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The Iliad as heroic poetry
is or borders on the criminal (Klutaimestra, Kriemhild) - the moral ambiguity
of heroines is even clearer than that of heroes.
There must be moral force to complement physical force, but this is a
factor that requires scale for its full development. Tenacity, for example, is
convincing in a Jason or an Odysseus, but is not really conveyed by the bald
statement that the hero languished e.g. for x years in a Turkish prison. The
moral stature of the hero is clearest when he confronts death. He risks death
all the time, and in his noblest incarnations he chooses to die rather than
live in the shadow, as he sees it, of disgrace. 'Men say he could have escaped,
but he turned his horse to make a stand' is one of the themes of South Slavic
heroic poetry. A refinement of this theme is to forewarn the hero of his
danger, so that he chooses to enter the fight in the knowledge that he
is doomed, like Akhilleus or the Serbian Tsar before Kosovo. Or, if the
hero rejects advice and warning, realization comes at the moment of crisis,
as it does to Roland and Hektor.
(d) Egotism and oceiKsa epya
Heroic qualities are morally ambiguous because they are excessive. Roland
was too proud to summon aid; Akhilleus was too sensitive to insult to
accept compensation and driven by that excessive sensitivity to abandon
his own side. The Iliad regards this attitude sympathetically from the standpoint
of Akhilleus, so that we do not immediately notice that the same
sensitivity to slight inspired the treachery of Ganelon in the Chanson de
Roland or that of Vuk Brankovic at Kosovo. Roland's heart was 'hard and
proud' (verse 256); Akhilleus is rebellious, without pity (16.33), obdurate
(9.678), impatient (19.1991!.), vindictive (22.395) and fractious (1.177); his
terrible temper is ouAo|i6vr|, not admirable but awesomely implacable.
The Iliad is more helpful than most epics in exposing the social foundation
of heroism. Unless their heroism is pure pursuit of fame heroes are champions
who fight for their people. To induce them to do so society punishes
them with disgrace (22.104-7) or rewards them with honour (12.310-21).
Fame is an aspect of honour; it may reach heaven and continue after the
hero's death. Fame is a universal motive, but Greek is unusual in stressing
its primacy. 'They choose one thing above all others,' said Heraclitus (fr.
29 Diels), 'immortal glory among mortals.' When other claims threaten to
arise the heroes resolutely put them aside. Neither wife nor mother can sway
the heroic mind; Hektor firmly dismisses Andromakhe (6.486ff.), Akhilleus
Thetis (18.796°.). 'Immovable once his decision is taken, deaf to appeals and
persuasion, to reproof and threat, unterrified by physical violence, even by
the ultimate violence of death itself, more stubborn as his isolation increases
until he has no one to speak to but the unfeeling landscape, bitter at the
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