Iliad 22 and 24 as Mark’s Model for the Death and Burial of Jesus
Dennis R. MacDonald
As members of this SBL program unit likely know, I am convinced—and
have repeatedly tried to demonstrate—that the Markan Evangelist created most
of this narrative by imitating Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Perhaps nowhere is
this dependence on Homer more obvious than in his depiction of Jesus’ death
and Joseph’s rescue of his corpse. Instead of reframing the argument once again,
I ask permission to offer a truncated version of my presentation of the evidence
in The Gospels and Homer: Imitations of Greek Epic in Mark and Luke-Acts
(NTGL 1; Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 91-130. I begin just after
Hector’s taunting of Achilles.
Iliad 22.289-363
The Death of Hector
When Hector’s spear missed its target, he turned to his brother Deïphobos for
another,
but he was nowhere near him.
Then Hector knew in his mind and said,
“Alas! Surely the gods have summoned me to death,
for I thought that the hero Deïphobos was next to me,
but he is inside the wall; Athena has deceived me!
Now indeed wicked death is at hand, no longer far off—
no escape! For this was a longstanding inclination
of Zeus and far-shooting son of Zeus [Apollo] who in the past
gladly rescued me. But now at last my fate has arrived!” (22.295-303)
Hector fought bravely, but fell to Achilles’ spear. “The end of death engulfed
him, / and his soul, flying from his limbs, went to the house of Hades, /
lamenting its fate” (22.361-363).
The Death of Jesus (Mark 15:33-38)
. . . When Jesus dies he quotes the first verse of Ps 21 (MT 22) in Aramaic
(though Mark’s translation of it reflects the LXX/OG). “And at the ninth hour,
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani,’ which interpreted
means, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’” (Mark 15:34). The
quotation in Aramaic allows for a misunderstanding from Greek-speakers, who
interpreted the cry “Eloi, eloi” to be an appeal for Elijah. “And some who were
standing by, on hearing this, said, ‘Look! He is calling Elijah!’” (15:35). Mark may
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be alluding to Mal 3:22 (MT 4:5): “I am sending to you Elijah the Tishbite before
the coming of the great and manifest day of the Lord.”
Even though Jesus’ dying words are a quotation of Ps 21 (MT 22), they also
imitate Hector’s recognition that Apollo and Zeus had abandoned him.
Il. 22.296-297 and 301-302
Mark 15:33-34
It was the sixth hour [viz. noon], and
darkness came over the whole earth
until the ninth hour [3 p.m.]. 34 And in
the ninth hour,
Jesus cried out with a loud voice
[φωνῇ], “Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani,”
which interpreted means, “My God
[θεός], my God [θεός], why have you
abandoned [ἐγκατέλιπες] me?”
Hector knew in his mind and said
[φώνησεν], / “Alas! Surely the gods
[θεοί] have summoned me to death. /
. . . [T]his was a longstanding
inclination / of Zeus and the farshooting son of Zeus, who in the past /
gladly rescued me.” [Cf. 22.213:
“Phoebus Apollo left [λίπεν] him.”]
Jesus’ cry for rescue parallels Hector’s call for Deïphobos.
Il. 22.295-299
Mark 15:35-36
Hector “turned to Deïphobus for
“When some of the bystanders heard
another [spear], but he was nowhere
this, they began saying, ‘Look! He is
calling Elijah!’ 36 Someone ran off,
near him. / Then Hector knew in his
mind and said, / ‘Alas! Surely the
filled a sponge with sour wine, fixed it
gods have summoned me to death, /
to a reed, offered it to him to drink, and
for I thought that the hero Deïphobus fixed it to a reed, offered it to him to
was next to me, / but he is inside the
drink, and said, ‘Wait, let’s see if Elijah
wall; Athena has deceived me!’”
comes to take him down!’”
Neither Deïphobus nor Elijah arrived to help.
The portent of the ripped temple curtain “from top to bottom [ἀπ᾿ ἄνωθεν
ἕως κάτω]” apparently anticipates the destruction of the temple and suggests
that by killing Jesus those who had accused him of wishing to destroy it were the
ones who doomed it. In the Iliad, too, the death of Hector anticipates the
destruction of Troy. When Priam saw his son die, he and all of Troy wept, for it
felt to them that “majestic Ilium as a whole / was burning with fire from top to
bottom” (Il. 22.410-411). The expression “from top to bottom” is κατ᾿ ἄκρης, and
whenever it appears in the epic it refers to the fall of Troy. For example,
Andromache predicted that now that her husband was dead, “from top to
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3
bottom the city / will be sacked” (24.727-728). Hector had left the city vulnerable
by dying.
Il. 22.362–363
And his soul, flying from his limbs,
went
to the house of Hades, / lamenting its
fate.
Mark 15:37-38
Then Jesus gave a loud cry and expired
[literally, “sent out his spirit”]. 38 The
curtain of the sanctuary was ripped in
two, from top to bottom.
Iliad 22.364-404
Achilles’ Gloat
After Hector died, Achilles and his comrades gloated.
No one stood over him without inflicting a wound,
and looking at his comrade someone would say,
“Truly Hector is softer to handle now
than when he burned our ships with blazing fire!”
