S1: Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I am
S1: Jeremiah Regan.
S2: And I'm Juan Davalos. We are back with something a
S2: little different today. We're going to look at a couple
S2: of lectures from our course, Great Books 101 Ancient to Medieval.
S1: This is one of the first courses that we produced,
S1: and it's related to the core course that our undergraduate
S1: students take, where they learn the key literature of the
S1: Western tradition. We're doing a special episode on the Iliad,
S1: and next week we'll do another on Homer's Odyssey, because
S1: we have full courses coming out on both of those works.
S1: The Iliad will be taught by Stephen Smith, who also
S1: delivers the Iliad lecture in Great Books 101 and the
S1: Odyssey course features Ben Whalen, the son of David Whalen,
S1: the professor featured in the Great Books lecture on the Odyssey.
S1: So we're giving you a preview, two great lectures from
S1: the archives to prepare you for full courses that are
S1: coming out in the summer of 26.
S2: And of course, you may have seen that there's a
S2: big movie, a big blockbuster movie coming out in Hollywood,
S2: which is on Homer's Odyssey. The movie is called Odyssey,
S2: produced by Christopher Nolan, and it's going to be a
S2: big blockbuster. So if you go watch that movie and
S2: you want to actually learn more about Homer's Odyssey and
S2: get the full story, then I encourage you to definitely
S2: enroll in our online course, which will go into much
S2: more depth.
S1: For now, we'll give you a preview of the Iliad,
S1: which chronologically falls before the Odyssey. It is the story
S1: of war, of rage, of martial virtue, and the pursuit
S1: of honor on the battlefield that serves as a contrast
S1: to the way of life depicted in The Odyssey, which
S1: we'll discuss next week. But Doctor Smith takes us through
S1: the great Archonship, the great craftsmanship of Homer in telling
S1: this story about the greatest warriors of all time. So
S1: Enjoy this lecture on Homer's epic poem, The Ode.
S3: So where to begin with Homer's Iliad? Common sense place
S3: to start is with the author and the title. What
S3: does Iliad mean? It means a poem about ilium or
S3: about Troy. And this poem centers on the Trojan War,
S3: an event that took place around 1200 BC. Now, regarding Homer,
S3: there's been a good deal of discussion of the authorship
S3: of the poems. The discussion I don't really want to
S3: get into today, but the poem obviously has oral roots.
S3: It was obviously performed, but it's also, in my opinion,
S3: clearly by Homer, a poet we think lived around the
S3: eighth century BC. So much discussion is offered of Homer
S3: and the composition of the poem. But the edition that
S3: we're using today, Robert Fagles Iliad, offers this as. After
S3: summarizing the dispute as a conclusion. All of this is,
S3: of course, speculation, but so are all other attempts to
S3: explain the origin of the Iliad that has come down
S3: to us. We shall never be able to answer all
S3: the questions it raises with any certainty, and must rest
S3: content with this fact that a great poet marshaled the
S3: resources of an age old traditional art to create something new.
S3: The epic of Achilles rage and Hector's death, which has
S3: been a model for epic poetry ever since. So I'll
S3: more or less consistently call the the author of this
S3: poem Homer and and put aside the controversy over the
S3: composition of the poem and how it came down to us.
S3: So Homer's Iliad. Um, I guess just a couple other
S3: things to, to get you a little bit excited about
S3: reading this poem. Great judge from antiquity. Aristotle described Homer's poems,
S3: the Iliad and the Odyssey as, quote, constructed as well
S3: as possible. They come as close as possible to the
S3: ideal for a poem. So Aristotle, author of the Nicomachean
S3: Ethics and other texts, no mean judge. In fact, someone
S3: in modernity remarked that to think well is to think
S3: like Aristotle. So his opinion of this poem in particular
S3: very high. And then in the Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri,
S3: the author of The Divine Comedy, writes this. Well, it's
S3: in the Inferno. And he sees the shade of of
S3: Homer and says this, behold, the one whose right hand
S3: wields the sword. Behold, the one who comes before other
S3: poets as their Lord. That is Homer, the sovereign of
S3: my favorite lines on behalf of Homer. That is the
S3: Bard Supreme. That is Homer. So when we approach this poem, um,
S3: we're approaching the first great epic and and perhaps the
S3: best Aristotle and Dante with with high, high praise. So
S3: what's the background of the poem? As you may know,
S3: the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus, a Greek,
S3: and brought her back to Troy. Now, abduct is kind
S3: of a strong word for the Iliad. The more you
S3: read the Iliad, it starts to look like Helen in Paris. Um, well,
S3: as they say, it takes two to tango. It looks
S3: like an affair in Homer's judgment. And when Trojan Paris
S3: takes Helen back to Troy. Uh, the Trojan War begins.
