® A publication of the Society for Classical Studies Vol. 12 • Issue 1 • Spring 2015 The Metal Age: The Use of Ancient Narratives and Modern War Stories: Classics in Heavy Metal Reading Homer with Music Combat Veterans by Roberta Stewart by KFB Fletcher or the past seven years, small groups of t is a great time to be a fan of both Fcombat veterans in the Upper Valley of Ithe Classical world and heavy metal New Hampshire and Vermont have been music: the two have never over- lapped to the extent that they do right making Homer their own. This article details now. Consider, for example, the fact the particular value of these small book that in 2013 not one but two Italian groups for the veteran, for the community, metal bands, Heimdall and Stormlord, and for me as the academic facilitator. released concept albums based on The proposal for the book groups origi- Vergil’s Aeneid. nated from the premise that literature is But this overlap is not a new phe- nomenon–in fact, far from it. Heavy able to provide useful insight into life expe- metal music has drawn on the Classical rience and, more specifically, that Homer’s world almost from its very beginnings, Iliad and Odyssey provide valuable and this interest in the Classical world is insight–2800 years old–into the problems part of a larger obsession with other of soldiers who individually and collectively times and places–both real and imag- acters from The Lord of the Rings in songs experienced deep internal conflicts while ined–that is a defining characteristic of such as “Ramble On” and “Misty deployed (Iliad) and who needed some- the genre. And since metal is a conser- Mountain Hop.” But they also have a vative genre (there are clear forefathers song entitled “Achilles Last Stand” [sic]. how to get home (Odyssey). Homer pro- to whom almost all subsequent bands The members of Black Sabbath have vides a salutary distancing and deflection owe and acknowledge their allegiance), said that they took their influence from that, I believe, allows the problems of the interest in these kinds of subjects horror movies; from the very beginning homecoming to emerge more clearly as a by earlier bands sanctioned continuous their albums have been full of other- historical problem of the human condition use of them by all subsequent bands. worldly topics, especially the occult, as across cultures and political or social To simplify radically, metal begins in is evident from the title of their band, 1969-70, with the debut of the two main which is also the name of their first organizations: the problem of homecoming forefathers of heavy metal, the British album and a song on it (another song on is a product of war. bands Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. that album is “The Wizard”). The Homer book groups that I run are Both of these bands demonstrate inter- Such topics were picked up and fur- small (8-12 vets) but the ideas are large: est in fantastical worlds and the occult. ther authorized by subsequent bands, life, or our daily lived experience, happens Led Zeppelin draws on the works of including Iron Maiden, perhaps the between the big events; and narratives, or JRR Tolkien, referring to places or char- continued on page 8 figured worlds, conjure, create, and sustain Games and Thrones .......................................4 Using Low-Cost Hardware lived experience (Holland and Skinner for 3D Scanning at Kenchreai, 1998); dialogic engagement with the text “Troilus and Cressida” and Tacitus.5 Greece ......................................................................14 of Homer creates narratives, or figured There Is a Shortage of Certified Learn to Spend the Big Money: Latin Teachers: Please Spread the Medievalists Mary Carruthers, worlds of return, and may help the daily Word! .........................................................................6 Irina Dumitrescu, and Barbara experience of return and reintegration for Rosenwein on Humanities “Eurydice” by Sarah Ruhl: Outreach ..............................................................18 combat veterans. Practically I bring the The Power of Pretense .............................10 world of the liberal arts curriculum, namely For the Girls: An Elegy ..............................19 Tartarus and The Curses of philology as the art of reading slowly (Niet- Inside Percy Jackson (or Annabeth’s A Letter from Our President ...............21 Adventures in the zsche), to a group outside of the liberal Underworld).....................................................12 From Your Editors.......................................22 arts college. I teach veterans how to have GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS...........24 continued on page 2 Ancient Narratives and Modern War Stories: ing Odysseus. Fick ends his book with his Reading Homer with Combat Veterans own unease about the significance of his service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rejecting