The War That Killed Achilles (40 page)
Read The War That Killed Achilles Online
Authors: Caroline Alexander
29
Aethiopis,
in West,
Greek Epic Fragments,
argument 3-4, 113. The many parallels between Achilles and Memnon and their mothers, Thetis and Eos, are discussed by Laura M. Slatkin, “The Wrath of Thetis,”
Transactions of the American Philological Association
116 (1986), 1-24.
Aethiopis,
in West,
Greek Epic Fragments,
argument 3-4, 113. The many parallels between Achilles and Memnon and their mothers, Thetis and Eos, are discussed by Laura M. Slatkin, “The Wrath of Thetis,”
Transactions of the American Philological Association
116 (1986), 1-24.
30
For the ways in which the death of Patroklos corresponds to the death of Achilles, see Jonathan S. Burgess,
The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle
(Baltimore, 2001), 74ff.; and for a comprehensive bibliography of this question, see his note 98, p. 219.
For the ways in which the death of Patroklos corresponds to the death of Achilles, see Jonathan S. Burgess,
The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle
(Baltimore, 2001), 74ff.; and for a comprehensive bibliography of this question, see his note 98, p. 219.
31
In later eras, the extravagance of Achilles' grief invited speculation that he and Patroklos had been lovers. This belief was apparently central to a lost trilogy by Aeschylus (the
Myrmidons, Nereids, Phrygians
) and represented a trend in the fifth century B.C. and later to cast old, established myths in a homosexual light that reflected current social mores. Thus Herakles was made the lover of his companion-in-arms; King Minos became the lover of Theseus; a nephew of Daedalus became the lover of Rhadamanthys, one of the judges of the dead; and so forth. The classic work on the subject is K. J. Dover,
Greek Homosexuality,
rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA, 1989). A late-fourth-century-B. C. tradition devised a passion on Achilles' part for Troilos, one of Priam's sons, who according to authors as early as Ibycus was renowned for his “loveliness of form”; Ibycus, fragment 282.41-46, in David A. Campbell,
Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and Others
(Cambridge, MA, 2001), 224f. The cyclic tradition, significantly, says nothing about this passion, the
Cypria
noting only that Achilles ambushes Troilos at the shrine of Apollo and slays him; West,
Greek Epic Fragments,
argument 11, 79. For the evolution of the story of Achilles and Troilos, see Gantz, vol. 2, 597ff.
In later eras, the extravagance of Achilles' grief invited speculation that he and Patroklos had been lovers. This belief was apparently central to a lost trilogy by Aeschylus (the
Myrmidons, Nereids, Phrygians
) and represented a trend in the fifth century B.C. and later to cast old, established myths in a homosexual light that reflected current social mores. Thus Herakles was made the lover of his companion-in-arms; King Minos became the lover of Theseus; a nephew of Daedalus became the lover of Rhadamanthys, one of the judges of the dead; and so forth. The classic work on the subject is K. J. Dover,
Greek Homosexuality,
rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA, 1989). A late-fourth-century-B. C. tradition devised a passion on Achilles' part for Troilos, one of Priam's sons, who according to authors as early as Ibycus was renowned for his “loveliness of form”; Ibycus, fragment 282.41-46, in David A. Campbell,
Greek Lyric III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and Others
(Cambridge, MA, 2001), 224f. The cyclic tradition, significantly, says nothing about this passion, the
Cypria
noting only that Achilles ambushes Troilos at the shrine of Apollo and slays him; West,
Greek Epic Fragments,
argument 11, 79. For the evolution of the story of Achilles and Troilos, see Gantz, vol. 2, 597ff.
