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Wedding of Thetis and Peleus: Occasion for/cause of
the Trojan War, unites 2 beings whose offspring
(Achilles) will signify the destruction of Troy.
Facsimile of François Vase (570 BCE)
• The gods are athanatoi (sg. athanatos): undying, deathless
(from “thanatos”: death)
• Thetis tries to make Achilles immortal: 1) by dipping him in the
river Styx (which flows in the underworld); 2) by holding him in
immortalizing fire = both are symbolic equivalents
• The figure of Achilles articulates the tension between:
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–
–
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llife and death
mortality and immortality
transiency and permanence
remembrance and forgetfulness
• Achilles’ choice: 1) nostos (safe return) but no glory OR 2) kleos
(glory/reputation) but no return home
• The paradox of Achilles’ choice: He must die at Troy to be
remembered because to live is to be forgotten/committed to
oblivion = in choosing death, Achilles chooses immortality
Iliad
Achilles
Kleos, NO nostos
Exceptional physical strength
No real patron god
Odyssey
Odysseus
kleos AND nostos (gets to have both!)
man of strategy
Athena
Helen sitting on Aphrodite’s
Lap (430 BCE)
Patroklos/Patroclus: cousin, best friend of Achilles //Gilgamesh and Enkidu
erastes/eromenos (active, older lover/passive, younger beloved)?
Achilles chooses kleos “public recognition” vs. Paris chooses private gratification
Brothers (embody opposite qualities)
Paris (youngest son)
Hektor (eldest son)
destroys his own oikos “household”
and that of others
“he who defends” his oikos
The Greek and Trojan champions
Achilles
Hektor
young single
mature family man
Achilles feels menis “anger” (applied mostly to the gods)
Iliad 1
“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds.”