The Warrior Cultures of the Iliad and the American Indian, Bravely Visiting the Enemy Camp

Today we will learn and reflect on the warrior cultures of the Iliad and
the American Indians.
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, nor can we truly understand and
properly interpret the stories of the patriarchs in the Old Testament,
until we realized that these cultures were, by necessity, warrior cultures
that were far less secure and far more brutal than the secure and
peaceful existence we take for granted in the modern world.

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/ynIx-AVI2f8
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) and glory or fame (kleos). Timê is
often translated “honor.” However, its most
basic meaning is the tangible, physical
expression of honor in the form of booty,
gifts, or a particular prize (geras). Kleos can
be translated as “glory” or “fame.” In its most
basic sense, kleos means “what other people
say about you,” what is spoken aloud about
you. Timê and kleos are closely related; one’s
kleos depends to a large extent on the timê
offered by one’s peers. But 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)

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 need to begin by discuss the back story to 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 Acheans 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 Karl 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 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.

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? Scholars in the past century
studied how bards in Eastern Europe were able to memorize long epic poetry, and
they were able to identify memory shortcuts evident in 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.

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? Scholars in the past century
studied how bards in Eastern Europe were able to memorize long epic poetry, and
they were able to identify memory shortcuts evident in 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? Scholars debate this question. We do
know that any works delivered 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.

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.

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 from Troy.”

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.

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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