Wedding of Thetis and Peleus: Occasion for/cause of the Trojan War, unites 2 beings whose offspring

(Achilles) will signify the destruction of Troy.

Facsimile of François Vase (570 BCE)

• The gods are athanatoi (sg. athanatos): undying, deathless(from “thanatos”: death)

• Thetis tries to make Achilles immortal: 1) by dipping him in the river Styx (which flows in the underworld); 2) by holding him in immortalizing fire = both are symbolic equivalents

• The figure of Achilles articulates the tension between: – llife and death– mortality and immortality– transiency and permanence– remembrance and forgetfulness

• Achilles’ choice: 1) nostos (safe return) but no glory OR 2) kleos (glory/reputation) but no return home

• The paradox of Achilles’ choice: He must die at Troy to be remembered because to live is to be forgotten/committed to oblivion = in choosing death, Achilles chooses immortality

Iliad Odyssey

Achilles OdysseusKleos, NO nostos kleos AND nostos (gets to have

both!)Exceptional physical strength man of strategyNo real patron god Athena

Helen sitting on Aphrodite’sLap (430 BCE)

Patroklos/Patroclus: cousin, best friend of Achilles //Gilgamesh and Enkiduerastes/eromenos (active, older lover/passive, younger beloved)?

Achilles chooses kleos “public recognition” vs. Paris chooses private gratification

Brothers (embody opposite qualities)

Paris (youngest son) Hektor (eldest son)

destroys his own oikos “household” “he who defends” his oikosand that of others

The Greek and Trojan champions

Achilles Hektor

young single mature family man

Achilles feels menis “anger” (applied mostly to the gods)

Iliad 1

“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,

murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,

hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,

great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,

feasts for the dogs and birds.”