I have a little Greek. Not very much, enough to know the letters, some grammar, some vocabulary. I can poke my way through the text and figure out what it means, generally. It seems to me a shame, however, that I have not read my favorite author in his original words. I’m going to rectify this. Would you like to read along?
If so, you can get the Greek text at the Perseus Project. Here’s the first line:
μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω ἈχιλῆοςIt starts with a command to the goddess. Sing! (ἄειδε) It’s an imperative. Sing what? The wrath of Achilles. But Achilles isn’t seen until the last word of the first line. Literally (with a weird word order)
Wrath sing! Goddess Peleus’s Achilles’
Wrath and Achilles contain the whole singing, the whole epic, between them.
Let’s dig into the word μῆνις/wrath for a bit. The LSJ (Liddell Scott James) lexicon says it means the wrath of the gods. This is an interesting twist. Achilles isn’t just angry or wrathful, he’s angry with the specific wrath of gods. See Iliad 5:34 where Athena says to Ares “Let Zeus give glory to either side he chooses. We’ll stay clear and escape the Father’s rage.” (Διὸς δ’ ἀλεώμεθα μῆνιν;) (Fagles trans.) It’s the same word, but is used there to refer specifically to the anger of Zeus. Achilles is godlike in his wrath.
Right in the first line we are given hints that Achilles is not just an angry petulant soldier. His mania/wrath is different. As Ajax will say to him later, anyone else would take Agamemmnon’s money and let bygones be bygones, but not Achilles. I don’t think you’re reading this book right if you don’t realize this.
What makes it different? The fact that Achilles is half-divine, that he can taste an immortality that he can’t actually share. Doomed to die but knowing immortality. It makes it different. It’s harder for the human to die than it is for the antelope. We, being on the border of eternity, know what we’re losing.
Shall we keep going? At this rate I’ll be done in about fifty years.
Hey, Karl!
Dr. Burgess recommended checking out ‘At The Existentialist Cafe’ so I’m reading that. Got the book already. Featuring one of your favorites: Sartre, not! I actually don’t mind him or Heidegger or Kierkegaard.
I tell you, this won’t take a month to read. So I might take your advice, like I do with deadlifts!
~Rye
I just listened to your guest appearance on the Ascend: The Great Books Podcast for Book 3 of the Iliad. I’m inspired to look into strength training now. I’ve been away from the gym for far too long.
Regards,
Crypto Catholic Crow
Glad I could help!
By the way, search for “The Karl Schudt Show” on your favorite pod catcher. It’s a new thing I’m doing.