Thus someone would speak and stab him as he stood over him. (22.371–375)
Achilles himself boasted, “We have won great fame, for we have killed noble
Hector, / whom the Trojans in the city prayed to as to a god” (22.393-394).
The Centurion’s Gloat (Mark 15:39)
Mark next narrates the centurion’s commentary on Jesus’ death, perhaps the
most misunderstood statement in the entire Gospel and one on which many
scholars have hung their interpretations of Mark as a whole. “Now when the
centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said,
‘ἀληθῶς οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος υἱὸς θεοῦ ἦν’” (15:39). Nearly all interpreters have
taken this statement as a straightforward confession of Jesus’ true identity and
translate it “Truly this man was God’s Son” (NRSV). According to this view, the
disciples did not understand the necessity of Jesus’ death, but the centurion did.
He somehow saw Jesus’ death as evidence of his divine sonship. . . .
The utterance of the centurion is not a confession but a gloat.1 Nothing in
the narrative provides motivation for the centurion’s so-called confession. . . .
The Roman centurion viewed his death as proof that his victim “was”—
notice the past tense of the verb ἦν!— a mortal (ἄνθρωπος) and not a son of a
god, not like the sons of Zeus, many of whom were deathless. Perhaps one
should translate the centurion’s statement as follows: “Oh sure, this mortal was a
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son of a god!” By dying, Jesus fell short of his billing; his lofty claims were
hollow. The reader, of course, understands the irony of the situation: Jesus truly
(ἀληθῶς) was a son of a god.
Further proof that the centurion’s utterance is a gloat comes from a
comparison with Achilles’ gloating over Hector.
Il. 22.371–375
Mark 15:39
No one stood over him [παρέστη]
Now when the centurion who stood
without inflicting a wound, / and
facing him [παρεστηκώς] saw [ἰδών]
looking [ἰδών] at his comrade
that in this way he breathed his last, he
someone would say [εἴπεσκεν], /
said [εἶπεν], “Oh sure, this mortal was a
“Truly Hector is softer to handle now son of a god!”
/ than when he burned our ships with
blazing fire!” / Thus some soldier
would speak [εἴπεσκε] and stab him
as he stood over him [παραστάς].
A few lines later, Achilles bragged to his comrades: “We have won great fame,
for we have killed noble Hector, / whom the Trojans in the city prayed to as to a
god [θεῷ]” (Il. 22.393-394).2
Iliad 22.405-515
The Weeping of the Trojan Women
The Trojans watched the death of their hero from behind the walls. Priam was
overwhelmed with grief and lamented his loss, it was as though “majestic Ilium
as a whole / was burning with fire from top to bottom” (22.410-411).
His mother
tore her hair, cast her shining veil
far away, and at the sight of her child uttered a loud cry.
And his father groaned pitifully, while the people around them
Were given to wailing and groaning throughout the city.
*
*
*
*
*
And Hecuba led the shrieking lament among the Trojan women.
“O my child, I am so miserable! Why should I now live suffering cruelly
while you are dead? Night and day
you were my boast throughout the city, a help to all
the Trojan men and Trojan women in the city, who, as though you were a
god,
used to welcome you.” (22.405-409 and 430-435)
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Hector’s wife Andromache, however, was at home weaving.
She heard the wailing and lamenting from the tower;
her joints quivered, and her shuttle fell to the ground.
*
*
*
*
*
[S]he rushed through the hall like a madwoman,
her heart pounding, and her maidservants went with her.
When she got to the tower and the crowd of men,
she stopped at the wall to take a look and saw him
being dragged around the city. Fast horses
were dragging him mercilessly to the hollow ships of the Achaeans.
Dark night engulfed her eyes;
she fell backward and gasped out her spirit. (22.447-448 and 460-467)
. . . The last, haunting line of book 22 is this: “Thus she spoke as she cried, and
the women added their laments” (22.515).
Women Watching from afar (Mark 15:40-41)
Immediately after the centurion’s gloat, one reads: “Women were watching
from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James
the short and Joses, and Salome, who had followed him and served him when he
was in Galilee. Many other women, too, had come up with him to Jerusalem”
(15:40-41). This passage is the earliest reference in history to Mary of Magdala,
and every reference to her in later literature arguably flowed from it. For
example, all references to her in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, John, and Peter
are debtors to Mark, either directly or indirectly. . . . There is no reference to her
in Paul, the Logoi of Jesus, the Acts of the Apostles, the so-called Apostolic
Fathers, or Christian apocrypha other than Gospels and Gospel-like literature.
Although it is possible that a woman by this name once existed, it is more likely
that Mark created her to populate his narrative.
It was not Simon Peter who carried Jesus’ cross, as he had sworn (Mark
14:31), but Simon of Cyrene. It was not James and John who died at his right and
left, as they had promised in 10:37-39, but two bandits. It will not be Joseph of
Nazareth who buries him but Joseph of Arimathea. Mark’s penchant for creating
characters to contrast with Jesus’ family and closest disciples applies also to the
names of the women at the tomb. One might have expected Jesus’ mother, Mary
of Nazareth, to have attended to the body and tomb of her son; instead, it was
two other women named Mary and a Salome.
