FROM A DUTIFUL TO A QUESTIONING HERO

The Homeric education in human excellence consists, in the first place, of presenting - above all in the Iliad - models of human excellence, models to be imitated, and all of those models are not only warriors but leaders, men who excel at speeches as well as deeds, in the assembly and council as well as on the battlefield.

The leading model of human excellence in Homer is Achilles. Even Odysseus affirms three times in the Odyssey that Achilles was the greatest of the Achaians.^[170] But what does it mean to imitate Achilles? Homer himself states that Achilles is greater by far than both the greatest of the Achaians and the greatest of the Trojans and also presents him as the most virtuous human being in the Iliad.^[171] Throughout the poem, Achilles comes to sight in a number of ways as the most outstanding hero of the poem. We see Achilles in Book I single-handedly save the Achaians from destruction at the hands of the god Apollo, who is punishing them for the impious selfishness of their king Agamemnon. We see Achilles in Book IX raise the most far-reaching questions about the goodness of the life of the noble warrior. We see Achilles in Books XX-XXII single-handedly drive the whole army of the Trojans away from the Achaian camp, down the Trojan plain, and behind the walls of their city, and then slay their greatest warrior Hector. Finally, we see Achilles in Book XXIV, while grieving over the death of his beloved Patroclus at the hands of Hector, show compassion for Hector’s father and the Trojans by deciding entirely on his own to grant and enforce a 12-day truce for the Trojans so that they may bury their beloved Hector in peace.

Achilles is by far the most formidable warrior in the poem but, in Homer’s presentation, he is far more than simply a warrior. Even though Achilles is of course, singularly wrathful, he is also the most compassion­ate hero⁶ and the most loving hero in the poem, the one who has the widest and deepest friendships, expressing his love not only for Patroclus⁷ but also for Odysseus, Phoenix, Ajax, Antilochus, Automedon, Alkimos, and even, in some measure, Priam.⁸ What is more, Achilles is the most prominent speaker of the Iliad, one who speaks far more than any other character, human or divine - almost twice as much as the second most prominent speaker, Hector.⁹ We hear Achilles’ speech, and therefore his

⁶ See 2.1.100-102., 23.532-538, 24.507-672. Consider as well 6.421-428, 11.101-112, 21.34-82.

⁷ Iliad 17.411, 17.651-655, 18.80-82, 19.315-327, 23.43-47, 23.135-137, 24.3-8. 9.197-198, 9.204, 23.555-557, 24.574-575, 24.650. See Crotty 1994, 83; Schein 1984, 159-162.

⁹ Achilles has 87 speeches in the poem, comprising 974 lines. He has the most speeches in XXIII (23) but the most lines in IX (152). The only other character with more than 11 speeches in a single book is Priam (16 in XXIV). The only character with more lines than Achilles has in a single book is Phoenix (172 in IX). The next four most prominent speakers after Achilles in the Iliad, by numbers of lines, are Agamemnon with 46 speeches comprising 602 lines; Nestor with 32 speeches comprising 533 lines; Hector with 49 speeches comprising 521 lines; and Zeus with 38 speeches comprising 372 lines. Priam has 25 speeches comprising 213 lines. For Achilles’ speeches, see ι.59-67, 1.85-91, 1.122-129, 1.149-171, ³.202-5, 1.216-8, ³.225-244, ³.293-303, ³.334-344, 1.352-356, 1.365-412, 9.197-198, 9.202-204, 9.308-429, 9.607-619, 9.644-655, ³³.607-6³4, ³6.7-³9, ³6.49-³00, ³6.³26-³29, ³6.200-209, ³6.233-248, ³8.6-³4, ³8.79-93, ³8.98-³26, ³8.³82, ³8.³88-³95, ³8.324-342, ³9.2³-27, ³9.56-73, ³9.³46-³53, ³9.³99-2³4, ³9.270-275, ³9.305-308, ³9.3³5-337, ³9.400-3, ³9.420-3, 20.³78-³98, 20.344-352, 20.354-363, 20.389-392, 20.425-427, 20.429, 20.449-454, 2³.54-63, 2³.99-³³3, 2³.³22-³35, 2³.³50-³5³, 2³.³84-³99, 2³.223-226, 2³.273-283, 22.³5-20, 22.26³-272, 22.33³-336, 22.345-354, 22.365-366, 22.378-394, 23.6-³³, 23.³9-23, 23.43-53, 23.94-98, 23.³03-³07, 23.³44-³5³, 23.³56-³60, 23.³79-³83, 23.236-248, 23.272-286, 23.492-498, 23.536-538, 23.558-562, 23.6³8-623,

23.658-663, 23.707, 23.735-737, 23.753, 23.795-796, 23.802-8³0, 23.83³-835, 23.855-858, 23.890-895, 24.³39-³40, 24.5³8-55³, 24.560-570, 24.592-595,

24.599-620, 24.650-658, 24.669-670.

