- How does the Prologue characterize Gilgamesh as a king and as a man? What features does the text emphasize?
- In what ways does the harlot Shamhat “civilize” Enkidu (beside the obvious)? What are the signs of his “civilization”? What do these changes say about the nature of “civilization in ancient Mesopotamia?
- What is the nature of the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu? How does each compliment the other?
- What about the women in the story: Ninsun, Shamhat, and the goddess Aruru? How do they move the narrative forward?
- Why do Gilgamesh and Enkidu pursue their first adventure? What do they hope to gain?
- As always, come up with one or two questions of your own, or passages you’d like to discuss.
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The Revenge of Achilles
My discussion is going to touch almost all the three books (XVIII, XXII and XXIV) in the Iliad, and is respectively about i) the death of Patroclus which drives Achilles to go to war with Hector, ii) the confrontation between Achilles and Hector which ends by Hector’s death and iii) the intervention of gods so that Achilles releases Hector’s corpse to Priam, his father. In these books, the conflicts between humans and divines as well as between humans themselves can be clearly noticed in some passages.
When Antilochus announced the death of Patroclus to Achilles, his rage went up as if it was the straw that broke the camel (XVIII, 23-38). Achilles and Hector were both known to be strong heroes, so each one’s parent fears his son to lose glory. Thetis’ reaction, Achilles’ mother, is like any mother who fears to see her son committed to sacrifice his life. She knows that she has to seek reinforcement for his son, and she did so from Hephaestus (XVIII, 137-146) because she wants to see him back glorious. Hector’s family fears the same way to lose glory when he faces Achilles, his father and mother as well as his wife begged him to not confront with Achilles. The negotiation that Hector proposes to Achilles is not credible for a hero (XXII, 306-315) who cannot give up in front of his enemy for any reasons.
All the gods react almost very weakly, they look most like kings than divines, they are not neutral instead they were divided between them, some supported Achilles while others Hector, there was none punishment from any of them to either Achilles or Hector. Many of them contribute to Achilles’ victory, for example when Iris asks Achilles, despite his armor being held by the Trojans, to be courageous and go to the war (XVIII, 208-209). The reaction of Zeus in book XXIV, describes most likely his weakness as a king of all the gods, he should prevent what happened instead of intervening so that Achilles gives back Hector to his father. The passage (XXIV, 70-82) between his wife Hera and him tells us more about his weakness to convince her.
Did really Achilles revenge the death of his friend when dragging Hector’s corpse, I think no because, even though it is in a context of war, violence cannot be resolved by violence instead it will increase rage. However, I would consider it true if Achilles did not take gifts from Priam, (XXIV, 244-254) but did it just because Zeus had asked him to do it.