Homer and the Will of Zeus

5/28/2018 Homer and the Will of Zeus

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Homer and the Will of ZeusAuthor(s): Joe WilsonReviewed work(s):Source: College Literature, Vol. 34, No. 2, Reading Homer in the 21st Century (Spring, 2007),pp. 150-173Published by: College LiteratureStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25115425.

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Homer nd theWill of ZeusJoeWilson

Joe Wilson isprofessor ofClassical Studies at the

University of Scranton. He haswritten extensively on Greek

and Latin literature, especially on

Homer and Sophocles. His book,The Hero and the City

(1997).

After reading the Homeric poems, andindeed after reading interpretations ofthem, I cannot help asking about Homerand wondering what he thought he wasdoing. (Ford 1992, 1)

Andrew Ford's question haunts all whoundertake the study of Homer, thatmost illusive of figures, endowed withnone of the ordinary predicates of existence,

the putative author, singer, or monumentalcomposer of the incomparable Iliad and/orthe Odyssey, or neither.1 R. Martin has suggested that, in the midst of the intense revisionism that has beset tragedy and comedy,

Homeric studies are still fairly removed fromcritical controversy (1988, 2). Martin seemsoptimistic, especially in light of the workdone in the decade subsequent to the publication of his own book, during which thesplit between pure oralists and virtuallyeveryone else seems to have grown moreextreme.2

Still, Ford's question, while undeniablychallenging, at least offers those who would


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attempt to answer it some hope, no matter how faint, of success, as opposedto questions of authorship and composition, which have raged unresolvedfor centuries. After all, asMartin observed, however the Iliad may have comeinto existence, it is now a text, and that has made all of the difference(1988, 1). A text can be analyzed, if not to discern the putative will of itsauthor, at least to disclose its own methodology.3And we can perhaps dobetter than that. In my father's house there are many rooms. Even thedensest, least skilled, and most haphazard (and I do not mean to suggest thatthe Iliad reflects any such ineptitude) of architects must have included a fewof them in the original plans.4Like Ford, Iwould like to examine what Homer was doing when hecomposed/wrote the Iliad.5 Yet that question, baldly stated, seems too broadfor the scope of the current discussion. Alas, we possess no detailed notesfrom the poet on his methodology. It remains the most axiomatic of axiomsin Homeric studies that the poet never injects himself into his work, andefforts to uncover a historical Homer invariably founder.6 We do, however, have his poem, and we do have his plot. As Nagy observes (and repeatsoften [1979, 35-36, 97-99]), and Nimis (1987, 90) and Richardson (1990)also confirm, the plot of an epic poem is simply the will of Zeus. An investigation of Homer's (or the text's) own intentions can with profit begin there.Moreover, as Redfield carefully argues, following the logic of Aristotle's

Poetics 1451b27-29, the invention of the plot is the invention of a narrativepoem (1994, 58). Homer or the tradition invents the plot of the work; we

may therefore assume that the will of Zeus conforms rather exactly to thewill of the poet?in that the will of Zeus in the Uiad operates to guarantee thehonor of Achilles, the will of the poet must be to do the same.Moreover, thehonoring of Achilles will then condition all of the poet's decisions on the distribution ofkleos, the glory (from kluein, to hear ), gained from oral poetry.7

We can carry the discussion still further. To quote the cogent summaryof Mark Edwards:

Fate, of course, is the will of the poet, limited by the major features of thetraditional legends. ... In an obviously artistic, not religious, motif, Zeus

holds up his scales to determine the decree of fate, and the gods act toensure the fulfillment of such a decree; Poseidon rescues Aeneas for this reason, as it is fated that through him Dardanus' line shall continue (20.300308). On two occasions Zeus considers the possibility of saving a hero fromthe death that fate has decreed (his son Sarpedon, 16.433ff., and the beloved

Hector, 22.167-81), but both times another deity declares this to be exceptional and a bad policy, and Zeus gives up the idea. (Edwards 1987, 136)I offer a slight refinement to Edwards s initial observation: fate is not the

will of the poet, but the poetic tradition, to which the poet must in most


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152 CollegeLiterature4.2 [Spring007]

instances conform, lest he lose all of his authority.8 The poet, however, determines the plot of the poem, and the poet's metaphor for that determination

is the will of Zeus. For example, when Zeus must reluctantly allow the deathsof Sarpedon and Hector, we have ametaphor for the poet acknowledginghis allegiance to a tradition, a tradition to which he must, in crucial specifics,adhere, in order tomaintain his own credibility. Should Sarpedon escape theonslaught of Patroclus, or Hector fall to Ajax instead of Achilles, the poet

would compromise, perhaps fatally, both his tale and his status as a Singer ofTales, to borrow Lord's phrase.

Poetic favor, of course, offers no protective talisman to the characters.Zeus directs his affections precisely

to those characters for whom the poetexpresses the greatest interest, and yet, as Griffin observes, Zeus loves Hectorand Sarpedon, Patroclus and Achilles; but by the end of the Iliad three of thefour are dead, and the fourth will be slain very soon. (1980, 86). Zeus s lovesare the crucial figures around whom the poet fashions his tale, the men

whose death in battle will earn them the kleos aphthiton, undying fame, thatepic confers.9

These observations still leave us with a technical problem. How does thewill of Zeus actually operate in the poem, and how, specifically, does it relateto the program of the poet? How does it guarantee that Achilles will be honored? The will of Zeus makes itsmemorable first appearance in Book 1 :

