Homer and The Iliad - Sri Aurobindo and Ilion - Homer and the Iliad

Homer

Homer and the Iliad
A Brief Note

I

Homer is the name attached by the Greeks of ancient times themselves to the two great epic poems, Iliad and Odyssey. Unfortunately, not much is known of him, but there is no doubt that there was indeed an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping those two great poems. The text of these two poems exists, and their literary merit is so great that Homer is considered one of the very greatest of the world's literary artists.

       According to a popular idea which was prevalent through out antiquity, Homer must have lived not much later than the Trojan War (1194-1184 BC) about which he sang. There is a so called Homeric Hymn to Delia Apollo, which is claimed to be the work of "a blind man who dwells in Chios," a reference to a tradition about Homer himself. Herodotus, the great Greek historian, assigns Homer to the 9th century BC. There is a trivial legend that Homer's death was caused by chagrin at not being able to solve some boy's riddle about catching lice! Factual information about the poet is lacking. It is believed that his home was in Ionia in Asia.  

       Among the front ranking poets of the world we could include Valmiki, Vyasa, Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Virgil, Kalidas, Shakespeare, Dante, Milton and Goethe. From the point of view of essential force and beauty, Homer and Shakespeare stand above all the rest, although Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharta is greater in his range than Homer in the

Iliad. Similarly, Valmiki has a greater range than Homer in Odyssey. Both Vyasa and Valmiki, in their strength and in their achievement in regard to the largeness of the field are greater than the whole dramatic world of Shakespeare. According to Sri Aurobindo, both the Mahabharta and the Ramayana are "built on an almost cosmic vastness of plan and take all human life (the Mahabharta) all human thought as well in their scope  and touch too on things which the Greek and Elizabethan poets could not even glimpse. But as poets — as masters of rhythm and language and the expression of poetic beauty — Vyasa and Valmiki though not inferior are not greater than either the English or the Greek poet."¹

        Homer has given the presentation of life always at a high intensity of impulse and action and those who know Greek feel that he casts it in terms of beauty and in divine proportions. He is rightly compared with Phidias, whose field of creativity was sculpture; for Homer deals with human life as Phidias dealt with the human form when he wished to create a god in marble. In both the Iliad and Odyssey, one feels uplifted upon the earth that belongs to a higher plane of a greater dynamic of life, and so long as we remain there, we have a greater vision in a more lustrous air and we feel ourselves raised to a semi-divine stature.

        Homer may be regarded as one of the most influential poets in world history, since the Iliad and Odyssey provided the basis of Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and they formed the backbone of humanistic education down to the time of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. We should also note that Virgil's Aeneid was loosely moulded after the pattern of the Iliad and Odyssey, and thus the Aeneid's influence on Roman and subsequent history can be traced to Homer's epics. These two epics had a period of revival under Byzantine culture from the late 8th century AD onward. Subsequently, they passed into Italy with the

1 Sri Aurobindo: The future Poetry, Vol. 9 of the Centenary edition; p 523

Greek scholars who fled westward from the Ottomans, and thus the Homeric epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy. Since then these two epics have been translated into various European languages and have become the most important poems of the classic European tradition, being valued even above the works of Virgil and Dante.

       Homer has come to be seen as a staple of Greek education, the repository of Greek myth, the source of a thousand dramas, the foundation of moral training and even the scripture of orthodox theology. Herodotus has said, probably with some exaggeration, that it was Homer and Hesoid who gave definite and human form to the Olympic Gods, and order to the hierarchy of heaven.

II

       The story of the Iliad (consisting of over 16,000 verses) is the story of the Siege of Troy, one of the few greatest events of human history, considering how and why Hellas came to be born from that great siege and all that followed it and how the amazing Greek civilization arose. The wonder that was Greece has been expressed by Bertrand Russell in these words: "in all history, nothing is so surprising or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of the civilization in Greece. Much of what makes civilization had already existed for thousands of years in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, and had spread thence to neighboring countries. But certain elements had been lacking until the Greeks supplied them. What they achieved in art and literature is familiar to everybody, but what they did in the purely intellectual realm is even more exceptional... What occurred was so astonishing that, until very recent times, men were content to gape and talk mystically about the Greek genius:"¹

       The only other civilization of ancient times, which was equally amazing and difficult to account for, was the Vedic

1 Bertand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, pp 25

civilization, which was more ancient than the Greek and had, in the field of mysticism, much greater and more lasting consequences. And, if we consider the role the Orphic mysticism played in the development of the Greek civilization, it is not altogether impossible to conceive in a large canvas of world view of history a subtle linkage between the Vedic civilization and the Greek civilization. For as Burnett has pointed out, there is a striking similarity between Orphic beliefs and those prevalent in India at about the same time.