S3: Helen is the face that launched a thousand ships. Uh,
S3: and her abduction, uh, begins the war. Now, as far
S3: as this poem goes, one of the surprising things when
S3: you read it for the first time. Of course, it's
S3: my hope that that's exactly what you'll do after listening
S3: to these brief remarks. You'll notice that you don't get
S3: the complete account of the war. In fact, um, you
S3: get about 55 days in year ten of the Trojan War. Really?
S3: Right about the a little bit before the death of
S3: one of the main characters and a little bit before
S3: the fall of Troy itself. Whenever I teach to tech
S3: students are often disappointed by this. They want the whole story.
S3: They want beginning to end, but they get instead what
S3: Homer gives them, which again is about 55 days or so.
S3: So you don't get the beginning of the war. You
S3: don't get the end of the war. You just get
S3: what Homer wants to give you, which is 55 days
S3: or so. Now, whenever I pronounce characters names, I'm going
S3: to follow the pronunciation guide in this edition of the Iliad.
S3: Just a little note my approach to the Iliad. What
S3: I want to suggest today is that Homer, this great poet,
S3: represents and probes the world of the Iliad and the
S3: soul's living and striving and dying in it. Um. Why?
S3: Why represent them? Why probe them? Um, the poem is
S3: not a simple reflection of, um, the cultural values of
S3: the heroes. It's actually considerably more philosophical than that. But
S3: it's important to see that it both represents this world,
S3: these souls, these heroes. Their value, their education, their culture
S3: and probes them or examines them. I think, finally, the
S3: Iliad itself offers to the reader the kind of education
S3: that Homer's heroes um, lack and, and a lack that
S3: in many cases destroys them. So again, I hope this
S3: brief introduction to the text will intrigue you and make
S3: you run out and get a copy of Homer's Iliad
S3: to read and enjoy. So I've divided the talk today
S3: into seven parts. The poem of rage. Poem of desire.
S3: Poem of delusion. Poem of disaster. Poem of death. This
S3: is very cheerful poem of responsibility and evasion. And finally,
S3: poem of glory. Question mark. So what I want to
S3: do is just briefly work through what I consider some
S3: essential high points of the text and share them with
S3: you and share some thoughts with you. So first poem
S3: of rage in the Fagles translation. Rage is the first
S3: word of the poem. And I want to read it
S3: out loud because it's so important. It's very famous. Opening, um,
S3: usually commands a pause in the classroom and in Fagles
S3: rendition is particularly grand. So here's how the poem opens. Rage.
S3: Goddess sing the rage of Peleus son. Achilles. Murderous, doomed.
S3: That cost the Achaeans countless losses. Hurling down to the
S3: house of death. So many sturdy souls, great fighters, souls
S3: but made their bodies carrion feasts for dogs and birds.
S3: And the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
S3: The famous opening identifying the subject of the poem quite
S3: simply as rage. Now students often wonder, how is it
S3: possible to write an epic on anger? So what kind
S3: of rage are we talking about? The rage of Achilles.
S3: When you when you approach a text like this, the
S3: best dispositions you can have is that of wonder. Homer's
S3: not going to explain in the opening lines why he
S3: thinks the rage of Achilles is worth writing an epic on.
S3: You have to discover that and learn that through the
S3: reading of the book and careful reflection on it. So
S3: never be afraid of wonder when you study these great
S3: literary works. It's really the essential passion that's at the
S3: heart of learning. Plato says it's the beginning of philosophy.
S3: It's also the passion that keeps philosophy going. So the
S3: rage of Achilles is the subject of this poem. And
S3: Homer throws in the will of Zeus. The rage of
S3: Achilles is obviously violent, murderous, doomed. It's described in great
S3: detail the will of Zeus, considerably more mysterious. All we
S3: know is it's moving and it's moving toward its end.
S3: And one clear, violent rage, the other mysterious both of
S3: them worth our wonder as we begin the book. So
S3: poem of rage. The poem begins with a great and
S3: a famous quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles. Agamemnon is the
S3: king of the Greeks. Achilles is a king in his
S3: own right, but a lesser king. He's the greatest warrior
S3: at Troy. The Greeks are dying at the beginning of
S3: the poem from a plague, because King Agamemnon has refused
S3: to return. The daughter of the priest of Apollo. Everyone
S3: urges him to. He refuses. The plague strikes the camp
S3: sent by Apollo. Now the quarrel breaks out when Achilles
S3: and the Greeks urge Agamemnon to return to General Agamemnon,
S3: who is a proud soul at the best of times,
S3: perhaps erupts in anger and says he won't give her back.
S3: Then he begins to come around, and he says with
S3: a threat, I'll give her back, but I'm going to
S3: take another prize that is her equal. And you know, Achilles,
S3: I may just take your prize. So the fight between
S3: them involves the wages of the war. I suppose the
S3: prize of honor in this case. A young lady named Briseus.
