The Iliad, the Basis of Greek Culture and the Western Philosophical Tradition

Today we will learn and reflect on the Iliad by Homer.
You may ask, how can we benefit when we ponder this topic?
We cannot truly understand the culture of the ancient Greeks, and Greek
philosophy, culture and history, and also the Western philosophical
tradition, without becoming familiar with Homer’s works, the Iliad and the
Odyssey.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this video, and
the paintings in our thumbnail, and the additional lessons we learn from
these sources, and my blogs that also cover this topic. Please, we
welcome interesting questions in the comments, sometimes these
generate short videos of their own. Let us learn and reflect together!

At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this video, and the
paintings in our thumbnail, and the additional lessons we learn from these
sources, and my blogs that also cover this topic. Please, we welcome interesting
questions in the comments, sometimes these generate short videos of their own.
Let us learn and reflect together!

YouTube Video:
The Iliad, the Basis of Greek Culture and the Western
Philosophical Tradition
https://youtu.be/DpmuhZJUJn0
NOTE: YouTube video corrections may not be reflected
on the slides, and the blog may differ somewhat in
content.
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Warrior Cultures in the Ancient World
All ancient cultures were warrior cultures, out
of necessity. War was a deadly business, if an
ancient state lost the war, often the men
would be slain and the women and children
would be sold into slavery. Most of the slaves
were either captured by pirates or enslaved
during war. The gods would help in the
battle, we see that in Miriam’s Song of the
Sea, one of the most ancient songs of the
Bible, and in the Iliad where both the Greeks
and Trojans had the Greek gods tipping the
balance of the battles, and sometimes joining
in the battles themselves.

Elizabeth Vandiver tells us that the “Homeric
warrior fights for:
Honor (timê, pronounced teemay)
Glory or fame (kleos).
Geras: booty, gifts, or a particular prize
(geras).
Kleos also serves as the only true form of
immortality available to Homeric heroes: they
live on in what people say about them after
they are dead.”
Protected by Ares, Achilles Overwhelms Hector
Painted 1815, by Antonio Raffaele Calliano

This is best expressed by the Trojan warrior
Hector, when his wife Andromache begs Prince
Hector not to return to battle.
The Trojan warrior Hector answers,
“I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
and the Trojan women trailing in their long robes
if I would shrink from battle now, a coward.
Nor does my spirit urge me on that way,
I’ve learned it too well, to stand up bravely,
always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers,
winning my father great glory, glory for myself.
For in my mind I know this well:
the day will come when sacred Troy must die.”
Hector greets Andromaca and Astyanax,
His wife and his son, painted in 1800’s by
Francisco Hayez

Hector fears the worst will come,
Hector fears that when the walls of Troy will tumble,
then his precious Andromache will be carried away enslaved,

Hector fearfully tells his wife and queen:
“There is nothing, nothing beside your agony
when some brazen Argive hales you off in tears,
Wrenching away your day of light and freedom!
Then far off in the land of Argos you must live,
laboring at a loom, at another woman’s beck and call.”
Andromache in Captivity by Frederic Leighton (c. 1886)

Perhaps, since Andromache is a Queen of Troy, Hector hopes she will only work the
loom, but the myth of Troy says that she was forced to be a concubine of a minor
Greek king, though she eventually became the Queen of Epirus, likely because that
is a better ending for a queen in myth.
In the ancient world, when you defeated a bitter foe, you wiped out as much of the
opposing army as possible, and you enslaved the women and children, and the
young women were often forced to be concubines. This was why when the
Romans defeated the Jews at the fortress of Masada in the Jewish rebellion, the
men put to the sword their women and children before committing suicide
themselves. There was no such thing as a prisoner of war, the soldiers who
remained were either brutally enslaved, often to work in the mines, a sure death
sentence in the ancient world, or they were beheaded or otherwise eliminated.

The concept of conscientious objectors refusing to serve in the army or navy
because they opposed killing was totally unknown in the ancient world, it was
totally absurd. In the Greek city-states, all free men were expected to serve in
the military. The Greek military system where the infantry formed a shield wall
on the front line required constant military drill and discipline. We read how
Socrates himself took pride in his military service opposing the Persians in battle.
We discuss and compare the warrior cultures of the Iliad and the American Indian
in another video, which will be linked at the end of this video. The similarities
between the two cultures are remarkable, both cultures contain tales of women
captured and forced to be wives and concubines.

Professor Vandiver also points out that the gods of ancient Greece were very
different from our conception of a monotheistic, all knowing, all powerful, always
compassionate deity who takes interest in the affairs of mortal men, even counting
the hairs on their head. The gods were like men except they were immortal, but
since they could not die, they could never gain glory, like men in battle could gain
glory and honor. The gods in the Iliad could be kind, they could be vicious, they
could be magnanimous, or they could be petty, they could see more than men,
they could even personify the weather, they could go from here to there in an
instant.

