A2 Unit CC10 F390 - Virgil and the world of the hero
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Summary All Iliad Theme Notes - OCR A-Level World of the Hero
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A2 Unit CC10 F390 - Virgil and the world of the hero
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OCR
Notes on all Iliad themes including quotes, scholars' quotes, context.
Themes include:
- Heroism and glory
- Wrath (menis)
- Suffering, death, and mortality
- Portrayal of war
- Self-delusion and false optimism
- Relationships between gods and men
- Fate
- Relationships and Family
A2 Unit CC10 F390 - Virgil and the world of the hero
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Iliad Themes
Heroism and glory
- Characters want to win “immortal glory” and be remembered – kleos. (Some aren’t!)
o Death and glory are inescapably linked. Death is final and therefore life is of irreplaceable value. Yet,
certain acts which may incur death achieve glory that outlives finite life (so long as they are
perpetuated in art)
o “Kleos Aphthiton” – Immortal Glory
o Explicit links:
Sarpedon tells Glaucus of Death and Glory – 12
Importance of being better than forefathers – 4 – Sthenelus says “I say we are far better men than
our forefathers.”
Achilles sings the klea andron in book 9 – plays “a tuneful lyre” and is “singing of the famous
deeds of heroes”.
Helen creates a tapestry in Book 3.
In Book 6, lines 357-8 Helen suggests Zeus engineered her affair with Paris so that in time to
come they may be a poet’s theme for men of the future – “Zeus surely has an evil end in store for
us, intending us to figure in the songs of people yet unborn”.
In Book 9, Achilles tells Odysseus that a man can have trophies and spoils, but he cannot have
life “once the breath has left his lips”. He then goes on to describe the “two courses” that destiny
has left “open to me on my journey to the grave”.
He will either achieve “eternal glory” but be unable to return or live a long life in the land
of his fathers but “my heroic glory will be forfeit”.
o In going to Ilium at all, Achilles has decided to opt for perpetual glory instead of a
modest life. This suggests kleos is more important than life.
o Similarly, in book 6, Hector refuses to leave the battlefield because it would make him
“a coward”; he prioritises honour, pride, and duty over staying safe.
Time is primarily the esteem due to a man from his contemporaries in respect of his status
whereas kleos is glory he wins beyond his lifetime in return for special achievement.
Achilles withdrew from the fighting because of an affront to his time. He returns to win
kleos.
o How you are perceived and remembered matters:
Achilles calls himself “the best of the Greeks”/doesn’t want to back down and be called “a
pathetic little nonentity”.
1 – Nestor can name a long list of “the finest men” – best heroes are remembered.
4 – Agamemnon is worried that people will judge him and would say every quarrel picked by Ag
would end like this.
16 – Patroclus attempts to persuade Achilles back to the battlefield by asking what “future
generations have to thank you for”.
22 – Hector refuses to retreat because he will be blamed and shamed – “it would be far better for
me to stand up to Achilles and either kill him and come home alive, or be killed by him
gloriously in front of Ilium.”
o Characters who aren’t remembered:
6 – Glaucus – “The family of men is like the leaves of the trees [...] one generation grows, the
other fades” – lives of humans are fleeting.
o However, despite this, Achilles returns to the battlefield not to win everlasting glory (though he hopes
his feat of arms will achieve this), but because he holds himself responsible for Patroclus’ death.
o Homer deliberately sets his story near the end of the Trojan war as he could not construct a convincing
epic for a Greek audience about the Greeks’ nine-year inability to take Troy.
- Heroes are clearly distinct and separate from us. (But also, they are not gods)
o They have the opportunity, ability, and courage to win glory at the risk of death. We look up to them
as they did to earlier heroes (e.g., Achilles to Heracles) – Iliad contains references to heroes of past
ages like Theseus.
o While the heroes are mortal like us, they are more than that:
They are inhuman, compared to “lions” or “wolves”.
They can be elemental, like wild air or water or fire (11 – Nestor: “I was after them like a black
storm”; 5 – Diomedes “stormed across the plain like a winter torrent”)
They can be compared to gods – Diomedes in his aristeia in 5 is “something superhuman”.