4.193-197, 4.234-239, 4.242-249, 4.257-264, 4.285-291, 4.313-316, 4.338-348, 4.358-363, 4.370-400, 5.529-532, 6.55-60, 7.1o9-119, 7.4o6-411, 8.228-244,

8.281-291, 9.17-28, 9.115-161, 9.673-5, 10.43-59, 10.65-71, 10.87-101,

Io.l2o-13o, 10.234-239, 11.138-142, 11.276-283, 14.42-51, 14.65-81, 14.104-108, 19.78-144, 19.185-197, 19.258-265. For Nestor’s speeches, see 1.254-284, 2.79-84, 2.337-368, 2.434-440, 4.303-309, 4.3I8-325, 6.67-7I, 7.I24-I60, 7.I7I-I74, 7.327-343, 8.I39-I44, 8.I52-I56, 9.53-78, 9.96-II3, 9.I63-I72, I0.82-85, I0.I03-II8, I0.I29-I30, I0.I44-I47, I0.I59-I6I, I0.I69-I76, I0.I92-I93, I0.204-2I7, I0.533-539, I0.544-553, II.655-802, I4.3-8, I4.53-63, I5.372-376, I5.66I-666, 23.306-348, 23.626-650. For Zeus’s speeches, see I.5I8-527, I.545-550, I.56I-567, 2.8-I5, 4.7-I9, 4.3I-49, 4.70-72, 5.428-430, 5.765-766, 5.889-898, 7.455-463, 8.5-27, 8.39-40, 8.399-408, 8.447-456, 8.470-483, II.I86-I94, I4.298-299, I4.3I3-328, I4.342-345, I5.I4-33, I5.49-77, I5.I58-I67, I5.22I-235, I6.433-438, I6.667-675, I7.20I-208, I7.443-455, I8.357-359, I9.342-348, 20.20-30, 2I.509-5I0, 22.I68-I76, 22.I83-I85, 24.65-76, 24.I04-II9, 24.I44-I58, 24.334-338. For Hector’s speeches, see 3.39-57, 3.86-94, 6.III-II5, 6.264-285, 6.326-33I, 6.360-368, 6.376-380, 6.44I-465, 6.476-48I, 6.486-493, 6.52I-529, 7.67-9I, 7.234-243, 7.288-302, 8.I6I-I66, 8.I73-I83, 8.I85-I97, 8.497-54I, I0.303-3I2, I0.329-33I, II.286-290, I2.23I-250, I2.440-44I, I3.I50-I54,

I3.75I-753, I3.769-773, I3.824-832, I5.247-252, I5.347-35I, I5.425-428,

I5.486-499, 5.553-558, I5.7I8-725, I6.830-842, I6.859-86I, I7.I70-I82,

I7.I84-I87, I7.220-232, I7.485-490, I8.285-309, 20.366-372, 20.43I-437,

22.99-I30, 22.233-237, 22.250-259, 22.279-288, 22.297-305, 22.338-343,

22.356-360.

3.304-309, 7.368-378, 2I.53I-536, 22.38-76, 22.4I5-428, 24.I94-I99, 24.2I8-227, 24.239-246, 24.253-264, 24.300-30I, 24.308-3I3, 24.373-377, 24.387-388,

24.406-409, 24.425-43I, 24.486-506, 24.553-558, 24.635-642, 24.660-667,

24.7I6-7I7, 24.778-78I.

¹⁰ According to Griffin, Achilles’ speech at 9.307-429 is “a long speech of unrivalled power” and “by general consent the most powerful and extraordinary speech in Homer” (1995, 16, 21; see also 45, 109). Griffin remarks that Achilles “is not only the most formidable warrior but has a depth of feeling (revealed in this Book [9]) and of insight (revealed in Book 24, especially 24. 5I8-52I) unsurpassed in the poem” (98).

¹¹ See Griffin I980, 75; I995, I6-I7; 2004, I60, I62. See also Schein I984, 90; Edwards I99I, 39; Benardete 2005, 6I nI.

¹² 9.323-327, I6.6-I0, 2I.28I-283, 22.262-267. See also I8.I07-II0. For the others, see 3.59-63 (Paris), 3.I95-I98 (Priam), 4.243-246 (Agamemnon), 6.I46-I50 (Glaucus), I2.I67-I72 (Asios), I3.99-II0 (Poseidon), I7.20-23 (Menelaus), 20.25I-255 (Aeneas),

And yet Achilles is also the most criticized character in the poem. The Iliad opens with Homer’s devastating criticism of Achilles, whose “destructive” anger led to the deaths of “countless” numbers of his fellow soldiers (1.1-7). Achilles is, moreover, repeatedly criticized over the course of the poem, by Agamemnon and Nestor;¹³ by his beloved com­panions Odysseus, Phoenix, Ajax, and Patroclus;¹⁴ by Apollo (24.33-54); by Homer (four times after the opening lines);¹⁵ and by Achilles himself.¹⁶ Furthermore, Achilles is a character who suffers terribly in the poem, more terribly than any Achaian, and perhaps more terribly even than any Trojan, insofar as Achilles suffers the agonies of humiliation, rage, self­doubt, and, above all, of blaming himself for the death of his beloved friend Patroclus.

