I've been feeling the pressure to write this week and honestly wondering what in the world to write about. So much of the Iliad world is foreign to me. I have no background in the greeks, no side information to pull from. That being said, the more I read of this, the more I am drawn in. I realize the personalized aspect of these wars has been a hot topic in class discussion, and I think with good reason. Part of what is timeless about these stories is the raw humanity of it. The raw pain of loss and death is very real to the Greeks, even with all of their gods flying down at convenient moments in the heat of battle. Hector still fights even in what he knows to be his inevitable destruction. Even in all the blood and guts, they still are broken over the death of their friends. There is something in their culture which is perhaps less desensitized to the realities of death than our culture is.
This passage in particular struck me, in light of all those thoughts;
'O friends, though it be destined for all of us to be killed here
over this man, still none of us must give ground from the fighting."
This a man would speak, and stir the spirit in each one
of his fellowship. So they fought on, and the iron tumult
went up to the brazen sky through the barren bright air.
To me, the whole language is so raw. At least I don't think we typically talk like this. There's something extremely naked and vulnerable about the fact that they were stirred to fight, in this particular scene, to fight for someone already dead. I suppose it goes back to Kleos, and the fact that it made their lives full of meaning and purpose. This meaning is defined by the true knowledge and awareness of death, which is something our culture suppresses.
I could be way off so I'd love to hear what you guys think on this.
ps- I commented on "Ethos, Logos, Pathos..."
This passage in particular struck me, in light of all those thoughts;
'O friends, though it be destined for all of us to be killed here
over this man, still none of us must give ground from the fighting."
This a man would speak, and stir the spirit in each one
of his fellowship. So they fought on, and the iron tumult
went up to the brazen sky through the barren bright air.
To me, the whole language is so raw. At least I don't think we typically talk like this. There's something extremely naked and vulnerable about the fact that they were stirred to fight, in this particular scene, to fight for someone already dead. I suppose it goes back to Kleos, and the fact that it made their lives full of meaning and purpose. This meaning is defined by the true knowledge and awareness of death, which is something our culture suppresses.
I could be way off so I'd love to hear what you guys think on this.
ps- I commented on "Ethos, Logos, Pathos..."
I'll throw myself into the comments, here. The Iliad really IS another world. It's its own little cosmos, but it seeks to encompass everything, yet it's simpler than our own world. Heroes are more heroic, choices are simpler, and action is more decisive, and that's what made it attractive to its own original audience.
ReplyDeleteIf you read carefully, you'll notice that Homer is not describing contemporary warfare or contemporary events. He's building up a mythic past in which men were men, heroes were heroes, and war was war. It's not a historical past, but the past as the ancient Greeks wished they had.
- Dr. Schuler (in case that was unclear)
ReplyDelete