elpenor_second-lesson-in-ancient-greek-(voices-tenses-verb-translating)-PART-1.pdf

Learning Greek - Lesson 2

link to this page : http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/lessons/lesson2.asp

LESSON 2 - First Part / Second Part

ACHILLES' GRIEF - From Homer's Iliad

History and poetry

W E OWE to Aristotle a crucial distinction between history and poetry,

according to which, the former narrates what happened, while the latter

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Learning Greek - Lesson 2

discerns what might (always) happen (cf. Aristotle, Poetic art 1451a ff).

However, poetry is not a philosophy of history. Poetry just sings a complete

Act, letting us feel in the poet's choice of that certain act and, in all the events

which belong essentially and necessarily to that Act, the meaning of history.

Poetry as such demands instant understanding, understanding as feeling and

action.

The written history of Hellenism began with such a choice made by Homer.

Homer's interest

H OMER confined his Iliad to the last (tenth) year of the Trojan war and he saw

in Achilles' wrath ( µῆνις Ἀχιλλῆος ) the main subject of his poem. In the very

first verse of Iliad we see, that the poet is not interested in the cause and history

of the war as such and in itself. He is interested primarily in two things, the life

of men and the divine will . Singing about Achilles' wrath, Homer would give to

the next generations the related events as an object of admiration, to help them

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Learning Greek - Lesson 2

live a life devoted equally to man and God. What is the meaning of this

devotion?

The protagonist of all being

L OSS of Helen was the cause of war. Loss of Briseis made Achilles withdraw

from the war. Loss of Patroclus was the cause of Achilles' grief and then of his

entering again the war. Homer's main theme is the person ( πρόσωπον , face ). The

protagonist of all being is a person's thirst for a person. By recognising in a

personal relationship the reason of their life, people share the divine life, which

is a personal life too, with Gods relating personally to each other and to each

man.

Ἀλεξάνδρου πρόσωπον

(Alexander's person )

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Learning Greek - Lesson 2

T RADITION wants Homer to be blind. This is not very likely to be true, and yet

it is characteristic. We said that in Homer the protagonist is the person, but,

more specifically, or more foundationally, it is the loss of a person . Helen,

Patroclus, Briseis, Penelope - they are all missing persons, persons to be found

or persons lost forever. We can not offer now a full account of the concept of

πρόσωπον in Homer, but the passage that follows, from Iliad's 18th rhapsody,

will help us see some significant aspects.

The primary thirst of the soul

I N THE 11th rhapsody (verse 608), Achilles calls Patroclus "divine gift to the

thirst of my soul " ( κεχαρισµένε τῷ ἐµῷ θυµῷ ). A gift (= χάρις, χάρισµα ) given

(= κεχαρισµένος ) by God, since Patroclus is δῖος (= god-like and belonging to God ).

Θυµὸς is the spring of the appetitive, irrational, powers of the soul. Θυµὸς can

not be satisfied by a purpose, since a purpose requires intervention of reason .

This is why θυµὸς can be satisfied only by the gift of a purpose, which transforms

θυµὸς to βούλησις (will). The point is, that whoever gives such a gift does it on

purpose, which means that a gift is purposeful as a gift, that for the primary

thirst ( θυµὸς ) of the soul ( ψυχὴ ) to be satisfied, a soul must receive her purpose as

a gift from some other person .

Therefore, primarily, for the one that grants the purpose to the thirst of a soul,

this purpose is generated not as an idea, but as actual will to make someone

content and complete. To Achilles Patroclus is God's gift and embrace , an

embrace that directs Achilles' primary thirst precisely into God, where a soul

can be satisfied.

Patroclus himself as a human person is transformed by this relationship. As son

of Menoetius, Patroclus is just ἄλκιµος (= brave and powerful - see verse 605). He

is recognised as δῖος (= divine, θεῖος ) only by him, to whom Patroclus is given as

a divine gift.

[ Note the word dios ( δῖος ). We translate it as godly and divine, since

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Learning Greek - Lesson 2

literally it means "he who belongs to and resembles Dias ( Δίας ) or Zeus

( Ζεῦς )", the father of Gods and supreme God. Note also that Ζεῦς means

"living and giving life" - compare his name with Zen ( Zῆν )=living, Zoe

( Zωή )=life, etc. ]

Patroclus was addressed by Achilles as God's gift, precisely at the moment

when Patroclus appeared ἶσος Ἄρῃ , equal to Ἄρης (the God of War, adopted by

the Romans by the name of "Mars"). As God's gift Patroclus is the fulfillment of

God's will. To Achilles war had a face - the face of Patroclus, the face of God.

How can we understand this?

Read carefully

[ Now, please note something, think of what we realised reading carefully

in its context just a single verse:

δῖε Μενοιτιάδη τῷ ἐµῷ κεχαρισµένε θυµῷ

Son of Menoetius, divine gift to the thirst of my soul

Whatever history of the Greek literature I might open to read the story of

Achilles, I won't understand even half of what the text itself can give me,

if I read it carefully. Otherwise, I will probably translate, like Butler,

"Noble son of Menoetius, man after my own heart", where Patroclus has

become something like an aristocratic flirt of Achilles', in any case

indifferent to me, indifferent to my life and to all history. Maybe this

indifference, due to the superficial reading of the texts, to the superficial

treatment of our own lives, is the cause of decline of the fascination of the

classical works. ]

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