Art and Culture - 03 - Homer and End of Bronze Age

Lecture 3
HOMER AND
THE END OF
THE BRONZE
AGE
AESTHETIC
EXPERIENCE
AND
IDEAS

Homer is the attributed author of the
epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, the first
cultural texts of Greek civilization.
Were written in the 8th century BCE (700-
750), soon after the rediscovery of
writing in the Greek area. Most scholars
believe they are the written culmination
of a much older oral compositional
tradition.
The epics recount events about the
Trojan War that occurred about 400 years
earlier (traditional date 1184 BCE).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Homer_British_Museum.jpg

Homer is, in one tradition, blind.
Even in antiquity, there were
concerns/doubts about Homer.
Thus we have the so-called Homeric
Questions:
Who was Homer?
Were the epics written by one or
many authors?
How were they composed (written
or oral)?
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) -
Homer and his Guide (1874).jpg

After studying and recording non-literate
oral bards in Yugoslavia in
the 1920s, Milman Parry argued
pervasively that the two Homeric
epics are grounded in oral
composition.
He demonstrated that within oral
cultures, long stories are
“chunked” into more manageable
and memorizable sections by the
use of common, repeated formulaic
epithets that are used to fit into a
rhythm scheme.
(e.g., Achilles is brilliant, godlike, or swift-footed;
the Greek’s ships are black, round,
hollow, or swift).
In this theory, the written stories
are just a snapshot in time of the
oral tradition.

Today most Classicists agree that, whether
or not there was ever a composer named
Homer, the poems attributed to him are to
some degree dependent on an oral
tradition, a generations-old technique that
was the collective inheritance of many
singer-poets (also called bards)

Bard
http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/chapters/03EPIC.htm

The epics recount events about the Trojan War that
occurred about 400 years prior to Homer.
The Iliad covers a p period of about 14 y days g
during the
ten-year long siege of Troy.
The Odyssey recounts one of the main characters from
the Iliad (Odysseus) efforts to return to his home, which
takes him an additional ten years.
Both epics are reflections on a lost world (the high
Bronze Age cultures of the Hittites, Mycenae and Minoa)
as well as reflections on a new emerging Greek moral
code and way of life.

Historical Context –
Bronze Age in the
Near East and
Mediterranean Area

Bronze age civilizations were
tightly connected via trade.
The Minoans, based in Crete,
played a vital role in this
trade system for over a 1000
years (2700 – 1400).

Crete has a stunning
diversity of
geographical features.

It appears that Minoan
economy was based on the
creation and trade of
luxury goods: fine pots,
ornamental bronze jewelry,
clothes, dyes, paintings.

The Bronze Age Shipwreck of Uluburun

This shipwreck, discovered off the coast of
Turkey, dates from late Bronze Age (1400
BCE) and contained an amazing variety of
goods in its cargo.
100s of copper and tin ingots (enough to make 11 tons of
bronze)
149 jars, perhaps containing olive oil or wine
Turquoise and lavender glass
African logs
Elephant tusks and hippopotamus teeth
Southern African ostrich eggs
Amber from baltic region of northern europe
Gold, agate, silver, quartz, and other crystals
Wide variety of bronze weapons and tools
Foods from all over the Mediterranean area

This charmless creature is a Cretan
Murex, a mollusk that feeds off
decomposing flesh. It has a horrible
odor, but from it, the Minoans
extracted something known as
Purple.
It was a dye that was exceedingly
rare and expensive, and throughout
most of history, purple is the color
of royalty, because only they could
afford it.
Discoveries of these bronze-age
murex have these holes, which are
evidence that the murex were
feeding on each other. That is, the
Minoans factory farmed them for
their purple. "Twelve thousand
snails of murex yield no more than
1.4 g of pure dye, enough to color
only the trim of a single garment."

http://www.minoanatlantis.com/pix/Knossos_Palace_Reconstruction_1.jpg

The British archeologist Arthur Evans
uncovered the Palace of Knossos in
the early years of the 20th century
and then “restored” certain
sections.

The palace complex had 1300+ rooms,
running fresh water, flush toilets,
heated bathtubs, and many beautiful
colorful frescos.

It had Europe’s first paved
road (several miles long),
and was flanked by
houses, led from the town
to the palace.

Central court – 54m x 27 m –
the size of four tennis courts.
What was it used for?

The animals in the Minoan
frescoes are Aurochs which have
been extinct for nearly 400 years.
Aurochs were about 25% larger
than today’s bulls. It’s hoof-prints
were the size of a man’s head

So-called throne room at Knossos. But is it actually a throne?
Most of the art in these so-called palaces, unlike palaces
everywhere else in the Bronze Age, don’t seem to show or
express power, and certainly don’t appear to display kings or
queens.

There is no evidence of walls or any other military
architecture at any of the ancient Minoan towns
and palaces.
Similarly, there is little evidence of weapons or
military art.

http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/wp‐content/Minoan_palace_scene_enlarged.jpg

http://images.cdn.fotopedia.com/flickr‐2275364354‐image.jpg

The Minoans seemed to love
their colors. For instance, the
so-called Blue Monkey Throne
Room.
So how does this compare to
the throne/palace rooms of
the Minoan’s Bronze Age
compatriots?

