When we listen to an ancient epic being recited or, as we do in most modern instances, watch a film about some event from the past based on the life and exploits of some hero or heroine who has affected us to the point that they have established for us, deep in our subconscious, a thought pattern that we regard as normal, we know that we have to open ourselves to the mentality and norms of the time if we are to fully understand what the story is about. This holds true not only for story listening, but also for religion, politics, historical, scientific or artistic analysis and indeed any medium that had it's origins in an age prior to our own. Cultural norms and mores change over time as human society advances and evolves. That which was once right for a society becomes obsolete and eventually, forgotten. It is those lasting results of a person's doings that we remember or prefer to remember, because those deeds have changed the world or informed humanity in some way, thus affecting generations for many decades or centuries after. This is how knowledge is passed on as well as those narratives which the majority of people hold as truth, normal, the standard for any society to heed and bear for their moral level. It is natural for any society or group of people to maintain certain practices and beliefs as well as dismiss those that no longer serve a purpose. Those communities that belong to an institution that refuses to reform their views or let go of that which serves no purpose any longer in the current time period finds itself in a situation where the individual is seemingly stuck in a never ending quagmire and dilemma- to maintain the practice or belief there is the price of personal freedom, a price many are willing to pay because the practice and belief gives the individual a sense of being. Nothing wrong with that, I say, as long as the practice or belief isn't forced on anyone else. Certain beliefs about individuals or community values sometimes die hard as people are used to them and may seldom want to question them, even though these values were created long ago in another time, place and culture. The reason they are maintained is because they are held to hold some value for the individuals or the community, and thus, these values live on in the stories of the human beings who inspired these beliefs in the past.
All this brings me to a point of my article, in which I ask the question as to how to attempt better to understand a story or tale which we may find fascinating. We know that in certain myths and stories there is something within the tale that intrigues and fascinates us, inspires us, beckoning us to seek the reasons why we care to hear the tale. In today's world of high digital technology, push button communication and the ease and accessibility of internet swiftness, we have become used to the need for instant gratification, automatic stimulation of the senses, an 'ask and ye shall receive' Alladin's magic lamp kind of expectation that informs us that when we feel the need to be entertained all we have to do is want be entertained. technology does the rest as we play lifelike online games accompanied with the music of our choice. We are absorbed into the lap top or smart phone as we shut the world around us out at will. When we have had enough, we take off the headphones and come back to reality. Yes, we had an experience for sure, a memorable one shooting and killing terrorists or aliens, sinking ships or blowing jets out of the sky, and that's what we expected to do. Again, the marvels of modern technology has given us the ability to live in alternate realms which generations of the past could only dream of. These pastimes are fun, entertaining and they occupies our day anytime we want to take a break and enter the world of fantasy.
What is lacking in these online games, movies and pastimes is something which they cannot provide- a sense of grounding in the shared human experience. In times past storytellers and bards used the power of the spoken word, sometimes accompanied by music, to weave a tale for the listeners. The ancient storyteller had to be an orator, actor, historian and psychologist all at the same time. I use the occupation psychologist along with the others because the storyteller had to feel and analyze the emotions of his or her audience, as in those days a bard was actually an occupation. With all due respect to the wonders of the modern digital age, an online game seldom will affect a participant as an encounter with a living breathing human being who recites and acts, sings and dances to bring an ancient tale to life. As a human being, the bard has to recite well, as this is how the bard brings bread and lentils home. No computer screen cares about bread or beans, nor whether it is turned on or off. In this there is a vast difference between human and machine, and most likely the reason why Homer's Iliad or Odyssey is remembered, still read and studied by succeeding generations while the web address for yesterday's online game, exciting as it was, is forgotten and another is sought. Homer cared about bread and lentils, but he also he cared about the stories he recited and what they represented for and about his society.
Like the great religious scriptures of the world which epitomize the inner soul of the communities from which they sprang, Homer's great works both define and detect the world of the early ancient Greeks, their values and their sense of character. It is for these reasons that the Iliad and the Odyssey were written down, in fact these works were the very reason why the Greeks sought an alphabet, a system of writing based on that Phonecian invention which replaced hieroglyphics with characters that represented various phonetic sounds. Written ancient Greek was born with the creation of Homer's Iliad and with this the literary tradition of western civilization came to be.
