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The Iliad as heroic poetry
been spear-proofed in the waters of Styx, nor that Telamonian Aias was
vulnerable only in the armpit. Special weapons that bear their own names
fall short of magic ones but confer advantage on their wielders, by implication
at least. Siegfried wielded Balmung; Roland, Oliver, and Charlemagne
all christened their swords. Roland could not recognize defeat until his
Durandel was shattered. The nearest the Iliad comes to a named weapon is
the TTnAias |ieAir| of Akhilleus, and it is significant that this is properly a
thrusting spear that never left its owner's hand; one cannot have strong
proprietorial feelings towards anything so easily lost as a missile weapon.
But neither Akhilleus' spear nor Odysseus' bow, another weapon that only
its owner could wield, appears to have any exceptional properties (cf. the
fantasies detailed by Bowra, HP 149-54).
The hero then must epitomize force. Every major figure in the Iliad
is given a rampage, an aristeia. A berserker is etymologically a frenzied
Norse warrior, but battle frenzy (often illustrated by comparisons with
ferocious animals, as in the Iliad) infects most heroes. Hektor's fury at
15.607-12 is a fine example, complete with blazing eyes and froth at the
lips. Achaean warriors feel zest, xocpliT), and are inspired with uevos. Heroes
who fight monsters or personify extreme violence use the club (Rainouart
in Old French epic, Marko Kraljevic, Bhlma). There is an obscure instance
in the Iliad, Ereuthalion (7.141), in one of Nestor's reminiscences. The
Herakles of realistic heroic poetry who fought at Pulos and Oikhalia used
the bow, the hero of the labours the club.
Where a tradition presupposes a heroic class there can be a complication,
for in a group where spheres of competence overlap each member must
assert his right to membership by achieving his victory in competition with
his fellows. The Greek tradition is unusual in explicitly putting equal weight
on surpassing friends and defeating enemies (see 11.78311.).
The Greek tradition complicates the picture further by bracketing deeds
with words; Akhilleus was taught uuOcov TE pr\TT\p 3 euevou 7rpr|KT'np& TE
ipycov (9.443), and was set off against a hero, Odysseus, who was a deviser
as well as a doer. Odysseus is the outstanding instance of an unusual type
of hero who retains in a realistic form the resourcefulness of the sorcerers
and magicians of non-heroic narrative poetry.
The emphasis on physical force further reduces the possibilities for an
active role for heroines in what are already represented as male-dominated
societies. The secondary role, of course, may yet be important, e.g. the loyal
wife of the absent hero (Penelope), or the actively supportive wife (Guiborc
in the Guillaume~cycle, Kanikey in Manas). To enter the story on the same
level as the heroes heroines must either adopt masculine roles (Amazons),
or excel in masculine skills (Atalante, Brunhild in the Nibelung story), or
commit some awesome deed that would normally require a hero's hand and
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