So were the Minoans just makers of luxury
goods and the hosts for the Bronze Age-era
spring break parties?

Shrine at Anemospilia (the cave of the winds). In
the 1970s a discovery was made here which found
a skeleton, wearing expensive rings, that appears
to have been crushed by the stone blocks of the
walls or ceiling dating from about 1700 BCE.

Under its body was another skeleton, this one
of a teenager, lying on an alter, its limbs still
bound up. On its chest was a dagger. The priest
appears to have been making a sacrifice as the
walls came tumbling down.
In the modern world we take for granted its
stability . But prior to the later 19th century, in
almost the entire world, it took just two bad
harvests to wipe out the food supply. Much of
the religious practices of the far past seemed
to have been oriented towards placating
gods/spirits of the earth.
Minoans seemed quite exposed at times. In
1700s BCE, Crete was ravaged by earthquakes.
But worse was yet to come.

Greek island of Santorini (modern name)
or Thera (ancient name)

Santorini is built on the remains of a volcano

Around 1530 BCE the island was rocked by severe earthquakes; a
few months later the volcano erupted.
Ten times stronger than the eruption of Vesuvius that buried
Pompeii, and four times stronger than Krakatau (the most powerful
volcanic eruption of the past several hundred years and which
killed 40,000).
1/3 of the island land mass disappeared. 40 meters deep layer of
ash on the remaining part of the island.
Crete only 70 miles away and was hit with a gigantic tsunami, that
destroyed the Minoan naval fleet. Crete was also buried in ash,
which would have caused famine conditions for many years.

Akrotiri (in Santorini / Thera)

A recent discovery dating from a few decades
after the eruption found near the palace of
Knossos. It contained a jumble of children’s bones
found in a cooking pot along with edible snails.
The flesh from the bones has been stripped away
with a knife. Clear evidence of cannibalism.

Other interesting evidence from the same post-volcano
time.
Several of these prototypical earth goddess
statues, which are extremely common in
Minoan sites (perhaps like crucifixes are now) were
found purposefully broken, sealed in jars, and
then buried. One archeologist called it “paying
back the vengeful gods” or “disposing of it as if
it was nuclear waste.”
When times are tough, even the most pleasure-loving,
cosmopolitan, outward-looking, trade-oriented
culture can turn in on itself and
seemingly self-destruct

Sometime around 1450 BCE, most
Minoan cities and palaces appear
to have gone up in flames.
For instance, at one site, in a
room presumably filled with
pithoi (large 40 gallon containers
holding olive oil), the heat was so
intense the stone floor was turned
into glass.
These fires were not accidents. At
one site, the pithoi’s necks have
been sawed off, presumably to
make the oil burn easier. In other
sites, building doors were blocked
in before the fire was set.
What happened? Invaders? Or
religious civil war?

Linear A is the earliest writing on Crete
and is still un-deciphered. Linear A
appears to be the earlier, lost Minoan
language.
Linear B, which don’t appear until about
1400-1500 BCE, was deciphered by
Michael Ventris in the early 1950s who
discovered it was an archaic form of
Greek. The Mycenaean Greeks may have
conquered the island or perhaps just
stepped into a power vacuum

The Mycenaeans appear to have made use of Minoan
artists, but there were no blue monkey rooms in the
throne rooms of the Mycenaeans …

The Lion’s Gate and the walls of Mycenae

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/e/eb/20071005
170649%21Mycenae_walls_interior.JPG Ruins at Mycenae showing grave circle

Mycenae
http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/Greece/Mycenae/Mycenae‐citadel‐reconstructed.jpg

Unlike the trade-oriented Minoans, the
Mycenaeans were a war-like people.
They appear to be focused around the
chieftain/king and his retainers/warriors
living in heavily-fortified palaces.

Unlike the Minoans, much of the
archeological record for the Mycenaeans
consists of chariots, spears, bronze armour,
swords, and boar tusk helmets.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1/JPVieira_2006/myceaneancharriot.jpg

http://www.larp.com/hoplite/Walpole.jpg

The Mycenaeans appear to have
been the Vikings of the Bronze Age.
Odysseus, “sacker of cities”:
“The wind drove me out of Ilium on to Ismarus,
… There I sacked the city,
killed the men, but as for the wives and plunder,
That rich haul we dragged away from the place”
Odyssey, 9.42
Nestor:
“we headstrong fighting forces of Achaea—so many
raids from shipboard down the foggy sea,
cruising for plunder, wherever Achilles led the
way”
Odyssey, 3.102
http://www.ushistoryimages.com
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/PamMack/lec124/viking.jpg
y y,

We have many Mycenaean Linear B tablets
(which we can read). They are without
exception lists: tributes, taxes, military
equipment, and booty from raids.
There are no diplomatic or personal letters, no
poetry, history, prayers, epics. Only lists of
possessions.

The Greek forces in the Iliad
(actually called Achaeans in the
text) were the same people that
modern archeologists call
Mycenaeans.
Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek forces in the
Iliad, is the king of Mycenae.

The subtext of the Iliad is that the
world of the Mycenaeans collapsed
(as did those of other near east bronze age
cultures) soon after the sack of Troy.
That is, there is a recognition in Homer that the “glory”
of the Greek victory came at a tremendously high price.

http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/mapsandcharts/map3big.gif

Different theories about the collapse of
Mycenaean civilization (and other nearby
bronze-age cultures):
• foreign invaders armed with iron
•• slave revolts,
• plague,
• environmental crises,
• general systems collapse.