       Both the Vedic civilization and the Greek civilization belong to the infrarational age of humanity. The surprise is that even when the infrarational reigned over the earth, an extraordinary Age of Intuition flourished through the Veda and Upanishad in India and the Age of Reason flourished and culminated in Greece, particularly in Periclean Athens. How and why such amazing things should happen can perhaps be explained only if we undertake a study from the point of view of the psychological development of the human race, a study that has been initiated by Sri Aurobindo in his illuminative work, The Human Cycle.

Ill

       The story of Iliad, which is centered on the siege of Troy, had its beginning, according to the Greek mythology, at a feast of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis.

       Peleus was the king of Phithia and Thetis was the goddess of the sea. All the gods came to the wedding to present their gifts and take part in the banquet, but Eris, goddess of discord, had been left out. Eris, therefore, waited for the moment when she tossed a golden apple in from of three of the goddesses: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. The apple bore an inscription: "To the most beautiful". When the quarrel broke out amongst three goddesses, each claiming the apple, the task was given to Paris, the Trojan Prince, to judge which of these goddesses ought to receive the golden apple.

Helen on the remparts of Troy by Gustave Moreau

Hera promised to give Paris rule over Asia and Europe; Athena promised heroism and victory; and Aphrodite promised love, in the person of the lovely Helen.

       Although Paris had never seen Helen, he had heard of her reputation, and his desire for love was so strong that he offered the apple to the beautiful Aphrodite. Thereafter, Hera and Athena showed their opposition to Paris, while Aphrodite offered her advice to Paris how best to conquer Helen.

       In the meantime, Achilles was born to Thetis, who wanted to make her son immortal; she dipped the child in the waters of the sacred river of Styx, but since she held him by the heel, he remained vulnerable at that point. Later on, Peleus took his son Achilles to Chiron, the Centaur who taught him the arts of war and other arts like music and painting. Achilles was destined to be the greatest of the heroes of the Trojan War.

IV

        The city of Troy stood on Mt. Ida. This mountain forms part of Phrygia.

        On a hill three miles from the sea, Schliemann and Dorpfeld, in their excavations found 9 cities, superimposed each upon its predecessor, as if Troy1 had nine lives. According to Schliemann, the ruins of the second city belong to Homer's Troy; current opinion identifies the sixth city with Homer's.

1 Troy also known as Troas, Ilios, Ilion, Ilium.

Troy and we are assured that that city had perished by fire, shortly after 1200 BC. Greek historians traditionally assigned
the Siege of Troy to 1194-1184 BC.

       Geographically, Troy had a strategic position near the entrance to Hellespont and the rich lands about the Black Sea. The plain was moderately fertile, and precious metals lay in the soil to the east. The city was admirably placed to levy tolls upon vessels wishing to pass through the Hellespont, while it was too far inland to be conveniently assailed from the sea. The city's trade grew rapidly. As Will Durant points out: "From the lower Aegean came copper, olive oil, wine, and pottery; from the Danube and Thrace came pottery, amber, horses and swords; from distant China came so great a rarity as jade. In return Troy brought from the interior, and exported, timber, silver, gold, and wild asses. Sealed proudly behind their walls, the 'horse-taming Trojans' dominated the Troad, and taxed its trade on land and sea."1

        Ancient historians believed that the main cause of the Troyan War was the quest of the Greeks for new life, and since Troy was rich and prosperous, Troy became the target of the Greeks. While this may be true, the Iliad and other legends indicate that the immediate cause was related to Paris and Helen. Paris was one of the princes of Troy, which was at that time ruled by king Priam. It is said that Priam had fifty sons and countless daughters. The first born son was Hector, followed by Paris, Deiphobus, Helen, Polydorus, Troilus and others; the best known of his daughters were Creousa, Paodice, Polyxene and Cassandra, who was gifted with the power of divination..