Nothing more is known concerning Salome, though later texts associate her
with female sexuality. She shares her name with the daughter of Herodias, who,
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in Mark 6 (although she is not explicitly named) danced provocatively at a
birthday party for her stepfather, Herod Antipas, and asked for the head of John
the Baptist on a platter. The name Salome in Mark 15:40 thus appears to be
ironic.
According to Mark 6:3, Jesus was the son of Mary and the brother of “James,
Joses, Judas, and Simon.” Surely it is no accident that one of the Marys at the
crucifixion likewise had two sons with the same names as two of Jesus’ brothers:
“James the short and Joses.” This woman appears again later as “Mary the
mother of Joses,” and “Mary the mother of James,” as though Mark wanted to
make a point of her maternal identification (15:47 and 16:1). . . . Mark here is
making the point that it was not Jesus’ mother who cared for Jesus but another
Mary who, like Jesus’ own mother, had two boys named James and Joses.
The only time that Jesus’ biological mother appears as a character in Mark is
when she tries to take him home because she thinks he has lost his mind. When
Jesus learns that she and his brothers are outside calling for him, he responds,
“‘Who is my mother and my brothers?’ And gazing at those sitting around him,
he says, ‘Look at my mother and brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my
brother and sister and mother’” (3:21 and 33-35). The women who watch him die
from a distance play the role one might have expected for his mother.
The Introduction argued that by dubbing Mary “the Magdalene” the
Evangelist associated her with a city not only known for its tower but whose
name in Hebrew and Aramaic issued from migdal, “tower.” Magdala was
“Towertown.” Mary thus seems to be an emulation of Homer’s Andromache,
who, from Troy’s tower and with other women, watched in horror as Achilles
dragged the corpse of her husband behind his chariot. Compare the following:
Il. 22.430, 460-464, and 515
Hecuba led the shrieking lament
among the Trojan women. / . . . She
[Andromache] rushed through the
hall like a mad woman, / her heart
pounding, and her maidservants went
with her. / When she got to the tower
[πύργον] and the crowd of men, /
she stopped at the wall to take a look
and saw him / [Hector] being dragged
around the city. . . . / [She gave her
lament.] So she spoke, weeping, and
the women [γυναῖκες] added their
Mark 15:40
Women [γυναῖκες] were watching from
a distance, among them were Mary of
Towertown, Mary the mother of James
the short and Joses, and Salome.
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groans.
The density of the parallels, often in the same sequence, and their distinctive
traits satisfy criteria 3-5 and thus provide hermeneutical bridges between the
Gospel and the epic. The following similarities surely are not accidental.
Il. 22
• Hector, Apollo’s favorite, had long
eluded death.
• Hector’s troops fled into the city for
safety, leaving him to face his fate
alone.
• Zeus passed judgment: Hector must
die.
• Hector had refused mixed wine
offered him to relieve his pain.
• Achilles and Hector traded taunts.
• Hector called to Deïphobus for help,
Mark 15
Jesus, God’s Son, had eluded death.
Jesus’ disciples fled for safety, leaving
him to face his fate alone.
Pilate passed judgment: Jesus must die.
Jesus refused mixed wine offered him to
relieve his pain.
Various hostile groups taunted Jesus.
The by-standers thought Jesus was
calling
to Elijah for help, but he never came.
Jesus then knew that he would be killed
and complained that God had
abandoned him.
Jesus uttered a loud shout and expired.
but he had vanished.
• Hector then knew that he would be
killed, for his gods had abandoned
him.
• Hector’s soul went to Hades with a
shout.
• Trojans mourned him as though
Jesus’ death anticipated the fall of
their city had been destroyed “from
Jerusalem and the temple, whose
top to bottom.”
curtain was rent “from top to bottom.”
• Achilles gloated that he had just
The centurion gloated that he had just
slain the one Trojans considered a
executed a bogus son of a god.
god.
• The women of Troy, watching
Three women watched Jesus’ death
Hector’s death from their walls, cried “from afar” and presumably lamented.
laments.
Among the distinctive traits are calls for helpers who never came and
recognitions of divine abandonment, motifs that are otherwise uncommon in
scenes of heroic deaths.
Criterion 6, interpretability, also applies. Troy fell because Achilles, its
archenemy, slew its champion; Jerusalem fell because its leaders killed Jesus,
whom God then raised from the grave. The poets of the Homeric Centos and a
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Byzantine recension of the Gospel of Nicodemus renarrate the death of Jesus by
independently imitating Homer’s account of the death of Jesus (criterion 7 . . .).
Here the connections between the women at the tomb and Hector’s mourning
women are unmistakable.
If one attributes the three women watching Jesus’ death to Mark’s imitation
of the Trojan women watching the death of Hector, the presence of three women
at the cross in the Gospel of John should be taken as evidence of dependence on
the Synoptics. . . .
[For the purposes of this paper I skip over Li. 23 and the beginning of 24,
where Achilles mutilates the corpse of Hector by dragging it behind his
chariot and denies it a proper burial. The gods, however, keep it from
corruption, and Zeus commands Hermes to guide Prima and his herald
Idaeus through the night to Achilles’ camp to rescue the body. I pick up the
story when Priam arrives chez Achlles.]
