Andkon is the shining bacon of the 21st century, single-handedly leading humanity out of the uncertain present. Apart from managing the world's best arcade, he writes daily to cultivate the ignorant masses 
The Iliad's Heroic Code as an Embodiment of Nihilism
Oct 14, 2004 @ 22:33The heroic code is the central theme of the Iliad. To its specifications conform all the major characters. Hence, the heroic code is the measuring stick of the worth of someone's life. Our culture (European, including American) has absorbed all too well the Iliad. If we dig deep enough into the Iliad we see the core of the code: simple violence (nothing more) which our own culture has been embroiled in for the last three millennia, including the very present day. To adopt and adapt a famous quote by Nietzsche: when we gaze into the Iliad, it gazes back at us.
What does this have anything to do with the heroic code and two characters? Since I hold that the Iliad is a two-way mirror of modern times, not only can we gain access to the present by comparing it with the past, but also vice versa, the present sheds light on the past. By looking at our own culture not only do we discover remnants of the Iliad but how our own culture defines and uses the Iliad. But before discussing the latter, I must prove the former that the heroic code is in fact ingrained in our society.
The heroic code while dressed in panoply of clauses from shame to gifts is nothing more than a code justifying unnecessary aggression. As simple-minded it might seem, the central truth of Greek heroic code is: kill. After the fluff is dusted off, it's merely a support for bloodthirsty regimes, for example, that of the Greeks and our own modern times. Our cultural spiral (or rather centuries old stagnancy) and returning to war before the dead can be buried from the previous has been inspired by the Iliad. As a part of the heroic code, difficulty apologizing and making amends for wrongs is just as hard for our leaders today as it was in the time of the Trojan war. Agamemnon in his complete arrogance refuses to give back to Achilleus Briseis:
Agamemnon completely avoids talking about his misdeed (which only then sparked Achilleus' childish tantrum). As Agamemnon only gives amends to Achilleus when he is needed for war in a later book of the Iliad, Bill Clinton only admitted his lie under oath when it was politically suitable for his survival. To appear steadfast, George W. Bush to this day has not apologized for plunging America into the Iraq war, despite the fact that the original reasons for war have been proven to be bogus. Just like Agamemnon at the beginning of the Iliad, he's adamantly "sticking to his guns."
Trash talking is exactly the same now as back in times of the Iliad. Instead of building cohesion within a country, partisan groups divide. These smaller taunts that do not culminate in death are easily seen in the exchange between (yet again) Achilleus and Agamemnon, "the everlasting gods ... / have not given him [Achilleus] the right to speak abusively" while Achilleus responds just as arrogantly, "I for my part have no intention to obey you" (1.290-1; 1.295). With all three presidential debates under our belts, partisan catchwords and labels have intensified from their already suffocating levels. How many times have we heard "tax-and-spend liberal" applied to Kerry or Bush's supposed "grave error of judgment" both presented in the similar self-righteous manner as Epeios before his boxing match via "I am the champion" (23.669)?
Stripping of the armor for the Greeks is symbolic of how losers of World War I (and previous European wars) were treated. After a country is defeated (dead), just like a soldier on the battlefield, it is stripped of the land and borders (clothes). Mistreating the dead and enemies (by harsh treaties) is just one relic that remained in European thought for millennia thanks to this Greek poem.
Heroic games, seemingly innocuous enough, are the most damning indictment of the violent nature of the Iliad and our own culture which readily apes it with great glee. We still value sports. No, we deify sports. Our true values are not promoting peace, but muscular strength. Sport stars are paid millions while researchers and scientists remain underfunded and underpaid. (If not, then which scientists are superstars?) But in an age where a push of button can now achieve what thousands had to by hand just a hundred years ago, for what use is all this brute force? It still considered a great honor for a family to send its sons and daughters into a branch of the military. In fact, one of my fellow classmates received a full ride to a distinguished military academy and got a standing ovation at a school assembly announcing the fact. Our culture still values those who are trained to kill over those who want to promote life. Even if we look at the military as defensive (and oddly all countries view their military as such), its main goal is to instinctively teach killing. Did anyone get a standing ovation who received a scholarship in the sciences who might be on a team that develops the genetic modified crops which might help to eliminate hunger for billions of improvised bringing about peace faster than dropping bombs on civilians? I must have missed that standing ovation! Is it just a coincidence that the war-hawk Nazis were the most receptive hosts of the "virtuous" Olympic Games in 1936, a mere three years before all Hell broke loose on that fateful day in the dawn of autumn?
Even in the realm of the non-violent, non-athletic world, those who conquer are listed among the victors courtesy of their fame and money. When computers are mentioned, the first name that comes to our minds is Bill Gates. However, those who create are not respected, but those who simply monopolize are. Does anyone know the name of the man who created the World Wide Web as a personal project and made no profit?
Most people would contend that our culture consists primarily of Judeo-Christian values and not (as I argue) purely violent ones. The two basic tenets of Christianity, according to its founder, manifest themselves in "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "dell all you have and follow me." Every single President that has been in office who led America into conflict was a Christian. And yet, they did not seem to be able to follow the very words of the man they proclaim to be God. War is still the solution to our problems, despite Jesus' clear call for peace. Inherently undemocratic capitalism is still the law of the land, despite Jesus' clear call for a communal life, as the early Christians so aptly followed. It's as if our leaders are reading straight out of the play book of the Iliad.
Some would contend that such needless violence is not the result of any book, heritage, or society. I beg to differ. The palace of the semi-legendary Minos at Knossos had no walls or fortifications, so say the archaeological records. Hence, they were a peaceful people, though certainly not ignorant of others as they were active traders, wealthy at that, who actively engaged with others. Then, the barbaric (lingual irony fully intended) Mycenaeans invaded and burnt Knossos to the ground, destroying a thriving civilization, essentially just because they felt like it. Their sons then went on to fight in the Trojan War.
Fine, fine! The Iliad is shameless in its bloody violence and our current ills can perhaps be traced back to it. What about the two characters? The real gist of comparing the Iliad to modern times deserves two characters who duel at the end, Achilleus and Hector. At first, Hector feels from Achilleus in cowardice ("And the shivers took hold of Hector when he saw him [Achilleus], and he could longer / stand his ground there") but only when Hector realizes that all is lost that begins to fight with all his might ("But now my death is upon me. Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious.") (22.136-7;22.303-4).
The significance of these two characters lies not in their relation to each other, but in the relation of the pair as a unit to the very heroic code their duel vies to uphold. The duel shows that self-preservation is "inglorious" and trying to wreak havoc when all is lost, on the other hand, glorious. The Iliad through its most memorable fight scene unintentionally sheds light on its untenable proposition: the very values that prop up the heroic code call for its own destruction. The Iliad gazes back at us in an unintentional cry, "If you follow this code, then destruction shall befall you." To give justice to Nietzsche, the culmination (the death for the idea) of the heroic code is nihilistic in response to its very own destructive nature. The fact that European culture (which as shown followed this very code precisely) did not have a century without bloodshed in the last three thousand years should be example enough.
Rob on Oct 16, 2004 @ 21:39 wrote