Sing, Goddess, of the destructive wrath ofAchilles, son of Peleus, which laid pains withoutnumber on the Achaeans, and sent many strongsouls of heroes down to death and rendered their

bodies carrion for the dogs and birds, and the

will of Zeus [bouleDios] was accomplished, fromthe time when [ex hou] the son of Atreus, the lord ofmen, and godlike Achilles first fought in strife. (Iliad 1.1-9)The boule Dios, and the ex hou, offer the initial difficulty. Some ancient

commentators suggested that ex hou was causal, and should be taken in connection with the Kypria, inwhich Zeus is blamed (credited?) for starting theTrojan war in order to relieve the world of excess population.10 Aristarchusrejected this interpretation of the neoteroi and argued that the bouleDios refers

merely to the promise of Zeus toThetis in Book I (Kirk 1985, 53). The Iliad,at first glance, appears to lend support to Aristarchus s view: the will of Zeusdoes not seem to enter into the story until the end of Book I,when Zeuspledges to Thetis that he will honor Achilles. Indeed, that may explain therather independent role of Athena and Apollo in the first book. In subsequent


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books, the two are sent (or their interference at least tolerated) by Zeus tointervene on behalf of the Greeks or the Trojans, or, in the case of Athena'seffort in Book IV to break the truce, on behalf of Zeus himself, (should

thetruce endure, the poem would be over). In Book I, however, the prayer of

Chryses motivates Apollo to unleash a plague upon the Greek camp (1.4352), while Athena's intervention in the quarrel between Agamemnon and

Achilles comes at the behest of Hera, who loves you both, (1.208-10).nThe other view, however, does find support from both the Iliad and the

Odyssey: Agamemnon claims that Zeus stole his wits away in the quarrelover the girl, and Achilles does not contradict him. Indeed, he had suggested the very same thing at IX.377. As Dodds observes, this is no mere use ofthe gods as a fa?on de parler (1951, 3-5). Nor can we simply dismiss

Agamemnon's remark as a facile apology: he does not deny his own responsibility for his actions. Clearly, on Agamemnon's analysis, Zeus has manufactured this episode in the Trojan War as a function of a general plan to workhavoc on the Greeks. The suggestion that Zeus started the Trojan War forhis own purposes finds additional support from the subsequent epic: in theOdyssey Zeus is described as conjuring up a great wave of disasters forGreeks and Trojans alike, at a time before the action of the Iliad, indeed,before the Greeks ever left for Troy (8.81-82).12 The same plan is ascribedto Zeus the summary of the Kypria in Proclus and in the Hesiodic CatalogueofWomen.13

There is away to reconcile the two possibilities. Homer employs the willof Zeus as the motivation for the action of the poem because the traditionof epic, which recorded the afflictions wrought by Zeus on Trojan and Greekalike, mandated it.14Thus he affirms his membership in the tradition. At thesame time he claims his own originality by taking the traditional boule Diosand altering it to fit his own story and provide not merely the plot of his epic,but a mechanism for the poet to enter into the story.15 The poet neverdeparts from the traditional view that Zeus wants to kill Greeks and Trojansalike, but he demonstrates his mastery over that tradition by changing theterms under which the slaughter takes place. As Scodel notes:

Since, in his Iliad, the plan of Zeus is in effect the plan of Achilles, the traditional theme of the Trojan War as the cause of many deaths has beenadapted to the wrath. Homer is not ignorant of the Cyclic and Hesiodicexplanations of the war, but he turns them to his own purpose. (Scodel1982, 47)16

Lynn-George, for his part, reminds us of just how open the entire bouleDios is. In all its possibilities this plan of Zeus possesses a powerful indeterminacy, amight which is a function of itsmystery (1988, 38). As he goes onto observe, there seems to be a boule already at work at the outset of the


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poem, yet at the beginning of Book II we see Zeus still considering whatthat boulemight be. Hence, Throughout the structuring of epic there is discontinuity and yet also an unpredictable indissociability of irreconcilablepositions. All is both predetermined and open to choice in a narrative whichis fixed forever and constantly refashioned (41).What else accounts for suchdetermined indeterminacy but Homer's decision to work within the Cyclictradition and coordinate itwith the specific plan of the honoring of Achilles?

The logical upshot of such coordination is that nothing within thework can truly lie outside the plan of Zeus. Zeus himself allows the delayof the accomplishment of his promise to Thetis, both when he permits theinterference of Athena in Book VIII, to keep the rout of the Greeks from

happening too quickly, and again when he tacitly permits Poseidon's interference, by going off to the land of the Thracians at the beginning of Book

XIII, and in the apate Dios (the deception and seduction of Zeus by Hera)of Book XIV In each instance, the Iliadic plan seems derailed; but the general epic plan, the slaughter of Greek and Trojan alike, moves forward whenthe Achaeans rally and prolong the battle. Hence, nothing in the Iliad differs from the Plan of Zeus, and thus the plan of Zeus stands revealed as the

will of the poet. As a consequence of this, we should pay very close attention to the will of Zeus, since the poet has invested the metaphor with theclaim to his own authority.17 Indeed, Morrison sees just this type of operation in the Iliad. On 18 of 33 occasions inwhich Homer's plot might havegone off in a different direction, a god intervenes to keep the story ontrack?and the gods are very often working for Zeus (1992, 62-71). Even

when they seem to be working against Zeus's plan to honor Achilles, aswhen Poseidon rallies the Greek troops in Books XIII-XIV, they are in fact

serving Zeus's other plan, to slaughter Greeks and Trojans alike. Quite simply, Homer lays claim to both plans to structure the plot of his poem(Richardson 1990, 187f).

Whether we accept that argument and see the will of Zeus acting onevents from a time prior to the Iliad, or only posterior to the initial quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, the will of Zeus guides most of theaction from the end of Book I on to the ransoming of Hector's body byPriam in Book XXIV We can see how closely Zeus's will conforms to thepoetic program of honoring Achilles by examining those initial passages in

which Zeus consents to the desires of that hero. (The Iliad does honorAchilles, and Achilles alone, and does so rather unambiguously. He alone,in Homer's account, is responsible for the destruction of Troy, by killingHector, the man on whose life the fate of Troy rests. He speaks the most

lines in the poem. His dominance is absolute, from his repeated humiliations of Agamemnon to the assertion of his authority over all of the Greeks


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at the funeral games of Patroclus, and to his final mastery over the vanquished Priam.)

