Iliad

The Iliad (Greek ?????, Ilias) tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium, i.e. the Trojan War, and is, along with the Odyssey, one of the two major Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, a blind Ionian poet. Scholars dispute whether Homer existed, and whether he was one person, but it is clear that the poems spring from a long tradition of oral poetry. The Iliad and the Odyssey are traditionally dated to the 8th century BC, but many scholars now prefer a date of the 7th century BC (e.g., Martin West) or even the 6th century BC (e.g., Richard Seaford). The epics are considered to be the oldest literary documents in the Greek language, though the classical Greeks thought that the works of the poet Hesiod were composed earlier. The word Iliad means "pertaining to Ilion" (Latin Ilium), the name of the city proper, as opposed to Troy (Greek ?????, Troia, Latin Troja) the state centered around Ilium, over which Priam reigned. The names are often used interchangeably.

The relationship of Achilles and Patroclus

In Classical Greece, and especially in Hellenism, the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus was often seen as pederastic.

Related Topics:
Classical Greece - Hellenism - Pederastic

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Aeschylus in his tragedy Myrmidons assigned Achilles the role of erastes or protector, since he had avenged his lover's death even though the gods told him it would cost him his own life, and Patroclus as eromenos. However Phaedrus asserts that Homer emphasized the beauty of Achilles which would qualify him, not Patroclus, as eromenos.

Related Topics:
Aeschylus - Myrmidons - Phaedrus - Homer

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Plato wrote the Symposium about 385 BC, and by then an established tradition viewed Achilles and Patroclus as lovers. However there was still debate as to whether this was Homer's intention or not. Aeschylus, who wrote a century earlier in his popular tragedy Myrmidons, clearly regarded the relationship as sexual. He tells of Achilles visiting Patroclus' dead body and criticizing him for letting himself be killed. In it Achilles speaks of a “devout union of the thighs”. This reading was the common view at the climax of the Hellenistic era, though it was not shared by all.

Related Topics:
Plato - Symposium - 385 BC - Hellenistic

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Evidence of this debate is found in a speech by an Athenian politician, Aeschines, at his trial in 345 BC. Aeschines in placing an emphasis on the importance of pederasty to the Greeks argues that though Homer does not state it explicitly educated people should be able to read between the lines. “Although (Homer) speaks in many places of Patroclus and Achilles, he hides their love and avoids giving a name to their friendship, thinking that the exceeding greatness of their affection is manifest to such of his hearers as are educated men.” Most ancient writers followed the thinking laid out by Aeschines.

Related Topics:
Aeschines - 345 BC - Pederasty

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Since Homer does not use the terms “erastes” and “eromenos”, it has been argued that their relationship was not pederastic but rather egalitarian. In his Ionian culture it appears homosexuality had not taken on the form it later would in pederasty. However some scholars, such as Bernard Sergent, have argued that it had, though it was not reflected in Homer. He asserts that ritualized man-boy relations were widely diffused through Europe from prehistoric times.

Related Topics:
Egalitarian - Ionian - Bernard Sergent - Prehistoric times

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It is impossible to designate the roles found in the Iliad between Achilles and Patroclus along pederastic lines. Achilles is the most dominant. Among the warriors in the Trojan War he has the most fame. Patroclus performs duties such as cooking, feeding and grooming the horses, and nursing yet is older than Achilles. Both also sleep with women. Nonetheless the emotion between the two is obviously intense love. Achilles is tender to Patroclus contrasted to his arrogance to others. Typically warriors fought for personal fame or their city-state. But Achilles emphasizes his relationship with Patroclus above all else. He dreams that all Greeks would die so that he and Patroclus might gain the fame of conquering Troy alone. After Patroclus dies he agonizes touching his dead body, smearing himself with ash, and fasting. It was not until his desire for revenge to kill Hector who had killed Patroclus that he would fight again; fully aware that the gods warned him it would cost him his life.

Related Topics:
Trojan War - City-state - Troy

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Attempts to edit the text were undertaken by Aristarchus of Samothrace in Alexandria around 200 BC. He has been called “the founder of scientific scholarship”. He believed that Homer did not intend the two to be lovers. However he did agree that the “we-two alone” passage did imply a love relation and argued it was a later interpolation. But the majority of ancient and modern historians have accepted the lines to be an original part.

Related Topics:
Aristarchus of Samothrace - Alexandria - 200 BC

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It must be borne in mind that the Iliad as we know it was composed before around 700 BC out of far older traditional materials; our knowledge of Greek attitudes toward homosexuality, however, comes from the classical period, several centuries later. Many modern Greeks, who are now Greek Orthodox and uphold a religion that views homosexuality as sinful, interpret the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus as platonic, because Homer does not include a sex scene between the two. They suggest that Achilles and Patroclus are cousins who have grown up as brothers in the same household. That relationship, and the guilt Achilles feels for Patroclus's death, would seem to be sufficient to explain both their closeness and the rage for vengeance felt by Achilles, the younger of the two. Of course many academic studies dismiss such notions of mere platonic love with additional artifacts indicating ancient Greeks prefered their warriors to be homosexual lovers. Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece.

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