        Under the inspiration of Aphrodite, Paris visited Sparta, which was ruled by Menelaus. Menelaus extended warm welcome to Paris to whom he introduced his beautiful wife Helen. As soon as Paris set eyes on Helen, her beauty dazzled him. It so happened that on the 10th day after Paris' arrival, Menelaus was forced to leave for Crete. During the absence of

1 Will Durant: The Story of Civilization, Vol. 2; p.36.

Menelaus, Paris made his advances to Helen, who accepted the treasures which Paris offered her. Both Paris and Helen found in each other a perfect agreement of beauty and joined and escaped by night and fled to Troy, where their wedding was celebrated. As soon as Menelaus heard of this in Crete, he sailed away from Crete and went straight to his brother Agamemnon who was the ruler of Mycenae. The two brothers decided to raise all the kings and heroes of Greece in a campaign. It was felt that the question was that of honour and that the ravisher of Helen must be punished. It was not easy to rouse the kings and heroes of the various domains of Greece, and it took ten whole years to gather the Greek army.

        Among those who joined were Odysseus, king of Ithaca, Achilles of Phthia, Nestor, king of Pylos; Diomedes, the hero of Aetolia, Ajax, the Telamonian, Ajax the Lorcian, Idas, king of Crete and Idomeneus.

       When the fleet was ready for the departure in the harbour of Aulis, the winds stopped blowing, and the ships could not move forward. It was suggested to Agamemnon to sacrifice his elder daughter, beautiful Iphigenia, but Agamemnon refused.The troops, however, revolted, and so Odysseus prepared a plan, according to which a message was sent to the Palace at Mycenae. The message was that Iphigenia should go over to Aulis with her mother, Clytemnestra (who was the sister of Helen), where Iphigenia could be married to Achilles. Tempted by this message, the mother and the daughter reached Aulis where everything was got ready for the sacrifice of Iphigenia. The atmosphere was charged with greatest tension. However, as the Priest raised the knife, the Goddess Artemis bore Iphigenia to Tauris where she became a Priestess in the temple of Artemis. A doe was sacrificed instead to the delight of the troops. Wind immediately filled the sails of the ships, and the Greek fleet sailed out of Aulis on its way to Troy. The most powerful tribe that led the Greek army was that of Achaeans. Because of their leadership, all the Greeks engaged in the Siege of Troy came to be called Achaeans. The Siege of Troy proved

to be unyielding, and continued for nine years during which Achilles played a leading role. Achilles captured quite a number of the cities around Troy, and according to the custom  of those times, he enslaved many beautiful women, whom he presented to his commander-in-chief, Agamemnon. Among the women prisoners was Breseis, who had been captured during a raid on the strong cities of Thebes, together with another woman called Chryseida. Since Breseis and Achilles felt deep mutual affection he offered Chryseida to Agamemnon.

       The father of Chryseida was a priest of Apollo, who demanded the return of Chryseida; but Agamemnon refused the demand and drove away the priest with harsh words — thus incurring the wrath of Apollo. As a result, the Achaean camp came to be gripped by a plague. In order to prevent this great disaster, Achilles asked Agamemnon to send Chryseida back to her father. In the end, Agamemnon was forced to let Chryseida go; however, he snatched Breseis from Achilles. Achilles was angered by this unjust act, and he spoke to Agamemnon

Achilles and Hector in battle
(Attic vase 490 BC)

to protest, and then he withdrew to his tent where he sat refusing to take any part in the fighting.

