Troy 6
by CTCWeb Editors
Hunt for Mighty Achilles
When Menelaus discovered that Helen had been taken to Troy, he reminded Helen’s former suitors of their promise to protect the marriage. These men were warriors guided by the rigid Heroic Code (see below), which defined right and wrong, without the ambiguity of dualism. Thus, warriors from all parts of Greece assembled at Menelaus' house at Aulis to help him reclaim his bride. They chose Agamemnon, King of Mykenai, to be the commander-in-chief of the united Greek forces (image). Agamemnon was Menelaus’ brother and the husband of Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra.
The greatest Greek warrior, Achilles (image), was absent from the force of men assembled at Aulis. His mother, Thetis, did not want her son to fight at Troy. She knew that he was destined to die there. Hoping to hide him from the Greeks, Thetis sent Achilles to Deidameia and her sisters, together they are refered to as the daughters of Lycomedes. Realizing that the Greeks could not succeed without Achilles, Odysseus devised a plan to locate him. Having learning from the seer Calchas where Achilles was hiding, Odysseus went to Lycomedes’ daughters bearing gifts.
At first he did not find Achilles. The daughters had disguised him as a woman. Crafty Odysseus attempted to expose which sister was actually the warrior. He tossed gifts of jewels, clothing, and a sword at the women’s feet. Achilles gave himself away as he was immediately drawn to the sword (image). Having unmasked the young warrior, Odysseus persuaded him to fight at Troy despite his mother’s protests and warnings.
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Heroic Code
(Exerted from the Netshot The Classical Origins of the Western World by Roger Dunkle)
The code which governs the conduct of the Homeric heroes is a simple one. The aim of every hero is to achieve honor that is, the esteem received from one's peers. Honor is essential to the Homeric heroes, so much so that life would be meaningless without it. Thus, honor is more important than life itself. As you will notice in reading the Iliad, when a hero is advised to be careful to avoid a life-threatening situation in battle, his only choice is to ignore this warning. A hero's honor is determined primarily by his courage and physical abilities and to a lesser degree by his social status and possessions. The highest honor can only be won in battle. Here competition was fiercest and the stakes were the greatest. Two other heroic activities, hunting and athletics, could only win the hero an inferior honor. An even lesser honor was won by the sole non-physical heroic activity, the giving of advice in council.
The heroic ideal in the Iliad is sometimes offensive to modern sensibility, but what is required here is not the reader's approval, but understanding of these heroic values. One can only understand the Iliad, if one realizes what motivates action in the poem. Indeed, Homeric heroism is savage and merciless. Thus the hero often finds himself in a pressure-filled kill-or-be-killed situation. Success means survival and greater honor; failure means death and elimination from the competition for honor. But victory in battle is not enough in itself; it is ephemeral and can easily be forgotten. Therefore, the victor sought to acquire a permanent symbol of his victory in the form of the armor of the defeated enemy.
Click here to read more about the Heroic Code in the Netshot The Classical Origins of the Western World.
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