 | The Best of the Achaeans Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry Revised Edition Gregory Nagy | |
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§1. The social dimensions of the actual word akhos 'grief' have so far been explored mainly in terms of its thematic relationship with the concept of lâos 'host of fighting men' in epic diction. The time has now come to explore the meaning of akhos on its own terms.
§2. In Homeric diction, akhos 'grief' functions as a
formulaic variant of another es-stem, penthos. Both words
designate the grief of Achilles over his loss of tîmê
(
§3. This collective aspect is also apparent in the opposition of penthos to kleos. When the healer Makhaon is summoned to heal the wound of Menelaos, the Trojan who had wounded him is said to have kleos as opposed to the collective penthos of the Achaeans:
... tw=| me\n kle/os, a)/mmi de\ pe/nqos
... for him kleos, for us penthos
Whereas the word kleos is used in traditional poetic diction to designate the public prestige of Epos or praise-poetry,[1] the word penthos can indicate the public ritual of mourning, formally enacted with songs of lamentation (as at XXIV 708-781, especially 720-722).
§4. The traditional relationship of penthos with
kleos is reflected by its fixed epithet alaston
'unforgettable', which is morphologically parallel to aphthiton
'unfailing', the fixed epithet of kleos (IX 413).[1] There is also an important thematic connection
with kleos in the application of alaston to both
penthos (XXIV 105, xxiv 423) and akhos (iv 108),
since the meaning of alaston is coordinate with the inherited
theme of mnêmosunê 'memory'. The conceit of Homeric
poetry is that the sacred mnemonic power of the Muses is the key to the
kleos of epic. The aoidos 'singer' sings what he
sings because the Moûsai put his mind in touch with the realities
of the past (
§5. This is not the place for a detailed survey of the word kleos in its function of expressing the very notion of epic poetry within epic poetry--a task that I have attempted elsewhere.[1] I confine myself here to the differences between the traditional genres of poetry, as expressed by the contrast of kleos with penthos/akhos. Not only does the epithet alaston 'unforgettable' of penthos/akhos conjure up the traditional theme of mnêmosunê 'memory', which is inherent in the poetic concept of kleos, but also the word penthos itself is used by the poetry of the Homeric and Hesiodic traditions as a foil for kleos.[2] For a striking example, consider this Hesiodic passage:
ei) ga/r tis kai\ pe/nqos e)/xwn neokhde/i+ qumw=|
a)/zhtai kradi/hn a)kaxh/menos, au)ta\r a)oido\s
*mousa/wn qera/pwn kle/ea prote/rwn a)nqrw/pwn
u(mnh/sh| ma/kara/s te qeou/s, oi(\ *)/olumpon e)/xousin,
ai)=y' o(/ ge dusfrosune/wn e)pilh/qetai ou)de/ ti khde/wn
me/mnhtai
And if someone has penthos and is distressed having akhos
in a thûmos beset with new cares, yet, when a singer,
therapôn of the Muses,[3] sings the kleos [plural] of men of old
and also the blessed gods that inhabit Olympus,
at once he forgets his sorrows, and his cares
he no longer remembers.
When the singer sings "the kleos [plural] of men of old," the
song is in the tradition of an Iliad or an Odyssey; when he sings
"the blessed gods," the song is in the general tradition of a
Theogony.[4] (I avoid saying "the Iliad" or "the
Theogony" in order to suggest that the diction refers simply to established
poetic traditions rather than fixed texts.) The conceptual association of
Theogonic poetry with the word kleos is made overt a few
hexameters earlier in the Hesiodic Theogony, where the Muses are
designated as the ones who make into kleos
(
qew=n ge/nos ai)doi=on prw=ton klei/ousin a)oidh=|
With song they first make into kleos the genesis of the gods, thing of reverence that it is.
