Written by Giovanna Napoleone
"As we get older, we realize that life and death are cyclic, as is the Greeks' fighting, their wars, and their ancestor’s stories. History always repeats itself in different ways, and the question is never if you are going to die - not for any of us nor any character within The Iliad. It is about how, and what you can do in the space beforehand to make sure that you make it count."
I would have never picked up and read through The Iliad if it weren’t for my acceptance to Columbia University this year, in which the summer assignment required us incoming freshmen to read the first six books by the time we attended our first mandatory English class. Lit Hum (Literature Humanities), as students like to call it, is a class where you painstakingly read old Greek poems and epics, desperately trying not to figure out translations on platforms like SparkNotes.
Thankfully, I have always been someone who likes to read, and am glad I never had to venture to third parties to understand the material (although, summaries can never hurt, right?). But even so, it took a lot more than skim reading for me to come to certain conclusions about the book as a whole. In fact, rather than praising the internet, I am more grateful to my Lit Hum professor, Mr. Larry Jackson (shout out to the Dean of Academic Affairs and the Core Curriculum, who does an excellent job at motivating students to engage with the material!!) for making this reading an enriching experience for me, instead of what could have been a boring one.
"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians..."
Ah, yes. The sweet, almost lyrical, opening lines of the book. A poem full of Greek gods and goddesses and heroes and sacrifices and death. A typical Greek story, don't you think? Not really. Its nothing like my childhood favorite, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I tell you. Upon first encounter, the Iliad is challenging. The language used can be repetitive sometimes, and the war battle scenes are always a constant struggle between the ancient great heroes and their weapons, forces of nature and human vulnerability. There were times where I felt that I wasn't sure what I was looking for in the text besides elaborate descriptions of old Greek genealogies that do not exist anymore. The perpetual state of discord amongst human beings hasn't stopped throughout time, and I think this is something we all know. I didn't need the Iliad to understand that mortals are horrible when it comes to being stubborn sometimes, although, Achilles does exactly that rather artfully. Instead, my professor taught me that if you look for the parallels within the literature, if you search for what makes Homer’s art of storytelling so interesting, it all lies in the balance between us realizing our own mortality, including all of the obligations that come along with being human: a much more interesting lesson to learn, considering this piece of work was written centuries ago, when the human experience was still somewhat thought to be un-relatable.
Personally, my favorite character in The Iliad as of right now is Hector, because although he is prideful sometimes, makes some false promises, AND is on the losing side of the war (poor Trojans, really), I think his story comes to a full circle upon the ending of the poem - so hear me out.
He starts off as some grand character, current ruler of the Trojans, Priam's best son, and holds many other titles. He seems to have it all. Yet, there is something in his conscience which propels him to go to war, whether it be pride or honor or the sake of his country (very unlike Achilles' motivation). Yet, throughout the poem, we see him fall down with his army, perhaps paying the consequences of pride. My appreciation for Hector is far greater than Achilles at the moment, as Achilles really doesn't do the right thing for his troops until the end of the poem (granted, he wins the war for the Greeks, but I don't like his attitude and I don't know why they call him "brilliant," quite frankly: Achilles even admits it himself, when saying "it does not become me, unrelentingly to rage on," etc, etc). And to be fair, Hector IS guilty of killing Patroclus, a fan favorite of people nowadays thanks to the book Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, which I have yet to read. But at least Hector sticks to his guts throughout the novel - and by sticking to his guts I mean gutting the Greeks on behalf of his army (see what I did there?). In his perspective, it is his duty to protect his kingdom, and he would go down fighting even if it meant death - which, (spoiler alert) it does.
"The proud heart feels not terror nor turns to run and it is his own courage that kills him."
At the end of the novel, I ultimately felt bad for Hector, as the very end of The Iliad ends with his brutal death, which is prophesied somewhat early on in the poem and doesn’t come as much of a surprise to the reader.
How does Hector die? Well, he confronts Achilles face to face, ironically wearing Achilles' old set of armor that he stole from Patroclus. It was a dramatic scene, and some words were exchanged, but basically, Achilles ends up stabbing Hector in the gap of his armor, ending his life as we knew it. During Achilles and Hectors conversation, however, Hector is seen begging Achilles to take his dead body back to the Trojans so that he can be buried properly. A reasonable request, considering Hector knew that he might be killed imminently. Yet, Achilles refuses to do this small act of kindness, and instead, kills Hector and stabs his dead corpse multiple times - an utter act of disrespect for one of the better characters of the book.
It was sad for me to see that such a strong character who had a family, many allies, and an underdog-ish hope for winning the battle was beaten by the fate of the gods, destined to lose - which is why I think I favor Hector over Achilles character-wise. Hector's death doesn’t even stop the fighting of the entire the war, as foreshadowed by the twelve days Achilles grants Priam in order to honor his son’s death. The fighting will continue after Hector is gone. Hector was, therefore, just living for a brief moment in time - he was incredibly mortal. Through the eulogies given from Andromache, Hecabe, and Helen at the end of the novel (don't get me started on the patriarchal analysis view of things in this review, though), the reader gets a real sense of what it means to get hurt, what it means to die, and what it means to know that everyone in your life is going to die. Its called being human - a concept the ancient Greeks clearly were uneasy about and didn't want to come to terms with, and yet... neither do we, don't we? We may not fantasize about demigods existing amongst us, but in a way, humans like to feel empowered when we are young (aka our own "moment in time"). As we get older, we realize that life and death are cyclic, as is the Greeks' fighting, their wars, and their ancestor’s stories. History always repeats itself in different ways, and the question is never if you are going to die - not for any of us nor any character within The Iliad. It is about how, and what you can do in the space beforehand to make sure that you make it count. That is what being human is all about, which has made my reading of The Iliad that much more significant to my own life, even in the 21st century. Therefore, there is a value in realizing your duties to others, such as your parents, your comrades, peers, and teachers: these obligations and connections are what make you remembered, long after death, through the telling of stories about your life by your loved ones.
Definitely a lesson to be learned there, right?
"Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away."
So before doubting why Homer includes so much strife and detail around the rituals of death, the catalogue of ships, and older generations telling of battles long past, remember that stories are a way of finding a community in which you can share one common, human experience. This way, you can pick up a copy of The Iliad yourself, instead of only being urged to do so for the sake of education.