Mythology
Delahoyde & Hughes

HOMER'S ILIAD:

BOOK XXIII:

Questions for Book XXIII: Funeral Games for Patroclus

What's wrong with Achilles and how do we know?

What is the mythological logic of having games in honor of a warrior's death?

How is the tie between Odysseus and Ajax appropriate? (You need to know about later events, after the Iliad.)Achilles continues dragging Hector's corpse around Troy as his self-imposed daily chore. He ascetically continues fasting and refusing to bathe, so emotionally he's still stagnating, despite the ghost of Patroclus appearing to him. The image of circling Troy endlessly, dragging the dead Hector behind, symbolizes this state of getting nowhere. The corpse is even preserved by the gods from decay -- so the picture of stasis is complete.

The Greeks, in honor of Patroclus, conduct a day of funeral games, and the gods meddle in these too: chariot races, boxing, wrestling, foot-racing, fencing, shot-putting, archery, and javelin-throwing. Athena trips up Ajax in the foot-race, and he falls in dung (and probably says something synonymous). There's even a cheesy public roast over this (23.871ff). And there's an honorary, automatic awarding of the prize for javelins to Agamemnon.

There may be a certain wisdom in this kind of ritualistic competition among the warriors on the same side in the war. If nothing else, it's diversionary without being a completely different enterprise.

The most impressive section in this Book is the funeral pyre for Potroclus. Line 196-211 Achilles throws so much mammal carnage on the fire, including the hacked up pieces of the twelve young Trojans he took cpative during Book XXI, that it will not burn. Achilles prays to the two winds, Zephyr and Boreas, West and North, and the winds rose and "struck the pyre and a huge inhuman blaze went howling up the skies."( 23. 247-48)

The games: Achilles will bascially give away all his wealth as prizes. Why?

The heroic code, based on honor, defines the warrior's behavior; those who follow the code are bound by obligations and forbidden to perform certain acts that are shameful. Human dignity is the test. And even though the heroic code takes the best of men and leaves the worse, so to speak, the authentic Homeric warrior aspires to live up to the ideals of true excellence and claim the respect of the people. In favor of immediate gratification, the use of the bow often undermines the heroic outlook, ultimately and for the most part, making a mockery of authentic heroism. This fact alone can explain why, out of all the mighty warriors present at the funeral games for Patroclus, only two men enter the archery contest--Teucer and Meriones.