A few hexameters later, after the contrast of kleos with penthos (Th. 98-103), the Muses are finally invoked to sing the contents of our Theogony, with the following words:[6]
xai/rete te/kna *dio/s, do/te d' i(mero/essan a)oidh/n:
klei/ete d' a)qana/twn i(ero\n ge/nos ai)e\n e)o/ntwn
Hail, children of Zeus! Grant an entrancing song.
Make into kleos the sacred genos[genesis] of the immortals,[7] who always are.
The inherited function of our Theogony, then, is to give kleosto the genesis of the gods. The hearing of such kleos is a remedy for penthos, as we learn from the passage that inaugurated this discussion, the artistic manifesto of Th. 98-103. In Theogonic language, Mnêmosunê 'mnemonic power' gave birth to the Moûsai 'Muses', who were to be the lêsmosunê 'forgetting' of ills:[8]
ta\s e)n *pieri/h| *kroni/dh| te/ke patri\ migei=sa
*mnhmosu/nh, gounoi=sin *)eleuqh=ros mede/ousa,
lhsmosu/nhn te kakw=n a)/mpauma/ te mermhra/wn
They were born in Pieria to the one who mated with the son of Kronos,
to Mnêmosunê, who rules over the ridges of Eleuther--
born to be a lêsmosunê of ills and a cessation of anxieties.[9]
§6. Let us now turn from the kleos of the Theogonic
tradition to "the kleos [plural] of previous men," as our
Theogony calls it (
e)/rg' a)ndrw=n te qew=n te, ta/ te klei/ousin a)oidoi/
the deeds of men and gods, which the singers make into kleos
Just after, she says that she always has her husband on her mind
(
tou= kle/os eu)ru\ kaq' *(ella/da kai\ me/son *)/argos
who has kleos far and wide throughout Hellas and midmost Argos
From the standpoint of an audience listening to the medium of epic, the word
kleos can apply to the epic of Odysseus, to the narrative
tradition of the Odyssey. From the standpoint of Penelope as a character
within the epic, however, the kleos of Odysseus, with all its
hardships, entails personal involvement: it brings to mind a grief that cannot
be swept away from the mind (cf.
th/n ga\r a)oidh/n ma=llon e)piklei/ous' a)/nqrwpoi
h(/ tis a)kouo/ntessi newta/th a)mfipe/lhtai
For men would rather continue to make into kleos[4] the song
that is the newest to make its rounds with the listeners.
On one level, the song is
§7. The factor of personal involvement or noninvolvement decides whether
an epic situation calls for penthos or kleos. The
figure of Menelaos sets the tone for the involvement of Telemachus. As a
warrior who had shared in the hardships of the Achaeans at Troy, Menelaos tells
Telemachus that Odysseus is the warrior whose absence he misses and mourns the
most of all (iv 100-105; see especially
... e)pei\ ou)/ tis *)axaiw=n to/ss' e)mo/ghsen
o(/ss' *)oduseu\s e)mo/ghse kai\ h)/rato. tw=| d' a)/r' e)/mellen
au)tw=| kh/de' e)/sesqai, e)moi\ d' a)/xos ai)e\n a)/laston
... since none of the Achaeans struggled so much
as Odysseus struggled and achieved. For him there would be
cares in the future, whereas I would have an akhos alaston[unforgettable grief] always.
This unforgettable akhos now finally involves Telemachus, as he hears from Menelaos how Odysseus is probably being mourned, at this very minute, by his father, wife, and son (iv 110-112). Telemachus indeed begins to weep (iv 113-116), and from here on we find communal weeping at the table of Menelaos when the story of Odysseus comes up (see especially iv 183-185), since he is presently the only Achaean left who is still without a nostos:
... kei=non du/sthnon a)no/stimon oi)=on ...
... that wretched one, the only one who has not come home ...
Later on, Helen tells Menelaos and his guests--Telemachus included--a story of Troy as an entertainment during dinner:
h)= toi nu=n dai/nusqe kaqh/menoi e)n mega/roisi
kai\ mu/qois te/rpesqe: e)oiko/ta ga\r katale/cw
Sit now and dine in the palace, and be entertained
by the stories. For the things that I will say in proper order are appropriate.