In the modern era, teachers and scholarship have traditionally laid strenuous emphasis on the fact that Briseis, the woman taken from Achilles in Book One, was his
géras,
his war prize, the implication being that her loss for Achilles meant only loss of honor, an emphasis that may be a legacy of the homoerotic culture in which the classics and the
Iliad
were so strenuously taughtânamely, the British public-school system: handsome and glamorous Achilles didn't
really
like women, he was only upset because he'd lost his prize! Homer's Achilles, however, above all else, is spectacularly adept at articulating his own feelings, and in the Embassy he says, “âAre the sons of Atreus alone among mortal men the ones / who love their wives? Since any who is a good man, and careful, / loves her who is his own and cares for her, even as I now / loved this one from my heart, though it was my spear that won her' ” (9.340ff.).
géras,
his war prize, the implication being that her loss for Achilles meant only loss of honor, an emphasis that may be a legacy of the homoerotic culture in which the classics and the
Iliad
were so strenuously taughtânamely, the British public-school system: handsome and glamorous Achilles didn't
really
like women, he was only upset because he'd lost his prize! Homer's Achilles, however, above all else, is spectacularly adept at articulating his own feelings, and in the Embassy he says, “âAre the sons of Atreus alone among mortal men the ones / who love their wives? Since any who is a good man, and careful, / loves her who is his own and cares for her, even as I now / loved this one from my heart, though it was my spear that won her' ” (9.340ff.).
The
Iliad
's depiction of both Achilles and Patroklos is nonchalantly heterosexual. At the conclusion of the Embassy, when Agamemnon's ambassadors have departed, “Achilles slept in the inward corner of the strong-built shelter, / and a woman lay beside him, one he had taken from Lesbos, / Phorbas' daughter, Diomede of the fair colouring. / In the other corner Patroklos went to bed; with him also / was a girl, Iphis the fair-girdled, whom brilliant Achilles / gave him, when he took sheer Skyros” (9.663ff.).
Iliad
's depiction of both Achilles and Patroklos is nonchalantly heterosexual. At the conclusion of the Embassy, when Agamemnon's ambassadors have departed, “Achilles slept in the inward corner of the strong-built shelter, / and a woman lay beside him, one he had taken from Lesbos, / Phorbas' daughter, Diomede of the fair colouring. / In the other corner Patroklos went to bed; with him also / was a girl, Iphis the fair-girdled, whom brilliant Achilles / gave him, when he took sheer Skyros” (9.663ff.).
The nature of the relationship between Achilles and Patroklos played an unlikely role in a lawsuit of the mid-fourth century B.C., brought by the orator Aeschines against one Timarchus, a prominent politician in Athens who had charged him with treason. Hoping to discredit Timarchus prior to the treason trial, Aeschines attacked Timarchus' morality, charging him with pederasty. Since the same charge could have been brought against Aeschines, the orator takes pains to differentiate between his impulses and those of the plaintiff: “The distinction which I draw is thisâto be in love with those who are beautiful and chaste is the experience of a kind-hearted and generous soul”; Aeschines,
Contra Timarchus
137, in C. D. Adams, trans.,
The Speeches of Aeschines
(Cambridge, MA, 1958), 111. For proof of such love, Aeschines cited the relationship between Achilles and Patroklos; his citation is of great interest for representing the longest extant quotation of Homer by an ancient author.
Contra Timarchus
137, in C. D. Adams, trans.,
The Speeches of Aeschines
(Cambridge, MA, 1958), 111. For proof of such love, Aeschines cited the relationship between Achilles and Patroklos; his citation is of great interest for representing the longest extant quotation of Homer by an ancient author.
32
The argument that Achilles' unexpected compromise of the loan of his armor “is the linchpin holding the poem's two halves together” is made by Janko, 310; see also Erbse, “Ilias und âPatroklie,' ” 1-15.
The argument that Achilles' unexpected compromise of the loan of his armor “is the linchpin holding the poem's two halves together” is made by Janko, 310; see also Erbse, “Ilias und âPatroklie,' ” 1-15.
33
Jonathan Shay,
Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
(New York, 1995), 40.
Jonathan Shay,
Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character
(New York, 1995), 40.
34
The incident at Walter Reed is described by Esther Schrader, “These Unseen Wounds Cut Deep,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 14, 2004.
No HostagesThe incident at Walter Reed is described by Esther Schrader, “These Unseen Wounds Cut Deep,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 14, 2004.
1
A knotty question of concern to more literal-minded scholars is why if Patroklos could wear the armor of Achilles, could Achilles not now wear the armor of Patroklos? Perhaps Patroklos had no armor and was not after all a “companion-in-arms,” but a “retainer”? See John Scott, “Achilles and the Armour of Patroklos,”
Classical Journal
13 (1917-18), 682-86. For the view of a mid-twentieth-century man-at-arms, that the preoccupation with stripping fallen warriors of their armor reflects the modern tactic of “recovery battles” to obtain valuable weaponry, see General Sir John Hackett, “Reflections upon Epic Warfare,”
Proceedings of the Classical Association
68 (1971), 13-37.
