Myrgalen – homepage

Wed. Feb 28

The poem famoulsly begins in medias res, in the middle of things, but really near the end of things, since it is the tenth year of the war. This makes artistic sense, to get to the heart of the matter – “Sing, O Muse, of  the wrath of Achilles” – that is, how must one act to live with honor, and then live with the consequences? It is hard for me to grasp sometimes why Achilles was so often seen by the Greeks as a hero. He seems like a selfish, pouting bully most of the time, always prickly about his honor and not reckoning the cost to others: the Greek army, the Myrmidons, his bosom friend Patroclus, his captives, and many victims. In Book I though, covering a period of 22 days, Homer takes care to set the scene for us, to show how Achilles has been wronged by Agamemnon, his warlord, by taking back the prize awarded to him. He has not just wounded Achilles’ pride, but demeaned his glory, the very thing that gives his life meaning. The glory for which, in fact, he has exchanged the promise of a long, but unremarkable life. It is a bargain would have been understood by any warrior of classical Greece, or of Homer’s time, and probably of the Mycenean Age too. This ethos of striving for excellence and glory in a brutal and unforgiving world is the foundation of the entire poem.