S3: Achilles is outraged by this, and the quarrel breaks out
S3: between them. He almost kills Agamemnon, but then is stopped
S3: and decides to withdraw from the war and retreat to
S3: his tent, smoldering with with rage. Now, at first it
S3: can seem like this quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles is
S3: completely ridiculous. Students often think, are these guys just a
S3: bunch of adolescents, you know, fighting over a girl? This
S3: is rather mortifying. Rather embarrassing. But there's an important dispute
S3: between Agamemnon and Achilles. Agamemnon is the king. He has
S3: a scepter. He is sort of excellent by by custom
S3: and by office. Achilles is the greatest warrior. He's excellent
S3: by nature. By his own abilities, he is brilliant. Achilles.
S3: Agamemnon is the lord of men. So the fight at
S3: the beginning involves not only the girl, but which of
S3: these men is the best man? The king by custom
S3: or Achilles? They both think, as you'll find out when
S3: you read it, they both think I am the best.
S3: I am the greater man, and the quarrel breaks out.
S3: For these reasons. So at the beginning, that's how things start.
S3: Now the rage of Achilles, the palm of rage. Is
S3: that all? How could that begin? An epic poem. Well,
S3: when you when you read a little bit more in
S3: book one, something pretty astonishing happens. Achilles retreats to the
S3: side of the sea, and he has a conversation with
S3: his mother. And in this conversation, he makes the first
S3: and maybe the most famous of the prayers in the poem.
S3: I want to read it to you because this is really,
S3: I think, the beginning of of the rage of Achilles.
S3: So he's smarting, he's mortified, he feels humiliated. His honor
S3: has been taken from him. He's angry. And he offers
S3: this prayer to his mother. Turns out Achilles mother is
S3: a goddess, and Zeus owes her a favor. Always helpful.
S3: Remind him of that mother. Go sit beside Zeus. Grasp
S3: his knees. Persuade him somehow to help the Trojan cause.
S3: To pin the Achaeans back against their ships, to trap
S3: them round the bay and mow them down so all
S3: can reap the benefits of their king Agamemnon. So even
S3: he can see how mad he was to disgrace Achilles,
S3: the best of the Achaeans. Now that prayer is the
S3: most important thing, I think that happens in book one.
S3: What did he ask for in his humiliation and his anger?
S3: He asked for the destruction of his own friends and countrymen,
S3: and he disgraced me. Mow them down. Why? So that
S3: he and they can know I am the best. So
S3: the prayer is both a desire for revenge, I suppose
S3: desire for justice, but also for self exaltation. But at
S3: the cost of his countrymen's lives. So for many readers,
S3: Achilles has a point in the quarrel up to a
S3: certain point. But when he makes this prayer, everyone goes, hey,
S3: hold on a second. You just prayed for the death
S3: of the Achaeans for the sake of your honor and glory.
S3: The first casualty of the rage of Achilles is friendship.
S3: Common good. When Zeus hears the prayer, he utters his
S3: first word in the poem. He's a big character in
S3: the poem, right? Disaster. And later in the poem, this
S3: prayer will be described as the disastrous prayer that Achilles made.
S3: So everything comes from this prayer that he makes in
S3: his rage. And he prays for the death of his
S3: friends and his countrymen. So the rage of Achilles begins
S3: in that way. And again Zeus greets it with this
S3: word disaster. And the poem commences on that note. Now,
S3: the second point, a poem of desire. One of the
S3: master themes of the whole poem. In a way, what's
S3: behind Achilles rage is desire. In the 20th century, William Faulkner,
S3: the great American novelist, said that his specialties was writing
S3: about the human heart in conflict with itself. And we
S3: see this on display quite, quite powerfully in the Iliad.
S3: I want to look at just three examples on this
S3: poem of desire theme. The first, of course, Achilles, um,
S3: longs for his own glory, longs for honor, for self exaltation.
S3: But that's not all there is to Achilles. Uh, it
S3: turns out he's quite attached to his home as well. Um.
S3: And he longs to escape death in general. And one
S3: of the most important things to realize about Achilles, the
S3: more we get into the poem. I mentioned his mother
S3: as a goddess. Well, his father is a mortal man.
S3: So he's sort of a mixed breed, I suppose. He
S3: has a mortal father. He's doomed to die. But he
S3: has that immortal mother. And because of that, he has
S3: real immortal longings in him. But those longings create a
S3: conflict between the longing for glory and the longing for
S3: for home. He says in book nine, very famously, two
S3: fates bear me on to the day of death, and
S3: I want to look at that text for a second.
S3: Look at page 265. This is the embassy to Achilles
S3: in book nine. So Achilles has been sitting out after
S3: the prayer and after the quarrel. And the Greeks come
S3: to him trying to persuade him to re-enter the war.
S3: But to the point poem of desire, Mother tells me
S3: the immortal goddess, that two fates bear me on to
S3: the day of death. If I hold out here and
S3: lay siege to Troy. My journey home is gone, but
S3: my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland.