Dispute between Poseidon and Athena, 2015, Piouchat

The gods were immortal, but they were not omnipotent, nor were they omniscient,
but they could be wounded, though their wounds could always be healed at Mount
Olympus. It is clear in the Iliad that the gods take a great interest in kings and prince
and great warriors, and are particularly interested in the events of the Trojan War in
particular. Many mighty mortal warriors in the Iliad, like Achilles, have a god for
their mother, or sometimes their father. In the Iliad, the gods come to earth in
disguise to visit this mortal or that, or even fight in the battle next to their favored
mortal combatants.
Are the gods also interested in the affairs of the ordinary little man, the farmer, the
slave, the poor man? Not so much. Little people may offer sacrifices to appease
the gods, to save them from the capriciousness of the weather and war and life, but
nobody thought the Greek gods would listen to them. The closest we come is the
Roman stoic philosopher Dio Chrysostom saying we should sacrifice to the gods
whether we think it does any god or not because it is a good thing to do.

We will now discuss the background of the Iliad, and how the Iliad and
its companion work, the Odyssey, reflect and influence Greek culture.
Both of these works were delivery orally, probably in public religious
festivals, for centuries before they were written down. The Iliad covered
a period near the end of the Trojan War, while the Odyssey recounts the
adventures of Odysseus as the gods delay his return home to Ithica by
many, many years.
Archeologists are not entirely sure about the Battle of Troy described in
the Iliad, and this would have been ancient history for the Greeks
reciting the Iliad and Odyssey, occurring centuries before in the Bronze
Age. The Achaeans in the Iliad would have been Mycenaean Greeks
who have left archeological artifacts.

The Mycenaean Greeks fought the Battle of Troy.
We know the Mycenaeans spoke Greek because the
scholar Michael Ventris was able to translate the Linear
B script. Unfortunately, all Linear B tables are inventory
tax lists, no Linear B literature has been found. After
Linear B came the Greek Dark Ages, the Greeks would
not adopt another alphabet for several centuries.

From this fresco we know that the Mycenaeans employed chariots, probably in Asia
Minor. The mainland Greeks who recited the Iliad had no use for calvary. Since
Greece is mountainous, the Greek armies were infantry forces, only the
Macedonians under Kings Philip and Alexander the Great had calvary forces.
Professor Kenneth Harl of the Teaching Company quips that since Homer didn’t
understand how chariots worked, his Greek heroes used them as taxicabs to reach
the battlelines.
We know that Troy exists, because it was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann from
1871 to 1879. He was able to locate the mounds containing the remains of Troy
using the clues from the Iliad itself. He was not the first to excavate Troy, but he was
the first to generate publicity for the project. Not only was his digging destructive,
he violated his agreement with the government of Greece and smuggled many
priceless treasures to Europe. Most of his artifacts were from an older layer than
the Troy of the Iliad.

Excavation of Troy Heinrich Schliemann excavated Troy from 1871 –
1873, and 1878 – 1879.
He was not the first to excavate Troy, but he was the
first to generate publicity for the project.
Not only was his digging destructive, he violated his
agreements with Turkey and Greece and smuggled
many priceless treasures to Europe.
Most of his artifacts were from an older layer and
were not from the time of the Trojan War of the Iliad.

According to tradition, the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed by the blind poet
Homer. Scholars agree that the Iliad and Odyssey were recited orally as epic poetry
for centuries before they were written down. Some scholars speculate that
ancient Greek was influenced more by the Iliad and Odyssey than English was
influenced by the Bible and Shakespeare, although likely it was first used to list
inventories, though few if any such lists have been discovered.
How could bards memorize such lengthy poetry? The scholar Milman Parry
studied how bards in Yugoslavia were able to memorize long epic poetry, and he
identified similar memory aids in the text of the Iliad and Odyssey. In the original
Greek, standard phrases were used for activities like eating, fighting, and praying,
and standard phrases were used for each main hero when the various Greek noun
cases were used, i.e., when the names of these heroes were used as subjects,
objects of verbs, objects of prepositions, etc.

Was there an actual bard named Homer? Was Homer truly blind? Scholars debate
these questions. We do know that any poems recited orally evolve over time. We
also know that both the Iliad and Odyssey have a consistent style throughout,
although there are apparent contradictions in the Iliad that may suggest multiple
sources. Or maybe there are two Homers, since the Odyssey reads more like a
modern novel. Or maybe this consistency is due to a redactor that edited the
works when they were first transcribed in ancient Greek.
There were multiple epic poems that were delivered at the religious festivals
covering the Battle of Troy, only the Iliad and Odyssey have survived. However, all
ancient sources agree that the Iliad and Odyssey were the best of these epic
poems by far. Nearly everyone who listened to these recitations knew the basic
plot beforehand, the bard could only create suspense by how he told the story.
We need to be aware of the complete story to frame the Iliad as it starts in the
middle of the conflict.