All over the bronze age world, we see
evidence of 2000 long years of bronze age
cultures being replaced by a layer of ash.
There are also interesting written records
talking of a nameless threat from the sea.
“The enemy advances against us and they
are unlimited in number.”

Other bronze age cultures collapsed or suffered burn
events at same time (1250-1150): Hittites, Phoenicia,
Palestine, Egypt, northern Mesopotamia.
Egyptian and Hittite sources talk not just of warriors but also of women
and children, i.e., mass migrations.

“Altogether the end of the Bronze Age
was arguably the worst disaster in
ancient history, even more calamitous
than the collapse of the western
Roman Empire.”

During this time, Mycenaean
culture disappears, most of its
population centers are destroyed,
and the few remnants (like
pottery) are found at the very top
of remote mountains.
No ecstatic bull jumpers, topless
maidens, laughing monkeys, or
even grand bronze weapons, just
some crude huts with a few
treasured items, and plenty of
time to watch the fog, the vultures
circling, and scanning for whatever
it is they are trying to flee from.
It is over a hundred years before
we see evidence that these people
returned to lower-lying areas. In
many areas, writing disappears,
agricultural production plummets,
population declines radically, art
and pottery becomes very crude.

What follows is referred to as the Greek Dark Ages
(1200 – 800 BCE).
Compare the simplicity of the art work (above) after the collapse to
the lavish beauty of the earlier Minoan Bronze Age frescoes (at left).
The Iliad is written as Greece is emerging “out” of this
“dark ages” period.

Troy’s location was the key to its wealth. Due to
the strong sea currents of the Dardanelles, if the
winds were blowing in the wrong direction, Black
Sea bound ships would stop at Troy and wait for the
winds to change.
While the reason for the war in the Iliad is the recovery of
Helen, it doesn’t take a great deal of political imagination to
recognize that the Trojan War was all about the booty-oriented
Mycenaeans’ desire to seize and control a lucrative
centre of trade.

Archeologists have discovered the site has hosted a
variety of settlements from 3000 BCE up to 100 BCE, and
have given the various settlements names Troy I, Troy II,
etc
The Troy of the Iliad is
identified with Troy 7a, in
which there is evidence of
widespread destruction
(though we can’t tell
whether it is from
earthquake or from a violent
sacking).
No “Achilles Was Here” graffiti
has been found …
http://www.uoregon.edu/~klio/maps/gr/bronze/TroylayersredVI.jpg

Re-Discovery of Troy
A Brief Digression
Until its re-discovery in the late 19th century,
almost everyone assumed Troy was just a legend
or a story.
The surprise and world attention that greeted
its rediscovery would perhaps be analogous to
what would happen today if an archeologist
announced that he or she had discovered
Hogwarts or Bilbo’s Hobbit Home.

Heinrich Schliemann was a successful
international businessman with a love of
languages (he was fluent in 13 and wrote his daily diary
and letters in the language of the country he was visiting).
He became rich by opening a bank in California
during the California Gold Rush of 1849, sold it,
moved to Russia, married a Russian princess,
cornered the entire indigo (blue) market, and
then just before the Crimean war, monopolized
the markets in salt peter and sulphur (necessary
for gunpowder).
He retired in 1858 at age 36 wealthy enough to
pursue his archaeological dream to find Troy.

In 1868-9, his great year, he:
1. Wrote a popular book in German
about Troy.
2. Wrote his PhD in Greek about Troy.
3. Became a temporary citizen of
Indiana so he could
4. Legally divorce his wife.
5. Moved to Greece.
6. Advertised in Greek paper for a
Greek wife.
7. Got married to 17 year old Sophia.
8. Started searching for Troy.

Sophia was his collaborator
throughout his excavations at Troy,
which began in 1871. He was in
such a hurry to find treasure that
his excavations ended up
destroying most of Troy’s walls.
In 1873, Schliemann saw gold glinting in the
dirt, so he sent his workers home for the day,
and he and Sophia secretly excavated what he
called “Priam’s Treasure” and then snuck out of
the country with the loot. The Ottoman Empire
demanded the return of the treasure and
banned him from returning.

Sophia Schliemann: Priam’s Treasure

Most of Priam’s Treasure was eventually
sold to the Imperial Museum of Berlin,
where it was displayed until WW2, when it
was moved to a protective bunker under
the zoo.
The treasure disappeared from public
knowledge until 1994, when thanks to
investigations by two Russian journalists, it was
revealed that:
The treasure was taken by Red Army soldiers in
1945 and then secretly moved to the Pushkin
Museum in Moscow.

When this news was revealed, the
German government demanded
their return, as did the government
of Turkey and the descendants of
the Schliemann family.
In October 2009, the items moved to the brand new
Neues Museum in Berlin.

Iliad Plot Summary
On blackboard in class

The Iliad
A celebration of warrior culture?

There are certainly indications
that in antiquity, many readers
valued the Iliad’s seeming
celebration of heroic warfare.

