The Iliad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Iliad - Essay Example In many scenes, the warriors or the narrator declare that this is what they are fighting for, not victory but personal honor (VII, 290; XVI, 731). There is often an oddly subtle tone in Homer’s words, implying that while the war is terrible and ugly, it is the only way for this honor to be won, and therefore it is regrettably necessary. Perhaps the clearest single example of this is Priam’s famous declaration to his son Hector that the spear-mangled corpse of a young man, certainly an unpleasant image, is nonetheless by their lights â€Å"seemly† (XXII, 71). A closely-related concept is the honor of obligation, what it is right and proper to do in a given situation. One of the most obvious examples of this is the central falling-out between Achilles and Agamemnon that leads Achilles to go on strike in the first place. Achilles feels that he is entitled to claim Briseis as spoils of war, but Agamemnon says that if he is to be deprived of Chryseis, as king he has t he right to claim another woman lest he not have any spoils at all (I, 120). To modern eyes, questions of protocol over who gets to rape whom don’t seem honorable at all, but at the time, it was a vital enough question that Achilles is ready to kill Agamemnon on the spot over it (I, 191) until Athena intervenes. Fifteen books later, Achilles is still maintaining that Agamemnon’s crime was failure to respect Achilles’ proper rights, and thus he is justified in continuing to sit out the war (XVI, 59). Similarly, there are very strict protocols for the handling of death, the punctilious observance of which is vital at many points in the story. Hector prefigures his eventual fate when he makes his challenge to the Achaeans, making them swear that whoever slays him can keep his armor, but must convey his body back to his family (VII, 80). He repeats this principle as his dying words to Achilles (XXII, 338). Book XXIII is given over entirely to the funerary rites and games for Patroclus, who at that point has been dead since the end of book XVI. It might seem odd, from a standpoint of dramatic structure, to devote nine hundred lines to what amounts to sports commentary when one is nearly at the end of the story. What the inclusion of book XXIII shows us, though, is the pious and correct observance of full funerary rites. Those nine hundred lines of racing and archery and so on are meant as a demonstration of the Achaeans doing the right and proper thing. The two moral wrongs of Achilles, as presented by Homer, are his abandonment of the pursuit of glory (Books I-XVII) and his failure to do the right and honorable thing, particularly in regard to Hector’s body. When Hector begged with his dying breath for decent and honorable treatment of his corpse, Achilles instead spends quite a long time mangling the corpse. This is directly contrary to the will of the gods, as demonstrated by Apollo’s keeping the corpse intact and inviolate (XI V, 20). This makes it both dishonorable and impious, two sins that ensure that Achilles is on the downhill slope to his long-prophesied death. At the juncture of time and the death observances we encounter the concept of kleos, or the glory after death. This is what is promised to Achilles if he chooses a short but glorious life, it is what Hector offers the man who will face him in battle (VII, 90), it is what every Greek hero hopes to win. To be esteemed not only by