I get sucked into the world of glory, honor and fate when I read Homer The Iliad. The warriors, the gods, the battles, all that is bigger than life, but is very human. Fundamentally, The Iliad is not a mere war story. It is a narrative of the idea of heroism, of grappling with death, and of coming to terms with the ugliness of life with our inner wants and needs.
It is against these ideals and the human experience that these conflicts become so evident as the characters struggle with their decisions, their dignity, and their destiny. We shall examine the way Homer manages to create this fine line between the heroic code and mortality.
The Heroic Code: Glory at Any Cost
I can not help but imagine that when I consider the warriors presented in The Iliad, they are playing a game where the stakes are unrealistically high: they are putting their lives on the line to pursue kleos, glory that cannot be lost even in death. Everything they do is characterized by the element of honor. As a reader, I am sucked into the same battle Achilles struggles with when he is disgraced by Agamemnon. The powerful warrior takes his honor as the central value and even the lives of his comrades or his own destiny.
It is not hard to notice how the anger of Achilles to Agamemnon is not merely a personal feud. To the world in which he lives, slighted means the loss of all that you have worked hard to achieve; respect of your colleagues, your image and above all, your legacy. When Achilles says:
"My mother Thetis tells me that two fates are mine: either I will stay here and fight and be killed, and my glory will be eternal, or I will return home and live a long life, but my glory will fade."
I cannot but experience the burden of his decision. In his eyes, the opportunity of eternal glory is much better than the opportunity to live a peaceful life. This decision summarizes the dilemma of the hero: to live eternally in fiction or to die peacefully in the shadow.
Mortal Struggles: Vulnerable Warriors in an Immortal World
However, this is the point at which the conflict actually sinks on me: these heroes are all too consumed with glory, but also all too conscious of their vulnerability. They can combat as divines, but they are like mortals in blood. The warriors are left in the human condition as much as the gods are playing around with their fate. They are afraid, suspicious and above all, aware of the impending death.
Hector, on the other hand, is not a hero who is characterized by vanity. He battles on behalf of his people, city and family. His motives touch me personally in most aspects. I can imagine how much I would do to protect my loved ones, which makes me know how he did not want to die. Prior to his duel with Achilles he tells him:
"I know you are a man of strength, and that your hand is strong. But may the gods give me the victory, and may my people see me return from battle!"
The words of Hector are uncivilized and familiar. His cowardice is not the reason why he fears to die, but the burden he bears. His fight is not only physical but also internal. That is when I realize how heavy it can be to be a leader as I know that every choice you make, every battle you engage in, might be your final one. The fact that you might never get back to your family is one of the most human fears that can ever happen.
Honor Versus Humanity: Achilles’ Uncontrolled Rage
As I read on the epic, I empathize with the anger of Achilles. His rage is not merely a heroic quality--it is a part of his own struggle between his quest of glory and his humanity. His motive in returning to war is not the feeling of the need to defend the Greek cause; it is the crushing defeat of his best friend, Patroclus. It is at this point that the humanity of Achilles comes into the limelight.
He passes through the heroic ideals of honor and vengeance in the silence of his grieving. The death of Patroclus by Hector destroys the world of Achilles. The crudity of his feeling is visible:
“I will never cease until I have slain Hector and dragged his body behind my chariot, a sacrifice to the soul of my friend.”
This is the point of entry; this is the final conflict between human emotion and the code of the warrior. In this case, the anger of Achilles transcends the glory of war. His revenge is too personal, rather animalistic, but also very tragic. It is an encouragement that even the most significant heroes cannot be free of sorrow, defeat or anger. They, also, are stinging of mortality.
The Gods: Manipulators of Fate
The gods in the world of The Iliad are omnipresent and their interventions influence lives of mortals in random manners. They are strong, arbitrary, and even vicious. I cannot but think that the gods are frequently indulging themselves in some sort of a game with the men beneath them--playing about with the destinies of men-at-arms to amuse themselves, or to fulfill their own interests.
One might be tempted to believe that the gods are in some way more stable than the heroes. However, as I see Achilles being frustrated by their manipulation I understand that gods are no better or more predictable than the people they rule over. In his sorrow, Achilles writes the following:
“You gods, why do you give men such bitter pain? You give them what they desire, but you will not let them be free of it.”
In my case, this quote creates a sense of injustice. The deities are immortal, but they interfere in the affairs of mortals without any penalty. Being a mortal, Achilles can only make battles in order to defend his honor and his life, whereas the gods have an opportunity to create the world as they want. In such a manner, the gods are human in their imperfections, they are filled with emotions, personal vengeance and lust like the mortals. However, they never need to experience the end result which is death like human beings.
Conclusion: The Ever-Present Dance of Glory and Mortality
The Iliad is a book that I am completing and I am impressed by the fact that the epic is a mirror of the unceasing tug and pull between heroism and mortality. The code of heroes demands glory by all means, but every hero is aware that they will be dying sometime as well. This tension is experienced by Achilles, Hector, and all the other warriors they are fighting not only against one another but also against the eventuality of a certain death awaiting them. Their internal and external struggles are the same as those which we all struggle against in the journey of life.
After all, The Iliad is not entirely about war. It is concerning what it is to be a human in a world dominated by forces that we cannot control. The heroic code with all its glory and honor is the guiding force, yet it does not help the followers to escape the pain of loss, grief, or death. And as the expedition of Achilles in my mind Flashes back:
"The Greeks will forget me, and so will the Trojans, when I am dead."
Maybe it is the most human thing of all. Even the most glorious heroes are forgotten and are consumed by the time and death. And when they die, they leave a heritage of glory which only reverberates a little, and then disappears into the ashes. The Iliad informs us that when the glory and mortality stand, the most important thing is how we lead our lives- how we meet our challenges and how we balance our humanness and our heroism ideals.