Scene from Iliad
Greek vase, 4th century BCE
Scene from Iliad
Roman sarcophagus, 1st century CE

Indeed, one can find up to this day
ample evidence of the Iliad’s
continuing allure to those attracted
to the idea of heroic warfare.

Late 19th century engraving of Achilles after the death of Hector

Early 20th century children’s book
idealizing Achilles.
Notice that Hector has evidently died
from a bad scrap on his knee…
http://www.heritage‐history.com/books/langjean/iliad/zpage116.gif

Howard David Johnson, “Achilles Triumphant” 2006
Evidently there are people who buy this
modern-day oil painting/reproduction
and display it in their living rooms.

MARK CHURMS, “ACHILLES VERSUS HECTOR” 2007
And this one as well.

Achilles in Hyde Park
Achilles in Texas
Hyde Park Achilles statue built in 1822 to honour
Wellington after the Peninsular Wars against the French.
Money raised entirely by patriotic British ladies during
the war; fig leaf added just before unveiling!
http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/1274917856065810596rwEBCI

Patriotic statues of
warriors, fictional or
real, continue to be a
popular way of
expressing admiration
for supposed heroic
ideals.

Is this the only reason
for the enduring
attraction to the
violence in the Iliad?

Or can there be
beauty in the
depiction of violence?

What are the Trojan
warriors fighting for?
They are clearly fighting to
protect their city and their
families

What are the Homeric
Greek warriors
fighting for?
Honour (timê)
Glory/Fame (kleos)

Glory/Fame (kleos)
What others say about you.

Glory (kleos) is the only
immortality available to a
Homeric warrior.
It is won through what one
accomplishes. Those
accomplishments are manifested
by the prizes (geras) you win.
Agamemnon not only dishonors
Achilles by taking away his prize
(Briseis), he is in a way affecting
his immortality (i.e., his fame).

So now the heart of Sarpedon stalwart as a god
impelled him to charge the wall and break it down.
He quickly called Hoppolochus’’s son: ““Glaucus,
why do they hold us both in honor, first by far
with pride of place, choice meats and brimming cups,
in Lycia where all our people look on us like gods?
Why make us lords of estates along the Xanthus’ banks
Sarpedon (a Trojan) asks his
fellow prince why do they have
wealth and comfortable lives as
banks,
rich in vineyards and plowland rolling wheat?
So that now the duty’s ours –
we are the ones to head our Lycian front,
brace and fling ourselves in the blaze of war
aristocrats
The answer, he says, is because
they are at forefront of any fighting
war,
so a comrade strapped in combat gear may say,
‘Not without fame, the men who rule in Lycia,
these kings of ours who eat fat cuts of lamb
and drink sweet wine have
And by being leaders in war, their wine, the finest stock we have.
But they owe it all to their own fighting strength,
our great men of war, they lead our way in battle!’
my friend y g ,
retainers will think that they deserve
their easier lives.
Ah friend, if you and I could escape this fray
and live forever, never a trace of age, immortal,
I would never fight on the front lines again
or command you to the field where men win fame.
But now as it is us
If they were gods who could live
forever, then there would be no
need to fight.
now, is, the fates of death await us,
thousands poised to strike, and not a man alive
can flee them or escape – so in we go for attack!
Give our enemy glory or win it for ourselves!”
But because we can die, then we
must fight. (That is, the only
immortality available is glory gained
from heroic feats on the battlefield)
Glaucus did not turn back or shun that call –
on they charged, leading the Lycians’ main mass.

Ah my friend, if you and I could escape this fray
and live forever, never a trace of age, immortal,
I would never fight on the front lines again
or command you to the field where men win fame.
B i i h f f d h i
Thus, because the gods lack human vulnerabilities
( death, aging, injuries, grief) they lack any
But now, as it is, the fates of death await us,
thousands poised to strike, and not a man alive
can flee them or escape – so in we go for attack!
Give our enemy glory or win it for ourselves!
, g g, j ,g ) y y
capacity for nobility (courage, bravery, sacrifice,
glory, honor).
For these Homeric warriors, the gods are akin to being eternally
stuck playing a video game with an invulnerability cheat turned
on.
The gods know that no harm can ever come to them and are thus
endlessly bored.
They envy humans for their vulnerability and the achievements
that that vulnerability makes possible.

Gods in the Iliad
They are not good, evil, just, merciful,
omniscient, omnipotent, nor is their
relationship with humans based on mutual
love.
The gods in Homer’s works personify forces of
nature but are anthropomorphic.
p p
And Hera the Queen [of the gods], her eyes wide, answered,
“Excellent! The three cities that I love best of all
are Argos and Sparta, Mycenae with streets as broad as Troy’s.
Raze them – whenever they stir the hatred in your [Zeus’] heart.
My cities … I will never rise in their defense
Iliad, Book 4, lines 59-62
Then Zeus, looking down from Mount Ida, intensified
the slaughter, and the two sides kept killing each other.
Iliad, Book 11, lines 317-19

The human characters in the Iliad are, by and
large, reverent and respectful towards the
gods in their speeches because the gods are
dangerous and unpredictable forces to the
humans.
But Homer, when he is speaking as the
narrator, tends to portray the gods as being
petty, childish, or figures of comic relief.
For instance, see Book 14, lines 375-412

Death in the Iliad
The Iliad has been called the poem of
death for good reason. The deaths of
some 250 warriors are recorded.
These fall into two categories:
• death of “significant” heroes
• death of “common” warriors

Death of Heroes
Major heroes in the Iliad will only die to another, greater
or equal hero. These battles between equals are more
like ritualized duels.
Before they fight, the heroes tell each other about their
background, heroic deeds, and important ancestors
(see battle between Diomedes and Glaucus, Book 6, lines 120-217).
Diomedes and Glaucus in fact do not fight but exchange gifts because
their parents were xenos (guest-friends).