Iliad 24.443-801
The Rescue of Hector’s Corpse
. . . Immediately Priam “took Achilles’ knees in his hands and kissed his
fearsome, / man-killing hands, hands that killed his many sons” (24.478-479),
appealing for Hector’s body. He “wept, and collapsed at the feet of Achilles”
(24.510). Achilles was amazed at Priam’s courage.
[Achilles] immediately rose from his seat and raised the old man by the
hand,
taking pity on his gray head and gray beard;
he spoke to him, uttering winged words.
“Alas, wretched man! Indeed you have suffered many evils in your heart.
How did you dare to come alone to the ships of the Achaeans?
*
*
*
*
*
Be strong, and do not grieve in your heart without stop,
for you will produce nothing by mourning for your son,
nor will you raise him up [from death].
*
*
*
*
*
I myself have in mind
to release Hector to you. . . “
*
*
*
*
*
Then the maidservants washed and anointed the body with oil
and wrapped it in a beautiful cape and tunic,
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and Achilles himself lifted it and placed it upon a bier. (24.515-519, 549-551,
560-561, and 587-589)
[Priam returned to Troy with the body and arranged for a magnificent
funerl.]
. . . After several days of . . . mourning, the Trojans burned his corpse and buried
the bones.
Large tears streamed down their cheeks,
and they took the bones and placed them in a golden chest
and covered it with soft purple robes.
Immediately then they placed it in a hollow ditch
and heaped large stones over it.
Quickly they heaped up the mound.
*
*
*
*
*
Once they had heaped up the mound, they left again. (24.794-799 and 801)
Hermes’ rescue of Priam from the Greek camp generated many imitations,
including several lost plays and episodes in the Odyssey, Apollonius’s
Argonautica, Vergil’s Aeneid, the final book of Statius’s Thebaid, Nonnus’s
Dionysiaca, and a brilliant parody in the Alexander Romance.3 Priam’s imploring
Achilles for Hector’s corpse was a favorite topic of visual artists. According to
Quintilian, students of rhetoric were required to compose speeches as though
they were Priam asking Achilles for Hector’s body.4 The burial of Hector in the
Iliad inspired lamentations for Pallas in the Aeneid. . . .
The Rescue of Jesus’ Body (Mark 15:42-16:1)
“When it was late, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day
before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council,
who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, dared to go to
Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus” (Mark 15:42-43). Mark depicts Joseph as a
nobleman with sufficient wealth to supply a cave-tomb hewn from rock.
Here again Mark uses a significant name for ironic effect. Just as it was not
Simon Peter but Simon of Cyrene who carried Jesus’ cross, just as it was not
Jesus’ mother Mary of Nazareth but two other Marys (one of whom also had
sons named James and Joses) who watched Jesus die, so it was not Joseph of
Nazareth but Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin that had just
condemned Jesus, who buried him.
Mark’s use of the word Arimathea (Αριμαθαία) is its earliest appearance in
Greek literature; there exists no example of it that is independent—directly or
indirectly—of Markan influence. . . . To a Greek ear it would have been a
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compound consisting of the inseparable prefix αρι-, “excellent” and the word
μάθη, “learning,” whence Mark’s word for disciple, μαθητής. That is,
Arimathea means “Excellent learning,” or “Excellent discipleship,” a fitting
description of his role in the Gospel.
At his death, Jesus had no more excellent disciple than Joseph from ExcellentDiscipleship. Several details in the presentation of Joseph suggest that he
emulates Hector’s father, who likewise was noted for his wealth and piety (e.g.,
Il. 24.299-301 and 424-431). Like Joseph, Priam rescued the corpse of Hector from
Achilles, who had tried to mangle it by dragging it behind his chariot. Various
gods, however, protected Hector from deterioration, and Zeus sent Hermes to
give Priam courage to ransom the body of his son. Priam set out at night; Joseph
set out “when it was late.” Achilles noted Priam’s courage: “How did you dare
[ἔτλης] to come [ἐλθέμεν] alone to the ships of the Achaeans”; “No mortal
would dare [τλαίη], not even one in his prime, to come [ἐλθέμεν] / into the
camp” (Il. 24.519 and 565-566). Among the Gospels, only in Mark does one read
that Joseph “dared to go [τολμήσας εἰσῆλθεν] to Pilate.”
In an unusual agreement between Matthew and Luke in the Passion
Narrative, both Evangelists omitted the following Markan statement: “Then
Pilate was amazed that he might already be dead; and summoning the centurion,
he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from
the centurion that he was dead . . .” (15:44-45a). According to Mark, the
crucifixion began at 9:00 a.m. and darkness came over the earth from noon to
3:00 p.m., when Jesus died; that is, an astonishingly short duration. Anticipating
objections that Jesus was a weakling for having died so quickly, Origen
countered that Jesus demonstrated his powers over life and death by “offering
up his spirit.”5 Modern scholars have proposed that Mark’s statement is merely
proof that Jesus had, in fact, died. In light of the widespread parallels with the
death of Hector, one might note that Jesus’ rapid death and burial before
nightfall prevented the devouring of his body by birds or dogs, often the fate of
the corpses of the crucified. In the Iliad, Aphrodite beat off the dogs from
Hector’s corpse, and Hermes assured Priam that “neither dogs nor birds have
eaten him” (23.184-191 and 24.411-414).