22.123-125, 22.126-128 (Hector). See also 21.462-466 (Apollo), 24.39-45 (Apollo). Odysseus does produce many more similes in the Odyssey, but only one - the last - occurs outside of his narration of his adventures or of his lies to Nausicaa, Eumaeus, and Penelope: 6.166-169, 9.4, 9.51-53, 9.287-291, 9.291-293, 9.310-314, 9.382-390, 9.391-394, 10.118-120, 10.123-124, 10.210-219, 10.410-418, ιι.205-209, 11.605-606, 606-608, 12.237-239, 12.251-256, 12.411-414, 12.417-419,

12.431-436, 12.438-441, 14.307-309, 14.476-477, 19.107-114, 19.233-234,

¹3

¹4

¹5

16

¹7

18

23.i9θ-i9i.

1.174-177, ¿¿.663-667.

9.496-523, 9.624-632, 9.677-679, II.652-653, 16.21-35.

¹5.59^8-599^,22.395^,23.²4^{, 2}3.¹74^-177.

18.82, 18.98-110, 18.324-327, 19.56-64; see also 18.32-34.

See 1.348-361, 18.22-35, 19.4-5, 19.338, 23.12-18, 23.108-110, 23.152-153, 23.222-225, 24.3-13, 24.507-512. For other characters who weep, consider Thetis (1.413, 18.35-49, 18.66, 18.71, 18.94, 18.428), Andromache (6.405, 6.484, 22.515, 24.746), Priam (22.90, 22.429, 24.510-511), Antilochus (17.695-701, 18.17, 18.32), Hecubae (22.79-90, 24.760), Helen (3.142, 24.776), Agamemnon (8.245, 9.14), Thersites (2.265-269), Phoenix (9.432-433), Dolon (10.377), Patroclus (16.2-3), Ajax (17.648), Briseis (19.284), Diomedes (23.385), Eumelus (23.397), Artemis (21.493-496), Zeus (16.458-461), Achilles’ horses (17.426-440), the Achaians as a whole (13.88, 18.314-318, 23.152-154, 23.252-253), the Trojans as a whole (7.426, 24.786), and the brothers and companions of Hector (24.261-263, 24.793-794). Consider also Chryses (1.42).

Griffin, who seems to identify the outlook of Achilles with the outlook of Homer, maintains that Homer’s poems as a whole present as their final teaching a tragic understanding of life: “The hero dies, not so much for his own glory, not even so much one to consider another, less visible, but superior model of human excel­lence, that of the contemplative and humane composer of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer himself. To understand Homer’s education through Achilles, let us consider him more carefully.

Homer highlights the importance of education in his account of Achilles. Achilles, alone among the heroes of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, is said to have a human teacher of virtue, Phoenix, a teacher who evidently instructed him and helped him to become the greatest of the heroes. The sole word for teaching to appear in the Homeric poems (διδασκεμsναι) appears only seven times in the Iliad, but three times with reference to Achilles as either one who is taught (9.442, 11.832) or a teacher himself (of Patroclus - 11.831). Of the four characters in the Iliad said to have teachers, two have gods as teachers: According to Homer, Artemis “taught” the Trojan Scamandrius to be a “noble hunter” and, according to Nestor, Zeus and Poseidon “taught” his son Antilochus horsemanship.¹⁹ Patroclus is taught by Achilles about the healing drugs that were, in turn, taught him by the centaur Chiron (11.831-832). And Achilles has both Phoenix and Chiron as teachers. There are also five appearances of the word for teaching in the Odyssey and there too the gods are spoken of as the most prominent teachers of humans: Antinoos says that “the gods themselves teach” Telemachus “to be a loud talker and to speak boldly” (Odyssey 1.383-384); and Odysseus says that the Muse “taught” singers as a whole and that the Muse or Apollo “taught” the singer Demodocus in particular (8.481, 8.488). In the other two instances, Eurycleia affirms that she “taught” the maidservants in Odysseus’s house to perform their tasks (22.422) and Phemius blurts out that, as a singer, he is “self-taught [αuτοδιδακτοs] ” rather than taught by the Muses (22.347). Among the characters in Homer’s poems, Achilles, then, has a distinctively human or humanistic education, for he

for his friends, as for the glory of song, which explains to a spell-bound audience the greatness and fragility of the life of man” (1980, 102). Accordingly, the audience “must have accepted” the Iliad in particular “as a tragic work” (119); as a work in which “[t]he tragedy of human life is brought out by the treatment of every age group” (138); and as a work that conveys a powerful lesson: “by listening to tragic song and reflecting on it, understand what the world is like, and what is the position of man within it. This tragic and consistent view of human life is what makes the epic so great” (143). Consider also 202.

¹⁹ 5.306-308, 23.307; see also 16.811, 23.308.

alone has two nondivine teachers: one man and one half-man and half-beast.^[172]