After the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles over Bris?is, ahumiliated Achilles demands the help of his mother in gaining revenge overthe Greeks. He cites the fact that Zeus is indebted to Thetis for her help inrescuing the king of the gods from an ignominious imprisonment at thehands of the other Olympian deities (1.348-406).18 He continues:

Persuade him to aid theTrojans, to pinthe Achaeans back against their ships, trapthem around the bay andmow them down. (Uiad 1.408-10)

Thetis relays the request in terms that are somewhat more ambiguous andless bloodthirsty:Father Zeus, if among the immortalsI have aided you by word or deed, fulfillthis prayer. Honor my son, doomed to

meet his fate more quickly than allother. But now the lord of men Agamemnon

has dishonored him. For he has takenand kept his prize. But you honor him,Wise Zeus of Olympus. Give strength to

the Trojans, until the Achaeans honormy son and even increase his honor. (Uiad 1.503-10)The request of Achilles to Thetis specified slaughter: tous de kata prumnaste kai amph'hala elsaiAchaious kteinomenous, push back the dying Achaeans totheir ships and to the sea. 19 Thetis, however, suggests only that Zeus tithei

kratos, give strength to the Trojans, until the Greeks restore his honor (Kirk1985, 96).20 In theory, the terms of Thetis's more general request may beconsidered fulfilled by the action of Books VIII-IX; the Trojans have won asubstantial victory and the Greeks have selected delegates to offer Achillesmore than adequate compensation. But Thetis s version of the story is not theone that carries authority: Zeus'a own plan agrees with Achilles's initialrequest, rather than the mediated version of his mother.21 The poet depictsZeus's rather bloodthirsty intent at the beginning of Book II:

Sweet sleep did not hold Zeus, but ratherhe weighed in his mind how he might honorAchilles and destroy many of theAchaeansnext to their ships (Iliad II.2-4)


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The will of Zeus is identical with the will of Achilles himself. Zeus conjuresup a plan by which olese{i} de poleas epi neusin Achaion, he might destroy

many of the Achaeans by the ships, (II.4).Moreover, we should note that theplan of Zeus will operate in its own good time. The first day of battle (BooksII-VII), does not lead directly to the slaughter of the Greeks among theirships. If anything, the long day achieves nothing and ends in a draw. To derivepoetic intent from the apparent gap between Zeus's conception of the specific plan to honor Achilles and its operation, which does not truly beginuntil the beginning of Book VIII, Homer wants us to understand that the willof Zeus encompasses the action of the entire poem, for without the first dayof battle, with the aristeia of Diomedes, his fights with the gods, theCatalogue, the Teichoskopia, and the intimate portrayals of family and citylife inTroy, the Uiad would lose much of its force and nearly all of its appeal.

Books II through VII recapitulate the long and bloody stalemate of the firstten years of the war. Homer introduces the Greek and Trojan forces in theCatalogue and frames the actual day of battle with two inconclusive duels:

Menelaus and Paris (perhaps to demonstrate that Homer's war is a poeticconstruct, and like any poetic construct, not accountable to practical considerations), and Hector and Ajax, whose inconclusive brawling marks the middle books, before Patroclus, the ritual substitute of Achilles, and then Achilleshimself take the field. All things, even those that do not immediately work toZeus's desire, work to the god's advantage, as the poet condenses the futilityof ten years into the space of a single day.

Zeus elects to send the dream in the form of Nestor to Agamemnon,a dream that initiates the first day of battle described in the work. Thechoice of Nestor is hardly coincidental: Nestor, besides being the greatcounselor of the Greeks, occupies a prominent role as a quasi-poet in the

work, providing, along with Phoenix, Priam, and a few other characters(Glaucus, for example) a deeper poetic tradition from which the poet can

draw material.22 What better way for the poet (Homer) to assert the poetic authority of Zeus's deception than by using a character who is a virtualaoidos himself (Nestor) to convey the information that will deceive theclueless Agamemnon.

Only the third day of battle, from Books XI-XVII, in which the Greekwall is pierced and the fighting takes place along the ships, actually fulfillsthe will of Zeus as stated in its rather limited form (and thus accounts for

Achilles's final rejection of the embassy in Book IX?should Achilles haveaccepted the offer of the Achaeans, the will of Zeus, as well as his own,would have been left unfulfilled).23 Zeus makes clear his own will in coun

sel with the Olympians and subsequently confirms it at the beginning ofBook IV.After the Greeks and Trojans agree to settle the quarrel over


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Helen by single combat between Paris and Menelaus (a battle that weknow will be inconclusive, since such an outcome would contradict thepromise of Zeus in Book I?hence, the interference of Aphrodite to saveParis is not really germane to the plot), Zeus asks his fellow divinities if thewar should end:

Let us consider how thiswork will be,whether we stir up evil war and the dinof battle, or we bring both sides togetherin friendship. If this seems good and

pleasant to all, then the city of Priam

might remain inhabited, and Menelaus

might take back Argive Helen. (Iliad IV.14-19)The goddesses are not pleased, but only Hera raises her voice against the

divine plan. Zeus states quite definitely that he holds no personal grudgeagainst the Trojans, and he compels Hera to surrender one of her favoritecities of the Greeks to him at some future time (recalling once more thedivine plan suggested in the Kypria: the destruction of the Greeks aswell asthe Trojans seems to be an ineluctable part of the plan of Zeus). He thenemploys Athena, now as his own agent, to attempt to break the truce:

Go quickly among theTrojans and theGreeks, and attempt to make the Trojansfirst violate their oaths and attackthe Achaeans. (Iliad IV.70-72)So Zeus rejects (ormore properly, fails to seize) an opportunity to endthe war and instead instructs Athena to encourage the Trojans to becomeoath breakers. Homer could not make his point more clearly: Zeus's realinterests are served by more slaughter, as are the poet's (times of peace being

notoriously difficult to distill into good epic). Zeus, by accepting from Herathe right to destroy Argos, Mycenae, or Sparta at some future date, seemsdetermined to continue the slaughter of the Greeks, as the Kypria suggests.24