S3: I love my pride. My glory dies. That's true. But
S3: the life that's left me then will be long. The
S3: stroke of death will not come quickly. So for Achilles,
S3: as he. As he says. I could stay here and
S3: win great glory. But die young. I could go home,
S3: enjoy a long life, but obscurity. Now, one of the
S3: funny things about the poem, as I mentioned at the beginning,
S3: we're in year ten of the war, 55 days more
S3: or less the action of the poem. The Greeks have
S3: been in Troy for a decade trying to break the city.
S3: One of the most funny things about Achilles is he
S3: keeps saying, I could go home tomorrow. I could leave
S3: two fates. Bear me to the day of death. Stay here,
S3: fight and die. But when glory go home, long life
S3: and obscurity. But the reality is he's been there for nine,
S3: ten years. So which desire is stronger in him? Clearly
S3: the longing for glory. But you wouldn't want to overlook
S3: how much he longs for home and how much he
S3: longs to escape death. That's what makes him a deep character. Actually,
S3: I mentioned a couple other examples. We haven't talked about
S3: the Trojans at all. I mentioned Paris abducting Helen, so
S3: why don't we take them? First up, Helen and Paris.
S3: They two souls of strong desire. They long for beauty,
S3: for Eros, for erotic desire and for escape. There are
S3: two of the most famously frustrating characters in the poem Helen.
S3: As I mentioned in Homer's account, looks like a willing abductee.
S3: Her main activity in the poem is berating herself, staying
S3: at Troy and weaving a gorgeous robe, a work of
S3: art on which she depicts all the suffering that folks
S3: have endured for her sake. So she's quite a character.
S3: She describes the war this way. It was all for me.
S3: Or it is all for me horror that I am.
S3: And for this mad, blind Paris. Oh, the two of us.
S3: Zeus planted a killing doom within us. So even for
S3: generations still unborn, we will live in song. So she
S3: likes to describe herself as doomed. She likes to describe
S3: herself as a whore. She likes to describe her husband
S3: as blind and mad, but neither of them make any
S3: changes to, uh, to their character or to their approach.
S3: So they have this capacity for seeing the truth and yet, uh,
S3: remain as they are. One of the more frustrating things
S3: in the poem. What about Paris? He looks like a
S3: great warrior. My sons were asking me earlier who would
S3: play Paris in the movie. He looks like a great warrior.
S3: He's got the glistening locks. All these weapons. Um, a
S3: reflex bow, double spears. But according to his brother Hector,
S3: no pith within him. So he's a beautiful exterior. Handsome exterior,
S3: but no real pith. And at the beginning of the
S3: poem he meets Menelaus, Helen's husband, and they have an
S3: almost duel. But Paris escapes in cowardly fashion with the
S3: help of Aphrodite. He gets back to Troy and his
S3: wife berates him. She said, you are such a coward.
S3: I can't believe I'm married to you. You wouldn't even
S3: fight Menelaus. To which she says, you know, honey, everything
S3: you're saying about me is true. But let's do this.
S3: Let's go back to bed. Let's lose ourselves in love.
S3: Never has longing for you overwhelmed me, so. Not even then.
S3: The first time I swept you away, that was nothing.
S3: For how I hunger for you now, dear, irresistible longing
S3: lays me low. Now what usually lays you low in
S3: the Iliad would be a spear. Or being killed violently.
S3: What brings about your death here in Paris? In Helen's case,
S3: it's their desire. So poem of desire. You have Achilles
S3: and his desire. Helen and Paris's desire and their desire
S3: launched the war. Now, the last example I'd give is Hector. Hector,
S3: the prince of Troy. The best defense of the city.
S3: The mighty opposite of Achilles in Homer's depiction. He's also
S3: a family man. There's a very tender scene in book
S3: six between his wife and his newborn son, and in
S3: that scene, Hector emerges. He looks like the opposite of
S3: Achilles in a way. He's very concerned with Troy and
S3: the common good. He's fighting for others, for his family.
S3: He's a man of honor. He's a great warrior. But
S3: his wife says something quite striking when she sees him
S3: come back from battle instead of saying, oh, honey, it
S3: must have been a tough day at the office. She says, oh,
S3: reckless one, my Hector, your own fiery courage will destroy you.
S3: So the first thing that his wife says in the
S3: poem is not. You are the one who defends Troy.
S3: You are this, you are that. She prophesies his self-destruction
S3: because of his recklessness and his own fiery courage. Later,
S3: after his death. Spoiler alert. Um, she will say. Did
S3: Achilles put an end to the fatal, headstrong pride that
S3: would always sees my husband? His wife knows her husband
S3: quite well, it turns out. And there's considerably more to
S3: Hector than the defense of Troy. Or love of the family.
S3: He's a man of fire as well, of headstrong pride
S3: and of keen desire for glory. Now, all of these
S3: forms of desire, um, are are wild in the poem.
S3: The tragic forms of it, and it reminds me of
S3: something Homer writes later in The Odyssey. In that poem,
S3: Odysseus goes to the underworld and he wants to know
S3: how do we get home again after all this wandering?
