So important were Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey to the ancient Greeks that they made every effort to have these epics written down to keep for all posterity. The morals and principles of what Greek society held as important and pertinent were to be found in the verses of these epic tales. Bravery and courage, daring and the quest, the answers to the problems that arise in life and how to deal with them, how to defy the gods and fate and attain glory in this existence all the while performing tasks with a sense of the self can be understood by following the examples and inspiration from the heroes and champions in these tales. The Greeks didn’t create an organized religion or compile books to guide one to the realm of divinity as the Egyptians, Indians, Persians and Hebrews did but rather thought of the human being as the center of the universe. It is therefore the human being who must take notice of his life and surroundings and deal with that which fate deals to him, as our stay here is but a game for those nasty gods who mask the reality of fate. If they indeed exist - for not all Greek philosophers cared or sent time thinking about religion or the gods - they were not beneficial to man but needed to be treated as some kind of genie or entity that could be nice but most of the time were not. Therefore, oh humans, go out and seek glory and encourage the bards to sing of your deeds before death overtakes you. This is the only way in which you can attain immortality.
Homer’s Iliad is an epic replete with detailed encounters between heroes and champions, and ends with the death of Hector, the Trojan warrior. Achilles slays him and ties his naked body to the back of his war chariot and drags him round the city walls, to the shock of the people of the beleaguered city. Princess Cassandra sees visions of defeat but none will believe her. Now however that the great Hector is dead the echoes of doom are heard and the possibility of Troy being destroyed by the invading Greek army as in Cassandra’s visions and dreams becomes a real possibility. At the same time, Achilles turns over the body of his enemy for a proper funeral. A warrior can be cruel but there is honor among warriors who consider their foes equals, military elan an ancient and important facet of war in the ancient world.
Here, the cycle of Aethiopis takes over and continues the epic story. Cassandra and Priam pray to the gods to help them and their prayers are answered, as an army of Amazons lead by the queen Penthesilea and a great force from Aethiopia commanded by the great king Memnon make their way to deliver their Trojan allies. They themselves have their own reasons to come to Troy: Penthesilea, daughter of the god of war Ares, accidentally killed her sister Hypolita while hunting, mistaking her for a deer. She is remorseful and goes to Troy to seek her destiny, on some level perhaps hoping to die herself. She killed so many in battle in her day yet the thought of killing her own sister causes her much despair. Maybe the notion of karmic retribution was investing her mind. Memnon is the son of Eos, god of the dawn, armed with weapons and armor forged by Hephaistos, god of metal working. Glory must be sought and destiny followed, fearlessly, and so he commands a large army and travels to relieve the hapless city.
Aethiopis, supposedly written by Arctinus of Miletus in the 8th or 7th century BC, is an interesting tale in that it is the cycle which tells of the final destruction of Troy and the death of Achilles and Ajax, yet was omitted from the corpus of the Iliad proper. The battle between Achilles and his comrades against the forces of Memnon and Penthesilea stand out as one of the great battles of the entire Trojan war, with Achilles praising both Penthesilea and Memnon as the greatest warriors he had ever to fight, both of whom he slays in hand to hand combat. He honors and salutes the African Memnon and falls in love with the dead Amazon Penthesilea, and his forces rout the enemy and Troy is rendered helpless. Victory for the Greeks is assured. Why this tale was left out of the official Iliad however, is a mystery.
It seems that the tale was targeted by those who wished to establish Greek values and principles, and was forgotten on purpose. In fact, only a few verses of Aethiopis survived. The tale was continually told and retold as oral literature, and the subjects of the story became inspiration for art on a thousand vases and for sculpted friezes adorning the sides of Parthenons and palaces. Yet for centuries, no written documents were produced or, at least if they were written, survived. It wasn’t until one Quintus of Smyrna, in the 4th century CE, many centuries after Arctinus when the Greek classical world had fallen and a new power, Rome, commanded the Mediterranean, was the cycle officially compiled as The Fall Of Troy or the PostHomerica. Quintus wrote the whole story down, in two books, perhaps from the oral tradition or perhaps from some lost written documents which we no longer possess. He wrote and included not only the gory details of battle and the one on one challenges between bigger than life heroes, but also detailed the human emotions and the passions of the event. Penthesilea’s loss of her sister is described, and we get a sense of the mental and emotional anguish she was going through at the time, which she resolves by taking up the sword to challenge the greatest of champions, Achilles. The mighty hero’s male sexist ego and psyche is also examined as it is a well known aspect of this tale that after slaying Penthesilea, he falls in love with her astounding beauty, albeit her lifeless corpse, to the astonishment of his comrades. He thinks about how his life could have been if he and Penthesilea could live as ordinary human beings, marry and raise a family together. While dreaming and thinking as he fondles her lifeless body, his comrade Thersites comes along to awaken this ancient Don Quijote from his dream state, and begins to gouge out the Amazon’s eyes. Achilles kills him with one sweep of his sword, warning the others to not venture near her. What he could not posses in life he must have in death. Such is the deep introspect that Quintus begs his readers to ponder, delving deep into the psyche of the patriarchal Greek mindset of the day. In the duel between Achilles and Memnon, the gods turn the two foes into giants so all can see, acknowledging the immense importance and significance of the fight. This honoring of a non Greek, African king goes against the accepted notion of how Greeks thought of all foreigners as vavaros or barbarians. Ancient Hellenic society thought poorly of women and foreigners, yet this tale honors those women and foreigners who were virtuous and principled, and would dare to seek their destiny as individuals. Thus the Greek belief that the human was the center of the Cosmos is what is important here. A human being is more important than a women or an African, or a Greek for that matter.
Quintus of Smyrna was clearly an important author among ancient writers, perhaps not widely known but unique and important indeed. Quintus was an author in the tradition of the ancient bards such as Homer who caused us to think and explore our deepest inner feelings and emotions, a true artist indeed, a spokesperson for our hearts and souls voicing those thoughts we may fear to voice ourselves. He would be imitated by writers in the future who came after him, those genius writers who feared not to venture into the darker sides of humanity, such as Edgar Allen Poe, Eugene O’Neil or Charles Baudelaire. Quintus wrote in the ancient epic, bardic style, yet included psychological and emotional study within his verses for all to ponder. In discovering Quintus of Smyrna I believe that we have uncovered the likes of a literary genius who has remained virtually unknown by both literary scholars the general public for centuries.
Photo: The Challenge
The Amazons Challenge Achilles and Ajax
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