However, he is equally willing to accept the destruction of Troy, a city thathe finds quite innocent of wrongdoing, for Zeus in Book IV evaluates thebehavior of the Trojans not by a standard of human justice, but by a standardof divine expedient. The crimes of stealing and then keeping Helen concernhim not at all.The Trojans are, in his view, a just people:

Never has my altar lacked a fair feast,or drink, or burnt-offering. We have

always received our due. (Iliad IV.48-49)25


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Zeus desires not peace, just or otherwise, but war; he is not swayed by thecounsels of others.26 Rather, he employs the gods to justify the continuationof the war, in the absence of which the poet has no story, and Zeus cannotkeep his initial promise to Thetis.

Confirmation of Zeus's emotional investment in continuing the war canbe detected in the numerous instances in which Zeus is shown as delighting in war. One of the most striking instances occurs in Book XX, as Zeusunleashes all the gods to fight on whatever side they choose:

I still care about those who are goingto die. But Iwill remain on a cliff of

Olympus, from which Iwill look on andtake pleasure in my heart (phrena terpsomat).

The rest of you may go and enter intothemidst of theTrojans and Greeks,

bearing aid to either side, as themind of each of you desires. (UiadXX.21-30)

The detached concern evinced by Zeus here accords well with the notionthat his will is not merely the plot of the poem, but also ametonymy for thewill of the poet. For what else has the poet evinced throughout the work butthis same paradoxical attitude?an unflinching description of the worst horrors of war, offset to a certain extent by the brilliant similes that restorehumanity, if ever so briefly, to those who have been brutalized and slain inthe course of the poem.

Indeed, the proper way of relating the fine in the Kypria that claims thatZeus engineers the Trojan War to rid the world of excess population is toread it asmetaphor for the poets' choice of war as the subject for the worksin the epic cycle. The Cycle, which almost certainly began as oral poetry, maytake war, with its varied fortunes and routine changes in circumstance, as a

metaphor for oral poetry itself?After Pandarus breaks the truce, the two armies prepare for battle.

Homer devotes Book V primarily to the great aristeia of Diomedes, whichculminates in the wounding of Ares at the hands of Diomedes and Athena.Zeus is content to let events take their course, as befits the general action ofBooks II-VII, books which serve as a kind of synopsis of events that logically should have taken place before the 10th year of the war. Only at one point,Diomedes's aristeia of Book V, do we see some conclusive fighting; as befitsthe action of a true aristeia, ? divinity assists the hero.27 Indeed, the presenceof the god at an action simply gives divine sanction to that action, and byextension, guarantees that a significant action has occurred as part of the


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poetic will. Diomedes's aristeia demonstrates what a hero can accomplishwith a god on his side: nothing less than the ability to break the lethal stalemate

encapsulatedin Books II-VII and

symbolizedin the two futile

singlecombats (Paris and Menelaus in Book II,Ajax and Hector in Book VII) thatbegin and end the day of battle. But Diomedes is not destined to slayHector,asAchilles is, so he must be content with wounding not one but two gods.28In effect, he serves as a sort of demonstration blast for the poet, a preparationfor Achilles.29 Diomedes and Achilles lead strangely parallel existences in theIliad, and in the epic tradition. Both fight with gods; both are wounded byParis; both fight with Aeneas. In the Iliad we can see that Diomedes is, ineffect, poetry's first hero, placed on the Iliadic stage by Homer to demonstrate to his audience amodel for poetic heroism, in which the mortal warrior finds confirmation for his actions by the help and presence of the gods.

The gods who assist the mortal warriors in their aristeiai must therefore betaken asmetaphors for the poets themselves, who assign to the select warriors the kleos appropriate to their deeds. Indeed, the same pattern can be discerned in the subsequent aristeiai of Hector (who has been inspired, literally,by Apollo), Patroclus (who has been inspired by Achilles himself), andAchilles, who is assisted by Athena herself.In Book VIII, the poet, having used his first day of battle to telescope thewar to date, and having alerted his audience to the possibilities inherent in

the poet-god-hero nexus, opts to change the war from a futile stalemate tothe first stage of the honoring of Achilles. Predictably, Zeus calls the gods intoconference and administers orders that none of them are to interfere in thebattle on either side?he himself will employ force, if necessary, to see thathis orders are obeyed:

No goddess nor god should attempt tocontravene my instructions, but let allpay attention, in order that I accomplish[teleuteso] these things as quickly

as possible. Anyone I see wishing to

defy heaven and aid theTrojans or theGreeks will return to Olympus stricken,or Iwill hurl him into murky Tartarus . . .

(IliadVlll.7-13)In theory, the will of Zeus, the wholesale slaughter of the Greek troops,

should begin today. But we also see how thoroughly the will of Zeus is identified with that of the poet when Zeus relents slightly when Athena complains: the poet has hardly shown everything he wants to, so he allows Zeus


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160 Collegeiterature4.2 Spring007]to appear to change his mind a bit, thereby providing a rationale for amoreprotracted accomplishment of the boule Dios. Zeus will allow a bit of intervention by the goddess:Take heart, Tritogeneia, my dear child.