The heroes in the Iliad compete endlessly, not only with
the enemy, but with other heroes fighting on the same
side.
They compete to prove their arete (excellence).
Different heroes claim that they are the best in strength,
skill, cleverness, fleetness of foot, cunning, strategy,
ambushes, archery, spear throwing, weight lifting,
chariot driving, etc.
No surprise that it was the Greeks that created the
Olympic Games in 776 BCE about the same time as
Homer was writing the Iliad.

When heroes do fight each other, one will usually die.
But before the hero dies, he has his “moment in the
sun,” his aresteia, a period in which he displays his
fighting prowess.
For some heroes, this will only be for a few paragraphs.
For others, their aresteia lasts for dozens of pages.
Though Achilles does not die in the Iliad, his aresteia is
terrifying, long (Books 19-22), and almost inhuman and
revolting.

Death of Commoners
And Meriones killed Phereclus, Harmonides' son--
the father a craftsman whose hands were skilled in creating
all kinds of beatuiful things, since Athena loved him.
...
Meriones ran him down, and as he drew close
he hit him in the right buttock, and the bronze spear point
pushed up under the pubic bone into his bladder
and he fell to his knees, screaming, and death embraced him.
And Meges cut down Pedaeus, Antenor's son--
a bastard son, but Theano had brought him up
as one of her own, so much did she love her husband.
Meges' spear hit the back of his neck, then cut
right through his jaw, and sliced off his tongue at the root.
He fell in the dirt, and his teeth closed around the cold bronze.

Is the Iliad the 800 BCE version of this?

Death is narrated by Homer graphically and
realistically.
Violence is a permanent factor in human life. It is
unsentimental to pretend violence is not ugly but also that it
has a strange and compelling fatal beauty.

Yet Homer does something special with the deaths
of the commoners/non-heroes. They are not red
shirts or mooks …

So which of these four isn’t going to
return to the spaceship?
tvtropes.org calls these types of “good” characters the Red Shirt. Their
purpose is almost exclusively to give the writers someone to kill who isn't a
main character.
They are used to show how the monster or villain works, and demonstrate
that it is indeed a deadly menace, without having to lose anyone important.
Expect someone to say ““He's dead, Jim”” and then promptly forget him.

The Bad Guy equivalent are Mooks: faceless, nameless cannon
fodder for The Hero.
“Nameless, faceless, horribly awful shots, incompetent, unwilling to
retreat, and completely disposable: they provide a chance for the
characters to show off their flashy fighting skills and can be shot
without guilt. The hero might find it in his heart to Save the Villain, but
the guys whose only crime is not finding a better employer will be
shown no mercy.” tvtropes.org
“They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the patrol. Whatever
the name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round
about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack
the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they
wanted to.” Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

And Meriones killed Phereclus, Harmonides' son--
the father a craftsman whose hands were skilled
By describing the civic and/or family life of the
in creating all kinds of beautiful things
...
warrior falling to the hero, the audience/reader’s
The two good sons of Merops, who had refused to
let his two boys march to war, this man-killing
emotional attention is diverted to the fallen foe. It
war, but the young ones fought him all the way … ensures that each death in the Iliad is perceived perceived, if
only fleetingly, as regrettable.
and Diomedes destroyed them both.
...
Diomedes cut down Axylos, Teuthras’ son, who
had been a dweller in strong-founded Arisbe, a
man rich in substance and a friend to all
humanity s u a ty since in his house by the wayside he
entertained all comers.
“in the Iliad glory is usurped by sympathy for the
human being, possessed of a family and life story,
who has been extinguished.”
Caroline Alexander, The War That Killed Achilles

“This remarkable point is worth emphasizing:
subtly, but with unflagging consistency, the Iliad
ensures that the enemy is humanized and that the
deaths of enemy Trojans are depicted as
lamentable.”

“the Iliad is ever mindful that war is about men
killing or men killed. In the entire epic, no warrior,
whether hero or obscure man of the ranks, dies
happily or well. No reward awaits the soldier’s
valor; no heaven will receive him. The Iliad’s words
and phrases for the process of death make it clear
that this is something baneful. … Again and again,
relentlessly, the Iliad hammers this fact: … death is
tragic and full of horror.”

In Book 11 of the Odyssey, Odysseus visits
Hades, the land of the dead, a place of
total baneful unpleasantness.
“I [Odysseus] reassured the ghost, but he [Achilles]
broke out, protesting,
‘No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!
By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man —
some dirt-poor farmer who scrapes to keep alive —
than rule down here over all the breathless dead.’”