S3: How do we do it? And Tiresias tells him, if
S3: you could only learn how to curb your wild desire
S3: and your crew, you might just see your home again.
S3: But that's the real challenge in the poems of Homer,
S3: is that desire is almost irresistible. It's powerful. It's at
S3: the heart of who we are. It also has this
S3: destructive tendency, this wild tendency, who can curb it, who
S3: can rule it, who can direct it? The characters struggle
S3: mightily with it. Now, another big theme in the poem
S3: is delusion and deception. You want to be on the
S3: lookout for examples of characters blaming the gods. It becomes
S3: kind of comical at a certain point. Helen in Paris,
S3: we mentioned their affair started the war. So when you
S3: hear Priam, the king of Troy, say to Helen, come here, dear,
S3: sit next to me. I don't hold you to blame.
S3: I hold the gods to blame. It's hard not to
S3: not to not to be amazed, actually. Or Agamemnon. It
S3: looks like he's the cause of the quarrel at the
S3: beginning of the poem in book one. But he blames Zeus.
S3: He blames ruin. He blames anyone but himself for his
S3: own actions. In fact, in class this past semester, we were.
S3: We were joking that if Zeus could make a t shirt,
S3: it would say, don't blame me on it. He could
S3: circulate it to the characters in the Iliad, even Paris,
S3: the beautiful Paris to kind of Fabio figure in the
S3: poem he says, hey, look to his brother. I didn't
S3: vote for these good looks. I didn't I didn't vote
S3: for being Paris. It's just a gift of Aphrodite. Don't
S3: blame me. So this this theme in the poem is
S3: is just as important as the others. Why do the
S3: characters locate responsibility somewhere other than in their own will
S3: or their own freedom? Reminiscent, perhaps, of the text of Genesis.
S3: The woman you gave me gave me the fruit. Or
S3: Shakespeare's King Lear. This is the excellent foppery of the
S3: world that when we are sick in fortune, often the
S3: surfeit of our own behaviors we make guilty of our
S3: disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars, anything but ourselves.
S3: So freedom and responsibility. Quite an important theme here. I
S3: mentioned delusion and deception. So the key delusion is the
S3: blame game. But deception, truth telling and lying very important
S3: as well. Ares, the god of war, is described as duplicitous,
S3: Two faced a liar. But Achilles is particularly sensitive on
S3: this point of truth telling. And lying in that same
S3: embassy scene I mentioned earlier, he meets Odysseus, the hero
S3: of the Odyssey, and they have a brief exchange that's
S3: very famous. This is on page 262, Royal son of Laertes.
S3: Achilles says, I must say what I have to say
S3: straight out. I must tell you how I feel and
S3: how this whole thing will end. So in his own understanding,
S3: his own self-image, Achilles is the kind of guy who
S3: just tells you how it is, tells it like it is,
S3: you know, perhaps smooth as a train wreck, that type.
S3: But here's the famous line. I hate that man. Like
S3: the very gates of death who says one thing with
S3: his lips but holds another in his heart. I will
S3: say it outright. That's what seems best to me. Well, Agamemnon. Agamemnon,
S3: win me over? Never. So for Achilles, the most hateful
S3: thing as hateful as death is insincerity or lying. Now,
S3: most people who read. Many people who read the scene
S3: recognize some irony. Odysseus's strong suit is a tale telling
S3: wily behavior, verbal dexterity. He's the great rhetorician. He's not
S3: exactly the most truthful person you'll ever meet in literature.
S3: So for Achilles to say this to Odysseus has seemed
S3: to many, um, kind of witty. But I think that
S3: misses the more serious point, which is how do we judge?
S3: Or what is Achilles own truthfulness? Like? His point of
S3: pride is I'm the truth teller. I'm the one who
S3: tells it like it is, I hate liars. All these
S3: lines make particularly painful what happens in the second part
S3: of the poem, where Achilles in fact will withhold, even
S3: directly lie to his best friend about something that he knows.
S3: So again, just to keep it all straight, there's a quarrel.
S3: In book one. Achilles makes his prayer. He's sitting out
S3: of the war. He will not come back. He says,
S3: I hate like the gates of death. The one who
S3: says one thing with his lips and holds another in
S3: his heart. But as the poem unfolds, Zeus grants Achilles prayer.
S3: So as book after book unfolds, death after death, battle
S3: after battle, the Greeks are being pushed back and the
S3: Trojans are are winning. And this brings the poem to
S3: a crisis point to Achilles. It looks like he's about
S3: to get what he wanted the whole time, which is
S3: his own exaltation. But at this desperate moment, one of
S3: the most remarkable things in the plot happens. The Greeks
S3: are all wounded. They're dying. And old King Nestor intervenes.
S3: It turns out Achilles has a best friend. Patroclus or Patroclus,
S3: who's with him? Um, in the tent. He tells Patroclus.
S3: Is there any way, if Achilles won't help us, that
S3: you could go back to him and say, send me instead?