I do not speak fully what is inmy mindor heart, and Iwish to be kind to you. (I/tWVIII.43-45)

The phrase ou nu ti thumo{i} prophroni mutheomai, literally, I do not nowspeak with full forethought of my purpose, as ever reveals that the will of

Zeus stands too closely allied to the interests of the poet to be merely thebare outline of the poetic tradition. Homer construes the Plan of Zeusbroadly enough to encompass the encouraging omens that Agamemnon and

Ajax receive, as well as the interference of Athena and, later, Poseidon. Thewar must continue and the Greeks must not abandon Troy, or both parts ofZeus's plan, the general slaughter of men, particularly the race of Homericheroes (the hemitheoi of Book XII), and the honoring of Achilles, will cometo naught.In Book VIII, the process by which he will honor Achilles has now beenactivated. Lest any of the poet's audience miss the point, Homer makes itabundantly clear when Zeus employs his thunderbolts to terminate the furious attack of Diomedes, the first poetic hero (i.e., the first recipient of an aristeia), and drive him from the field:

And now they would have been forced backto Ilium, penned in like lambs, if thefather of gods andmen had not quicklyrealized what was happening.

Thundering terribly he let loose his fearsomesilvery thunderbolt, and he struck the earthin front of the horses of Diomedes. (UiadVIII. 131-34)

Nestor persuades Diomedes to withdraw, but Hector's taunting proves toomuch for the son of Tydeus to endure, so he wheels his horses again to reengage in battle. But Zeus thunders three times from Ida, signaling onceand for all to Diomedes that his time as poetic hero has ended (VIII. 139-71).

When next we see him in battle, he is doing nothing more heroic thanslaughtering sleeping Thracians.

Zeus, having encouraged the Trojans, obliges the desperate Agamemnonwith an omen of his own: an eagle drops a fawn on the altar on which theGreeks sacrifice. Zeus's will lies not in ending the war in Book VIII, butrather in continuing it as long as possible, allowing slaughter to mount up onboth sides before he unleashes Achilles. Indeed, although he will let the


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Greeks regroup, he will not permit Athena and Hera to turn the tide of battle, sending Iris to the recalcitrant pair to inform them of the punishment,should they attempt to drive the Trojans back to their city:Iwill maim their swift horses before their

chariots, and Iwill knock them from the car,and Iwill shatter their chariot. Nor willthey recover from their wounds for ten years,ifmy thunderbolt strikes them. (BadVIII.402-05)

Let me reiterate: Book VIII could, in theory, have been sufficient for the fulfillment of Thetis s request to Zeus?however, Zeus's plan exceeds therequest made by Thetis, and conforms to the original request of Achilles andto the tradition of the Cycle: not merely to allow the death of many Greeks,but to create havoc sufficient to make a poem. Nor could Zeus allow the

Trojan successes to come to naught because of a timely intervention byAthena: he would, on the next day, make matter far worse for the Greeks:

At dawn, ox-eyed queen Hera, you will see,if you wish, themighty son of Cronos

destroymore of the army of the Achaean

spearmen. For terrible Hector will notleave off from war until the swift sonof Peleus rouses from his ships, on the daythat they battle with the deadliest force

by the prows of the ships over the fallenPatroclus. For so it is decreed by heaven[thesphaton]. (iftWVIII. 470-77)

Thesphaton, literally, god-spoken, confirms that the most important actionof the plot is solely the will of Zeus, far more so than the will of Achilles,who certainly did not want his best friend killed.In Book XI the will of Zeus takes a slightly different turn, as he sendsIris to discourage Hector from engaging Agamemnon during the Achaean

king's aristeia:Go, swift Iris, and tell this to Hector:As long as he sees Agamemnon, shepherdof the host, fighting in the forefront,

slaying rank after rank of men, so

long hold off from engaging him, and


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let the rest of your army battle withhim with their spears. But after he

has withdrawn in his chariot, wounded byspear or arrow, then Iwill give himstrength to slay, until he comes tothe well-benched ships and the sunsets and holy night comes on. (IliadXL 186-94)

This passage may seem, at first glance, to represent the traditional use of thegods asfa?on de parler, after all, it is only good sense to avoid a fighter who ishaving

aparticularly good day. But the warning (or advice)

cutsdeeper

on apoetic level. Zeus warns Hector, in effect, not to ruin the plot of the poem.A premature death, before he has led the Trojans in firing the ships, violatesthe promise of Zeus and hence the plot of the poem.30

Agamemnon eventually leaves the field after receiving a painful buthardly lethal wound from Coon. Paris wounds Diomedes with an arrow tothe foot, while Odysseus is skewered in the latissimus dorsi by Socus. We alsosee in Book XI the beginning of the role of Ajax as the personal foil to the

will of Zeus. Gradually, all the great warriors of the Achaeans leave the field,saveAjax, who will battle, often alone, against the onslaught of the Trojans tosave his comrades and their ships.31Ajax receives no wound: he is rather takenout of the battle directly by Zeus, a peculiar erasure of the hero. After all,asNestor says later, the best (aristoi) of the Achaeans have been wounded,(XI.658-59), but Ajax, who certainly ought to be among the best of the

Achaeans, given that he is the second best after Achilles (11.768-69) is notwounded, nor does Nestor mention him in his subsequent list of those whohave fallen to the Trojans (XI.660-64). As Nimis observes, he has beenreplaced here by Eurypylus (1987, 53-54).32 Zeus forces only one Achaean,Ajax, to withdraw from the field directly; all the others, even Eurypylus and

Machaon, retire only after being wounded.33The identity of interest between Zeus and the poet and their metony

mous existence seems clear. Two test cases will demonstrate the extent of theidentification.

Zeus and the Tradition1:TheWall of the AchaeansThe battle becomes increasingly more desperate for the Greek side in

Book XII, as the Trojans break the wall around the Greek camp. The wallmerits and has received much discussion.34 The Greeks build the wall at theend of Book VII: tacit acknowledgment that the inconclusive day of battlehas rendered them equal to the Trojans.The poet demonstrates how futile theday has been by assigning virtually the same verses to the Greeks and the


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Trojans when he describes the collecting of the dead and the mass funeralsheld by either side:

Then they [Trojans and Dardanians] preparedthemselves, quickly, for either task, someto collect the dead, and some to gather wood.

And theArgives on their side hastened fromtheir ships, some to collect the dead, someto gather wood.