Phoenix’s education of Achilles sought “to teach all these things, to be a speaker of speeches and a doer of deeds” so that he might excel in both war and assemblies “where men come to be distinguished” (9.438-443).^[173] The goal of this education, then, is to form a complete human being, one equally capable of vanquishing enemies in battle and persuading fellow citizens in the assembly and hence one whose mind, character, and body are perfected through military and political activity. Now, Achilles has evidently fulfilled the goal of this education, for not only has he fought more successfully than anyone, over nine long hard years,^[174] but we also see him alone respond to the crisis, provoked by Agamemnon’s outraging of the priest of Apollo and the subsequent plague sent by Apollo, by summoning the Achaian assembly and persuad­ing Agamemnon and the Achaians to return the daughter of the priest of Apollo to her father. To be sure, Achilles himself remarks that “others are better in speaking to an assembly” (18.106). “Sweet-speaking” Nestor, the “clear-voiced speaker of Pylos, his voice flowing from his tongue, sweeter than honey” (1.248-249), might seem to equal or to surpass Achilles in speeches. It is Nestor who sagely and effectively proposes the marshaling of the army to inspirit the troops; the building of the wall around the Achaian camp after Achilles’ withdrawal from the fighting; the embassy to Achilles to attempt to persuade him to return to the fighting; and the nighttime spy mission into the victorious Trojan camp.^[175] And, most importantly, it is he who persuades Patroclus to enter the war in Achilles’ place and thereby effectively saves the Achaians from defeat and destruction at the hands of the Trojans.^[176] Similarly, Odysseus, who is said by Antenor to surpass all men in speaking (3.221-224) and who himself claims to surpass Achilles greatly in intelligence (19.218-219), dissuades the Achaians from abandoning Troy and thereby effectively prevents them from losing the war (2.182-210). Nonetheless, at the moment when the Achaians face the destructive wrath of the god Apollo, neither Nestor nor Odysseus speak up, evidently fearing, as the prophet Calchas fears, the anger of their hubristic king Agamemnon (1.74-83).^[177] At this critical moment, it is Achilles who alone combines prudence and devotion to the Achaians with the necessary courage, who intervenes and saves the Achaians from destruction through his speeches as he commonly saves the Achaians on the battlefield through his deeds.^[178]

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The spirit behind all of these speeches and deeds is the spirit of duty. As Achilles remarks to his dearest friends in Book IX, he has always devoted himself to the well-being of the Achaians, as a mother bird devotes herself to her nurslings (9.323-327). The ultimate test of Achilles' education in virtue and duty would seem to be war. For war tests the capacity to fight and the capacity to persuade, inspire, and teach others to fight. War tests one's own virtue and one's ability to instill, by speech and by example, virtue in others. But most importantly, war tests the fundamental principle of the education in virtue, the principle of duty. For in war one must not only subordinate one's interests to the good of others but risk sacrificing one's very life for others. Indeed, for Achilles, this feature of war is especially stark, for unlike all the other warriors he knows, due to a prophecy, that if he continues to fight at Troy, he will certainly die.^[179] By casting into sharp relief what duty entails, war clarifies the nature of duty - the fact that it demands a seemingly complete self-overcoming or self-sacrifice - and spotlights the need to ponder the reasonableness, the very goodness, of such noble self-sacrifice. This is another reason why for Homer, as for that other great classical writer on war, Thucydides, war is a violent but invaluable teacher.^[180]

For nine long years at Troy, Achilles has faithfully lived the honorable and virtuous life of the dutiful warrior. For nine years he has always fought most painfully, in the most dangerous part of the battlefield, and has sacked 23 cities, all for the sake of the Achaians, with little or no reward, knowing that he will certainly die if he continues to fight at Troy (1.165-166, 9.328-333). However, the day comes when Achilles doubts the reasonableness of his adherence to duty. And it is on this day that the Iliad opens.

When Achilles, even at the risk of incurring Agamemnon’s fury, cour­ageously saves the army from the deadly consequences of Agamemnon’s folly and selfishness, he is rewarded with public humiliation. Agamemnon dishonors Achilles by depriving him of his captive mistress, none of the Achaians stands up for him, and the gods themselves adopt a seemingly neutral stance between the virtuous Achilles and the vicious Agamemnon (1.188-218). As we have seen,^[181] an enraged Achilles looks to Zeus to punish Agamemnon and the Achaians for their outrageous ingratitude. But furthermore, the experience of ingratitude, evidently in addition to the experience of sacrificing for so little evident gain, leads him to ques­tion the reasonableness of the life he has lived heretofore. What reward, he wonders, is commensurate with the long years of pain and the certain death that results from his virtue? For his entire life he has evidently believed that honor - the genuine recognition of his virtue - from men who are virtuous and therefore honorable themselves, might be a worthy reward for his virtue. But what value, he now wonders, is honor if it comes from men who are too frightened to stand up to their unjust and foolish king, who are selfish cowards and therefore dishonorable them- selves?^[182] And what value is honor at all if one dies in its pursuit?^[183] Why not abandon the painful and short life of duty in favor of a long comfort­able life of peace, at home with his father in Phthia? Pondering such questions leads Achilles to consider abandoning the Achaians at Troy, and his life as a dutiful warrior, even after Agamemnon and the Achaians have repented and pledged to shower him with honors if he will only return to the war against the Trojans.^[184]

Yet Achilles does not leave Troy, for two reasons. First, he continues to care about the Achaians, especially the companionship of the most virtu­ous Achaians. Indeed, his very rage at the Achaians and desire to see them punished reflect Achilles’ belief that they are capable of learning their lesson, and are capable of bestowing on him the gratitude and honor he deserves.³³ Secondly, Achilles does not detect a clearly superior alterna­tive to the admittedly problematic life of the dutiful warrior. For the long life that he descries at home lacks any content, in Achilles’ account, apart from a marriage with an unknown but “beloved” wife, arranged by his father, and delighting in the “possessions” that “old Peleus has acquired” (9.393-400). Such a life evidently lacks the noble fulfillment of a life devoted to virtuous speeches and deeds in war and in the assembly, and especially the friendships with such “beloved” friends as Patroclus, Ajax, Antilochus, Phoenix, and Odysseus based on the shared quest for excel­lence that may grace such a life.^[185] Accordingly, when Ajax accuses him of disregarding “the friendship of his companions, wherein we honored him beside his ships far beyond the others,” Achilles effectively abandons his previously announced decision to leave Troy once and for all, on the morrow, even though he does not yet return to battle.^[186]