S3: Let me wear your armor, Achilles. Let me fight. That
S3: would scare the Trojans. They'd think it was you, and
S3: we'd be able to create a little breathing room in
S3: this terrible, terrible moment in the war. Now, at this moment,
S3: Achilles pauses and the question is asked directly to him.
S3: Is there some prophecy that, you know, deep down, Achilles,
S3: something that's making you balk? If so, say it outright.
S3: To which Achilles says, no, there's no prophecy at all.
S3: I think you should do this. I think this plan
S3: will work. And so he sends his best friend into battle,
S3: wearing his own armor. And of course, as you'll find
S3: out when you read it. I hope his best friend
S3: dies in battle. Now, I mentioned truth telling and lying. Well,
S3: it turns out Achilles has been keeping something to himself
S3: pretty successfully for the ten years they've been in Troy.
S3: A prophecy he learned from his mother that goes like this.
S3: While you live, Achilles, the best will die. Now, Achilles
S3: is particularly preoccupied with being the best man. He really
S3: keenly desires that title. So he hasn't. He hasn't mentioned
S3: this prophecy to anyone. He's kept it to himself. Now
S3: his best friend Patroclus, is not only his best friend,
S3: but probably the most admired man in the Greek army
S3: when he. When he dies, the grieving over him is
S3: pretty extraordinary. He was supposed to be a counselor to Achilles.
S3: He was supposed to help Achilles. He's not as strong
S3: as Achilles, but he has judgment. And he has kindness. Now,
S3: if anyone in Achilles circle of friends would have qualified
S3: as the other best guy. This is probably his friend Patroclus.
S3: So when he's asked, do you know of any reason?
S3: Is there anything holding you back? And he says, no,
S3: he's sending his friend into battle with this prophecy haunting
S3: his mind. And he's he's lying to him. Now, of course,
S3: I mentioned Patroclus will meet his death in the poem
S3: The Hands of Hektor. One of the sadder moments in
S3: the poem and Achilles, while this is happening, is back
S3: at his tent, waiting and waiting for the news. And
S3: as Homer puts it very simply, while he was waiting,
S3: while he was presuming that Zeus was still fulfilling everything
S3: he wanted in book one, His best friend on earth
S3: lay dead. And this brings about, finally the re-entry of
S3: Achilles into the battle. Um, but it's a disaster. Personally,
S3: for Achilles, the death of his best friend and an
S3: example of his own double dealing when he prayed for
S3: all the Achaeans to be mowed down. That was a
S3: very general request. He probably didn't think. Does that include
S3: my best friend Zeus grants the prayer, and indeed it
S3: does include the best friend and he dies. So when
S3: we get to this key moment in the text, um,
S3: Achilles comes to a crisis point. He's sitting out, he
S3: sends his best friend, the best friend dies. He withheld
S3: the knowledge. What's going to happen next? Now, for my money,
S3: when the news reaches Achilles that his friend is dead.
S3: And of course, he bears some responsibility for this. We
S3: have the best moment in the poem so far. Your
S3: friend is dead. Achilles hears it. He falls to the ground.
S3: He pours a dirt over his head, fouls his white shirt,
S3: and then has a second important scene with his mother.
S3: And if you. If you love irony, this is a
S3: great scene. His mother comes and she's like, Achilles, why
S3: are you crying? What sorrow touches your heart? Zeus has
S3: accomplished everything you wanted. Just as you raised your hands
S3: and prayed that day. All the sons of Achaea are
S3: pinned against the ships. Everybody's dying. This is it. And
S3: groaning deeply, Achilles answered, oh, my dear mother! True. All
S3: those burning desires Olympian Zeus brought to pass. All of
S3: them have been fulfilled. But what joy to me, My
S3: dear comrade is dead. Patroclus, the man I love beyond
S3: all other comrades loved as my own life. I've lost him.
S3: Hector killed him. So this is a moment of agony
S3: for Achilles. A moment of perhaps self-knowledge. But as I
S3: mentioned earlier, characters in the Iliad have a remarkable capacity
S3: for discerning the truth and remaining as they are. So
S3: here is the golden moment, I suppose, for Achilles to
S3: examine himself, to grow in self-knowledge. But instead he focuses
S3: entirely on on Hector. Hector the murderer. Hector, the man
S3: who destroyed the dearest life I've known. I must go
S3: back into battle. I must kill Hector now. At that point,
S3: it's true Hector does kill Patroclus. But any careful reader
S3: would know that Achilles himself bears considerable responsibility as well.
S3: But in any event, on that note, he says, I'm
S3: reentering the war. And his mother says, my son, don't
S3: you know another prophecy? As as soon as you kill Hector,
S3: your own death is imminent. Your death follows his. And
S3: Achilles says, I don't care. I'm going back into war.
S3: And he does with a tremendous amount of violence and success.
S3: So he's going to get some new armor. He lost
S3: his armor to Hector, and he's going to go on
S3: a bit of a rampage. His war cry is extraordinary.