Her entertaining story, however, begins on a note of grief:
pa/nta me\n ou)k a)\n e)gw\ muqh/somai ou)d' o)nomh/nw,
o(/ssoi *)odussh=os talasi/frono/s ei)sin a)/eqloi:
a)ll' oi(=on to/d' e)/rece kai\ e)/tlh kartero\s a)nh/r
dh/mw| e)/ni *trw/wn, o(/qi pa/sxete ph/mat' *)axaioi/
I could not possibly tell of or name
all the struggles that are the share of the enduring Odysseus.
but I will tell of this one thing that he did and endured--
--that man of kratos--in the district of Troy, where you Achaeans suffered pains [pêma plural].
All the characters listening to the story are personally involved, and we would expect its words to arouse instant grief on their part, were it not for what Helen did before telling her tale. She put a pharmakon 'drug' in their wine (iv 220), described as:
nhpenqe/s t' a)/xolo/n te, kakw=n e)pi/lhqon a(pa/ntwn
without penthos, without anger, making one forget all ills
One who drinks it would not even mourn the death of his mother, father, brother, or son (iv 222-226). What would otherwise be a penthos for Helen's audience can thus remain a kleos, since there is no personal involvement.
§8. Such a distinction between kleos and
penthos is even more vivid when Odysseus himself becomes
personally involved. He is an unidentified member of the audience as the poet
Demodokos starts singing the
*mou=s' a)/r' a)oido\n a)nh=ken a)eide/menai kle/a a)ndrw=n
oi)/mhs th=s to/t' a)/ra kle/os ou)rano\n eu)ru\n i(/kane
The Muse impelled the singer to sing the kleos [plural] of men
from a story thread that had at that time a kleos reaching up to the vast heavens.
The story of the singer concerns "the beginning of pain
[pêma]" (
li/hn ga\r kata\ ko/smon *)axaiw=n oi)=ton a)ei/deis,
o(/ss' e)/rcan t' e)/paqo/n te kai\ o(/ss' e)mo/ghsan *)axaioi/
You sing in very correct fashion the fate of the Achaeans,
all the things that they did and suffered and struggled for.
He then asks Demodokos to shift ahead in subject matter
(
ei)pe\ d' o(/ ti klai/eis kai\ o)du/reai e)/ndoqi qumw=|
*)argei/wn *danaw=n i)de\ *)ili/ou oi)=ton a)kou/wn.
to\n de\ qeoi\ me\n teu=can, e)peklw/santo d' o)/leqron
a)nqrw/pois, i(/na h)=|si kai\ e)ssome/noisin a)oidh/
Tell why you weep and lament within your thûmos
upon hearing the fate of the Argive Danaans and of Ilion.
The gods fashioned it, and they were the ones who ordained
destruction for men, so that it might be a song for men yet to be.
What is an akhos for Odysseus is for future audiences simply a "song" like the Iliad, with its plot enacted by the Will of Zeus and his gods.
§9. The plot in this third song of Demodokos is strikingly parallel to the plot of the Cyclic Iliou Persis as we find it in the Proclus summary (pp. 107-108 Allen). But there is an interesting variation. On the one hand, the narrative in the Iliou Persis draws to a close with the destruction of Troy and such specific scenes as the killing of Astyanax by Odysseus and the enslavement of Andromache by Pyrrhos (p. 108.8-9).[1] On the other hand, the narrative of Demodokos is interrupted, before it draws to a close, by the weeping of Odysseus. The action stops just when various Achaean heroes are performing their various grisly feats during the destruction of Troy, such as the killing of Deiphobos (viii 516-520). At this point, the weeping of Odysseus is compared by way of a simile to the weeping of a widow who is taken as captive by a ruthless enemy after the destruction of her city and the killing of her husband (viii 523-531). The husband is described as a hero who fell in front of his city, where he was defending both the community and his children (viii 524-525). The resemblance with Hektor is unmistakable. The generic situation in the simile is thus strikingly parallel to the specific situation of Andromache at the end of the Iliou Persis. In this sense, the simile that pictures the weeping of Odysseus completes the narrative that his weeping had interrupted. And the captive widow also has akhos (viii 530), so that the akhos of Odysseus is universalized: he now feels the grief of his own victims in war, and his involvement is thus complete.