Achilles comes to sense a tension, however, within his friendship with the virtuous Patroclus in particular. He comes to recognize that, even though they have in common a passion for excellence, they cannot truly share their quest for excellence: For even though both aspire to be “the best of Achaians,” “a light to the Danaans,” and the savior of the army, only one can be the best.^[187] Accordingly, at the moment in the war when the Achaians face destruction, and Achilles believes that Zeus has answered his prayer that the Achaians be punished for their injustice to him, Achilles does not enter the fighting himself but graciously allows Patroclus to enter the war, to be the savior of the army and hence, on this day, at least, to be the best of the Achaians. Patroclus does prove himself the greatest hero of the Achaians on this day - the only warrior other than Achilles ever called by a fellow Achaian the best of the Achaians.^[188] But even though Achilles prayed to Zeus to protect the virtuous Patroclus from harm, Zeus not only allows him to die, but allows - or even possibly sends - his son Apollo to set his death in motion.^[189] Achilles is devastated by the death of Patroclus, for it signifies the painful loss of a virtuous companion he cherished as much as his own life, the agonizing responsi­bility he feels for the death of his friend, and the anguished realization that Zeus is fundamentally indifferent to human virtue.^[190] But it is important to note that an additional cause of Achilles' suffering in the aftermath of Patroclus's death is the tragic realization that the friendship based on political and military virtue is based on a good that cannot be truly shared since only one can be the most virtuous.^[191] Such a friendship, then, is always characterized by a conflict - hidden or open - between each friend's self-interested desire to be the most virtuous and each friend's love of the other.^[192]

Achilles comes to recognize this tension between friendship and virtue in his relations with the other Achaians as well. Achilles has always sought to benefit them, as a mother bird benefits her nursling (9.323-327), and he does benefit them by excelling at deeds and speeches, by fighting for them in battle after battle and by saving them from Apollo's wrath and Agamemnon's folly. But paradoxically, by benefitting them he also harms them. For by acting and speaking on their behalf so superbly, he deprives them of their own capacity to excel in deeds and speeches. In this way he resembles a mother bird who cares for her nurslings so completely that they never need to fly and hence never learn. It is a noteworthy feature of the Iliad that the great Achaian heroes - Diomedes,^[193] Patroclus,^[194] Odysseus,^[195] Ajax,^[196] and even Agamemnon himself^[197] - come to the fore, excel on the battlefield, and (excepting Odysseus) are hailed as “the best,”^[198] only when Achilles is absent. When Achilles returns, they recede into the background.^[199] Achilles' virtue is harmful to those whom he seeks to benefit, for it is so uniquely great that it overshadows his potentially virtuous peers and prevents them from actualizing their virtue.

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One can see this problem most clearly during the funeral games held in honor of Patroclus. The Achaians who participate in eight competitions - chariot race, boxing, wrestling, foot race, combat in armor, shot put, archery, and javelin - demonstrate considerable excellence. For example, ∏ιγjγπaγ1pc ^[200] T-Aiιιc ^[201] Ofli^rCCPiic ^[202] Akjv ^[203] P∩lun∩ιfpc ⁵³ MpririnPC ⁵⁴ CJTTrl

omees, peιu,s, ysseus, jax, UiypoiLes, enoiies, anu.

Agamemnon⁵⁵ all win or tie for first prize, and Diomedes and Odysseus each win or share multiple first prizes. But such demonstrations of excel­lence and such winning of honor are made possible only by the forbear­ance of Achilles. For had he competed, he would have won a number of the competitions, perhaps all of them, and perhaps by a wide margin.⁵⁶ Accordingly, because he cares about the other Achaians besides Patroclus, but because he is also aware that his superior virtue risks overshadowing them, he graciously allows them to excel on their own in the funeral games. Nevertheless, his growing awareness of the gulf that separates his virtue from that of the other Achaians also gives rise to a growing indifference to them. For his decision not to compete in the funeral games signifies that he no longer seeks the honor of the Achaians. Moreover, Achilles' generosity toward Priam and the Trojans at the end of the poem in granting them a 12-day truce during which they may bury Hector in peace signifies not only Achilles' noble and understanding compassion for the father of the man who killed his friend but also signifies a certain indifference to the interests of the Achaians. For the Achaians might have gained tremendous military advantage by attacking Troy in the immedi­ate wake of their greatest warrior's death. And yet Achilles foregoes this advantage without even conferring with the Achaians.⁵⁷