A knotty question of concern to more literal-minded scholars is why if Patroklos could wear the armor of Achilles, could Achilles not now wear the armor of Patroklos? Perhaps Patroklos had no armor and was not after all a “companion-in-arms,” but a “retainer”? See John Scott, “Achilles and the Armour of Patroklos,”
Classical Journal
13 (1917-18), 682-86. For the view of a mid-twentieth-century man-at-arms, that the preoccupation with stripping fallen warriors of their armor reflects the modern tactic of “recovery battles” to obtain valuable weaponry, see General Sir John Hackett, “Reflections upon Epic Warfare,”
Proceedings of the Classical Association
68 (1971), 13-37.
2
The flame around Achilles' head and his murderous cry have counterparts in other Indo-European myths. See Julian Baldick,
Homer and the Indo-Europeans: Comparing Mythologies
(London, 1994), 84f.
The flame around Achilles' head and his murderous cry have counterparts in other Indo-European myths. See Julian Baldick,
Homer and the Indo-Europeans: Comparing Mythologies
(London, 1994), 84f.
3
The poignancy of this bathing scene is enhanced by its play upon standard epic scenes of hospitality and feasting: “Then when the maids had bathed them and anointed them with oil, / and put cloaks of thick fleece and tunics on them . . . ” (
Odyssey
4.49f.). On such bathing, see Alfred Heubeck, Steph anie West, and J. B. Hainsworth,
A Commentary on Homer's “Odyssey,”
vol. 1 (Oxford, 1990), sub. vv. 3.464ff, 189.
The poignancy of this bathing scene is enhanced by its play upon standard epic scenes of hospitality and feasting: “Then when the maids had bathed them and anointed them with oil, / and put cloaks of thick fleece and tunics on them . . . ” (
Odyssey
4.49f.). On such bathing, see Alfred Heubeck, Steph anie West, and J. B. Hainsworth,
A Commentary on Homer's “Odyssey,”
vol. 1 (Oxford, 1990), sub. vv. 3.464ff, 189.
5
Readers will be entertained to learn that the modern medical opinion is that Hephaistos' condition is due to “bilateral club foot,” a “congenital anomaly”; Christos S. Bartsocas, “Hephaestus and Clubfoot,”
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
27 (1972), 450-51.
Readers will be entertained to learn that the modern medical opinion is that Hephaistos' condition is due to “bilateral club foot,” a “congenital anomaly”; Christos S. Bartsocas, “Hephaestus and Clubfoot,”
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
27 (1972), 450-51.
6
This is Hephaistos' second catastrophic plunge to earth recalled in the
Iliad,
the first being that described in Book One, when the smith reminds Hera of how Zeus flung him from Olympos when he tried to rescue her from Zeus' punishment (1.586ff.). Possibly, these two falls are “doublets” of each other, one being an early “genuine” tradition and the other a late innovation inspired by the first. Of the two, the second seems most likely to be genuine, in great part because of the very ancient mythic pairing of fire and nurturing water, and because Hera's disgust at her son's lameness is related elsewhere: “My son has turned out a weakling among the gods, Hephaestus of the withered legs, whom I myself bore. I picked him up and threw him in the broad sea.” “Hymn to Apollo,” vv. 316ff., in M. L. West, ed. and trans.,
Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer
(Cambridge, MA, 2003), 95.
This is Hephaistos' second catastrophic plunge to earth recalled in the
Iliad,
the first being that described in Book One, when the smith reminds Hera of how Zeus flung him from Olympos when he tried to rescue her from Zeus' punishment (1.586ff.). Possibly, these two falls are “doublets” of each other, one being an early “genuine” tradition and the other a late innovation inspired by the first. Of the two, the second seems most likely to be genuine, in great part because of the very ancient mythic pairing of fire and nurturing water, and because Hera's disgust at her son's lameness is related elsewhere: “My son has turned out a weakling among the gods, Hephaestus of the withered legs, whom I myself bore. I picked him up and threw him in the broad sea.” “Hymn to Apollo,” vv. 316ff., in M. L. West, ed. and trans.,
Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer
(Cambridge, MA, 2003), 95.