Embassy to Achilles (Book 9)
After the war turns against the Greeks,
Agamemnon relents, and Odysseus (guile
and reason), Phoenix (surrogate father)
and Ajax (fellow warrior) visit Achilles and
try to convince him to rejoin the war.
They tell Achilles of Agamemnon’s offer of Briseis,
many other gifts, first pickings of loot/prizes after
troy is conquered, plus one of his daughters in
marriage (i.e., political power).

Achilles brutally rejects (lines 311-441) not
only the offer but he rejects all the values
of their warrior culture as well. He says:
1. Why should warriors put their lives at risks for a king
who gains all the prizes at little danger to himself?
2. What is the point of plunder as marks of honor or
fame if they can be taken away? Thus since tîme can
be taken away at the leader’s whim, it ultimately has
no value.
3. Finally, is plunder really worth dying for?

Of course every warrior knows that dying
is a possibility. However, Achilles, is
different.
His mother, the goddess Thetis, has told
him that he has two possible fates: win
imperishable glory by dying at Troy, or live
a long, happy, but unremarkable life by
returning home and living in peace.
He tells them that he now intends to
choose the latter and sail home.

Hector
Unlike, Achilles, who is isolated from his
fellow warriors and who is ½ divine,
Hector is fully realized human being and
integrated completely into his community.
He is the only character who is shown in every
conceivable human relationship: brother,
father, husband, son, general, prince, warrior.
He accepts his responsibility as a prince to fight
to protect his city, but his own wish is for
peace. That is, he fights for the good of his
people, not for his own personal glory.

“Yes Andromache, I [Hector] worry about this myself,
But my shame before the Trojans and their wives,
With their long robes trailing, would be too terrible
If I hung back from battle like a coward.”
Iliad, Book 6

Death of Hector
After Hector kills Achilles’ companion Patroclus,
And Roan Beauty the horse with flashing hoofs
Achilles Achilles rejoins the war, knowing that it will bring
on his own death.
spoke up from under the yoke …
“Achilles! The day of your death already hovers
near … “
But the fiery runner Achilles burst out in anger,
“Why Roan Beauty – why prophesy my doom?
Don’t waste your breath. I know, well I know
I am destined to die here, far from my dear
father, far from mother. But all the same I will
never stop …”

He leapt like a frenzied god, his heart racing with
slaughter, only his sword in hand, whirling in
circles, slashing – hideous groans breaking,
fighters stabbed by the blade, water flushed with
blood.
Like shoals of fish darting before a big-bellied
dolphin, escaping, cramming the coves of a good
deepwater harbor – he
Achilles in almost a berserker rage, has a long and
harbor, terrified for their lives devours all he catches – so the Trojans down that
terrible river’s onrush cowered.
Achilles struck his collarbone just beside the neck
and the t o edged blade dro e home pl nging
terrifying aresteia, in which he kills effortlessly
with no mercy, with no Heroic Duel rituals, no
two-drove home, plunging background of the people killed to the hilt …
Achilles grabbed a foot, slung him into the river,
And cried these savage words
“… Die, Trojans, die –
till I butcher all the way to sacred Troy –
killed, and even battles
gods.
run headlong on, I’ll hack you from behind!
Nothing can save you now”
He killed in a blur of kills – Thersilochus, Mydon,
Astypylus, Mnesus, Thrasius, Aenius and
Ophelestes –
Still more men Achilles would have killed
if the swirling river had not risen, crying out in
fury …

““I just went crazy. I pulled him out into the paddy and
carved him up with my knife. When I was done with
him, he looked like a rag doll that a dog had been
playing with … I lost all my mercy. I felt a drastic
change after that … I couldn’t do enough damage … for
every one that I killed I felt better … Every time you
lost a friend it seemed like a part of you was gone… I
got very hard, cold, merciless. I lost all my mercy.”
From Achilles in Vietnam

Kiev- 1944
Mai Lai - 1968
Haditha - 2005

Tom Lea
“Two-Thousand-Yard Stare”

Hector, not wanting to fight Achilles,
nonetheless, leaves the city to face Achilles.
Hector, before the fight, tries to convince
Achilles to follow the ethic of war (the winner
will let the loser’s family bury the fallen), but
Achilles refuses.

After killing Hector, Achilles desecrates Hector’s
corpse.
Achilles finds that his rage and grief does not end
with Hector’s death, nor with abusing Hector’s
body.

Priam and Achilles
Priam and Achilles meet in the twilight of their
lives. They both will soon be dead and they
appear to know it.
They mutually assert non-military, non-competitive
moral virtues (hospitality and
compassion).

Achilles returns Hector’s body to Priam
and agrees to a 12 day truce.
All truces are bittersweet: in every truce
floats the specter of an opportunity
(usually lost) for peace.

1914 Xmas Day Truce
on the Western Front

Ending of the Iliad – Hector’s Burial
The epic ends with the sadness of the death of
Hector.
It is utterly astonishing that ancient Greece’s
greatest epic (and which acted as the principle
teacher of Greek youths) makes the enemy of the
Greek's the true tragic hero of its great national
epic.

The Greeks after Homer recognized the
Iliad as a dark portrayal of the true costs
of war and its kleos-culture :
• the destruction of community,
• rape and slavery,
• loss of civilized ethics,
• victors brutalized as much as the victims.