The Iliad is no love poem, nor a spiritual quest for the meaning of life either before or after death. This was an age of heroes. The Iliad tells the later part of the story of a war between a coalition of Greek clans and the city of Troy. A queen of Sparta named Helen is abducted by the Trojans and a fleet of thousand ships is launched to take her back. The war drags on for ten years. A stalemate ensues as both sides fight and bloody each other time and again, the Trojans returning to their city and the Greeks back to the safety of their ships after every new encounter. Homer's detailed tale begins in the later part of the expedition, leading up to the final defeat of the once great Trojan fortress. There may be some historical actuality to the notion that a war can come about for stealing a woman. Interestingly, bride capture was a common custom among the early Greeks and other Indo European peoples of southeastern Europe, such as the Illyrians and Thracians who fought feuds among themselves for such acts of banditry. Homer's tale, however, is told as no mere blood feud but as a major war with epic battles and campaign strategy. To the people of the region as with many ancient societies, a person's character was important. The virtues of bravery, strength, cunning and swordplay were held in high esteem, as these were the virtues with which an individual can change the world. We read of these virtues in the Sumerian story of the great king Gilgamesh, in the Persian epic the Shah Nameh, in the Mahabharata of India. The human being becomes more than a mere mortal in these stories, in fact rather more like a neo god with magical capabilities upon whom the gods smile and assist. However, in the Greek stories the characters are indeed human and we are ever reminded of their mortality and fallibility. Even the swift Achilles, well known by readers of the Iliad that he was dipped into a holy river by his mother as a baby to be protected from sword blows, must experience the pains of life, love and lust, eventually meeting death through the arrow shot at him in his tendon on his foot- the place on his body from where his mother held him as she dipped him into the river. Human mistakes and the finality of fate which is the deciding factor in a human being's life are at the heart core of Greek myths and legends. Unlike the literature of other civilizations which attempt to teach and pass on universal truths, Greek literature seems to be a commentary of our humble existence and our experience of living in an uncertain world. Far more important to Greek scholars, poets, writers, philosophers, thinkers was the present rather than the otherworldly. The observations of day to day existence and the facts obtained from this experienced first hand is what they were interested in, and a major reason why Greek science, art, literature was an exact science, art and literature. In the realm of art and sculpture the subjects are recreated in detail and are living beings, whether cut from stone or painted with finesse on the sides of vases and wine kraters. People are portrayed in daily life- men and women can be dancing, cooking, playing music or feasting, competing in the Olympic games or fighting in a battle amid detailed depictions of wounded and expired soldiers. The Gods are human like in their representations, and they have all the attributes- and fallibility of common mortals. The Gods were created in the image of Man in Greece, not the other way around. Indeed, it seems that man created the Gods, so that these Gods had a reason to create Man, for the sole reason that man could recreate himself. In ancient Greece, unlike anywhere else in the ancient world, he did.
Homer's Iliad is as detailed as any painting found on a Greek vase. The story centers around the horrors and realities of ancient warfare, and the combats are described in all their gory glory and bloody boldness. Some 240 deaths are described in detail in this epic story, while the aftermath of the battles gives us a glimpse into the world of massed, armored armies hacking at each other with swords, spears and battle axes along with the effects of arrows shot from bows that take out the eyes of the enemy, or may be deflected by the shining bronze breastplates and shields of the Greek myrmidons, rendering them useless. In the aftermath of any battle, Homer describes the bloodied plain outside the city of Troy, the screams of the wounded are heard, these helpless unfortunates buried under the bodies of the dead which lie in heaps as far as the eye can see. Agamemnon the Greek commander, and the wives, brides and families of the Trojan slain both look on in horror as the plain of the Troad is now turned into a cradle of death and destruction that only Ares the god of war can truly appreciate. That which was once glorious- the heroes in golden helmets and gleaming breastplates, their horses and their weapons, all have been reduced to naught thorough the act of war.