The Achilles we see at the end of the poem is still a dutiful warrior, devoted to excelling in speeches and in deeds, in war and in the assembly, in order to benefit his fellow Achaians. But his devotion is severely qualified by a sorrowful awareness of the tragic conflicts that beset the life of the dutiful warrior: between an attachment to virtue and loyalty to one's community, since one's own community may not always be virtu­ous and virtue may shine forth in the camp of one's enemies; between a desire to fulfill one's own capacity for virtue and a desire to benefit one's friends; and between, most simply, a devotion to others and a concern for one's own happiness. The Achilles at the end of the poem is more aware and more humane than the Achilles at the beginning of the poem, as one can see especially in his gracious forbearance toward the Achaians during the funeral games in honor of Patroclus and in his understanding and compassionate gift of a 12-day truce to Priam so that he and his people may honor the late Hector in peace. But such awareness and such human­ity are clearly incomplete: he cruelly slaughters the 12 innocent Trojan youths at the funeral of Patroclus, he rages at the corpse of Hector, and he warns Priam against stirring up his murderous wrath.^[204] Moreover, Achilles' greater awareness and humanity at the end of the poem do not bring him happiness.^[205] For his awareness of the problems of the life he leads that deepens him and humanizes him also saddens him.

49

5²

5⁶

57

To look to Achilles as a model of excellence is to seek to live a life of political and military virtue actively and fully, but with a deepening and humanizing awareness of the problems of such a life. It means not only recognizing the conflicts that beset the life of virtue and the limits of such a life but also recognizing that the immortal, carefree gods ultimately leave us on our own, to face these conflicts and these limits for ourselves (24.525-526). By presenting Achilles as a model of human excellence, then, Homer presents us with a man at the peak of political and military virtue who is nobly and painfully aware of the limits of such virtue. There is a glory and a beauty to Achilles' tragic suffering but, through his suffering, the heroic Achilles bears witness to the limits of the heroic life. The question arises, then, does Homer present a model of excellence that is not burdened by the limits and the suffering of Achilles?

The happiest we ever see Achilles in the Iliad - the happiest we ever see any human being in the poem - is the moment when he is singing in the presence of Patroclus, “delighting his mind [φρενα] with his lyre”: “with it he delighted his spirit and sang of the glories of men” (9.186-189). This is the first time and indeed the only time in the Iliad in which Achilles appears content, even delighted, and at least momentarily free from the anger and grief that have afflicted him because of the failure of the Achaians and of the gods to honor him.^[206] In Book I (which takes place 14 days before) we saw Achilles raging at Agamemnon and the Achaians, weeping in the face of their injustice, and praying that Zeus inflict deadly punishment upon them (1.491-492). In Book II (which takes place two days before), Homer describes Achilles as “angry,” “grieving,” and “enraged.”⁶¹ But now Achilles is happy, and his happiness coincides with his singing of the glories of men. What is the significance of his singing?

Achilles is the only individual human being presented as singing in the Iliad, other than the individual through whom, ostensibly, the goddess sings.⁶² Achilles, however, unlike Homer, does not ask a god to sing through him but sings independently. Moreover, unlike the young Achaians who sing to Apollo and the Muses who sing to the other gods in the opening book of the poem, Achilles does not sing to a god but rather to human beings, his friend Patroclus and also to himself, to his “mind” and “spirit” (9.186, 9.189). Finally, Achilles does not sing about the gods but rather quite specifically about “men.” In contrast with the characters who sing in the opening book of the Iliad, then, Achilles' singing is emphatically focused on the human rather than the divine.⁶³

It is not clear whether Achilles here is singing a song composed by someone else about the glories of men or whether he has composed the song himself. The fact that Achilles' speech throughout the Iliad is singu­larly poetic does raise the possibility that he has composed this song, at

himself with lamentation, and longing for it went from his mind and his limbs, he rose from his chair... ” (24.513-515; see also 23.10-ιι). Then, Homer later recounts that “Priam wondered at Achilles, both his grandeur and his quality... and Achilles wondered at Priam, gazing at his goodly appearance and listening to his speech. But once they had delighted themselves by gazing upon one another, the old man, godlike Priam, spoke to him first” (24.629-634). But perhaps all of these moments of delight, even the last one, are overshadowed for Achilles by his sorrow over the death of Patroclus.

⁶¹ 2.688-694, 2.768-773.

⁶² Homer presents three other instances of characters singing in the poem: young Achaians sing to Apollo after returning Chryseis to her father, the priest of Apollo (1.472-474); the Muses, accompanied by Apollo on his lyre, sing before all the gods (1.601-604); and singers sing at the funeral of Hector (24.719-722). Homer refers to an individual in Pylos, Thamyris, who was punished by the Muses for boasting that he could surpass them in his singing (2.591-600); and also to a boy whom Hephaestus depicts on the shield of Achilles as singing a song (18.570).

⁶³ Of the 14 appearances in the Iliad of the word for singing or variants of that word, only 5 are not explicitly connected with the gods: the singers who sing at the funeral of Hector (24.720, 24.721), the singing boy whom Hephaestus depicts on the shield of Achilles (18.570), and Achilles who sings quite specifically of the “glories of men” (9.189, 9.191). For the 9 instances of singing that explicitly refer to the gods, see 1.1, 1.473, 1.604, 2.595, 2.598, 2.599, 6.357-358, 13.731 (for the context, see 13.727-734), 22.391. least in part.^[207] For Achilles composes five similes, more than any other hero in the poem, four of which are remarkably arresting: comparing his relation to the Achaian warriors to that of a mother bird to “her young ones who cannot yet fly”; comparing Patroclus who weeps for the Achaians as they face destruction to a “childish girl” who runs after her mother, wanting to be picked up, and clings to her dress; comparing himself as, in the midst of killing dozens of enemy warriors, he is about to be drowned by a river to “a boy tending swine whom a torrent swept away as he crossed in a storm”; and comparing the enmity between himself and Hector to that between men and lions or wolves and lambs.^[208] Through his talent for composing imaginative and thought-provoking similes, Homer’s Achilles exhibits a singular kinship with Homer himself.

