The Iliad: The Cost of Glory and Honour

 The Iliad is one of the most important tales in Greek mythology and while the poem is about battle and war, between the Greeks and Trojans, it’s more than that, it offers strong themes about honour, ego, rage, and the destructiveness of pride. I feel like what Homer is really asking in the tale is whether the pursuit of glory and honour can become destructive when honour matters more than compassion. 

Homer identifies a key value in ancient Greek culture that of kleos and timé, or glory and honour. Kleos is how you are talked about and timé is what you are worth in the eyes of the people. Both are rooted in external validation around social status, wealth, and reputation. A comparable analogy today is social media likes, followers, and viral videos, but the pursuit of honour in The Iliad is more than just fame. It is a zero sum game in that one person's elevation can diminish another person's standing. 

Homer weaves conflict between many different characters throughout the poem, such as the conflict between Zeus and his wife Hera and the other gods, Hector and Achilles, but the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon early on in the poem is pivotal and explains the concept of a zero sum game well. Achilles wasn’t just a warrior, he was the best of the Greeks, truly respected and feared by Greeks and Trojans alike. Homer describes him in Book 2, lines 768-771, “Of men, the best by far was Telamonian Ajax, while Achilles was wrathful. He was far superior, as were his horses.” Even Achilles knew he was far superior and offers a prophecy about the conflict with Hector, “The Greeks will be longing for Achilles one day and you will have no power to help, and you will grieve and many men will die at Hector’s murderous hands. Then you will tear your heart inside you in a bitter rage because you failed to pay the best Greek fighter proper respect.” (book 1, line 240-246). Even though the conflict between these two characters may appear to be about a woman, it’s more complex. Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army and Achilles, the best warrior, wasn’t about who gets to be in charge, they were competing for two different forms of power and wanted to be recognized for it. Both men need each other. Agamemnon needs Achilles to win the war and requires his submission, and Achilles needs Agamemnon to recognize him as the greatest warrior and publicly recognize him as such. Neither man can walk away without losing their pride and sense of status. 

Achilles as he prophesied, withdraws from war, and the Greek army is decimated by Hector, the Prince of Troy and leader of the Trojan army. Agamemnon tries to buy Achilles back on the condition Achilles’ submits to him. Achilles’ realizes that the Greek value system, timé, is flawed and that public honor is meaningless when someone can just take it away. Both men allow their sense of honour to become more important than the collective good, but by now, the destructiveness of pride and its domino effect has already begun. 

The Greeks suffered terribly and the war effort worsened when Hector attacked the Greek ships and tried to burn them. Patroclus, Achilles’ close and life long companion, persuades A
chilles’ to fight and even scolds him about his pride and how it turned him devoid of compassion and inhuman, ”But you, Achilles, have become impossible! I hope the kind of anger you are fostering never takes hold of me- you monstrous hero! How can a person in the future learn anything good from you, if you refuse to save the Greeks from this catastrophe? You have no pity. Peleus the horseman was not your father, Thetis, not your mother. Gray sea and soaring rocks gave birth to you, and so you have an unrelenting heart.” Book 16, lines 20-35. Patroclus rejoins the war, but it ends in tragedy. Patroclus dies in battle by the hands of Hector, who tries to desecrate his body, but the Greeks refuse to give up the body of Patroclus and guard it even while suffering casualties to do it.

Achilles returns to battle with wrath and rage with the realization of what his pride had cost him - the death of his closest companion and the person he loved the most. Achilles brutally kills Hector and brings his body back to the Greek ships to be humiliated in the same way Hector tried to humiliate Patroclus. Achilles’ honour is returned with gifts and his prizes, but it does not make him happy. In fact, he no longer cares for glory, honour or wealth and hardly looks at the prizes that were returned to him. He mourns for his friend, Patroclus, and realizes that while glory, honour and wealth can be restored, his friend cannot, and without Patroclus to share it with, he does not want any of it. He laments while pulling Hector’s lifeless body around the Greek camp trying to erase Hector’s humanity. Through divine intervention, Priam comes to Achilles’ tent to retrieve the body of his son, Hector. Achilles, upon seeing Priam, reminds him of his own father, and sees his grief for his son just as he is grieving his life long companion. Achilles, the greatest warrior that displayed exceptional rage and violence finally shows humanity and compassion and gives Priam his son back for proper burial, but not before Achilles orders his slaves to wash Hector's body, cover him with olive oil and dress it in one of the finest tunics Priam brought Achilles as ransom. Homer proves that honour can become destructive when honour matters more than compassion, but ultimately, it cannot replace our own humanity.