stage for what Soltes calls the

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“final resolution of Achilles’ fury” that occurs in Achilles does not only desecrate Hector’s corpse Book XXIV when Achilles “gives back Hektor’s and mourn for Patroclus, but he also acts with a [Hector’s] body to the latter’s suppliants father, civility that rejects the winner-take-all ethos of Priam” and thereby achieves a heroic humanity competitive human activities, whether they oc- that constitutes perhaps his greatest glory.71 cur in the brutal life-or-death struggle of war or As the foregoing analysis suggests, glory the intense win-or-lose competition of sports. seemingly arises in Book V and Book XXIII The result is that the competitive games also from contrapuntal movements between life seemingly arise from a conflict between life and and death, nobility and ferocity, and glory and death that makes the Iliad “a poem of mortal- oblivion that define what it means to be human ity.”73 Although “[d]eath … seems to have the in the Iliad. In Book V, Athena “lift[s] the mist” last word,” mortality allows humans to achieve from Diomedes’ eyes and thereby allows him an undying glory—one the immortal gods may “to tell a god from man on sight.”72 When she never equal because they cannot courageously does, Homer may remove the veil from our eyes risk life itself.75 Yet, human mortality is simulta- to see that being human in the Iliad entails more neously a source of tragedy in the Iliad because it than the application of Simone Weil’s force. To arises from a life filled with pain that leads to a be sure, Diomedes brutally kills Trojans just as joyless eternity for everyone—even great heroes Achilles inhumanly desecrates the corpse of like Achilles and Diomedes. As a result, Book V Hector. Nevertheless, Diomedes and Achilles and Book XXIII of the Iliad suggest that glory, also achieve glory through actions that question like human nature itself, arises from a conflict the application of this force. Diomedes does not between life and death. only reject the unifying life force of Aphrodite’s Eros, but he also battles against the implacable Eric S. Meyers is a sophomore in the Georgetown Col- rage and war lust of Ares’ Thanatos. Likewise, lege of Arts & Sciences studying Russian.

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