Mythology

Delahoyde & Hughes

 

HOMER'S ILIAD:

BOOK XIX: The Champion Arms For Battle

Questions for Book XIX:

What is the significance of food in this book of the epic?

This book contains the assembly where Agamemnon and Achilles reconcile their differences. Consider how much each man "sees" his responsibility in the annihilation that has resulted from their quarrel. Compare their attitudes to the consciousness of Helen about her sense of responsibility for the war.

Achilles says that it would have been better if the woman Briseis would have been killed "with one quick shaft."

How does Agamemnon justify his earlier alienation of Achilles in front of the Greeks when Achilles is about to return to the war?

When Achilles, ready for battle, calls upon his horses to do better this time and bring back their charioteer (him) when the fighting is over -- not to leave him lying there as they did with Patroclus -- what is Xanthos' (a.k.a. Roan Beauty's) response (besides "okay")?

The notion seems to bug Achilles, and no wonder: he has to come to grips with this side of himself. So notice the Hamlet-like obsession with the nauseating physicality of death (19.30ff).

Achilles repeats a moment we've seen a couple times before in which he gets himself riled up and consciously tries to beat down his emotion (19.72ff). Again, that's not the way it works; this is no solution to rage-aholism.

Agamemnon has yet another story about the events of Book 1, with new dynamics of blame (19.100ff, 161f).

Agamemnon will again offer Achilles all the gifts once offerfed in book IX. Achilles is not even interested: produce the gifts if you like, as you see fit, / or keep them back, it's up to you (19. 177-79) What really matters to Achilles at this point in the story?

Odysseus makes a case that an army,"travels on its stomach." Achilles is too consumed with wrath. It's still wrath; it's just to be directed elsewhere now. So he adds fasting to his list of extreme behaviors (19.249f). Achilles attitude toward food is extremely significant: Bk 19, 254-55. In Homer, what kind of bonds are formed or confirmed through feasting? What does this scene tell us about Achilles at this point in the poem?

Briseis, presumably a female ideal here, goes into the grief melodrama when she sees Patroclus dead (19.333f). Achilles notes the absurdity of fighting over "that blood-chilling horror, Helen" (19.387). Finally the arming the horses includes Achilles' address to them and Xanthos' response (19.483f). Achilles is a bit snippy, but he's now facing stage one of his final fate -- he's bound not to live long after Hector's death.

So even horses blame Fate! This throws some light on how we are to take Agamemnon's cheesy excuses. Homer shows the irresponsibility of blaming Fate and mocks this inclination, since it resides even in horses.

OR

How does Achilles's dialogue with the immortal horses underline the tragic pattern of the Iliad?