Clst 181SK Ancient Greece and the Origins of Western Culture
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector’s Body
Clst 181SK Ancient Greece and the Origins of Western Culture
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector’s Body
New characters:
Hermes, messenger and psychopomp
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Preliminaries
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Patroklos and Hector - Prophecy and Death
Book 16: Patroklos speaks to Hector (lines 846ff.)
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But I will tell you something …
Your own life is not long but death already stands close beside you,
and powerful fate, that you be killed at the hands of Achilles….
So he spoke, and then death covered him, and his
breath-soul fled to the house of Hades,
lamenting its fate, leaving behind manliness and youth.”
Book 22: Hector speaks to Achilles (lines 846ff.)
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… Only think of this:
that I will become the anger of the gods on that day when Paris
and Phoibos Apollo kill you at the Scaean Gates…
So Hector spoke. Then death covered him, and his
breath-soul fled to the house of Hades,
lamenting its fate, leaving behind manliness and youth.”
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Second Self Theme: Achilles, Patroklos, Hector
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Second Self Theme: Patroklos, Hector, Achilles
Patroclus dons Achilles' armor: a "second self" to Achilles? If so, in what sense? What
part of Achilles' self does P. represent? What then does Achilles mourn? (This is not
at all clear to me, but note "gentle Patroclus" who then transforms into a battle hero.)
Achilles' reaction to the death of Patroclus is overblown, extreme. And it leads, if only
eventually, to some sort of coming to terms with himself, who he is, what sort of
values he finally espouses.
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Second Self Theme: Achilles, Patroklos, Hector
Hector then dons, from Patroclus, the old armor of Achilles while Achilles then gets
new armor: thus, when Achilles kills Hector, he is killing someone in his own armor: a
killing of the self, in some metaphorical terms? A killing of his old "self"? But in what
sense?
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Note: Hector is the “hero” other than Patroklos known as gentle.
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Second Self Theme: Achilles, Patroklos, Hector
As we’ve seen in Books 16-22, Achilles becomes rather suddenly de-humanized,
"god-like" in the sense of being far from a human as well as in the sense of being a
warrior beyond all human warriors. In this sense, this section of the poem can be
seen as Achilles' "death" in the sense of his total separation from humanity: his grief
for the death of Patroclus and then his "carthartic" killing of Hector might be seen as
symbols of his coming to grips with who he is. It also raises the larger question:
what should one properly value in a hero?
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Second Self Theme: Achilles, Patroklos, Hector
Perhaps, then, Patroclus is the "self" (or, if you prefer, the contrasting character) who defines
what is gentle and kindly, but who, on donning Achilles' armor, is transformed into the
relentless (and hubristic) warrior: on his death, Achilles realizes the loss clearly: the loss of
something kind and gentle, something deeply human in his life. His reaction is not a realization
of the loss, but a reaction of crazed revenge. With deep irony, the revenge is directed against
Hector, the Trojan most associated with humanity, gentleness, kindness, the one hero who
carries these qualities in the domestic sphere yet remains a great warrior. It is only with the
death of Hector that Achilles can begin to relent. But, unlike a typical revenge story, he (and
we) is not really satisfied with the revenge, and there is need for further realization before
Achilles can begin to put together the link, so clearly objectified in the armor, between
Patroclus and Hector, that link to a humanness inside, distorted into a warrior's ferociousness
by the armor outside. The armor then is the symbol of the warrior who is obsessed with battle,
relentless, inhuman, and these deaths force Achilles to reevaluate this side of himself.
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Book 23: Funeral Games for Patroklos/Patroclus
In this book, Achilles still will not eat. He performs an unusual sacrifice over the funeral
pyre: 4 stallions, 2 dogs, 12 Trojan youths.
But as the games begin, we see Achilles gradually loosening up, and assuming the
civilized role of host, king, gift-giver. (The games also, brilliantly, allow to poet to revisit
each of the main heroes, ending with Agamemnon.) ¶ When the other heroes argue,
Achilles moderates and suggests compromises. ¶ He gives the spear-throwing prize at
once to Agamemnon to obviate any potential embarassment to the King of Kings-- the
last act of these games. ¶ We are far removed from Achilles' old complaint that
Agamemnon always gets the best prize without doing anything to earn it (1.165ff,
9.332ff).
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Reconciliation: what it means to be human
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Reconciliation: what it means to be human
Reconciliation: what is different in book 24?
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The gods show pity and relent (or at least Zeus): it seems that they have seen enough, that the world
has come too close to spiraling out of control, that all has finally become too inhuman for this very
anthopomorphic set of deities
Achilles shows pity and relents: true, he is commanded by Zeus, but this is a classic instance of
"overdeterminism" where the gods command but also the human does this by his own free will
Priam is now the one "with a heart of iron"
Eating is intimately bound up with resolution and reconciliation (cf. Odyssey)
Supplication, and acceptance of the ransom (cf. book 1, book 9): note how unusual Priam's opening:
"Remember your father!" - cf. Chryses book 1, Lycaon book 21 (also Phoenix in book 9)
Achilles for the first time since book 1 shows self-restraint, and for the first time leaves aside his self (or
second-self) absorption: here we find the sympathy for Priam, the control of his anger, the urge to food
and consolation, the agreement to a truce for burial. Achilles "has come at last to the level of humanity,
and humanity at its best; he has forgotten himself and his wrongs in his sympathy for another man." Bernard Knox.
Note how far behind now is the warrior society based on timê, kleos, and the like. We feel that Achilles,
doomed soon to die, will now go into battle with much the same attitude as Hector at the end of book 6:
because it is his duty. The war will continue, but gifts such as the ransom of Priam are no longer
important in themselves: rather they are now properly understood as part of the social fabric, rather
insignificant in themselves but emblems of what is very significant: the binding of men through shared
suffering, pity, sorrow: that pity, or better, sympathy that is the core of humane social interactions.
Homer’s Iliad
Book 24
!
The Ransom of Hector
Reconciliation: what it means to be human
Not a "happy ending" but also not entirely bleak or pessimistic, even though the war will go on and Troy
will fall
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The conclusion of the poem is overshadowed by the coming death of Achilles and the fall of Troy -- note
the brutal foreshadowing of the death of Astyanax, 24.714f. But the Iliad is great not least because it can
speak authentically for pity or kindness or civilization without showing them victorious in life. Its humanity
does not float on shallow optimism; it is firmly and deeply rooted in an awareness of human reality, frailty,
and suffering.
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The end is both sad, then, and curiously uplifting. The return to war is inevitable, but the human values of
civilized man have returned to the world. The Trojans perform the rites of burial for Hector so important for
consolation in times of grief, so essential for the sense of humanized, civilized life. Their last act is a
"splendid funeral feast", the sharing of food among men that is a quintessential symbol of civilization (as
we shall see!). When Hector is pronounced buried, we are sad, of course, but also convinced that the
normal human values are back in place, that allow pity and consolation and reconciliation, even between
enemies. And so the poem ends: Thus did the Trojans go about the burial of Hector, breaker of horses.