Furthermore, the theme of Achilles’ singing, “the glories of men,” reminds one of the theme of Homer’s Iliad, especially insofar as Homer focuses on Achilles’ anger that he does not receive the glory or honor from the Achaians that he deserves.^[209] Indeed, the fact that Homer presents Achilles’ reflections concerning glory as a reward for virtuous sacrifice and his doubts that glory is either a reliable or a sufficient reward, immediately after he presents Achilles singing of the glories of men suggests that Achilles’ singing entails reflecting about the glories of men, just as Homer’s own singing evidently entails reflection.^[210] What is more, the fact that Homer says that Achilles delighted his mind by singing of the “glories of men” suggests that Achilles has found pleasure and satisfac­tion in reflecting on men like himself, who have performed deeds that are worthy of glory and who may or may not have received the glory they deserved (see 9.524-525).^[211] Thinking about such men has, for a moment, freed him from the pain of nobly sacrificing his well-being for the sake of others and of raging against the ingratitude of others.^[212] Thinking about honor, rather than seeking it or even possessing it, has, for the moment at least, supplied Achilles with some portion of the happiness that has eluded him.^[213] In his contemplative singing, Achilles points to the example of the contemplative singer, Homer.^[214]

Here, though, one might ask, doesn’t Homer’s other great hero Odysseus also point through his own singing to the contemplative singer Homer, indeed even more clearly than Achilles does? After all, in contrast with Achilles, Odysseus is explicitly compared three times to a singer in the Odyssey, by Alcinous, by Eumaeus, and by Homer himself.^[215] Moreover, as Alcinous notes (11.366-369), Odysseus recounts the elab­orate story of his adventures to the Phaiacians as a singer would, and that story, taking up as it does four books - fully one-sixth of Homer’s Odyssey - would seem, on the basis of Homer’s own presentation, to be far lengthier than the song of the glories of men that, as Homer refers to in a mere six lines (9.186-191), Achilles sings. Finally, Odysseus clearly demonstrates, far more than Achilles does, the poetic capacity to compose stories of his own through the remarkably detailed and imaginative ficti­tious tales that he tells the Cyclops, Athena (in the guise of a young Ithacan herdsman), his swineherd Eumaeus, the suitor Antinoos, his wife Penelope, and his father Laertes.^[216] Doesn’t Odysseus, then, engage in the activity of singing, that is, the activity of recounting and composing stories, incomparably more than does Achilles?^[217] Is Odysseus not there­fore closer to Homer than Achilles is?

Yet, while we do see Odysseus recounting and composing stories far more than Achilles does, we never see Odysseus express his thoughts about the stories he sings: for example, his thoughts about the justice of the gods after the experience he recounts of being abandoned by them in the cave of the Cyclops and thereafter.^[218] In contrast, we see Achilles, just after he has been singing of the “glories of men [κλεα aνδρων]," express his thoughts with considerable clarity, focus, and precision about the prob­lematic relation between honor or glory and the life of a mortal human being:

There is an equal portion for the one who stays back and if someone fights hard. The evil one and the noble one are held in single honor [τιμη]. He still goes down to death, the man [ανηρ] who has done no deeds, and the one who has done many. Nothing more is laid up for me, once I suffered pains in my spirit, always risking my life [or soul - ψυχην] by fighting. (9.318-322)

For not worth my life [or soul] are all that they say Ilion, that well inhabited city, possessed, in the old days, when there was peace, before the coming of the sons of the Achaians, nor all that the stone threshold of the archer, Phoebus Apollo, encloses, in rocky Pytho. For cattle and fat sheep can be taken by plunder and tripods and the fair heads of horses may be acquired, but for the life [or soul] of a man [ανδρoς] to come back, this cannot be taken by plunder or seized, once it has crossed the barrier of the teeth. (9.400-409)

If I should remain here fighting about the city of the Trojans, my return home will be destroyed, but an imperishable glory [κλεος] will be mine. But if I should arrive home to the beloved land of my fathers, my noble glory [κλεος] will be destroyed, but a long lifetime will be mine, nor would the end of death overtake me swiftly. (9.414-416)

Achilles has clearly been prompted to think about the relation between glory and the happiness of mortal human beings by his experiences at Troy, by his experience of sacrificing himself in painful battle for nine years with little recognition and gratitude in return, and, most recently, by his experience of being singled out for humiliation by Agamemnon with the complicity of the rest of the Achaians. But Achilles' singing about the glories of men evidently prompts him to identify and to focus more clearly on three questions of paramount importance to him: Is glory ever justly awarded to those noble humans who truly deserve it? Can even a deserved glory reasonably compensate one for the utter extinction of one's life? Would a long but inevitably finite life be better for such mortal beings as ourselves than a short life adorned with imperishable glory? Achilles' singing, then, is evidently inspired by his desire to reflect on questions of central concern to him and enables him to reflect more deeply about those questions.