§10. In sum, we see from the evidence of epic itself that the kleos heard by its audiences may be akhos/penthos for those involved in the actions that it describes. Alkinoos perceives the akhos of Odysseus when he sees his guest's reaction to the kleos sung about the Trojan War. As a considerate host, he even asks Odysseus whether he had a male relative or hetaîros 'comrade' who died at Troy (viii 581-586). This theme brings us back to the Iliad, where Achilles has akhos/penthos (XVIII 22/73) over the death of Patroklos, his hetaîros (XVIII 80, etc.). It is this grief that impels him to go forth finally and fight, and here is how Achilles says it:
... nu=n de\ kle/os e)sqlo\n a)roi/mhn
... but now let me win worthy kleos
After the death of Patroklos, the Achilles figure uses the expression
§11. By entering his war, Achilles knowingly approaches certain death (XVIII 95-99), which in turn will bring penthos to his mother (XVIII 88).[1] The choice for him had been clear all along: either a nostoswithout kleos (IX 414-415) or kleos without nostos (IX 412-413). If he gives up a safe homecoming--that is, if he chooses not to be the hero of a story about homecoming--Achilles will die at Troy but will have a kleos that is aphthiton 'unfailing' (IX 413). In other words, he will be the central figure of an epic tradition that will never die out.[2] And the key to the kleos of Achilles' epic is the akhos/penthos over Patroklos.
§12. We are now ready to consider the semantics of the name
Patroklos (cf. I 345, etc.)/Patrokleês (cf. I
337, etc.),[1] a compound formation referring
to the kleos 'glory' of the pateres 'ancestors' (on
the latter meaning of the word pateres, see VI 209, etc.). These
two notions of "glory" and "ancestors" within the compound
Patro-kleês(/Patro-klos) should be compared
with the two notions in the combination
ou(/tw kai\ tw=n pro/sqen e)peuqo/meqa kle/a a)ndrw=n
h(rw/wn ...
We learn this also from the kleos [plural] of men of the past,
who were the heroes ... [2]
These words introduce the story that Phoinix tells Achilles, taken from the
epic tradition of Meleager. As Dale Sinos has shown in detail, this story is
intended to illustrate the ethical principle of philotês
'being a philos' in warrior society.[3] It is an epic exemplum, or
§13. As we proceed to consider the story of Meleager, we must keep in mind the institutional and sentimental connotations of this word philos/philoi, conventionally translated as "friend" when it is a noun and as "dear" or "one's own" when it is an adjective. For a suggestive discussion, I refer to Benveniste's acute reading of philos in its Homeric contexts.[1] For now, however, I merely cite what he sees as the results of his findings:[2]
It would take many chapters to list and analyze with the necessary care all the examples of phílos where it is said to be "possessive." We believe, however, that we have interpreted the most important. This re-examination was necessary to expose a long-standing error, which is probably as old as Homeric exegesis, and has been handed down from generation to generation of scholars. The whole problem of phílos deserves a full examination. We must start from uses and contexts which reveal in this term a complex network of associations, some with the institutions of hospitality, others with usages of the home, still others with emotional behavior[italics mine]; we must do this in order to understand plainly the metaphorical applications to which the term lent itself. All this wealth of concepts was smothered and lost to view once phílos was reduced to a vague notion of friendship or wrongly interpreted as a possessive adjective. It is high time we learned again how to read Homer.
