Acknowledgments to the 1979 Edition It took a long time to write this book, and I now have anxieties about whether I can recall the names of all those who have given advice along the way. The list that I offer here may be incomplete, and I hope that anyone accidentally left out will not think me an ingrate. Let me start with those who have endured… Read more
Foreword to the 1999 Second Edition F§1. The Best of the Achaeans is intended for both non-specialists and specialists in Homer and in other forms of archaic Greek poetry. [1] More generally, it is for non-Classicists as well as Classicists (that is, those who study Greek and Roman antiquity). All quotations from the ancient texts are translated, and all cited words are… Read more
Introduction. A Word on Assumptions, Methods, Results [In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the printed version of this book.] I§1. My approach to… Read more
Chapter 1. The First Song of Demodokos 1§1. Homeric Epos has the power not only to define the hero but to articulate this very power. In my search for evidence in support of such a claim—and this search will extend throughout my presentation—I will of course have to struggle with the overwhelming dimensions of the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is especially difficult to find an appropriate… Read more
Chapter 2. The Best of the Achaeans 2§1. It is an overall Iliadic theme that Achilles is “best of the Achaeans,” as I will now try to show. [1] The title is hotly contested. The central grievance of Achilles in the Iliad is that Agamemnon has dishonored him, and in this context the hero of the Iliad is regularly called áristos Akhaiôn… Read more
Chapter 3. A Conflict between Odysseus and Achilles in the Iliad 3§1. As we have already seen, some experts argue that the quarrel of Achilles and Odysseus in Odyssey viii is a pastiche actually based on the opening of our Iliad, where Achilles and Agamemnon have their memorable quarrel. [1] But in this line of reasoning there is a flaw that we… Read more
Chapter 4. The Death of Achilles and a Festival at Delphi 4§1. The quarrel between Achilles and Odysseus in the first song of Demodokos, viii 72–82, dramatizes the antithesis of two inherited central themes built into the Iliad and the Odyssey, namely, the qualifications of Achilles and Odysseus respectively for the title “best of the Achaeans.” Their epic actions are striving to attain what is perhaps the… Read more
Chapter 5. The Name of Achilles 5§1. The theme of pêma ‘pain, grief’ as we find it in the first song of Demodokos (Odyssey viii 81) seems to be recapitulated in the very name of Achilles. As we consult Pierre Chantraine’s etymological dictionary of Greek under the entry Akhilleús, we find listed a number of different explanations that have been offered over the years to account for… Read more
Chapter 6. Lamentation and the Hero 6§1. The social dimensions of the actual word ákhos ‘grief’ have so far been explored mainly in terms of its thematic relationship with the concept of lāós ‘host of fighting men’ in epic diction. The time has now come to explore the meaning of ákhos on its own terms. 6§2. In Homeric diction, ákhos ‘grief’ functions as a formulaic variant… Read more
Chapter 7. The Death of Pyrrhos 7§1. As we contemplate the ritual aspects of the Iliadic hero, we are faced with a conflict between a trend and a constant: while Achilles is becoming Panhellenic by way of Epos, the powers of the hero in hero cult remain strictly local. [1] By evolving into the hero of the epic tradition that culminated in… Read more