22 – Achilles charges Hector “looking like the god of war”
, The heroes are Kings and Princes and the freedom of action they enjoy in their principalities is
reproduced on the field of battle. Heroes can be constrained by gods, but not by any
consideration of space, time, weather, or superior numbers.
While these are only metaphors, they are suggested to be remote from ordinary humanity.
We see the heroes as separate from ordinary people as it is only the common soldiers who
catch the plague in Book 1.
o Additionally, except for occasional incidents like the Achaean trick in 10, epic fighting is might alone.
o The distinction between heroes and gods does remain absolute however – When Diomedes attacks
Aeneas in Book 5 when Aeneas is under Apollo’s protection, Apollo says “Think, Diomedes, and give
way!” – Men must remember their place and stay in it.
o Heroic Traits are described in Book 3 in the Teichoskopia
Ag – Helen: “good ruler and mighty spearman”//Priam: “handsome and imposing”
Od – Helen “quick-thinking” Ajax – Helen “tower of strength”
- Glory can be won on the battlefield. (Aristos Achaeion)
o The Trojans may be fighting for a communal cause and the Achaeans to avenge a national disgrace.
However, for the most part, the heroes on both sides fight as individuals in pursuit of individual glory.
This can be shown in the prominence given to the decisive moment of an individual’s death as it
is the moment when the final allocation of glory is made.
o Achilles condemns Ag’s perceived cowardice as it makes him unheroic on the battlefield –
“Agamemnon, unequalled in your greed”/ “eyes of a dog and heart of a doe!”
Similarly, Hector laments the fact the Trojans “make a champion of a man because of his good
looks, not his strength of purpose or courage.”
o 4 – Athena persuades Pandarus to break the truce – “you would cover yourself in glory and out every
Trojan in your debt”.
o 10 – Dolon volunteers for the night raid for the “rich reward” that Hector offers.
o 16 – Achilles wants Patroclus to “win me great honour and glory in the eyes of the Greeks”.
16 – “Even if loud-thundering Zeus offers you the chance of winning glory for yourself. Don’t
entertain any dreams of fighting on without me”.
o 18 – Achilles plans to go onto the battlefield to “win heroic glory” and get revenge.
o Importance of spoils of war:
16 – “So the Greeks stripped the gleaming bronze armour from Sarpedon’s shoulders.”
16 – About Hector and Pat: “the two fought for Cebriones like a pair of lions on the mountain
heights [...] disputing the dead body of a stag.”
17 – Euphorbus tries to fight Menelaus for Pat’s body. (Menelaus kills him). 17 – Euphorbus’
brother is dead “yet I could still wipe away the tears of that unhappy pair [his parents] if I
brought back your [Menelaus’] head and armour”.
o 22 – “It looks well enough for a young man killed in battle to lie there mutilated by a sharp spear” –
Death can be beautiful if you’re young and glorious.
o 5,500 of the 15,000 lines in the epic are taken up by battles which make up over 300 encounters.
- Glory can be won off the battlefield:
o 1 – “meetings of the assembly where men win glory.”
Importance of words – the Iliad contains no fewer than 666 speeches, making up over 40% of the
whole work. (Battle takes up just under 40%)
o 16 – Patroclus to Meriones: “Battles are won by deeds; the council-chamber is the place for words.”
o 23 – The funeral games – public honour and valuable prizes are the goals of the competition.
- Characters question the futility of glory/glory not available for everyone.
o 9 – Achilles: “Cowards and brave men are given equal respect. The same death awaits the man who
does much, and the man who does nothing.”
Similarly, Hector questions the cost of kleos to Andromache in Book 6.
o Most ordinary soldiers are unnamed – there’s no glory for them:
3 – “the Greeks and Trojans were delighted at the prospect of a reprieve from the painful
business of fighting”.
4 – The Greeks and Trojans are described as speaking “as one man: ‘This means dreadful war
and all of the sound and fury of battle are on us again”.
o Characters are humans, not unthinking killing machines. Battle is often presented as a means to an end
and, as the Hector-Andromache scene shows, it is set within a larger human framework.
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