§14. The story of Meleager, like the story of Achilles, tells of the hero's withdrawal from battle. Like Achilles, Meleager is angry:
... xo/lon qumalge/a pe/sswn
... mulling his anger, which caused pain for his thûmos
The same words apply to the anger of Achilles:
... xo/lon qumalge/a pe/ssei
Compare also these words addressed to Achilles:
pau/e', e)/a de\ xo/lon qumalge/a
Stop! Abandon your anger, which causes pain for your thûmos.[1]
The parallels are even deeper: while the anger of Achilles was preceded by the anger of Apollo, the anger of Meleager (IX 525, 553) was preceded by the anger of Apollo's sister, Artemis (IX 533-535).[2] Just as Achilles is destined by tradition to die at the hands of Apollo himself (XXI 275-278; cf. Pindar Paean 6.78-80), so also Meleager (Hesiod fr. 25.9-13MW).[3]
§15. I save the most important point of comparison for last: the comrades of Meleager, his hetaîroi, rate as next-to-highest in the narrative sequence that catalogues those who have ties to the hero and who are now entreating him to rejoin his comrades-in-arms. The ranking of the hero's social affinities at IX 574-591 implicitly presents Meleager as one who loves the elders not so much as the priests not so much as his father not so much as his sisters not so much as his mother not so much as his hetairoi not so much as his wife. As the studies of J. T. Kakridis have shown, variations in the listing of a hero's affinities represent a relative ranking of these affinities in Homeric narrative and constitute a poetic convention in itself.[1] In comparison with other attested occurrences of this convention, which Kakridis calls "the ascending scale of affection," the position of the hetaîroi in the Meleager story is noticeably high.[2] This preeminence can be seen not only on the level of theme but also on the level of form. Here is how the hetaîroi of Meleager, his comrades-in-arms, are described:
... e(tai=roi,
oi(/ oi( kedno/tatoi kai\ fi/ltatoi h)=san a(pa/ntwn
... the hetaîroi,
who were for him the most cherished and most philoi of all
On the level of theme, the one relation in the listing that outranks even the
hetaîroi is the wife of Meleager, Kleopatre. This name
Kleo-patrê (IX 556) combines the same notions
kleos
a)lla\ ti/ moi tw=n h)=dos, e)pei\ fi/los w)/leq' e(tai=ros,
*pa/troklos, to\n e)gw\ peri\ pa/ntwn ti=on e(tai/rwn
But what pleasure is there for me in these things? For my philos hetaîros has perished,
Patroklos, to whom I gave more tîmê than to all the other hetaîroi.
§16. For Phoinix, however, the code of the Meleager story, as he
introduces it, has a different message.[1] In
his words, the Achaeans who are "most philoi" to Achilles
(
... ou)de\ metatre/petai filo/thtos e(tai/rwn
... and he is not swayed by being philos of his hetaîroi
The speaker here is Ajax, and he is speaking for all his fellow delegates as he
affirms that they all want to be, among all the Achaeans, "the most
philoi" to Achilles (
mhniqmo\n me\n a)porri=yai, filo/thta d' e(le/sqai
that he has cast aside his state of mênis and has chosen being philos instead.
But it is really Patroklos who restores the philotês 'state of being philoi' between Achilles and the Achaeans. As Sinos points out, Patroklos will have to sacrifice himself and die so that Achilles may recognize his social obligation to his philoi:[3]
ou)de/ ti *patro/klw| geno/mhn fa/os ou)d' e(ta/roisi
toi=s a)/llois, oi(\ dh/ pole/es da/men *(/ektori di/w|
I did not become the Light[4] for Patroklos or for the other hetaîroi
who fell in great numbers at the hands of brilliant Hektor.