The sun was now striking the fields, climbingthe heavens from the deeps of the soft-glidingOcean. The two sides met face-to-face. Thenitwas a difficult thing to recognize theface of each man. But washing away the clottedblood with water, and shedding hot tears,they loaded them on wagons. But great Priamallowed no crying; so in silence, sick atheart, they heaped the corpses

on the fire.And when they had burned them all, theywent away to holy Ilium. And in the sameway the well-greaved Achaeans, sick at heart,heaped the corpses on the fire.And whenthey had burned them all they went to the

hollow ships. (i/wdVII.417-32)To accent the equivalence that had developed between the Greek andTrojan forces now that Achilles was no longer on the field, Homer has

Nestor, weaving a metis (uphaineinjmetiri), recommend that awall be builtfrom the funeral mound to protect the camp (VII.324-43).35 The wall isclearly a poetic construct. The wall gives structure to the day of battle andmarks the equivalence between the two sides.Moreover, the existence of the

wall enables Homer to emphasize the superiority of the Trojans, backed byZeus, when they break through the fortifications in Book XII.The besiegershave become the besieged.

Moreover, as Poseidon complains, the wall gives a variety of kleos, incompetition with the fame of his own deed, when he and Apollo built thewalls of Troy for Laomedon (VII.446-53). But Zeus is the final arbiter ofkleos, just as the poet is the final arbiter of poetry. Kleos cannot be earned; it


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must be given. And Zeus will not permit the kleos of the wall to remain. Zeusanswers Poseidon's complaint:

Wide-ruling Earthshaker, what are yousaying.Another god might fear this

device, but only one who is weaker thanyou by far in strength of hand andmight. But your kleos will extend

as far as the dawn. Come. When the longhaired Achaeans have gone home withtheir swift ships to their dear homeland,then break the wall and carry it intothe sea, and cover the beach withsand, so that the wall of the Achaeans

may be brought to naught. (BadVll.455-63)The defensive wall of Troy shall be remembered, the kleos of Poseidon

honored. The defensive wall of the Greeks shall be obliterated. Homer doesnot like defense; Hector fails when he retreats. Defense stands in the way ofpoetry, and stationary fortifications, like static texts, hold no interest for theoral poet. It is hardly coincidental that his real hero, Achilles, earns the frequent epithet swift-footed, while Diomedes, Patroclus, and Hector, all flyabout the battlefield in chariots. The hero of the later epic wins the footracein Book XXIII, to forewarn Homer's audience that the swiftness of

Odysseus smind is nearly matched by that of his feet.In Book XII, Homer steps outside of his narrative to describe the eventual destruction of the wall at some time posterior to the Trojan War, butprior to Homer's own time. The positioning of the account cannot be coincidental; it stands almost at the dead middle of the text. The whole passage hasbeen much discussed, but the last part ismost significant for my purposes:

Zeus rained continuously, in order tooverwhelm the wall with the salt sea.The Earthshaker, carrying the trident inhis hands, led theway, and sweptaway in the waves the foundations of

wooden beams and stones that the Achaeanshad constructed with such toil, and madeall smooth again along the stream of the

Hellespont, and again covered the beach


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with sand, when he had swept away thewall. (IliadXII.25-32)The works of man are rendered obscured by the processes of weatherand time (the turning post for the chariot race in Book XXIII affords another instance), unless they are elucidated by the poet.What the poet chooses to

ignore we forget, or never learn; like the wall, which is destroyed by the natural processes of rain, wind, and earthquake, that which the poets decrees suffers oblivion. Men, affairs, events, allwill be memorable only so long as poetschoose to remember them. The poet shows Zeus, the poet's metonym, taking an active part in demonstrating the impermanence of human endeavor.

Even Schliemann, perhaps,was

defying the will of Zeus: Troy the city wasless important than Troy the city of poetry, and, as it has worked out, somewhat less impressive.Ford has written eloquently about the wall, suggesting that Homer here

renders a judgment on the impermanence of the written text.Writing is ultimately an unintelligent sema,without the oral poet to elucidate the contentsand contexts, and the flimsy new technology of writing cannot match the

wisdom of the oral poet (192, 152-57). A written text, like the wall, is preyto any mischance, and no match for the collective wisdom of the traditionsof oral poetry.

Zeus and the Tradition : The Death of SarpedonIn Book XII, Homer puts in the mouth of Sarpedon the famous ration

ale for the hero's life:Glaucus, why are we two honored above allwith seats and meat and full cups in Lycia,and why do all look upon us as gods?

We possess a great tract of by the Xanthus,a lovely orchard, and wheat fields. We mustnow stand among the first ranks of theLycians and take our part in the blazingbattle, so that one of the Lycians maysay, our kings that rule us are not

without fame [aklees],who eat fat sheepand drink the select, honeyed wine. Their

might ismost noble, since they fight amongthe foremost of the Lycians. Friend, if


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we could escape from the battle and liveforever, ageless and immortal, then I

myself would neither fight among the foremostnor would I send you into the battle forglory. But themyriad fates lead us todeath, which no mortal can escape or avoid,so let us go, either to give gloryto another, or to gain it for ourselves. (Bad XII.310-28)

Kleos is the compensation for death, the kleos aphthiton of poetry thatthose who die in battle earn. Telamonian Ajax stabs at Sarpedon, piercing hisshield and driving him back. But Zeus kept death from his son, that he notbe killed at the prows of the ships, (XII.402-03). Homer instead reserves theglory of killing Sarpedon for Patroclus, the ritual substitute, asNagy termsit, of Achilles, killing the man who best expresses the rationale for the martial ethos in his speech to Glaucus in Book XII; Tlepolemos, the son of

Heracles, had been denied the chance to kill Sarpedon earlier, and now Ajaxwill be denied the same glory, which instead will go to the son of Menoitius:

ifAchilles s is the poem's hero, Patroclus is poetry's substitute.The death of Sarpedon is traditionally considered one of the most mov

ing scenes in the poem. He has best articulated the heroic code in hisspeech to Glaucus in Book XII, and his willingness to embrace the risks oflife and death later guarantees him heroic status, cult worship, and of course

poetry itself.As Patroclus advances towards Sarpedon, Zeus addresses Hera:

My heart is divided in two as I consider, doI save him still alive, snatching him up and

removing him from the tearful war and placehim in the rich land of Lycia, or do Islay him now at the hands of the son of

Menoitius? (Bad XVI.435-38)At one level, Zeus merely confronts the question that other divinities whospare favorites must confront. There are additional considerations, however.