7
Other Indo-European examples of the pairing of fire and water are given by M. L. West,
Indo-European Poetry and Myth
(Oxford, 2007), 270ff.
Other Indo-European examples of the pairing of fire and water are given by M. L. West,
Indo-European Poetry and Myth
(Oxford, 2007), 270ff.
8
See, for example, Walter Burkert,
Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical,
John Raffan, trans. (Cambridge, MA, 1985), 167.
See, for example, Walter Burkert,
Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical,
John Raffan, trans. (Cambridge, MA, 1985), 167.
9
The role of the smith as guardian is discussed by Dean A. Miller,
The Epic Hero
(Baltimore, 2000), 260ff., and especially 266f. Hephaistos, by most accounts, has no children of his own; see Timothy Gantz,
Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources,
vol. 1 (Baltimore, 1993), 77f. The smith of epic and legend is typically childless (Miller, 268), a fact that may have to do with the sacred, taboo nature of his art, which may have isolated him from marriage. In 1984, the author witnessed a traditional, highly ritualized iron smelting in Malawi, in Central East Africa, where the smelting site and all immediately surrounding area was strictly taboo to women; the author was excepted as a
mazungu,
or genderless “white person.”
The role of the smith as guardian is discussed by Dean A. Miller,
The Epic Hero
(Baltimore, 2000), 260ff., and especially 266f. Hephaistos, by most accounts, has no children of his own; see Timothy Gantz,
Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources,
vol. 1 (Baltimore, 1993), 77f. The smith of epic and legend is typically childless (Miller, 268), a fact that may have to do with the sacred, taboo nature of his art, which may have isolated him from marriage. In 1984, the author witnessed a traditional, highly ritualized iron smelting in Malawi, in Central East Africa, where the smelting site and all immediately surrounding area was strictly taboo to women; the author was excepted as a
mazungu,
or genderless “white person.”
10
Of the many news stories reporting families' purchase of body armor for their sons and husbands in Iraq, see, for example, Associated Press, “Soldiers in Iraq Still Buying Their Own Body Armor,”
USA Today,
March 26, 2004.
Of the many news stories reporting families' purchase of body armor for their sons and husbands in Iraq, see, for example, Associated Press, “Soldiers in Iraq Still Buying Their Own Body Armor,”
USA Today,
March 26, 2004.
11
Aethiopis,
argument 2, in M. L. West, ed. and trans.,
Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Century B.C.
(Cambridge, MA, 2003), 111. Evidence from vase paintings from as early as the mid-sixth century B.C. and later poetry indicate that in some traditions the arms Achilles carried with him from Phthia to Troy were not gifts from his father but were another set of armor made by Hephaistos and given to him by Thetis. See, for example, Euripides,
Iphigenia in Aulis,
1070ff. The different traditions are discussed in K. Friis Johansen,
The “Iliad” in Early Greek Art
(Copenhagen, 1967), 107ff.
Aethiopis,
argument 2, in M. L. West, ed. and trans.,
Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Century B.C.
(Cambridge, MA, 2003), 111. Evidence from vase paintings from as early as the mid-sixth century B.C. and later poetry indicate that in some traditions the arms Achilles carried with him from Phthia to Troy were not gifts from his father but were another set of armor made by Hephaistos and given to him by Thetis. See, for example, Euripides,
Iphigenia in Aulis,
1070ff. The different traditions are discussed in K. Friis Johansen,
The “Iliad” in Early Greek Art
(Copenhagen, 1967), 107ff.