Scholars agree that the Iliad and Odyssey were recited orally as epic poetry for
centuries before they were written down. Some scholars speculate that ancient
Greek was influenced more by the Iliad and Odyssey than English was influenced
by the Bible and Shakespeare, although likely it was first used to list inventories,
though few if any such lists have been discovered.
Cicero speculates that the Iliad and Odyssey were transcribed during the rule of
the tyrant Peisistratos in the sixth century BC, which was over a century before
Plato. Dr Wikipedia agrees with Cicero, but Cicero was four centuries removed
from this time, so when exactly it was written down is anyone’s guess.

This is the basic plot line of the complete saga of the
Battle of Troy from Professor Vandiver’s study guide:
1.“The most beautiful woman in the world, Helen,
daughter of the great god Zeus and wife of the Greek
Menelaos, was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris.
2.Under the command of Menelaos’ elder brother
Agamemnon, the Greeks mustered an army to go to
Troy and fight for Helen’s return.
BOLDFACE: Time Period of the Iliad
3.The war against Troy lasted for ten years. The
fighting was fairly evenly balanced, with each side
having its foremost warrior (Achilles for the
Greeks, Hektor for the Trojans).
4.Achilles was the son of a goddess mother, Thetis,
and a human father, Peleus. Their wedding was
arranged by Zeus, and Thetis was not entirely
willing.

Abduction of Helen, ceiling fresco, Venetian, mid-18th century

Peter Paul Rubens - The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, 1636

5. The greatest Trojan warrior, Hektor, was killed by
the greatest Greek warrior, Achilles, who was
himself killed by Paris.
6.Finally, the Greeks resorted to trickery. Using the
famous ruse of the Trojan Horse, invented by
Odysseus, they infiltrated the walled city of Troy and
sacked it by night. (Odyssey references these points)
7. The Greeks committed many outrages against the
Trojans during the Sack of Troy. Foremost were the
killing of King Priam at his household altar, the murder
of Hektor’s baby son Astyanax by throwing him from
the city walls, and the rape of Priam’s daughter
Kassandra in the virgin goddess Athena’s temple.
8. These outrages angered the gods, leading to many
hardships for the surviving Greeks on their way home.
Most importantly, Agamemnon was killed by his wife
and her lover when he arrived home, and Odysseus
spent ten years wandering on his way home from Troy.”

Protected by Ares, Achilles Overwhelms Hector
Painted 1815, Antonio Raffaele Calliano

The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, painted 1760

Sack of Troy, Miquel Bestard, 1492-1633

If we try to imagine what it would have been like to listen to these epic poems
being recited by a bard in a Greek theater during religious festivals that perhaps
were staged from dawn to dusk, we can speculate on the structure of the Iliad.
Many have wondered why the Iliad tells us of the arrival of the ships from Greece
to the shores of Troy when the Iliad begins in the tenth year of the war. Likely
citizens from each of the city-states sat together in the amphitheater, maybe they
waited until the ships from their city-state was mentioned so they could cheer
them on. Likewise, after that is a lengthy chapter describing who fought the
individual battles, maybe those cities that claimed these heroes as ancestors or
their city likewise threw up a cheer for their hometown soldier

The Iliad had a tremendous influence on Greek culture and literature. The Iliad was
quoted extensively in all Greek literature and philosophy, including Plato. It was so
well known that Greek authors would place one sentence allusions to the Iliad, and
all Greeks would know where it came from. Greeks who attended the religious
festivals likely heard these epic poems sung by bards dozens of times. They have
influenced the culture up to the current day, some of Shakespeare’s plays were
derived from the Iliad.

It would be mistaken to say that the Iliad was like a Bible to the ancient Greeks, this
was more of a national origin story. In a warrior society, the greatest sin of a warrior
was to commit hubris, the overwhelming arrogance, the over-confidence, offending
the gods, the foolish act that grabs defeat from the jaws of victory.
In one respect the Iliad is like the book of Genesis, the Iliad describes an archaic
time when the Greek heroes not only talked to and fought with the gods, a few of
the heroes were even offspring of the gods. For example, Achilles was the son of
the goddess Thetis.

Thetis receiving armour for
Achilles from Hephaestus,
Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640

SOURCES used for our video include Professor Elizabeth
Vandiver’s Great Courses lectures on the Iliad and Robert
Fagles’ translation of the Iliad. This Penguin Classics edit of the
Iliad includes an excellent introduction that covers further
many of the topics we have discussed in this video.
You may not wish to read the Iliad straight through like a novel,
maybe you would want to listen to Vandiver’s lectures first. You
can easily skip through the lists of the ships, but the battle
scenes I found interesting, and the lectures helps you to know
what to look for. Personally, I find the Iliad a joy to read.

PLEASE click on the link for our blogs on the Iliad and the Odyssey.
And please click on the links for our other YouTube videos on the
Iliad, and other interesting videos that will broaden your knowledge
and improve your soul.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
YouTube Description has links for:
• Script PDF file
• Blog
• Amazon Bookstore
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