When Aphrodite saves Paris in Book III, or Aeneas in BookV, we do not seemerely a goddess saving a fallen favorite: rather, the maintenance of the poet

ic tradition, or even the poem itself. If Paris falls toMenelaus, the Iliad mayend too soon. Similarly, ifAchilles kills Hector when they first meet in Book

XX, the aristeia of Achilles will end too quickly. Zeus has tolerated the interventions of the gods in order to protract the action of the work, so he finds


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the intervention of the gods in saving a favorite here and there acceptable.Moreover, Aeneas, saved again in Book XX, must live to carry on the Trojanname. Hence, there must have been a tradition in which Aeneas survived, atradition that the monumental composer of the Iliad feels bound to respect.

Similarly, when Apollo stops Patroclus from storming the walls of Troy, orAthena helps Achilles to kill Hector, the issue is not one of the gods unfairly favoring one side or another, but the poet's use of the presence of a god(each amessenger from Zeus to the Trojans and Greeks, respectively) to ratify the maintenance of the poetic tradition, within the boundaries of whichthe poet operates.

For Zeus, however, the situation is not quite so simple.When Zeus facesthe decision to save Sarpedon, we see how closely governed by the traditionthe poet is.As Hera points out to him, if Zeus decides to rescue Sarpedon,consequences will abound.

Iwill tell you this, and you lay it upin your heart. If you send Sarpedon home,

beware lest someone of the gods should wishto send his own son away from the fierce

battle. For their are manysons of gods

fighting around the city of Priam. (IliadXVI.444-49)Should Zeus rescue Sarpedon, itwill become open season for the gods tointervene. The right way to read this passage, I contend, is simply this. Should

Zeus, asmetaphor for the poet, exercise his right to save Sarpedon, any otherpoet may in turn save any other character. Should this happen, the traditionitself, which has not been substantially threatened by the other rescues ofmortals in the work (instead, the tradition has been maintained and the poemitself has been enhanced), would collapse.36 The tradition itself apparentlysaves Aeneas, not once but twice. Homer understands himself to be workingwithin a tradition upon which he substantially improves, but upon which heis in no small part dependent. He has no interest in seeing the tradition collapse entirely.

Hera offers Zeus an alternative to saving his son. It is the alternative, welldiscussed by Nagy, of the glorious death of a hero:

If he is dear to you, and your heart isheavy with grief, allow him to die inthe fierce battle at the hands of Patroclusthe son of Menoitius. But when his souland his life have left him, send Deathand sweet Sleep to bear him until they come


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to the wide land of Lycia. There his kinwill bury him with a mound and a stele:

for this is the reward of the dead. (UiadXVI.450-57)As Nagy observes, Sarpedon will now attain the status and receive the worship of a cult-hero (1992,122-42). This in no way precludes, but rather com

plements, Sarpedon's status as a hero of epic, for he has achieved the kleos aphthiton of death in battle. Sarpedon has, in effect, lived the perfect poetic life,and Zeus/Homer, having rewarded him with poetry already, now guaranteesthe consequent award of cult. Most heroes who appear in the Iliad can expectcult-hero status, whether they die atTroy or not. But the memorial of a stelealone does not suffice; without the aid of the poet, who gives the warriorskleos, a stele may not communicate anything.37

Notes1 For a synopsis of the ancient opinion on Homer's date and provenance, seeKirk (1985, 2-4).2A careful reading of Nagy (1996,13-63) will give a good idea of the depth ofthe split.Clay (1983, 3) usefully argued that the argument over orality had improp

erly overwhelmed matters of interpretation. Pucci (1987,27) outflanks the oralists byemploying deconstructive techniques to assert that, whatever the manner of composition, the Odyssey and the Iliad are to be taken as texts.And Ahl and Roisman(1996,12) have reaffirmed the essential position of Clay. Lloyd-Jones makes the bestsuggestion of all, that Without a detailed re-examination of the text of the two great

poems, summary treatments of the complicated problems of Homeric scholarship areof very limited value (1990, 19). His comparison of the disputes between Analysts,

Neo-Analysts, Unitarians, and the rest, to Passchendaele is characteristically colorfuland apt.3 Ford (1992, 3) offers amemorable formulation of the theoretical objectionsthat New Critics, structuralists, and deconstructionists would raise against anyattempt to discover authorial intent. All those have been outdone by Nagy (1996,19-27), who lays on any discussion of Homer as author a catachetical list of strictures so severe that it would have gladdened the heart of Fr. Furniss.4 Taplin (1992, 5ff.), performs an admirable service by reminding us of theextent to which the poet maintains control over his story, although he also considers the role of Homer's putative audience in the creation of the work. He does wellto note that the characters in the work have no court of appeal?their actions do

not guarantee that the poet will grant them poetry.5 I am intrigued by the possibility that literacy never disappeared from Greeceand the attendant impact of such a possibility on the Homeric poems. On this, seeUllmann (1927), Bernai (1990, 1-26), and Ahl and Roisman (1996, 4-8). Powell(1992) has raised excellent points on Homer and his relationship towritten Greek.