The Iliad also seems as well to be a
comment and reflection on why the great
Bronze Age cultures of the Mediterranean,
esp. that of the Mycenaeans (remember
that the Greeks in the Iliad are
Mycenaeans) eventually collapsed and
disappeared.

Homer and the Greek audience of Homer,
living some 300-400 years after the dark
ages that followed the Mycenaean
collapse, seemed to recognize that costly
foreign wars, unrestricted warfare, and
the geras-winning / kleos-gaining culture
of the piratical Mycenaeans is
unsustainable, and in the long-run, a
cultural dead-end.

The Greeks starting around the time of
Homer began to build a culture built
around a different ethos, one inspired by
Hector and not by Agamemnon or Achilles.

Nonetheless, the Greeks of the later
post-Homeric, classic era remained
committed to warfare.
Interestingly, however, perhaps due
to the influence of the Iliad, they
ritualized and limited war.

From about the time of Homer (~ 800 BCE)
to that of Alexander the Great (~350 BCE),
the Greeks managed to make their
constant warfare with each other
significantly less devastating and total.

Greek warfare during the later post-
Homeric time period (800-350) involved
the entire male civilian city population of
fighting age.
Most men were liable to be called up to
fight every 2 out 3 summers from about 18
to 60 years of age.

These citizen-soldier of the Ancient
Greek city-states were called hoplites.
Hoplites were primarily armed as
spearmen and fought in a phalanx
formation, a rectangular formation of
tightly packed armored spearmen
protected mainly by shields.

Hoplites
Greek panoply (helmet, greaves,
armour, shield, weapons) weighed
about 70 lbs (average weight of
males = 150 lbs)

These wars consisted of a single battle of
very short duration (fighting lasted
perhaps 30 minutes), involving tight ranks
of men of equal numbers (consisting of
almost the entire male citizenry of the
city) with big shields, with lots of pushing,
and those in the front ranks using their
spears. Eventually one side would
eventually break through and the other
side would break away and flee.

The weight of Greek armour and their lack
of interest in tactics, cavalry, archery, and
movement meant there was no slaughter
of the losers and no sacking of the loser’s
city (though there are a few exceptions
involving the Spartans).

Losing was more a loss of face if anything,
since casualties tended to be about the
same for both winners and losers of the
battle (about 10%), and mainly consisted
of the older combatants.

Mardonois (a Greek émigré) talking to the Persian Emperor:
“these Greeks are accustomed to wage wars among each other
in the most senseless way. For as soon as they declare war on
each other, they seek out the fairest and most level ground, and
then go there to do battle on it. Consequently even the winners
suffer as much as the losers.”
He also told the Emperor that the Greeks want to kill “eye-to-eye”
without heroics, tactics, or strategy and that the main
virtue is “togetherness” not bravery or skill.

The goal of such ritualized combat was
“intended to focus a concentrated
brutality upon the few in order to spare
the many.”
The post-Iliad Greeks believed that
warfare was a fact of life but that it could
be managed ... That is, they developed a
form of warfare in which “battle should be
a particularly hellish ritual for all soldiers
involved … if war was to be excluded from
the daily life of their families back home.”

Later cultures sought to bring “science”
and “complexity” and “tactics” to
warfare, perhaps in order to make it more
predictable or humane.
Instead, ““all they really accomplished was
to allow the killing to intrude into the very
lives of the citizens they sought to
protect.”

The true greatness of the Iliad resides not
only in its beautiful language, its
memorable similes, its recognition of the
inevitability of violence in human affairs,
but also in its criticism of what that
violence does to all parties.
Its greatness convinced its immediate
Greek readers to try and reorganize their
society around a totally different ethic,
one that celebrated “civilized” virtues and
which tried to constrain and limit the
scope of organized human violence.

Homer’s other great work, the Odyssey, is
a first statement of those other “civilized”
virtues.

The Odyssey is an epic of return, an epic
that focuses less on warfare and its ethic
and more on how a human needs to
behave in the everyday world of emerging
Greek civilization.
Odysseus (and not Achilles) ends up being
the cultural hero of the Greeks of the
emerging classical age.

Odysseus is renowned for his cunning, for
thinking through problems, for knowing
how to act, for having both brains and
brawn.

Odysseus was seen by later Greek culture
to be the epitome of the moral (and
aesthetic) ideal of sophrosyne.
Sophrosyne seems to have referred to the
ideal of living life to its fullest but to do so
with moderation, common sense, and in
the light of self-knowledge.

The Sophrosyne ideal was latter enshrined
at Delphi, the Classic Greek religious
centre, in a variety of sayings carved into
the temples.

γνῶῶθθι σεαυτόόν (gnōōthi seautón = "know thyself")

μηδδέέν άάγαν (mēēdén ágan = "nothing in excess")

Cahill, in his 2003 book claimed
that this ideal of sophrosyne
gave the Greeks insight into the
six key areas of human life, which
are nicely captured by his chapter titles:

Whenever they’d drink the deep-red mellow vintage,
twenty cups of water he’d stir in one of wine
and what an aroma wafted from the bowl—
what magic, what a godsend—
no joy in holding back when that was poured!
Homer, The Odyssey 9 l. 231
The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge
from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the
olive and the vine.
Thucydides
One bowl [of wine] for ruddy health,
then one for getting happy.
The third brings sleep. …
The fourth’s for pride
and the fifth for lots of noise,
The sixth for mindless f _ _ _ing,
and the seventh is followed by black
eyes.
The eighth brings the police,
The ninth’s for throwing up,
And the tenth’s for trashing everything
before passing out.
Eubulus, 4thC BCE Athenian politician

Odyssey Plot Summary
On blackboard in class

The Odyssey begins, not
with Odysseus, but with
his home, with his son
and wife, who are beset
by ill-behaved suitors
hoping to marry
Penelope (since
Odysseus has been away
for 20 years) and
presumably become
king.