Achilles agreed to give Priam the body of his son and ordered women to
anoint and shroud it. He himself lifted it into the waiting wagon; later the
Trojans would give it a full and proper burial. Similarly, Joseph wrapped Jesus in
a linen shroud and placed him in a tomb. Homer and Mark both make a point of
the nakedness of their dead heroes prior to the rescue of their bodies (Il. 22.367376 and Mark 15:20 and 24). Note the following remarkable parallels:
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Il. 24
Priam, king of Troy, set out at night to
rescue the body of his son, Hector,
from his murderer, Achilles.
11
Mark 15:42-16:1
“When it was late, and since it was the
day of Preparation, that is, the day
before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of
Arimathea, a distinguished member
of the council, who was also himself
waiting expectantly for the kingdom of
God, dared to go to Pilate and ask for
the body of Jesus.
The journey was dangerous. He
entered Achilles’ abode and asked for
the body of Hector.
Achilles was amazed that Priam dared 44 Then Pilate was amazed that he might
to enter his home.
already be dead; and summoning
[προσκαλεσάμενος] the centurion, he
asked him whether he had been dead
for some time.
Hector’s body had been saved from
[Jesus’ hasty burial saved the corpse
desecration.
from desecration.]
He granted Hector’s body to his father 45 When he learned from the centurion
and summoned (ἐκκαλέσας)
that he was dead, he granted the body
maidservants to wash and anoint
to Joseph. [A woman earlier had
(ἀλεῖψαι) him.
anointed Jesus.]
46 And having bought a linen shroud
“Then the maidservants washed and
anointed the body with oil / and
and taken him down, he wrapped him
wrapped it in a beautiful cape and
in the linen shroud and placed [ἔθηκεν]
tunic, / and Achilles himself lifted it
him in a tomb that had been cut out of
and placed it [ἐπέθηκεν] upon a
rock,
bier.” (587-589)
[Priam left with the body at night, and
brought it to Troy for a fitting burial.
and he rolled a stone at the door
See 795-798: “They took the bones and of the tomb.
placed them (θῆκαν) in a golden chest
/ and covered it with soft purple
robes. / Immediately then they placed
it (θέσαν) in a hollow ditch / and
heaped large stones over it.”]
47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of Joses saw where he had been
placed. 16:1 When the Sabbath had
passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the
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mother of James, and Salome bought
spices so that they might go and anoint
[ἀλείψωσιν] him.
As we have seen, in the Iliad and the Gospel of Mark, a noble and pious man
musters courage to ask for the body of a man slain in his prime. In both books,
the military official holding the nude body expresses amazement. In both,
women anoint the corpse; in both it is wrapped in clothing. In Mark, however, it
is not Jesus’ father who cares for his corpse but his father’s namesake, Joseph of
Arimathea, whose μάθη, “discipleship,” was ἀρίστη, “excellent.” , , ,
The Death and Burial of Jesus and Byzantine Imitations of the Iliad
The parallels between the deaths of Homer and Jesus did not escape the poets
of the Homeric Centos, who used two lines from Hector’s recognition that
Apollo had abandoned him for Jesus’ prediction of his death to the disciples
while washing their feet.
Hom. Cent. 1.1449-1451
(= Il. 22.300) “Now indeed wicked death is at hand, no longer far off—
(= Il. 22.301) no escape! For this was a longstanding inclination
(= Od. 3.209) of my Father and me. And now I must nevertheless suffer.”
The poets modeled Jesus’ death in part after the death of Hector.
Hom. Cent. 1.1940-1941
(= Il. 22.361) As he thus spoke, the end of death engulfed him,
(= Il. 22.362) and his soul flying from his limbs went to the house of Hades, .
..
The Synoptic Gospels are curiously silent about lamentations by the women
at the tomb or by Joseph of Arimathea. Recension 1 of the Homeric Centos
compensates for this deficiency in magnificent fashion. The episode begins by
establishing the scene.
Hom. Cent. 1.2041-2048
(= Il. 18.233; of Patroclus) [Two disciples] place the body on a bier, and his
beloved comrades stand around
(= Il. 24.794; of Hector) mourning, and large tears flowed down their cheeks.
(= Il. 24.588) They threw around him a beautiful cloak and tunic.
(= Il. 18.352; of Patroclus) After laying him on his bed, they covered him
with a soft linen cloth
(= Il. 18.353) from head to foot, and over that a white robe.
(= Il. 18.351) They filled his wounds with ointment nine years old.
( Il. 24.414; of Hector) But his flesh did not decay at all, and worms do not
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Iliad 22-24
13
(= Il. 24.415) eat him, worms that devour men who are slain in battle.
The poet then introduces Mary, Jesus’ mother, and uses lines from the epic that
depict Briseis’ eruption of grief on seeing the corpse of Patroclus. Here is Mary’s
lament that consists in part of Anticleia’s conversation with Odysseus in the
netherworld.