In contrast with Achilles, Odysseus appears to view singing less as an occasion for theoretical reflection or instruction than as an instrument with which to gain a practical advantage. He tells the story of his adven­tures to the Phaiacians so that they will help him to return to Ithaca and also so that they will accord him glory.^[219] He invents tales to tell the Cyclops to save himself and his men and he invents tales to tell Athena (who is in the guise of a young Ithacan herdsman), Eumaeus, Antinoos, his wife Penelope, and his father Laertes in order to conceal his identity from the hostile suitors he intends to slaughter and in order to test the loyalty of the members of his household.^[220] As Homer says of Odysseus when he tells an elaborate lie to the disguised Athena, “Nor did he speak the truth, but he held back his speech, always wielding the mind in his breast for the sake of much gain” (13.254-255). Indeed, when Homer himself compares Odysseus to a singer, he does so at the moment Odysseus is stringing the bow with which he is about to kill the suitors:

Then Odysseus of many counsels, immediately once he raised the great bow and looked at it in every way, as when a man who has knowledge of the lyre and of singing, easily stretches a string around a new peg, holding on both sides the well twisted intestine of the sheep, so then without serious effort did Odysseus stretch the great bow. (21.404-409)

The simile suggests that Odysseus wields singing as he wields any weapon he might use for the ultimate purpose of vanquishing his enemies.

We never see Odysseus, as we see Achilles, singing for himself and for an intimate friend, in order to think through for himself a theme of concern to him - the glories of men - and delighting his mind and spirit in doing so. As we have seen, Homer says of Odysseus far more than of Achilles that he is happy - that he experiences joy and delight - and Odysseus evidently relishes inventing tales and delights in one of the three tales Demodocus sings (8.367), but he never presents Odysseus’s happi­ness as connected in any way with his activity as a singer. Achilles on the other hand, is rarely happy, but his happiness is intimately bound up with his contemplative singing.

An additional component of Achilles’ happiness that Homer identifies in the presentation of his singing is friendship. For Homer presents Achilles singing and reflecting in the company of his dearest friends, first Patroclus, his most beloved and honored companion (18.79-82), and then Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax, whom Achilles claims are by him “the most beloved of Achaians” (9.198, 9.204). Achilles evidently derives satisfaction not only by engaging in reflection but by sharing his reflec­tions with his friends. Achilles here appears to divine the possibility of a friendship that is based on shared conversation and shared contempla­tion, a friendship based on wisdom that would delight him fully, in mind and spirit. In other words, Achilles appears to glimpse here a life that is free of the afflictions that beset the life of the warrior - a life that is graced with a kind of philosophic friendship that is free of the tragedy of a friendship primarily based on the inevitably competitive quest for honor - namely, the life of the contemplative singer Homer who shares his wisdom with his audience.

The example of Achilles at the end of the poem also points to Homer. For there Achilles recognizes the nobility of Priam’s love for his son, a love that leads him to risk everything to recover the corpse of his son, and feels compassion for the Trojan king. And this appreciation for the virtue of Priam and sympathy for his suffering and the suffering of the Trojans as a whole leads Achilles to perform the most compassionate deed of the poem: the granting of a 12-day truce to the Trojans so that they may bury Hector in peace, even though the gods had not commanded it and Priam had not dared to ask for such a truce. Now this singular act of compassion reminds one of the compassion that Homer exhibits through­out the poem. For throughout the poem, Homer expresses compassion, and appeals to us to feel compassion, for the sufferings of Achaians and Trojans alike.^[221] In his compassion as well as his reflection, then, Achilles points to the example of the humane and contemplative singer, Homer.

And yet the comparison of Achilles and Homer highlights the superior thoughtfulness and humanity of the latter. Achilles does raise questions about the dutiful life of the warrior in Book IX but he never abandons the life of the warrior and he never returns to those questions at any point later in the book. Moreover, while Achilles suggests at the end of the poem that humans should look to each other rather than the gods for relief from their sorrows, Achilles also continues to hold out the hope that Zeus will provide him with rewards.^[222] While Achilles tentatively raises questions about the reasonableness of the dutiful life of the warrior and the relations between gods and humans for two brief moments in the poem, Homer forcefully raises such questions throughout. Moreover, while Achilles’ thoughts are tinged, clouded, and overwhelmed by his bitterness and wrath,^[223] Homer presents the deeds and speeches of the characters in the poem - Agamemnon and Achilles, Achaians and Trojans, gods and humans - with a consistent balance, calm, and clarity. Similarly, Achilles’ sympathy for Priam, and apparently for a few isolated Trojans throughout the war, pales in comparison with Homer’s sympathy for the Trojans as well as the Achaians throughout the poem. And while Achilles' beautiful act of generosity to Priam is remarkably fragile and fleeting - Achilles warns Priam not to provoke his wrath lest it lead him to kill the king - Homer's sympathy is deep and abiding.

Through Achilles, then, Homer points to his own example as a model of human excellence. But what does it mean to view Homer as a model of human excellence? How does he differ from the other characters in the poem? What picture do we derive from the poem of Homer himself?