12
Modern attempts to reconstruct the shield of Achilles have foundered on practical details. The usual heroic shield was made of layers, or folds, of tough ox hide stretched over a frame. The “five folds composing the shield” of Achilles, however, were made of five layers of metal: “the god of the dragging feet had made five folds on it, / two of bronze on the outside and on the inside two of tin / and between them the single gold” (20.27off.). Since in reality only bronze is capable of withstanding the shock of a bronze-headed spear, which would tear through soft tin and gold, the shield's construction appears to owe more to poetry than to fact. On the other hand, the detail and assurance with which the shield's decorative scenes are described suggest that Homer had actual, as opposed to mythic, examples of metal craftmanship in mind. Both “ages of Homer”âthe Mycenaean Bronze Age and the eighth century B.C. Age of Ironâprovide examples of the decorative metalwork suggestive of the shield. Graves of Mycenae have yielded spectacular metal relics of the late Bronze Age, including diadems, breastplates, and ornamental boxes of beaten gold; bronze daggers with inlay of hunting scenes wrought in silver and gold set in blue-black niello; and intricate cloisonné. Photographs of these famous objects can be found in many books on Greek art; see, for example, Sp. Marinatos and M. Hirmer,
Crete and Mycenae
(New York, 1961), plates xxxv-xxxviii, 95-98. Bronze, however, is worked cold, not on a hot forge with hammer and tongs, and in this essential respect Hephaistos most resembles the ironworker. For possible Iron Age models, see note 17 below. Possibly relicsâand memories of relicsâof the Mycenaean Bronze Age inform Homer's description of Hephaistos' art, while the Bronze Age techniques that produced such art were unknown: D.H.F. Gray, “Metalworking in Homer,”
Journal of Hellenic Studies
74 (1954), 1-15. For an overview of the techniques reflected in the description of the crafting of the shield, see Mark W. Edwards,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume V: Books 17-20
(Cambridge, 1991), 201ff.
Modern attempts to reconstruct the shield of Achilles have foundered on practical details. The usual heroic shield was made of layers, or folds, of tough ox hide stretched over a frame. The “five folds composing the shield” of Achilles, however, were made of five layers of metal: “the god of the dragging feet had made five folds on it, / two of bronze on the outside and on the inside two of tin / and between them the single gold” (20.27off.). Since in reality only bronze is capable of withstanding the shock of a bronze-headed spear, which would tear through soft tin and gold, the shield's construction appears to owe more to poetry than to fact. On the other hand, the detail and assurance with which the shield's decorative scenes are described suggest that Homer had actual, as opposed to mythic, examples of metal craftmanship in mind. Both “ages of Homer”âthe Mycenaean Bronze Age and the eighth century B.C. Age of Ironâprovide examples of the decorative metalwork suggestive of the shield. Graves of Mycenae have yielded spectacular metal relics of the late Bronze Age, including diadems, breastplates, and ornamental boxes of beaten gold; bronze daggers with inlay of hunting scenes wrought in silver and gold set in blue-black niello; and intricate cloisonné. Photographs of these famous objects can be found in many books on Greek art; see, for example, Sp. Marinatos and M. Hirmer,
Crete and Mycenae
(New York, 1961), plates xxxv-xxxviii, 95-98. Bronze, however, is worked cold, not on a hot forge with hammer and tongs, and in this essential respect Hephaistos most resembles the ironworker. For possible Iron Age models, see note 17 below. Possibly relicsâand memories of relicsâof the Mycenaean Bronze Age inform Homer's description of Hephaistos' art, while the Bronze Age techniques that produced such art were unknown: D.H.F. Gray, “Metalworking in Homer,”
Journal of Hellenic Studies
74 (1954), 1-15. For an overview of the techniques reflected in the description of the crafting of the shield, see Mark W. Edwards,
The “Iliad”: A Commentary, Volume V: Books 17-20
(Cambridge, 1991), 201ff.
13
Certain features, such as the assembly in the marketplace and agricultural development, are particularly suggestive of the pre-
polis
communities of the eighth century B.C. See, for example, Dean C. Hammer, “ âWho Shall Readily Obey?': Authority and Politics in the
Iliad,
”
Phoenix
51, no. 1 (1997), 1-24, and especially 15; and Gregory Nagy, “The Shield of Achilles,” in Susan Langdon, ed.,
New Light on a Dark Age: Exploring the Culture of Geometric Greece
(Columbia, MO, 1997), 194-208.