§17. The delegates to Achilles fail where the death of Patroklos succeeds. Despite their claim to be the most philoi to Achilles, he rejects their offer of compensation to him because--from the standpoint of the Iliad--Patroklos is even more philos than they. This ultimate motivation, however, is not yet manifest in Book IX, as Ajax is expressing his outrage at the rejection:
au)ta\r *)axilleu\s
a)/grion e)n sth/qessi qe/to megalh/tora qumo/n,
sxe/tlios, ou)de\ metatre/petai filo/thtos e(tai/rwn
th=s h(=| min para\ nhusi\n e)ti/omen e)/coxon a)/llwn,
nhlh/s: kai\ me/n ti/s te kasignh/toio fonh=os
poinh/n h)\ ou(= paido\s e)de/cato teqnhw=tos.
kai/ r(' o( me\n e)n dh/mw| me/nei au)tou= po/ll' a)potei/sas,
tou= de/ t' e)rhtu/etai kradi/h kai\ qumo\s a)gh/nwr
poinh/n decame/nw|: soi\ d' a)/llhkto/n te kako/n te
qumo\n e)ni\ sth/qessi qeoi\ qe/san ei(/neka kou/rhs
oi)/hs.
But Achilles
has made savage the great-hearted thûmos within his breast,
the wretch. And he has no care for being philos with his hetaîroi,
the way we honored him by the ships far beyond the others,
the pitiless one. And yet it can happen that a man takes compensation from the murderer of his own brother or of his own son who is killed.
And the offending party pays much and stays there in the district,
while the injured party's heart is curbed, and so too his proud thûmos,
once he accepts the compensation. But the gods have placed in you
a thûmos that is unyielding and bad,
all on account of one girl.
Achilles may be the most philos to his comrades-in-arms, but they are not the most philoi to him. Ajax thinks that the girl taken away from Achilles by Agamemnon, with the passive acquiescence of the Achaeans, is even more philê than they. This theme again conjures up Kleopatre, who was indeed by implication the most philê to Meleager--especially in view of what Achilles himself had said of the girl Briseis, who was taken from him:
e)pei\ o(/s tis a)nh/r a)gaqo\s kai\ e)xe/frwn
th/n au)tou= file/ei kai\ kh/detai, w(s kai\ e)gw\ th/n
e)k qumou= fi/leon, dourikthth/n per e)ou=san
Since whatever man is good and sensible
loves his own wife [has a wife who is philê to him] and cares for her. So also I loved her [she was philê to me]
with all my thûmos, even though she was only a prisoner.
There is another connection in what Achilles says just before this profession that Briseis is philê to him:
h)= mou=noi file/ous' a)lo/xous mero/pwn a)nqrw/pwn
*)atrei/+dai;
Or is it that the Atreidai are the only men
who love their wives [whose wives are philai to them]?
The wife in question here is distinctly not philê: she is Helen, cause of the entire Trojan War.
§18. To continue: Ajax thinks that Briseis ranks highest in the ascending scale of affection that determines the behavior of Achilles. In the passage already quoted, the protest of Ajax is founded on the surface inequity: whereas another man would accept compensation from the killer of his own brother or son, Achilles persists in refusing compensation from Agamemnon and the Achaeans--who had merely taken away from him a girl-prisoner (IX 628-638). And yet, as we have seen, the theme of Briseis as philê to Achilles conjures up the theme of Kleopatre as philê to Meleager. The words of Ajax are a code with one message for Ajax himself but with quite another message for the audience of our Iliad. Meshing with the theme of Kleopatre, the words of Ajax indirectly point toward Patroklos as the ultimate philos. But now we will also see that the theme serving as a foil for that of the girl, namely the readiness of a man to accept compensation from the killer of his own brother or son, also points to Patroklos.
§19. From the retrospective vantage point of Book XXIV, Apollo is telling why the hero Achilles is so repellent to him:
me/llei me/n pou/ tis kai\ fi/lteron a)/llon o)le/ssai,
h)e\ kasi/gnhton o(moga/strion h)e\ kai\ ui(o/n
For a man could easily lose someone else who is more philos,
either a brother from the same womb or even a son.
