Caroline Alexander takes an in depth look at the famous Trojan War as told in Homer's Illiad and places certain aspects of that war in contex to what people deal with in current wars. Overall she retells the trojan war with an excerpt to point out similarities with war rage, PTSD, as well as a look into Greek mythology and the different story telling method used where fate is more about choice rather than an inescapable end.
Alexander also uses her review of the war to point out that while typical Greek meathods usually extolled the virtues of a hero who went into battle, war, etc. unafraid of demise and whom actually looked forward to it as a way of sealing glory. In Achilles we see the most likely candidate for such a character but after a rift with Agamemnon he continually states his regretes for coming into a war he has little reason or cause to fight, and at one point refuses an "apology" of gold and other treasure from Agamemnon in favor of leaving to go home and live a life without glory. Contrast that to todays societies which often will glorify those that go off to fight wars in foreign lands and sometimes pay the ultimate price. While today's hero's are no less honored the emphasis is placed today on the hope of their swift and safe return rather than death for honor.
The book also takes an interesting look into what maybe described by some as war rage. This look is taken after Achilles close friend Patrocles is killed in battle by Hector. Achilles reacts by going on an epic rage in which he kills numerous trojans without mercy, at one point he comes across a prince of Troy whom he'd previously captured and ransomed back to the Trojans. In this exchange the prince pleads with Achilles to again contact his father in order to obtain another ransom for his release. Achilles states that his mind and attitude has changed and that their will be no escape for him this time and indeed, there is not. Alexander contrasts this with an excerpt from a Vietnam vet in which he talks about draging some VC into a paddy and killing him sometime after a friend had been killed. "I just lost it.... I felt better with everyone of them i killed because I made them feel what they had done to me." It's that same personal attachment that Achilles feels in the war that he is now fully committed to.
The book also goes over the new style of story telling taken by Homer where he tells of the trojan view of the war as seen by Pram, Hector, Paris, etc. In most other tales they would simply be some hethan enemy worthy of being stuck down in the harshest way, but in the illiad Homer portrays them as a people bravely defending their homes from an invading force. Numerous scens show us Hector with his wife and infant son as he laments what will likely be his death before his son reaches maturity. While rather common in todays books and holleywood movies, it was a little less common in 600BC Greece.
Overall not a fantastic read, but not exactly a boring one either. I'd recommend it for those interested in a book about the continuing similarities with mankinds need for war and the symptoms of those conflicts which continue to this day.
-Zach
I remember reading "The Odyssey" in college. Man, was that a hellacious couple of days. Somehow, though, I got through it.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I had a relatively recent translation that simplified the language and made it easy to understand. I've seen some older versions that pretty much were all ... well, "Greek to me" seems like the appropriate phrase in this case.