Penelope & the Suitors
J. W. Waterhouse

Xenia
Is the Greek word for a very complicated
concept/ideal that is at the heart of the Odyssey’s
moral vision. We don’t really have an English word
that corresponds to it.
It means guest, stranger, friend, foreigner.
Our English word xenophobia (fear of foreigners) comes from this Greek
word.

Philoxenia
Often translated as hospitality or guest guest-friendship.
It proscribed a set of norms that governed how a
host should behave to a guest, and how a guest
should behave to a host.
In a world without inns or hotels, philoxenia was a
vital part of surviving when travelling.

At the beginning of the Odyssey, the suitors are not
following the guest protocols of philoxenia: by
never leaving Telemachus’s house, eating all his
food, constantly wooing Penelope, and sleeping
with the servants.
Calypso is not following the host protocol since she
refuses to let Odysseus leave her island.

Telemachus in contrast shows proper philoxenia.
Straight to the porch he went, mortified
that a guest [xenos] might still be standing at the doors.
Pausing beside her there, he clasped her right hand
and relieving her at once of her long bronze spear,
met her with winged words: “Greetings, stranger! [xenia]
Here in our house you’ll find a royal welcome.
Have supper first, then tell us what you need.”

Telemachus then goes to visit some other veterans
of the Trojan war, looking for word of his father. He
too is treated with proper xenia.
As soon as they saw the strangers, all came crowding down,
waving them on in welcome, urging them to sit.
Nestor’s son Pisistratus, first to reach them,
grasped their hands and sat them down at the feast.
…O
Once they’’d put aside desire for food and drink,
old Nestor the noble charioteer began, at last:
“Now’s the time, now they’ve enjoyed their meal,
to probe our guests and find out who they are.
Strangers-Friends, who are you?”

Meanwhile, Odysseus, thanks to the gods’
intervention, is freed from Caylpso’s island and is
given a raft … which is promptly sunk by a still-angry
Poseidon.
He washes up on the island of the Phaeacians.

He is meet by Nausicaa, a Phaeacian princess, who is
washing clothes on the shore. She clothes him and takes
him to met her parents, the king and queen.

The king rose in his place, and said: "This
stranger has come to my hall. I do not know
who he is, or whence he comes, whether from
the east or the west. And he begs us to convey
him safely to his home. Now this, as you know,
is a thing that we have been used from old
time to do for strangers. Go, then, and choose
out a ship Let it be new—one that never has
been on the sea before. And pick out fifty and
two rowers. Let them be the best and
strongest that there are in the country. When
you have done this, come to my hall and feast.
And let the minstrel come also, for the gods
have given him the gift of song, and there is
nothing better than song to make glad the
Odysseus among the Phaeacians
g g g
hearts of men." So the chiefs of the people
went and did as the king commanded.
…
When the people were ready to begin, there
came two servants of the king leading the
singer by the hand, for he was blind. They
made him sit down in a silver chair in the
middle of the hall; they hung his harp on a rail
that there was above his head where he could
easily reach it. And by his side they put a
table, and on the table a basket full of good
things, and a cup of wine so that he might
drink when he pleased.
Then the people began to eat and drink, and
when they had had enough, the singer sang.

Odysseus tells of all his adventures after
leaving Troy to the Phaeacians.

The Cyclopedes have no concept of xenia;
instead of giving gifts and food, the
Cyclopes eats his guests.

After his cunning escape from
the Cyclops, Odysseus and his
crew sail away and soon find
themselves on Aiolia Island,
the domain of the wind god
Aeolus who provides Odysseus
with enough supplies to return
home including a bag which
contained all the winds except
the ones Odysseus needed to
return home to Ithaca.

Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus
John William Waterhouse (1891)

Odysseus visits Hades, the land of the
dead, in order to get instructions on how
to return home.

Ulysses and the Sirens (1891)
John William Waterhouse

Scylla and Charybdis
http://stevesomersart.blogspot.com/2011/05/caught‐between‐scylla‐and‐charybdis.
html

Thanks to the Phaeacians
Odysseus reaches home. But
instead of quickly announcing
his presence, wily Odysseus
disguises himself as a beggar
so he can perform
reconnaissance and prepare
for the inevitable showdown.

Odysseus and Telemachus end up killing all 124 suitors.

Art and Culture - 03 - Homer and End of Bronze Age

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (13)

Ähnlich wie Art and Culture - 03 - Homer and End of Bronze Age

Ähnlich wie Art and Culture - 03 - Homer and End of Bronze Age (20)

Mehr von Randy Connolly

Mehr von Randy Connolly (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Art and Culture - 03 - Homer and End of Bronze Age

Hinweis der Redaktion