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
Chapter 8. The Death of Hektor 8§1. By comparing the death of Achilles with the death of Pyrrhos, we have come to see more clearly the factor of ritual antagonism between god and hero. If, of course, we had only the Iliad as evidence, this factor would be much more difficult to discern in the case of Achilles, whose own antagonism with the god Apollo is so… Read more
Chapter 9. Poetic Categories for the Hero 9§1. In the Iliad, Hektor’s aspiration to get the same tīmḗ that is accorded to Athena (and Apollo) not only formalizes the antagonism between hero and god; it also implies a slighting of the superior god’s tīmḗ by the inferior hero. On the level of Homeric discourse, the dimension of cult that is conveyed by the word tīmḗ is latent… Read more
Appendix V Example of Father-Son Transmission Another example of transmission of a song from father to son also comes from Kolašin in Montenegro, and, as in Chapter Five, the texts were recorded years after the teaching and learning had been accomplished. The father is Mirko Danilović, 60 years old at the time of recording in 1935, and illiterate; the son is Rade Danilović, 28 years old… Read more