S3: Turning to death and outrage, Achilles extreme rage takes all
S3: sorts of forms when he cries aloud three times, 12
S3: Trojans die on their own spears. It's quite a cry.
S3: He kills many, many Trojans. And perhaps most graphically, he
S3: tries to fill a river with dead bodies and stop
S3: the flow of the river altogether, at which the river
S3: God finally cries out, you are greater than any man, Achilles,
S3: your greater in outrage to. Why are you cramming all
S3: my lovely flow with corpses? I am filled with horror. Stop!
S3: So as he. As he gets into battle again, men
S3: start dying. The river starts getting flowed, filled with corpses,
S3: and even the gods are a target of Achilles rage.
S3: Apollo tries to stop him at one point and Achilles says,
S3: are you a god? I'd pay you back if only
S3: I had the power. So at the end of the rage,
S3: what he wants is a kind of radical, right? Every
S3: single Trojan to die, he says at one point to
S3: stop the flow of a beautiful river with dead bodies
S3: to strike directly at the god Apollo and kill him.
S3: And this is before he's met Hektor. So when he
S3: finally does meet Hektor, his famous duel unfolds and Achilles
S3: will get what he wants in a way which is
S3: the defeat of of Hektor in battle. One of the
S3: best single books in the whole poem, book 22 features
S3: Hector's deliberations. Should he face Achilles or should he retreat
S3: to the city? Everyone wants him to retreat. Achilles is
S3: obviously having some some success in battle, but Hektor can't
S3: do it and he will stay outside the city walls,
S3: his father yelling, his mother yelling, everyone telling him to
S3: come back inside. And in this translation, he just says
S3: very simply, no way out. And Achilles will will kill him.
S3: So at this point in the poem, Achilles has re-entered
S3: the war. He's killed a tremendous number of people. He's raging.
S3: He's killed Hector and avenged himself for the death of Patroclus.
S3: But at this moment, which should be the high point.
S3: If you're Achilles, there is no greater prize in battle.
S3: There's no greater glory. You can win at Troy than
S3: defeating Hector. So what does. What does Achilles do? He
S3: defeats him. He glories over him. And then very quickly,
S3: he turns to outrage. He pierces his ankles, ties him
S3: behind the behind the horses chariot, and drags his body
S3: through the dust. It's fascinating how Homer shows that Achilles
S3: high point almost instantly becomes a low point. It goes
S3: from glory to outrage like that. And at this point,
S3: we're almost to the end of the narrative that Homer
S3: has set up. Achilles prayed in book one, he sent
S3: Patroclus into battle. That was a disaster. He re-enters battle,
S3: he kills Hector. He's got the body. He's dragging it around.
S3: Where will this end? And I think what's what's quite powerful.
S3: Come to the last portion of the talk. Um, it
S3: only ends through, um, this very quiet and beautiful book. 24.
S3: So when you come to the end of the poem,
S3: it's always good to remember the beginning. The subject was
S3: the rage of Achilles on the one hand, and the
S3: will of Zeus moving toward its end. So we shouldn't
S3: be surprised that when the rage ends and the will
S3: of Zeus is fulfilled, the poem ends. There's really a
S3: good deal of sense in how it's made. So where
S3: does the rage of Achilles lead him? By book 24.
S3: We're told he's unable to sleep. We're told he wanders
S3: along the sea aimlessly. We're told he drags the body
S3: of Hector. Round and round his friend's funeral pyre. For
S3: 12 straight days, he just can't let Hector's body be
S3: buried for some reason. So 12 days. Imagine how shocking
S3: this would be. And dragging a human body around for
S3: 12 days. So this is where the rage of Achilles
S3: finally leads him to this restless, aimless, kind of outrageous
S3: form of life. Now, at this point, finally, the gods
S3: can't take it anymore. Day 12 comes. You know, we
S3: can't let him keep treating Hector's body like this. We
S3: have to do something. And at this point, Zeus agrees
S3: and says, okay, tell him he must give the body back.
S3: Tell him this must end. He also adds one curious
S3: thing he says. In doing so, I will grant Achilles glory.
S3: So again, we're at a low point for Achilles. And
S3: yet now Zeus uses surprisingly the language of glory. There
S3: is no fighting in book 24. No one dies. No
S3: way to gain glory through battle. What kind of glory
S3: could could Achilles possibly attain? At the end of the poem,
S3: Zeus says he will. So what happens in book 24?
S3: Now for my money, book 24 is the high points
S3: of Western literature. I mentioned it's very quiet, very powerful,
S3: and really very moving. Hector's father, King Priam, is obviously
S3: very upset about how the body is being treated. He
S3: decides he's going to go under the cover of Darkness
S3: to Achilles himself and ask for the body back. He
S3: goes with the help of Hermes, and he arrives suddenly
S3: in the tent of Achilles. Now, after ten years of war,
S3: it's really astonishing moment. The King of Troy appears in
S3: Achilles tendon with a simple request could you please stop?
