Reading 1

Reading 1

Introduction to Homer and Homer’s Iliad

Homer—The Best of All

Go back a few thousand years and The Epics of Homer channel—as we might call it—was the most-subscribed-to media channel. And it got the most likes. Of songs, Homer’s Iliadand Odyssey were the most downloaded. Of movies, they were perennial blockbusters. Of books, they were ongoing best sellers. Briefly put, Homer’s stuff was the best of all.

That’s because Homer himself was the one everyone turned to for entertainment, education, and inspiration. A scholar once claimed that “if a Greek owned any books—that is, papyrus rolls—he was almost as likely to own the Iliad and the Odyssey as anything from the rest of Greek literature.”

Homer is celebrated for the Iliad,* a sweeping epic poem that touches on everything that matters most to us humans. But most of all it is about anger or wrath.

We all know what it feels like to be angry. Many of us struggle with it. Sometimes we don’t even know why we’re angry. What’s behind it? we wonder. And when we feel this way, we struggle to know how to deal with it. How can we make it go away? How can we give it up? How can we manage all our desires that manifest as anger? And, most significantly, how can we forgive and reconcile with others?

Let’s turn to Homer’s Iliad for a few clues.

Introduction to Homer’s Iliad—Anger, Honor, Glory, and Happiness

The Iliadis all about anger. In fact, the very first word of the very first line of the poem is mēnis, an ancient Greek word that means both anger and wrath. “Wrath! Sing, goddess, about the destructive wrath of Achilles, the son of Peleus.”

Mēnis is not just any wrath or anger, though, but an outsized, heroic, even god-size passion that rages on and on. What follows the first line amounts to a fireworks finale of anger. The ire of Chryses, the priest of the god Apollo, sets off the god’s wrath, which in turn causes the Greek leader Agamemnon’s fury, which leads, finally, to Achilles’ mēnis.

Why all the rage? In Homer, wrath or anger is a form of negative desire. Specifically, it is an expression of aversion. “I don’t want this! I don’t want that!” Behind the aversion, though, there is a whole array of positive desires that aim at glory and honor and ultimately at happiness. Therefore, anger is really about happiness.

But what is happiness in Homer? And how are glory and honor related to it?

To understand what happiness is, we have to go to Homer’s Odyssey. Hearing Odysseus’ prayer for his son Telemachus in Book 17 of the Odyssey, we grasp the basic Homeric formula for happiness: “Lord Zeus, may Telemachus be happy among men, and may everything happen as he desires in his heart.” Rephrased, the prayer tells us that happiness is the satisfaction of desire for various things. But the satisfaction of desire for what?

To learn, we must simply observe what humans desire in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Then we may build a basic Homeric pyramid of desire (or happiness) that will look something like the following:

At bottom, there is the basic desire to avoid displeasure. Just above, there is a yearning to be alive and have health. Next up is the urge to satisfy the basic desires for food, sex, and sleep. After the basics are satisfied, there’s the wish for a life of ease and comfort, pleasure and delight in terms of good weather, feasting, drinking, music, song, and dance, along with diversion in playing games and competing in various contests.

More significant than all the previous desires are what we may term the higher desires—higher insofar as their satisfaction is more valued. They are, from lesser to greater, the desire to be attached to a household for both security and identity; to have loyal friends and allies; to be free; to be wealthy; to be superior, the best; to have power in order to rule; to obtain high status; to avoid shame and humiliation. At the very top is the absolute yearning to have glory and honor that add up to a strong reputation.

Okay, that’s not quite true. At the very, very top is something desired that is beyond the pyramid, way beyond, since it is out of reach for a Homeric hero. It is to be “immortal and ageless,” something that only the gods are.

What, then, is the next best thing? Glory. Why? Because glory is honor, which isreputation, which will get a hero everything else up and down the pyramid of desire. High status. Power. Superiority. Wealth. Freedom. Friendship and alliance. A household that is yours to direct and enjoy. A life of ease and entertainment. The basics satisfied well and with pleasure. Life and health. And the avoidance of displeasure as far as possible.

We can understand what glory and honor confer, and why they are so significant to happiness, with the short speech of the Lycian ruler Sarpedon. Though he prefers to be ageless and immortal, Sarpedon nevertheless risks death in battle to win glory and the honor and respect of those he rules, without which he would lose his status and so his power to rule and so on down the pyramid of desire (or the pyramid of happiness). To urge his best friend and next-in-command Glaucus into battle, therefore, he says:

“Glaucus, why are we greatly honored in Lycia with the best seats in the feasting hall, and the best cuts of meat, and full cups of the choicest wine? And why do all the Lycian men look at us like we’re gods? And why do we have a great estate by the banks of the Xanthus? And why all the beautiful orchards and vineyards and wheat-bearing land? Therefore, we must now take a stand among the foremost Lycians and join in blazing battle so that many of the heavily armed Lycians may say, ‘Truly our kings, who rule in Lycia, are no inglorious men! Sure they eat fat sheep and drink the best wines, honey-sweet, but their strength is good and noble since they fight in the midst of the front ranks of the Lycians.’ Ah friend! If we could flee from this battle and always be ageless and immortal, then I myself would not fight in the midst of the front ranks, nor would I dispatch you into battle that confers glory on men. But now that the countless fates of death are at hand—the fates that no one is able to flee or escape—come, let us grab the glory-boast from some man, or some man will take it from us.”

So he spoke, and Glaucus did not turn away or disobey, but they led the great body of Lycians straight ahead at a marching walk.

Sad to say, but Sarpedon, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Laodamia, ends up dying. Patroclus, Achilles’ best friend, kills him:

Patroclus rushed furiously on him with the bronze. And when he threw his spear, the missile didn’t fly uselessly from his hand, but it slammed into Sarpedon’s chest, right into his pounding heart.

There’s that anger again—fury, wrath (mēnis). “Patroclus rushed furiously on him.” Earlier, Homer says that he and the other Myrmidons (Achilles’ men) poured out from their encamped ships like wasps pouring out from their nests, tormented by boys and stirred to anger.

Thus, with the anger of the Myrmidons and the fury of Patroclus in mind, and all the other rage, and knowing that anger is really about happiness, let’s turn to Book 1 of Homer’s Iliadand trace Achilles’ anger from its beginning to its end.

As you read, observe all the anger. Take note of why it develops as it does (what is desired). And consider how each human or god deals with it. Achilles and Agamemnon are obvious examples, but there are others. Notice, for instance, how the goddess Hera deals with her own anger and that of Zeus at the end of Book 1. Or how Menelaus moderates his in Book 23. By the end, we should have some clues about how we can better deal with the anger we experience. Let’s hope so!