       In the first Book of the Iliad, we are told that the Greeks had already besieged Troy for nine years in vain. Thereafter we have the story connected with the sacrifice of Iphigenia, followed by the, story connected with Breseis. The first book ends with Achilles taking the vow that neither he nor his soldiers would stir a hand to help the Greeks. The most important part of the story is told in Book 15 where Homer rises to a height of fervid narrative as the Greeks fought desperately in a retreat that must mean death. In Book 16, Patroclus, one of the most favoured friends of Achilles, wins his permission to lead Achilles' troops against Troy; Hector kills him, and in Book 17, Hector fights Ajax fiercely over the body of the slain Patroclus.In Book 18, Achilles, on hearing of the death of his beloved friend, Patroclus, resolves to fight, and in Book 19, he is reconciled with Agamemnon. Agamemnon apologized for his behavior, and returned Breseis to him swearing that he had never laid a finger on her. In Books 20 and 21, we find Achilles slaughtering a host of Trojans, as a result of which Trojans fly from 'Achilles, except Hector. The father and mother of Hector, the king Priam and queen Hecuba, advise Hector to stay behind the walls, but he refuses. Then suddenly, as Achilles advances upon him, Hector begins to run away. Achilles pursues him three times around the walls of Troy; Hector makes a stand, and is killed. But Achilles, in his anger ties the corpse behind his chariot, and in Book 24, Achilles drags it three times around the pyre. He then returns to his camp for the funeral of Patroclus. Then comes the moment of serenity and real greatness on the pan of Priam and on the part of Achilles. Priam comes in a state of sorrow to beg for the remains of his son, Hector. Achilles politely and respectfully, forgetting all his enmity, returns the body of Hector for burial, issuing orders that it was to be treated in a manner befitting a brave warrior.

       Here the great poem suddenly ends, and the rest of the story is to be collected from the subsequent literature.

V

              Indeed, the war of Troy continued. The terrible Achilles struck fear into the Trojans. In one incident, he fought a duel with Penthesilea, the famous queen of the Amazons, whom he wounded mortally. He was overcome with sadness at the sight of the death drawing its veil across her beautiful face. We also hear of the story of Achilles passing a moment with the daughter of Priam, Polyxene, whom he loved deeply and whom he warned to marry.

       The courage and heroism of Achilles were unparalleled throughout the war. But death was near him also. Achilles, at the head of his troops, had driven the Trojans back until they were at the walls of the city. At that moment, Paris, favoured by Apollo, aimed his fatal arrow at the hero's only weak point: his heel. Achilles fell, and a murderous battle ensued over his body. In the end, Odysseus and Ajax managed to carry it back to the camp. His body was cremated and a magnificent tomb was built.

       After the death of Achilles, there was such a great vacuum that the Greeks were gripped by despair. However, in the course of the war, Paris was killed by Philoctetes, who avenged the death of Achilles. At the same time, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, thought of a plan, and all the other leaders agreed with it and began to carry it out. A huge wooden horse was built with a hollow stomach. When it was finished, Odysseus and eight other warriors entered the stomach of the horse through a hidden trap door. Thereafter, the wooden horse was left outside the Greek camp in a place where it could be seen from the Trojan walls. At the same time, the Greek forces burnt their own tents and sailed off in their ships. Indeed, they did not go far, but they managed to hide near the Island of Tenedus, where the Trojans could not see them.

      The Trojans watched the retreat of the Greeks, and they were truly astonished. When they approached the side of the

camp of the Greeks, they saw the wooden horse on which an inscription was found, which declared that the horse was dedicated by the Greeks to Athena. At that point, Cassandra, one of the Princesses of Priam, who had the power of divination, prophesied that the horse would bring evil on the Trojans. But not one was prepared to listen to her. The Trojans felt that Athena would punish them if they failed to take the gift. So they towed it into the city. At night when there was darkness and when the Trojans were asleep, Odysseus and the others came out of the wooden horse and opened the city gates. At the same time, the Greek ships sailed back and launched an

The Trojan Horse (Relief on amphora - 670 BC)

attack with great force. They rushed in through the open gates, and in the midst of the general massacre and destruction, Odysseus killed Priam at the altar of Zeus. The city was burned and looted. Menelaus ransacked the royal apartments of Troy in search of his wife. In the meantime, when Paris was killed, Helen had married a brother of Paris, Demophobus. Menelaus killed him on the same night and rushed into the room of Helen; Helen was expecting death from Menelaus, and when he entered her room she bared her breast to accept the blow from him. But Menelaus' sword fell to the floor, and husband and wife reunited with a kiss.

VI

       Troy had fallen as a result of the planning of Odysseus and the surviving heroes of the war set out on the journey home.
Many of them were ship-wrecked, and some of them were stranded on foreign shores and founded Greek colonies in Asia, the Aegean and in Italy. Menelaus returned to Sparta along with Helen as his queen. When Agamemnon reached Mycenae he clasped his land and kissed it. But during his long absence, his wife, Clytaemnestra, had taken his cousin Aegisthus for king; and when Agamemnon entered the Palace, they killed him. 