S3: Could you please give me my son's body back? I
S3: want to bury it. We're told in the tent. They've
S3: just finished supper. When Priam walks in, kneels down before
S3: Achilles and kisses him. The majestic King of Troy slipped
S3: past the rest and kneeling down beside Achilles, clasped his
S3: knees and kissed his hands. Those terrible man killing hands
S3: that had slaughtered Priam's many sons in battle. Awesome! Homer says.
S3: Wonderful as when madness seizes a man. So in a way,
S3: it's kind of crazy. I mean, given given Achilles feats
S3: in battle to actually go and supplicate him. It's beautiful.
S3: It's crazy. It's awesome. The words that he uses. Priam
S3: then speaks. He prays his heart out to Achilles. Same page.
S3: Remember your own father. Great godlike Achilles, as old as
S3: I am. Past the threshold of deadly old age. It's
S3: all for my boy, Hector, that I've come to your
S3: ships now to win him back from you. I bring
S3: a priceless ransom. Revere the gods, Achilles. Pity me in
S3: my own right. Remember your own father. I deserve more pity.
S3: I have endured what no one on earth has done before.
S3: I put to my lips the hands of the man
S3: who killed my son. And he kisses Achilles hands. Now,
S3: at this point, which is so powerful, I mean, the
S3: last thing you might think after listening to this kissing Achilles,
S3: kissing his hands. That's exactly what Priam does. Those words
S3: stirred within Achilles a deep desire to grieve for his
S3: own father. Taking the old man's hand, he gently moved
S3: him back and, overpowered by memory, both men gave way
S3: to grief. Priam wept for his son freely throbbing, crouching
S3: before Achilles. Achilles wept himself now for his father, now
S3: for his dead friend once again. And their sobbing rose
S3: and fell throughout the house. It's the most surprising things
S3: that could happen. Priam and Achilles share this moment of weeping.
S3: And when we're told the desire for it passes from them,
S3: they have a conversation. When brilliant Achilles had his fill
S3: of tears and the longing for weeping had left him,
S3: he rose from his seat, raised the old man by
S3: the hand, and filled with pity now for his grey
S3: head and grey beard He spoke out, winging words, flying
S3: straight to the heart. You poor man. How much you've
S3: borne pain to break the spirit. What daring brought you
S3: here to face me? You have a heart of iron.
S3: So Achilles is moved by. Not by martial glory, but
S3: by Priam begging for his son's body back. Now, the
S3: rest of the scene, a very quiet ending is full
S3: of significance. And I think finally, it reveals the glory
S3: that Zeus was talking about. Priam says, look, take the ransom.
S3: Bring it back home again. Now we know Achilles is
S3: probably not going home again, but instead of flying into
S3: a rage, Achilles actually governs himself and doesn't. He then
S3: bathes the body of Hector. He says very simply to
S3: his serving women bear it aside, bathe and anoint it.
S3: He can't see his son, so all the little details
S3: at the end are crucially important. Achilles doesn't fly into
S3: a rage, for example, when home is mentioned, even though
S3: he's sure to die now in Troy. He governs himself.
S3: He thinks to of of Priam. He's very considerate. He
S3: directs his serving women to bathe the body of the
S3: dead man. Priam must not see his son this way.
S3: Achilles then lifts the body of Hector up himself and
S3: puts it on the wagon. He even goes so far
S3: as to serve the King a meal. A sentence is
S3: as simple as Achilles served. The meat suggests it. Quite
S3: a transformation has started in Achilles. And finally he tells
S3: the old man, I will hold myself back as long
S3: as you need be precise about it. How long do
S3: you need to bury your son? So what's powerful about
S3: the ending? Book 24 and all these little ways is
S3: that Achilles, the man of rage? The man who made
S3: that prayer at the beginning, the man who sent his
S3: friend to his death, the man who killed and in
S3: treated Hector's body so outrageously here, at least, begins to
S3: act differently, to change. This is the one exception, I think,
S3: in the poem. So many other characters experience a moment
S3: of truth, moment of possible change, but don't quite change. Here,
S3: Achilles freely changes. Zeus had said, I will grant him glory.
S3: Perhaps the final glory of Homer's Iliad is the beginning
S3: of Virtue in Achilles or the beginning of a new
S3: way of life. The last image we have of Achilles, actually,
S3: in the whole poem, after all of the rage, after
S3: all of the death and violence, is sleeping in his
S3: tent at peace. So that really the final wonder is Achilles.
S3: Half man, half god, Achilles haunted by death, Achilles given
S3: to rage and to outrageous prayers, experiencing peace of soul.
S3: And again, the beginning of of a new way of life.
S3: So if there's glory here at the end, it is
S3: the glory of Achilles freedom and the freedom from from
S3: his rage. So I hope you've enjoyed that overview of,
S3: of the poem. And I hope you can can sense
S3: just how worthwhile a reading experience this first and perhaps
S3: greatest of the epics really is. Thank you.
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