continued from page 1 the argument of good done (protecting a relationship with a piece of ancient litera- according to my colleague James Tatum, women from the Taliban), Fick settles on his ture and in the process I teach how to cre- cues the painful ambivalence of the veter- success in protecting his men: “I took sixty- ate a community that is founded upon a ans who return as “living embodiments of five men to war and brought sixty-five shared intellectual experience. war” (Tatum 2012: 66). All of the charac- home. I gave them everything I had. The self-selected groups commit to four- ters in the poem express a judgment of the Together we passed the test. Fear didn’t teen weekly sessions, of ninety minutes’ hero: the gods, his son, the hometown beat us. I hope that life improves for the duration, in order to read and engage with boys, his soldier peers at Troy, the poet people of Afghanistan and Iraq, but that’s Homer. I have run groups for veterans, for Homer, the poet whom Homer creates to not why we did it. We fought for each combat veterans (the most successful), and sing songs about Troy and Odysseus, the other” (369). My point: Homer too knew for clinicians at the VA who wanted to families and heads of families who experi- Fick’s calculus (Od. 24.427ff.; Shay 2012: know what I was doing. I have run the ence his destructive return. Finally 58-59) and conjured up the problem of the groups at the VA (the least successful Odysseus himself creates his own narra- veteran’s return at its most complex. venue), at a local Vet Center, and, most tives of his war experience, of his home- Odysseus came home alone, to a world he successfully, at the Hanover Public Library, ward journey, and even of who he is. had yearned to see for twenty years yet in a closed room with windows that allow could not recognize once he arrived, angry natural light but not so much as to create a and planning revenge from the moment he fishbowl and any sense of vulnerability. My reached home though he had been cau- most recent, and most successful, groups tioned to restrain his anger. have combined WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Homer offers It is important to note that I who in my Iraq, and Afghan combat vets. I have read veterans a map for Dartmouth classroom am monologic and Odyssey (most successfully), Iliad (first offer- coming home speak from authority on, e.g., the Twelve ing unsuccessful; second offering hugely Tables or the correct translation of an abla- successful for a reason I will indicate tive absolute, while my students dutifully below), Thucydides (unsuccessfully–the vets take notes and accept the reality of the first said it felt too much like school). Although I written Roman law or of Latin grammar and have a scholar’s fondness for Richmond Lat- adverbial modification, I have a fundamen- timore’s translations of the epics, I have Which stories are true? Penelope, who tally different role in the veterans’ groups. I found Fagles’ translation of Odyssey has endured for twenty years with the utter do not lecture but instead facilitate. We (1996) most successful. For Iliad, Lombar- self-control that defines her and her life read two books of Homer per week and do’s translation (1997) is readable, though partner, cannot endure the narratives of meetings focus on discussion. The interac- at times too colloquial, and Sheila Mur- false hope presented to her by her husband tion with Homer is framed by Homer and naghan’s introductory commentary is use- who sits before her, lies to her, and by me–I begin our sessions by reading ful. The groups typically have been observes her tears. All around him aloud portions of the text or asking the vet- small–under 12–and I think have to be Odysseus returns to a community awaiting erans to read portions. I provide basic com- small, for though a large group offers pro- him in order to define themselves, but the mentary on the narrative or particular fea- tective anonymity, it also means that inner dilemma is the crux: the strategies of tures of it: Homeric similes and their use to engagement remains superficial. the battlefield (the self-control and calculat- spotlight and illustrate dramatic moments; In these groups I witness a broad demo- ed violence), which are honorable on the Homeric language (and registers of lan- graphic range of veterans finding and cre- battlefield and necessary for homecoming, guage) that indicate the tone of particular ating common ground from their diverse are insufficient to reintegrate into family scenes. Reading aloud thus allows us to military experience, even in the context of and community. linger and experiment with intonation, vol- personal disagreement: WW2, Korea, Viet- Is Odysseus, whose return is announced ume, and gesture, in order to consider the nam, Panama, first Gulf war, Iraq, and as the epic subject of the poem and so the layers of textual and personal meaning.