Certain features, such as the assembly in the marketplace and agricultural development, are particularly suggestive of the pre-
polis
communities of the eighth century B.C. See, for example, Dean C. Hammer, “ âWho Shall Readily Obey?': Authority and Politics in the
Iliad,
”
Phoenix
51, no. 1 (1997), 1-24, and especially 15; and Gregory Nagy, “The Shield of Achilles,” in Susan Langdon, ed.,
New Light on a Dark Age: Exploring the Culture of Geometric Greece
(Columbia, MO, 1997), 194-208.
14
For the dating of the
Aspis,
see Richard Janko, “The Shield of Heracles and the Legend of Cycnus,”
Classical Quarterly
36, no. 1 (1986), 38-59.
For the dating of the
Aspis,
see Richard Janko, “The Shield of Heracles and the Legend of Cycnus,”
Classical Quarterly
36, no. 1 (1986), 38-59.
15
Hesiod,
The Shield,
144ff., in Glenn W. Most, ed. and trans.,
Hesiod: The Shield. Catalogue of Women. Other Fragments
(Cambridge, MA, 2007), 13ff.
Hesiod,
The Shield,
144ff., in Glenn W. Most, ed. and trans.,
Hesiod: The Shield. Catalogue of Women. Other Fragments
(Cambridge, MA, 2007), 13ff.
17
Significantly, Agamemnon's corselet, with its cobalt serpents and other images of terror, had been given to him as a “guest present” from the king of Kypros (Cyprus) (11.33ff.), and shields and large circular bowls decorated with engravings and hammered relief have been found dating from the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., from Cyprus and Crete. Arranged in circular bands, the scenes of hunting, lion attacks on bulls, pastoral life, and even the siege of a city suggest a pictorial narrative as on Achilles' shield. See Glenn Markoe,
Phoenician Bronze and Silver Bowls from Cyprus and the Mediterranean
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984), 51ff.; and Jan Paul Crielaard, “Homer, History and Archaeology: Some Remarks on the Date of the Homeric World,” in Jan Paul Crielaard, ed.,
Homeric Questions: Essays in Philology, Ancient History and Archaeology, Including the Papers of a Conference Organized by the Netherlands Institute at Athens (15 May 1993)
(Amsterdam, 1995), 201-88, and especially 218ff.
Significantly, Agamemnon's corselet, with its cobalt serpents and other images of terror, had been given to him as a “guest present” from the king of Kypros (Cyprus) (11.33ff.), and shields and large circular bowls decorated with engravings and hammered relief have been found dating from the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., from Cyprus and Crete. Arranged in circular bands, the scenes of hunting, lion attacks on bulls, pastoral life, and even the siege of a city suggest a pictorial narrative as on Achilles' shield. See Glenn Markoe,
Phoenician Bronze and Silver Bowls from Cyprus and the Mediterranean
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984), 51ff.; and Jan Paul Crielaard, “Homer, History and Archaeology: Some Remarks on the Date of the Homeric World,” in Jan Paul Crielaard, ed.,
Homeric Questions: Essays in Philology, Ancient History and Archaeology, Including the Papers of a Conference Organized by the Netherlands Institute at Athens (15 May 1993)
(Amsterdam, 1995), 201-88, and especially 218ff.
18
While the elements that constitute the archetypal heroic journey from withdrawal to returnâa journey to a mysterious place, tests or trials that must be overcome, a symbolic death, and heroic returnâare widely held to be manifest in the “journey” of Achilles, from withdrawal and isolation to reintegration with his community, it should be noted that imaginative rearrangement and special pleading are required to make Achilles fit the archetypeâthat Patroklos is the companion of his lonely journey, that his trial or test (doing battle with the river Skamandros) follows rather than precedes his return, and so forth. But see William R. Nethercut, “The Epic Journey of Achilles,”
Ramus
5 (1976), 1-17.
While the elements that constitute the archetypal heroic journey from withdrawal to returnâa journey to a mysterious place, tests or trials that must be overcome, a symbolic death, and heroic returnâare widely held to be manifest in the “journey” of Achilles, from withdrawal and isolation to reintegration with his community, it should be noted that imaginative rearrangement and special pleading are required to make Achilles fit the archetypeâthat Patroklos is the companion of his lonely journey, that his trial or test (doing battle with the river Skamandros) follows rather than precedes his return, and so forth. But see William R. Nethercut, “The Epic Journey of Achilles,”
Ramus
5 (1976), 1-17.
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