G. Nagy, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 33-37:

Transcription

1 H24H PASSAGE: G. Nagy, The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 33-37: THE KLEOS OF ACHILLES AS EPIC GLORY 1 7. I begin by concentrating on the medium of song as marked by the word kleos. In ancient Greek song culture, kleos was the primary medium for communicating the concept of the hero, which is the primary topic (or message ) of these 24 hours The main hero of the Iliad, Achilles, is quoted as saying Hour 1 Text A 410 My mother Thetis, goddess with silver steps, tells me that 411 I carry the burden of two different fated ways [kēres] leading to the final moment [telos] of death. 412 If I stay here and fight at the walls of the city of the Trojans, then my safe homecoming [nostos] will be destroyed for me, but I will have a glory [kleos] that is imperishable [aphthiton]. 414 Whereas if I go back home, returning to the dear land of my forefathers, 415 then it is my glory [kleos], genuine [esthlon] as it is, that will be destroyed for me, but my life force [aiōn] will then 416 last me a long time, and the final moment [telos] of death will not be swift in catching up with me. Iliad IX This translation, which is my own, is different from what we read in Samuel Butler s translation of the Iliad(London 1898), which is available online for free by way of the Perseus Project (and also by way of other media, such as Project Gutenberg). The original wording of Butler (1898) is as follows: My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end. If I stay here and fight, I will not return alive but my name will

2 live for ever: whereas if I go home my name will die, but it will be long ere death shall take me In the Sourcebook of original Greek texts (in English translation) about the ancient Greek hero, which as I already said is available online for free, the reader will see that I use my own translation for the verses we have just been considering, Iliad IX In general, however, the translated text of the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey in this online Sourcebook is based on Butler s original translation (Iliad1898 and Odyssey 1900). In editing this Sourcebook with the help of fellow teachers and researchers, my practice has been to modify the original translation wherever I see a need to substitute a more accurate translation, as in the case of Iliad IX This practice is made possible by the fact that Butler s translation, just like all the other translations used in this online Sourcebook, is free from copyright restrictions. As I said in the Introduction, the texts of all the translations in the Sourcebook are periodically reviewed and modified, and the modifications are indicated by way of special formatting designed to show the differences between the original translator s version and the modified version That said, I return to Samuel Butler s translation of Iliad IX , as I quoted it in 9. It is a literary translation, not a literal one. In general, Butler s translation of the Iliad and Odyssey is literary, meant to be pleasing to the ear when read out loud. In the case of Iliad IX , Butler s translation successfully captures the general idea of what is being said by Achilles. I focus our attention on the part that I highlighted earlier: I will not return alive but my name will live for ever. In place of this literary version, the Sourcebook shows my more literal translation of the original Greek, which is contained in one single verse: then my safe homecoming [nostos] will be destroyed for me, but I will have a glory [kleos] that is imperishable [aphthiton]. Iliad IX 413

3 1 12. In what follows, I will be making a set of arguments that I will now encapsulate here in one thesis sentence: In Iliad IX 413, the main hero of the Iliad leaves as his signature the kleos of his own epic, which turns out to be the Iliad In order to make the arguments I hope to make, I will start by offering my working interpretation of this verse. From here on, I will refer to this kind of interpretation as exegesis, which is an ancient Greek term referring to a close reading of a given text. Here, then, is my exegesis, which I format as a block paragraph: Achilles has started to understand the consequences of his decision to reject the option of a safe nostos or homecoming. He is in the process of deciding to choose the other option: he will stay at Troy and continue to fight in the Trojan War. Choosing this option will result in his death, and he is starting to understand that. In the fullness of time, he will be ready to give up his life in exchange for getting a kleos, which is a poetic glory described as lasting forever. This kleos is the tale of Troy, the Iliad (the name of the poem, Iliad, means tale of Ilion ; Ilion is the other name for Troy ). Achilles the hero gets included in the Iliad by dying a warrior s death. The consolation prize for his death is the kleos of the Iliad. A MUCH SHORTER VERSION OF EPIC GLORY Having considered the kleos or epic glory of Achilles, I turn to the kleos of another hero: Hour 1 Text B 218 Tell me now you Muses dwelling on Olympus, 219 who was the first to come up and face Agamemnon, 220 either among the Trojans or among their famous allies? 221 It was Iphidamas son of Antenor, a man both good and great, 222 who was raised in fertile Thrace the mother of sheep. 223 Kissēs in his own house raised him when he was little. 224 Kissēs was his mother s father, father to Theano, the one with the fair cheeks. 225 When he [= Iphidamas] reached the stage of adolescence, which brings luminous glory, 226he [= Kissēs] wanted to keep him at home and to give him his own daughter in marriage, 227 but as soon as