      The return of Odysseus to Ithaca was also very sad. Homer tells the entire story of the return of Odysseus to Ithaca in another long epic poem, Odyssey. Odysseus took ten years to return from Troy to Ithaca. He had set off with an entire fleet, and when he returned to Ithaca, he was alone, exhausted but not defeated by a number of unfortunate trials. His yearning for Ithaca had kept him alive during his wanderings. Sometimes Odysseus found himself in inhospitable lands with barbarous people and strange creatures. At other times he was well received in unknown places and was offered gifts. The wandering took Odysseus to the Lotus-eaters, to the country of

Cyclope, to the Island of Aeolus, to the island of Circe, to the Sirens island, and thereafter passed through the channel between Scylla and Charybdis. The next stop was the Island of Calypso and then, to the island of the Phaeacians. At last, he reached Ithaca. No one recognized him, except his favourite dog, Argus. Odysseus found that his queen Penelope was surrounded by a number of suitors. As Penelope wanted to hear the news about Odysseus, and although she could not recognize him, she wanted to talk to him. Odysseus did not reveal himself to her, but he raised her hopes that Odysseus would be coming back soon. Penelope could not believe him, and she declared that she would marry one of the suitors who would win in a competition against each other. The archery contest required that they had to bend the bow of Odysseus, which Penelope had kept safe. Then they had to shoot the arrow through the holes in a number of axes set in a line. All the suitors failed; in the end, Odysseus asked if he could try. With amazement, everyone saw him bend the bow easily and hit the target effortlessly with his first shot. As pre-planned, Odysseus's devoted servants locked all the palace doors and Odysseus and his son Telemachus picked up the weapons which they had left earlier in an upper room; the slaughter of the suitors followed. When Penelope heard of this in her apartments, she hardly dared believe that her husband had come home. In the end, he convinced her of his identity by revealing secrets that only the two of them knew and by describing her bridal chamber. Thus it could be said in the end that the one who had brought about the victory over Troy had a well deserved return and was united with his queen and his son.

       It may be mentioned that earlier, Telemachus, who was anxious to find out what had happened to his father had embarked upon the sea in search of his father. He had visited Nestor at Pylus and Menelaus at Sparta; neither of them was able to tell him where to find his father. At that point, Homer has painted an attractive picture of Helen subtle and subdued, but still divinely beautiful. She had long since been forgiven,  

and she had made a remark that when Troy fell she had grown tired of the city anyway. Will Durant has appended the following footnote on Helen: "After her death, said Greek tradition, she was worshipped as a goddess. It was a common belief in Greece that those who spoke ill of her were punished by the gods; even Homer's blindness, it was hinted, came upon him because he had lent his song to the calumnious notion that Helen had eloped to Troy, instead of being snatched off to Egypt against her will. "¹

        We may also mention that the greatest tragedy in Greek legend was pursuing its course in the land of Agamemnon.Orestes, son of Agamemnon, grown to manhood and aroused by his bitter sister Electra, avenged their father by murdering their mother, Clytaemnestra and her paramour, Aegisthus.Later on, Orestes ascended the throne and still later added Sparta to his kingdom. But from his ascension started the decline. By the end of the age that had opened with the Siege of Troy, the Achaean power was spent; the dynasty of Pelops ² was exhausted, and the people waited patiently for a saner
dynasty.

       About the year 1104 BC, Dorians invaded Greece. Hence, there came about the contact of five cultures — Cretan, Mycenaean, Achaean, Dorian, oriental — and this brought new youth to a civilization that would have died. The mixture of races contributed to produce the variety, flexibility, and subtley of Greek thought and life. Hellas was created and the Greek culture came to shine as a brilliant flame amid a dark sea of barbarism.

* * *

1. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 2, p. 60

2. Actually Tantalos was the founder of the Achaean dynasty; Pelops was his son, who had two sons, Atreus and Thysetes. Thysetes and his sons were killed by Atreus. Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus. Orestes was the son of Agamemnon, and with his decline and death, the dynasty of Pelops was exhausted. The new dynasty that followed was that of the Dorians.