Hom. Cent. 1.2056-2058
(= Il. 22.466; of Andromache) Dark night engulfed her eyes;
(= Od. 5.458; cf. Il. 22.475) but when she revived, and her spirit returned to
her breast,
(= Il. 18.72) wailing, she spoke to him winged words, . . .
After embracing and kissing the body of her son, she speaks through her
weeping, borrowing lines from Andromache and Anticleia.
Hom. Cent. 1.2068-2079
( Il. 24.742; Andromache:) “Child, bitter sorrows will be left for me
especially,
(= Il. 24.743) for when you were dying, from your bed you did not stretch
out your arms to me
(= Il. 24.744) or speak to me a ponderous saying that I would always
(= Il. 24.745) recall, day and night, while shedding tears.
( Od. 11.202) But I was longing for you and your counsel, glorious son,
(= Od. 11.203) and for your kindness that stole my honey-sweet life.
( Il. 19.300; Briseis:) So I weep profusely for your corpse, for you were
always gentle.
(= Il. 22.482; Andromache:) But now you are going to the house of Hades
beneath the depths of the earth,
(= Il. 22.483) but you are leaving me in loathsome sorrow.”
(= Il. 24.776) So she spoke, weeping, and countless people groaned,
( Il. 24.707) and no one man was left there in the city,
(= Il. 24.708) nor any woman, for unbearable grief overtook them all.
The same poem applies to Joseph three lines that Achilles spoke to Priam.
Hom. Cent. 1.2107-2109
(= Il. 24.565) For no mortal would dare, not even one in his prime, to come
( Il. 24.566) to the camp, for he could not escape the notice of the guards or
(= Il. 24.567) easily shove aside the bar of our doors.
The poets inherited stories about Jesus from the New Testament; they did not
concoct them. Even so, one cannot deny that they found in Il. 22 and 24 a
reservoir for lines apt for narrating the death of Jesus. . . .
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Iliad 22-24
14
[The author of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Written by Aeneas
similarly used Il. 22 and 24 to embellish the Gospel accounts to Jesus’ death
and burial.]
As Jesus approaches the location of his execution, the author introduces the
apostle John and Mary (called the Theotokos, “Mother of God”). She was
unaware of the verdict against her son before John notified her of it. “She cried
out with a loud voice, saying, ‘My son, my son, what evil have you done that
they are taking you away to crucify you?’ She was lifted up like someone who
had fainted, and she wept as she traveled down the road. Women, too, were
following her: Martha, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and other virgins” (10:1.2a).
When Mary finally saw Jesus with her own eyes, she broke down in grief. The
redactor’s model for Mary’s anguish clearly was Il. 22, the swooning of
Andromache when she saw the dead Hector; other elements of the speech reflect
Hecuba’s lament in the same book.
Il. 22
• Andromache had not known of her
husband’s fight with Achilles until she
heard howling from the walls (437447).
•
She rushed to the wall “like a
madwoman, / her heart pounding,
and her maidservants went with her”
(460-461).
• 22.462-464, 466-467, 473-477, and 515
“When she got to the tower and
the crowd of men, / she stopped at the
wall to take a look and saw him
[Hector] / being dragged around the
city [tied behind Achilles’ chariot] /
....
Dark night engulfed her eyes; / she fell
backwards and gasped out her spirit
[ἤριπε δ᾿ ἐξοπίσω, ἀπὸ δὲ ψυχὴν
ἐκάπυσσε]. / . . .
Pass. Res. Aen. 10:1.2a
Mary had not known of her son’s
condemnation to be crucified until she
heard it from the apostle John.
“On hearing this, his mother cried out
with a loud voice, saying, ‘My son, my
son, what evil have you done that they
are taking you away to crucify you?’
She was lifted up like someone who had
fainted, and she wept as she traveled
down the road. Women [γυναῖκες], too,
were following her.”
“So when they arrived at the throng of
the crowd, the Theotokos said to John,
‘Where is my son?’ John said, ‘Do you
see that man wearing a crown of thorns
whose hands are tied? That is he.’ When
the Theotokos heard this and saw him,
she fainted, fell backwards on the
ground [ὠλιγοψύχησε καὶ ἔπεσεν
ἐξοπίσω εἰς τὴν γῆν], and lay there for
a long time.
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15
Around her pressed her husband’s
The women who were following her
sisters and his brothers’ wives, / who
stood around her weeping.
had held her up in their midst; she
was stunned to the point of death. /
Then, when she revived, and her spirit After a while she revived, rose up
returned [ἀγέρθη] to her breast, / she [ἠγέρθη], and cried with a loud voice,
wailed deeply with the Trojan women
and said, / ‘Hector, I am a wreck! . . .’ / ‘My Lord, my son, . . .’”
So she spoke, weeping, and the
women [γυναῖκες] added their
laments.”
The content of Mary’s speech has even more in common with Hecuba’s
lament.