4 he [= Iphidamas] had married, he left the bride chamber and went off seeking the kleos of the Achaeans 228 along with twelve curved ships that followed him. Iliad XI This passage, Text B, resembles Text A in the way it highlights a hero s obsession with the goal of dying the right way in order to be remembered forever in the kleos or glory of song. In this case, however, the hero is not a major figure of the Iliad, like Achilles. Rather, the hero here in Text B is mentioned only this one time in the Iliad, in what amounts to a short story embedded inside the overall story of the Iliad To distinguish the story of the Iliad from such short stories that exist inside the story of the Iliad, I will as a rule refer to the Iliad as the Narrative, with an upper-case N, and to the stories inside the Iliad as narratives, with lower-case n. Such narratives are micro-narratives in comparison to the macro-narrative that is the Iliad. Also, I will as a rule use the word Narrator in referring to Homer, whom I have already described as a culture hero venerated by the ancient Greeks as the ultimate singer of the Iliad and Odyssey In order to appreciate the poetic artistry that produced the micronarrative that we have just read in Text B, we must consider the artistic device of compression in the traditional media of ancient Greek songmaking. This device of compression is to be contrasted with the device of expansion. Whereas expansion produces macro-narratives, such as the monumental composition of the Iliad itself, compression produces micro-narratives, such as the story-within-a-story that we are now considering. In many ways, a trailer in today s culture of film-making is produced by techniques of compression that resemble the techniques used in producing such micro-narratives in ancient Greek songmaking I concentrate on the next-to-last verse of this micronarrative: but as soon as he had married, he left the bride chamber and went off seeking the kleos of the Achaeans

5 Iliad XI This micro-narrative is about a hero who decides to interrupt his honeymoon to go to Troy to fight on the side of the Trojans against the Achaeans. These Achaeans, as we saw in the Introduction, are the Greeks of the heroic age. So, now, this hero has just been killed in battle. Why did he give up his life, a life of newlywed bliss, just to fight and die at Troy? The Narrator of the macro-narrative gives the answer to this question: this hero did it in order to get included in the kleos or epic glory of the Greek song culture. He was seeking thekleos of the Achaeans. This kleos is the macro-narrative of the Iliad We see here a hero getting included in the Iliad by dying a warrior s death. To that extent, he is like the major hero Achilles, whose death is the core theme of the Iliad. But this minor hero, Iphidamas, dies for just a bit part. By contrast, Achilles will die for the lead part. THE IMMORTALIZING POWER OF KLEOS AS EPIC GLORY So, why is the kleos of the Achaeans so important that you are ready to die for it - not only if you are Achilles, the best of the Achaeans, but even if you are not an Achaean, as in the case of our bit player Iphidamas? The answer has to do with the immortalizing power of kleos as epic glory, which as we have seen is described as aphthiton, imperishable, in Iliad IX 413. Achilles will chose the glory of epic song, which is a thing of art, over his own life, which is a thing of nature. The thing of art is destined to last forever, while his own life, as a thing of nature, is destined for death In the culture represented by the heroes of the Iliad, the distinction between art and nature, between theartificial and the natural, is not the same as in our modern cultures. Their culture was a song culture, as I have described it earlier. In our modern cultures, artificial implies unreal while natural implies real. In a song culture, by contrast, the artificial can be just as real as the natural, since the words of an artificial song can be just as real as the words of natural speech in a real-life experience. In a song culture, the song can be just as real as life itself.

6 1 23. In ancient Greek song culture, the tale or story of the Iliad was felt to be not only real but also true. As we will see in later hours, the Homeric Iliad was felt to convey the ultimate truth-values of the ancient Greek song culture Because we as users of the English language have a different cultural perspective on the words tale orstory, which for us imply fiction and are therefore not expected to be true, I have also been using the more neutral word narrative in referring to the tale or story of the Iliad and other such tales or stories As I have been arguing, the epic macro-narrative of the Iliad is just as real to its heroes as their very own lives are real to them. For Achilles, the major hero of the Iliad, the song of kleos is just as real as his very own life is real to him. The infinite time of the artificial song, the kleos aphthiton or imperishable glory at Iliad IX 413, is just as real to him as the finite time of his natural life.