More philos than whom? Patroklos, of course! Here the issue is no longer whether or not Achilles is to accept compensation from Agamemnon and the Achaeans for the taking of a girl, but rather, whether or not he is to accept compensation first from Hektor and later from his family and the Trojans in general for the killing of Patroklos. Apollo is repelled by the refusal of Achilles to show pity and cease taking vengeance on Hektor's corpse. The theme of a brother's or son's death is already at work in the words of Ajax at IX 628-638, but there it serves as a foil for the taking of a girl, not yet directly for the actual killing of Patroklos. In both passages, IX 628-638 and XXIV 46-47, the constant is the pitiless temperament that refuses compensation.
§20. The same temperament we find frozen in the artistic microcosm of the Shield of Achilles, Iliad XVIII. This panorama of universal situations applying to the central themes of the Iliad features as one of its main scenes the image of a litigation between two parties:
o( me\n eu)/xeto pa/nt' a)podou=nai
dh/mw| pifau/skwn, o( d' a)nai/neto mhde\n e(le/sqai
One man, in his declaration to the dêmos, was saying that he paid [the compensation for murder] in full,
while the other [the man with ties to the victim] was refusing to take anything.
For the translation and exegesis, I am guided by the brilliant work of Leonard
Muellner,[1] who has also shown that the
archetypal quarrel pictured here concerned whether the man with affinities to
the victim is or is not bound to accept the compensation offered him--the
word for which is poinê (XVIII 498), precisely the same term
that was applied to the compensation offered for the hypothetical death of
one's brother or son in the speech of Ajax (IX 633, 636). In addition, Muellner
points out that the syntax of
w(=| ou)/t' a)\r fre/nes ei)si\n e)nai/simoi ou)/te no/hma
gnampto\n e)ni\ sth/qessi, le/wn d' w(\s a)/gria oi)=den
His thinking is not right and his sense of noos
is not flexible within his breast, but like a lion he knows savage ways.
Old Phoinix had already entreated him with these words:
a)ll', *)axileu=, po/re kai\ su\ *dio\s kou/rh|sin e(/pesqai
timh/n, h(/ t' a)/llwn per e)pigna/mptei no/on e)sqlw=n
So, Achilles, you too must grant that the Daughters of Zeus [Litai 'Prayers', personified] be given their honor,
which makes flexible the noos of others, good as they are.
What Ajax had said against Achilles still applies when Apollo saysit again:
a)/grion e)n sth/qessi qe/to megalh/tora qumo/n
He made savage the great-hearted thûmos within his breast.
... a)/gria oi)=den
... he knows savage ways
nhlh/s...
< part="I">pitiless one ...
... e)/leon me\n a)pw/lesen
... he lost pity
§21. The savage and inflexible temperament of Achilles is a constant extending all the way to Iliad XXIV, which marks the point where pity begins to set in and the ultimate heroic refinement of the Iliadic hero is about to be achieved.[1] The remarkable thing is that the ethical dilemma of the Iliad is already set in the Embassy Scene of Book IX, where the words of the Achaean delegates--without their being aware of it--are a code that carries the message of Patroklos for Achilles.
