Well, I've learned not to start my new weblog while deathly ill. But I've survived my bout with the Whooping Pox, and am now ready to begin. Again. Properly.
The first book on our loooooooooong list of historical texts is Homer's Iliad, arguably the most famous and influential work of Greek Myth and the cornerstone of western literature, rivaled only by its sequel and sister work, the Odyssey. I doubt that anybody reading this wouldn't know of it, of Paris' judging the Goddesses and abducting Helen, racing with her back to Troy. Of the assembling of a thousand ships from all the kings in Greece to fight for her. Of the immortal Achilles dying when a poison arrow strikes his vulnerable heel. And, of course, of the wooden horse, Odysseus's brilliant stratagem to sneak into the mighty walled city of Troy and destroy it from within.
And the truly amazing part is that none of that actually takes place in either one of Homer's poems. These two books are works of such significance that even the supplementary background material has been a landmark of western culture for over three thousand years. I'm just going to give some basic context in this post, so that we can discuss things in more detail later.
As I said, the Iliad is about the war between Greece and Troy, an ancient city in what is now western Turkey. Paris, the prince of Troy, kidnapped Helen, the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Unfortunately, all the city-states in Greece had agreed to make war on any man who abducted Helen, so Paris had called down the wrath of every army in the civilized world upon his city. Because that's the only way things could get any worse than pissing off the king of Sparta.
The Iliad ostensibly has two story lines. The first is of the Greek warrior Achilles, who had been wronged by Agamemnon, the commander of all the Greek forces, and so refused to fight, going so far as to petition the Gods to destroy the Greeks. He's torn between his duty and his pride, and ponders the doom that had been prophesied about him - to either live a long life of no importance or a brief life that would be remembered in song and poetry written about thousands of years later on the internet.
The second is of the Trojan warrior Hector, the brother to Paris. Hector's story is about the conflict between duty and family. Paris had violated the law of hospitality, the central, sacred rule that defined all of ancient Greek culture, and so, by all rights, deserved to be punished. On the other hand, Paris is his brother, and to harm one's own family, no matter the circumstances, is the one crime even more heinous than violating hospitality.
There are several... dozen... dozen other characters, including Ajax, the second-strongest man in the Greek forces; Odysseus, the Greek tactician; Agamemnon, the leader of the combined forces and his second-in-command, Nestor; Patroclus, Achilles'... special friend; Ajax, not to be confused with Ajax; Priam, the King of Troy; Cassandra, the prophet doomed so that none would ever believe her fortellings; and Diomedes. Oh merciful Zeus, is there ever Diomedes. But we'll talk about him next time.
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