Il. 22.405-407 and 430-435
Pass. Res. Aen. 10:1.2a
His mother / tore her hair, . . . / and at
the sight of her child, she uttered a
loud cry. / . . . And Hecuba led the
shrieking lament among the Trojan
After a while she revived, rose up, and
women. / “O my child, Why should I
cried, “I am so miserable! Where has
now live suffering cruelly / while you sunk the beauty of your appearance?
are dead? Night and day / you were
How can I endure watching you
my boast throughout the city, a help
suffering such things?”
to all / the Trojan men and Trojan
women in the city, as though you
were a god / they used to welcome
you.”
[Cf. Il. 19.282-286: “Then Briseis, like
When she had said these things,
golden Aphrodite, / on seeing
Patroclus mutilated with the sharp
sword, / threw herself around him,
shouted loudly, and with her hands
she tore / her chest (στήθεα), her
she clawed her face [πρόσωπον] with
slender neck, and her lovely face
her nails; beat her chest [στῆθος]. She
(πρόσωπα). / Then the woman, like a was saying, . . .” with a loud voice, “My
goddess, wept and said, . . .”]
Lord, my son, . . .”
When the soldiers crucify Jesus, the Theotokos cries: “My son, what will
become of me without you? How will I live without you? What livelihood will I
sustain?” (Pass. Res. Aen. 10:1.4a). Homer’s Hecuba cried, “O my child, I am so
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Iliad 22-24
16
miserable! Why should I now live suffering cruelly / while you are dead?” (Il.
22.431-432).
Mary’s address to the cross recalls Hecuba’s famous baring of her breasts
when pleading with Hector not to face Achilles alone.
Il. 22.81-84
As she shed tears, she spoke winged
words, / “Hector my child [τὸν υἱόν
μου] and kiss my son [τὸν ἐμὸν υἱόν]
for these [breasts] and take pity on
me, / if ever I gave you the breast
[μαζόν] that banishes worry. /
Remember these, dear child.”
Pass. Res. Aen. 10:1.4a
And gazing at the cross, she was saying,
“Bend down, O cross, so that I might
embrace my son [τέκνον ἐμόν], have
regard whom I nursed with these
breasts [μασθοῖς]—astonishingly since I
have not known a husband!
Bend down, O cross; I want to enshroud
my son. Bend down, O cross, so that I
might groom my son as a mother
would.”
For his account of Joseph’s rescue of Jesus’ body, the author imitated Priam’s
rescue of the body of Hector in Il. 24.
Joseph, a man who was noble and rich, a god-fearing Jew, on finding
Nicodemus, . . . said to him, “I know that you loved Jesus. . . , and I saw that
you fought with the Jews over him. . . . So if it seems appropriate for you, let
us go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus for burial, for it is a great sin to
let him lie unburied.”
Nicodemus says, “I am afraid that I might suffer some harm if Pilate were
to go into a rage. But if you are going off alone, make your request, and
receive the corpse, then I will make the journey with you and contribute
everything for the funeral preparations.” (11:3.1a)
According to Il. 24, Priam, putting aside his fear, took with him his herald Idaeus
to drive the cart that carried the treasure to ransom Hector’s body from Achilles.
Similarly, Nicodemus agreed to go with Joseph and pay for Jesus’ burial, even
though he feared that a raging Pilate might harm him. . . Both Priam and Joseph
prayed for successful missions.
Il. 24.306-309
Then he prayed [εὔχετ᾿] standing in
the middle of the courtyard, took the
wine, / looked into the sky [οὐρανὸν
εἰσανιδών], and spoke out loud, /
“Father Zeus, ruler from Ida, most
Pass. Res. Aen. 11:3.1c
After Nicodemus had said these things,
Joseph fixed his eyes on the sky
[ἀτενίσας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν τοὺς
ὀφθαλμούς],
and prayed [εὐξάμενος] that his request
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Iliad 22-24
17
majestic, / grant me friendship and
not fail.
pity when I go to Achilles.”
Without Nicodemus, Joseph “went to Pilate, and after greeting him, took a seat”
(11:3.1c). A similar choreography appears in the epic: Priam left Idaeus with the
horses, went alone to Achilles, kneeled before him, and greeted him. Achilles
later invited him to sit, and, reluctantly, he did so (24.477-478, 522, and 552-579).
Here is Joseph’s request of Pilate:
“My lord, I entreat you that if I make an extraordinary request on your
generosity you will not be furious with me.”
He said, “And what is it that you request?”
“The foreigner Jesus,” Joseph says, “the good man whom the Jews out of
jealousy brought forward for crucifixion; I am asking that you give me this
man for burial.”6
Pilate says, “And what has happened that we [Romans] should allow this
corpse again to be honored, this man who was martyred by his generation
for magical deeds, who was under suspicion of taking over the kingdom of
Caesar and thus was handed over by you [Jews] to death?”
Joseph, who became sorrowful and wept, fell at Pilate’s feet and said, “My
lord, may no jealousy come over you because of a corpse, for it is necessary
that every evil of a person be destroyed with him at death. And I know your
magnanimity, that you went to considerable lengths so that Jesus not be
crucified, that you spoke to Jews on his behalf, admonishing and raging,
and how, in the end, you washed your hands and in no way consented with
those who wanted to kill him. For all these reasons I beg you not to recoil
from my request.”