§22. Just as Patroklos led Achilles to rejoin his comrades-in-arms, it was Kleopatre who had impelled Meleager to reenter his war. The words of Kleopatre had conjured up the grief that happens when a city is destroyed:
... kai/ oi( kate/lecen a(/panta
kh/de' o(/s' a)nqrw/poisi pe/lei tw=n a)/stu a(lw/h|:
a)/ndras me\n ktei/nousi, po/lin de/ te pu=r a)maqu/nei,
te/kna de/ t' a)/lloi a)/gousi baquzw/nous te gunai=kas
... and she told him in their proper order
all the cares that befall men whose city is captured:
they kill the men, fire reduces the city to ashes,
and strangers lead away the children and deep-girdled wives
Within this highly compressed presentation, we see the same themes as in the
formal lamentation of Andromache (XXIV 725-745) during the public
penthos for Hektor. In Andromache's lament, the thematic setting
for her personal grief is the portended collective grief surrounding the
portended destruction of the city.[1] In fact,
Kleopatre herself has the stance of lamentation (
th/n de\ to/t' e)n mega/roisi path/r kai\ po/tnia mh/thr
*)alkuo/nhn kale/eskon e)pw/numon, ou(/nek' a)/r' au)th=s
mh/thr a)lkuo/nos polupenqe/os oi)=ton e)/xousa
klai=en o(/ min e(ka/ergos a)nh/rpase *foi=bos *)apo/llwn
And her father and mother in the palace called her Alkuonê,
because her mother had the fate of an alkuôn, a bird of much penthos,
and wept because far-reaching Apollo snatched her away.[2]
In sum, it was the grief conjured up by Kleo-patrê
that impelled Meleager to enter the war and thus undertake the epic deeds that
resulted in "the kleos [plural] of men who lived before, heroes"
(
§23. Because of Patro-kleês, Achilles gets kleos. Conversely, because of *Akhi-lâuos, Patroklos gets akhos/penthos from the Achaeans. In general, the akhos that Patroklos gets from Achilles at XXIII 47 is formalized in a public dimension as the Funeral Games throughout Iliad XXIII.[1] In particular, this akhos is formalized when Achilles leads the Achaeans in lamentation for Patroklos:
... oi( d' 'mwcan a)olle/es, h)=rxe d' *)axilleu/s
... and they all wailed together, and Achilles led them
toi=si de\ *phlei/+dhs a(dinou= e)ch=rxe go/oio
The son of Peleus led them in frequent goos [lamentation].
Similarly, in the public penthos over Hektor (XXIV 708), Andromache leads the Trojan women in songs of lamentation for her husband:
para\ d' ei(=san a)oidou\s
qrh/nwn e)ca/rxous, oi(/ te stono/essan a)oidh/n
oi( me\n a)/r' e)qrh/neon, e)pi\ de\ stena/xonto gunai=kes.
th=|sin d' *)androma/xh leukw/lenos h)=rxe go/oio
And they seated next to him [Hektor's corpse] aoidoi [singers, poets] who were to lead in the thrênoi[lamentations].
They sang a wailing song, singing thrênoi. And the women wailed in response,
and white-armed Andromache led them in the goos [lamentation].
The dimension of singing lamentations, which is only implicit in the epic use of the words akhos/penthos by way of contrast with kleos, is here made explicit. As Margaret Alexiou has shown in detail, the traditional genre of lamentation is an integral element in funerary ritual, requiring an interplay of two subgenres: the kin sing gooi while poets sing thrênoi, as described in the Iliadic passage we have just considered.[2] The genre of epic, however, imposes numerous restrictions on its own thematic treatment of lamentations. Nowhere, for instance, can we see epic overtly telling the contents of the thrênoi, even though they are suitable for singing by aoidoi 'singers, poets', as at 720-721 above; only gooi are "quoted," as at XXIV 725-745 (Andromache), 748-759 (Hekabe), and 762-775 (Helen).[3]
§24. There is an even more important restriction evident in epic: the Iliad itself does not treat the tradition of lamentations for Achilles within the actual context of a real funerary ritual. True, Thetis and her sister Nereids have a stylized wake for Achilles as if he were a corpse being laid out for the prothesis 'wake' (cf. especially XVIII 71),[1] and the stylized mourning for Achilles commences immediately after he gets his permanent akhos, from hearing the news that Patroklos is dead (XVIII 22-73). But the Iliadic tradition requires Achilles to prefigure his dead self by staying alive, and the real ritual of a real funeral is reserved by the narrative for his surrogate Patroklos. Only outside our Iliad, in the retrospective format of the Odyssey, can we witness the actual wake of Achilles, with the Muses and his own kin, the Nereids, singing lamentations over his corpse (