In all of the Iliad we get a sense that character mattered in these times and in ancient Greek civilization. What a man or woman does with the circumstance that fate has bestowed upon them is what matters most, and is the defining factor that decides whether one and their deed should be remembered or forgotten. Thus the characters in Homer's epic have different personalities, just as in real life different people have different personalities. Agamemnon is criticized as being selfish, seeking only personal gain. When battle is drawn he orders firth his legions but commands from the rear, while Achilles is ever ready to spring forth and fight with the enemy. The two develop a hatred for the other, and this is the genius of Homer the author and storyteller, who sets the standard for character development in later Greek plays and in poetry. Achilles is self absorbed and centered, yet while he is ever ready to fight and slay his opponent, he too has a human side. He fights them slays Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam. He ruthlessly ties the body to a chariot and drags it around the city walls for all to look on in horror. Priam begs Achilles for the body and in a moment of tender caring and deep respect, he hands over Hector's corpse for a fitting burial, as Achilles greatly respected his opponent. All through the work and in other sequel tales to the Iliad we see Achilles as both a monster and at times a compassionate human being with feelings. Clearly, Achilles has some psychological issues and Homer delves into that science in detail in his works, fascinated by the human mind and the way in which operates. The Iliad is a tale of war in all it's explicit horror to be sure, but it is also a a commentary about the futility of the institution itself, the original anti war novel. As a piece of social commentary this book is a foundation for the later Greek plays which also denounce the futility of war and the glory that men seek through it, such as in Euripides' The Trojan Woman or the comic Lysistrata of Aristophanes. Social commentary through the arts is another great contribution to human social understanding we owe to the minds of those ancient Hellenes.
The ancient Greeks saw Man at the center of the universe, and in this we might want to conclude that their legacy is one that put selfishness, personal ambition and the achievement of one's visions as priority in life, unlike other societies that told Man to heed nature and the Gods that manifested themselves through those forces of nature. These religious minded societies willingly relinquished power and control to otherworldly forces and through their religious teaching taught that one should practice restraint and abstain from too much in life. Greek thought was quite the opposite and had no room for contemplation of something that could not be seen or proven logically or with reasoning. Yet Homer, in his Iliad, tells us that we are indeed but human, and not gods. We have attachments that go beyond loyalty to one's clan or nation. While Achilles or Ajax can and will go firth to defeat their foes and kill or maim them for the glory of their personal selves or their country, they do possess and display the human feelings of compassion and caring. Homer includes this aspect of being human in his work, which reflects the very personality of his people. This has been a pattern carried throughout history, if we study western history in general. The West has been bloody and conquering, oppressive and seemingly indifferent to the feelings of the rest of the world. Yet it has been the West that has brought about some of humanity's greatest and most beneficial social achievements- democracy, humanism, secular government, rule by the people according to the people, the free press and the respect of differing opinions, free choice in religious matters, the list goes on. While imperfect, the West has been moving through a social revolution since the days of classical Athens. The slavery issue is a perfect example. While slavery was part of Greek society thus western European society as well, it was the West that debated and fought over the question of slavery and eventually brought about it's end. It was this ability to think and debate, based on the ancient Greek tradition of critical thinking, that brought about change in society time and again in so many social issues. This is what Homer captured in his works, the honesty of being human, knowing that we are all fallible and imperfect, and that it is up to each of us to face life and deal with whatever we are facing. We all have an Achilles tendon. It is up to us to learn what and where that is, and reinforce that weakness by becoming humble. In other words, basically human.
So when we listen to the telling of an ancient tale, we should try to discard our present accoutrements for a short while. We must try and desist from being the modern, spoiled people we are for the moment and try and place ourselves in the time and era of the tale being told to us. We can close our eyes and pretend we are there with the great heroes, those intrepid men and women who performed miracles of the body and the mind, miracles that any of us can perform if we had to. When we listen to the bard recite, we can see the heroes, feel them, smell them, touch them, become them. This is the beauty of the ancient myths and legends, especially the ancient Greek tales, in that they are stories that are human, about humans, of human victory and defeat, achievement and failings, human endeavor and striving. According to Homer, whether we win or lose is not really important. Rather, we should be concerned with how we live our lives and what we make of this, our only time passing in this realm we call our Cosmos. We are at the very center of it. I have to thank you Homer, every time I read your work or recite your beautiful stanzas, for continually reminding us about our true selves, our shared humanity.