Then, when Pilate saw Joseph lying before him, supplicating and
weeping, he raised him up and said, “Away with you! I am granting you
this corpse: take him and do whatever you wish.” (11:3.1c and 11:3.1.e)
The participle ἱκετεύοντα, translated here as “supplicating,” may reflect the use
of ἱκέτης, “suppliant,” of Priam in Il. 24.570.
Hector’s father first greeted the Achaean hero by clasping his knees in
supplication; Joseph fell at Pilate’s feet.
Il. 24.510
Pass. Res. Aen. 11:3.1e
[Priam] wept, and collapsed at the feet Joseph, who became sorrowful and
[ποδῶν] of Achilles.
wept, fell at Pilate’s feet [ποσί] and said,
...
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Iliad 22-24
18
Il. 24.560-561
[Achilles:] “I myself have in mind / to
release Hector to you.”
Pass. Res. Aen. 11:3.1e
“Away with you! I am granting you this
corpse: take him and do whatever you
wish.”
Il. 24.515-517 (cf. 24.671)
Pass. Res. Aen. 11:3.1e
[Achilles] immediately rose from his
Then, when Pilate saw Joseph lying
seat and raised the old man by the
before him, supplicating and weeping,
hand, / taking pity on his gray head
he raised him up and said, “Away with
and gray beard; / he spoke . . .
you.”
Il. 24.478-479
Pass. Res. Aen. 11:3.2a
[Priam] took Achilles’ knees in his
Joseph then thanked Pilate, kissed his
hands and kissed his fearsome, / man- hands and garments [καταφιλήσας
killing hands [κύσε χεῖρας], hands
αὐτοῦ τὰς χεῖρας καὶ τὰ ἱμάτια], and
that killed his many sons.
left with joy in his heart.
Joseph leaves and tells Nicodemus what had happened; similarly in the Iliad,
Priam’s traveling companion, Idaeus, reenters the story after Achilles agreed to
release the body (24.577; cf. Pass. Res. Aen. 11:3.2a).
The author makes the point that many women participated in the funeral:
“the Theotokos, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, together with Joseph and the rest
of the women” (11:3.2a). One then finds three laments: one by the Theotokos, one
by the Magdalene, and one by Joseph. At the end of the epic one finds three
laments: one by Andromache, one by Hecuba, and one by Helen.
Andromache predicted that Troy would fall now that the one who had
protected it was dead. Those who survive the sack, among whom she includes
herself, “soon will be riding off in hollow ships” to foreign lands (Il. 24.731).
Astonishingly, Mary Magdalene also anticipates a voyage: “Who will make these
things heard for the entire world? I will go to Rome alone, to Caesar, and I will
make it clear to him the evil that Pilate performed at the persuasion of the lawviolating Jews” (Pass. Res. Aen. 11:3.2c).
The Passion section of pseudo-Aeneas’s work thus expands on the Gospel
accounts and Gos. Nic. A by directly imitating Il. 22 and 24. The laments of
Hecuba and Andromache informed those of the Theotokos and Mary
Magdalene, and Priam’s appeal to Achilles informed Joseph’s appeal to Pilate.
There can be little doubt that the author recognized similarities between the
deaths and burials of Hector and Jesus and independently elaborated the biblical
accounts by imitating their Homeric antecedents (criterion 7).
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Iliad 22-24
19
A few other scholars have seen the statement as a gloat, including Tae Hun
Kim, “The Anarthrous υἱὸς θεοῦ in Mark 15,39 and the Roman Imperial Cult,”
Bib 79 (1998): 221-41, Whitney T. Shiner, “The Ambiguous Pronouncement of the
Centurion and the Shrouding of Meaning in Mark,” JSNT 78 (2000): 3-22, and
especially Earl S. Johnson, “Mark 15,9 and the So-Called Confession of the
Roman Centurion,” Bib 81 (2000): 406-13. “The text of Mark 15,39 and the so
called ‘confession’ of the Roman centurion has been given more weight than
either can bear. . . . The sense that somehow Mark 15,39 must be interpreted as a
full confession may spring from our own deep belief that Jesus is the Son” (41213).
1
Even though Mark seems to have modeled his centurion after Homer’s Achilles,
he also may have had in mind the believing centurion in the Logoi of Jesus (4:4551). I would suggest that Mark saved the centurion for the crucifixion where,
even if in a gloat, he makes a correct theological observation.
2
Od. 7.1-145, Argon. 4.41-45, Artapanus, frg. 3 (apud Eusebius Praep. ev. 9.27.2325), Aen. 4.554-594, Theb. 12.328-344, Dion. 35.234-241, and Ps. Callisthenes Alex.
2.13-15. On various imitations of this scene in the Odyssey, see especially Knut
Usener, Verhältnis der Odyssee zur Ilias (Script-Oralia, A, 5; Tübingen: Narr,
1990), 165-79. A particularly clever imitation appears in the Alexander Romance
(2.13-15; see the discussion in Imitate Homer? 131-36).
3
4
Quintilian Inst. 3.8.53.
5
Comm. Matt. on 27:54.
6
Cf. Il. 24.501-502.