Mythology

Delahoyde & Hughes

 

HOMER'S ILIAD:

BOOK XX: Olympian Gods in Arms

Questions for Book XX:

Do these people believe that the gods literally join them on the battlefield?

Zeus fears Achilles' power:( Book 20. 36). What does this suggest about the power relationship between the will of fate and the warrior Achilles?

Armageddon imagery:( Book 20. 77-80)

Achilles' menis: (Book 20. 554-55). We see this kind of imagery over and over in Homer. The extended simile links the warrior class and the carnage of war itself with the domestic agrarian society and thus the tropes of poetry create an ideology, if we can us that language, of WAR. The simile does more than establish a likeness between A and B, it goes on--an extended simile--to describe B in detail, and some of the details are not like A at all. Yet Homer suggests points of comparison below the surface that make comments on the broader aspects of each situation and war in general. Discuss the function of this extended simile in the poem.

Tragedy is when a hero's actions lead to disaster for himself and others. How is Achilles contributing to his own misfortune? We have discussed dramatic irony as well. Is Achilles aware of the consequences of his actions?

Aeneas and Achilles face off on the battlefield; but before they fight the men talk and Achilles asks Aeneas what motivates the Trojan to risk his life. The implications of Achilles' questions are complex, beginning with the assumptions Achilles makes about why anyone would stand against him on the battlefield. Aeneas never answers the questions directly. We get a sense that both men are no longer fighting for the explicit reasons Achilles mentions. It is possible that Aeneas never fought for those reasons. At the moment, Apollo has given him the courage to defy his destiny. What is significant about Aeneas?

Consider the use of fire imagery in this book. Initially, the forest fire is a sweeping and chaotic force the whips up the wind and scorches the earth sending everyone running. The great Achilles blazing across the plains of Troy. What else might the imagery suggest about the function of war in this culture? What are the implications of fire?

The book begins with Zeus calling the gods to council--even the rivers attend and the nymphs. Zeus commands incessant battle and the gods launch into the field of action merging with mortal fighters.The gods take sides and all hell breaks loose, literally, when Poseidon cataclysmically stirs up earthquakes that have even Hades trembling. Achilles comes blazing forth.

Aeneas tells Apollo that the fight is rigged by the gods in Achilles' behalf. Aeneas confronts Achilles anyway and the long passage of his lineage is possibly an insert, included because of his later importance in mythological history. The meeting is somewhat moot anyway, since he is whisked away out of harm's way by Poseidon. Why? Isn't Poseidon fighting on the side of the Greeks?

We get a bloodbath, again literally, as Achilles hacks his way through countless warriors. Appeals from his victims go unheeded; he's on a rampage. In one case, he lops off a guy's head: "and his sword sent head and helmet flying off together / and marrow bubbling up from the clean-cut neckbone" (20.544-545).

Achilles now
like inhuman fire raging on through the mountain gorges
splinter-dry, setting ablaze big stands of timber,
the wind swirling the huge fireball left and right--
chaos of fire--Achilles storming on with brandished spear
like a frenzied god of battle trampling all he killed
and the earth ran black with blood. Thundering on,
on like oxen broad in the brow some field hand yokes
to crush white barley heaped on a well-laid threshing floor
and the grain is husked out fast by the bellowing oxen's hoofs--
so as the great Achilles rampaged on, his sharp-hoofed stallions
trampled shields and corpses, axle under his chariot splashed
with blood, blood on the handrails sweeping round the car,
sprays of blood shooting up from the stallions' hoofs
and chuming, whirling rims--and the son of Peleus
charioteering on to seize his glory, bloody filth
splattering both strong arms, Achilles' invincible arms--

Last lines, Book 20 Iliad