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6There is no need to detail them all, but Iwould note that Scott, who arguesfor Smyrna as Homer's birthplace, sometime around 850 B.C., is still a fairly cogentand novel argument that is now largely overlooked (1921, 3-8).7 As Rabel observes, The poet's ambiguous reference to Zeus's intentions isintended to offer a measure of legitimacy in advance to the stories told within theUiad that conflict with what is said by theMuse-Narrator (1997, 37).8Leaf referring to the scales of Zeus thatweigh the fate of Hector (XXII.209f?),states that The poet has to acknowledge that there are certain data which he regardsas historical, as things done, with which he himself must not tamper (1915, 18).

Given that the deaths of the characters were most likely the firmest element imbedded in the tradition, Zeus's connection to moira and aisa clearly suggests an analogybetween Zeus and the poet.9The matter of kleos apthiton has no doubt been too much discussed, but in thelong run, Ifind Nagy's basic argument, made most famously inNagy 1979 (244-55),and reiterated often since, most persuasive?kleos apthiton brought by death in battleis the prize of epic poetry itself.10The reading is not impossible: Monro (1891,191-92), allows that ex as causalwith the genitive ispossible, citing IX.566 and 3.135 and 5.468; Pagliaro (1963,16ff),syntactically relates ex hou to the boule_dios. I owe this observation toRedfield (1994,272). 11 It isnot out of place here to note the work of Bremer (1987,32-45), that theGotterapparat in Homer are essentially poetic devices, rather than theological orphilosophical commentary.12This quarrel between Achilles and Odysseus has been much discussed byNagy (1979, 15-25), and other places. Nagy also observes that Hesiodic poetry

attributes the tale of the destructive wars at Troy and Thebes, both subjects of epic,to thewill of Zeus itself. It seems evident that thewill of Zeus is simply the basis forepic poetry and the trope by which the epic poets named their own activities.13Hesiod, Catalogue ofWomen, fr.204,, 95-104; for a discussion, seeNagy (1979,219-20); For the relationship between this fragment and the plan at the beginningof the Kypria, see Scodel (1982, 39fi).14 For the connection of Dios boule to the tradition of the Kypria, see, in addition to those mentioned below, Kullmann (1956,132-33), and Slatkin (1995,118f?).15On the determination of Homer to create an original work within the existing tradition, see Kakridas (1971, 65-68).16 Scodel errs unconscionably, though, when she suggests that Homer is notconfirming this [the Cyclic] tradition (Scodel 1982, 39) in passages likeXIV.84-87,in which of course Homer is doing exactly that.Authority comes from membershipin a tradition.17Nimis (1987, 90) mentions the difficulty of reconciling Achilles's prayer forthe victory of the Trojans with his prayer for the success and safe return of Patroclus,and with Zeus's intention of honoring both requests. It is indeed difficult to reconcile the two, unless one realizes that Homer uses the figure of Zeus to access bothplans in the Iliad.


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170 Collegeiterature4.2 Spring007]18 For the importance (somewhat overstated) of Thetis's rescue of Zeus, seeSlatkin (1991, especially 53-84).19As Kirk observes, Achilles is not unduly disturbed by the inevitable consequences of his request, that is, the death of friends and allies (1985, 96). Zanker

(1994, 76-77), sees the passage largely in terms of Achilles' conflict withAgamemnon, a reading which ignores the consequences of Achilles's prayer for theGreek army in general.20 Kirk observes the inconsistency here and suggests that Thetis has left thedetails of honoring Achilles to Zeus' discretion.21As Achilles, enjoying the benefit of hindsight, later observes, (and Dodds[1951, 3-4], usefully cautions us against reading this as a polite absolution of

Agamemnon and the other Greeks), Perhaps Zeus wished death upon manyof the

Greeks, (XIX.273-74).22 For Nestor as a singer, seeMacLeod (1983, 3), and Dickson (1995, esp. 4491). 23Redfield (1994,139), errs completely when he suggests that the bouleDios iscompleted in Book VIII; no Achaean has died alongside the sterns of their swiftships, since the wall around the camp is not breached until Book XII.

24 Redfield interprets Zeus's somewhat relaxed attitude: Men and cities are thecounters in a game played between the gods. The game can become absorbing, butit is never really worth a quarrel. The gods can always repair their differences byallowing the destruction of another ephemeral human thing (1994, 132).25 Lloyd-Jones (1971, 5) notes thatAgamemnon claims that Zeus will punishthe Trojans for breaking the truce, and uses the king's remark, among others, to arguethat Zeus has a genuine moral role in the Bad; the text would suggest otherwise. The

Greeks may want Zeus to punish the Trojans for abducting Helen and other assorted crimes, but Zeus does not appear to be punishing the Trojans for any particularoffense. The paradox that troubles Lloyd-Jones, that the all-powerful king of the godsyields to the demands of his queen and his daughter, while at the same time, on ahuman level, he affirms basic principles of justice, disappears when we realize thatZeus's decision is a metaphor for the will of the poet.26Zeus, then, should not be seen as a kind of frustrated Prime Minister dealingwith an exceptionally recalcitrant cabinet, as he is sometimes portrayed. See Redfield

(1994,137).27 For the value of the aid of a god in battle, see usefully Edwards (1987, 137),and Griffin (1980, 144-78). In the long run,Athena and Apollo are both agents oftheWill of Zeus. Nagy (1979,142-50) emphasizes the role thatAthena plays as special antagonist to Hector, paralleling Apollo's relationship to Achilles.28Nagy (1979, 30-31) discusses the fact that inBookV, Diomedes is called aristosAchaion twice. The instance at V. 103, when Diomedes is wounded by Pandarus,emphasizes the parallel between Diomedes andAchilles, who was killed by an arrowshot by Paris.29 Indeed, Diomedes's aristeia has, on this day at least, made him greater than

Achilles has ever been, as the Trojans themselves acknowledge (VI.98-100). Homer


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may have included these verses to distinguish his work from the previous epics. Kirk(1990, 168) suggests that Helenus's grimly flattering remarks exceeds what Homer

himself was doing, i.e., making Diomedes the equal to Achilles.30 It is just possible that the advice ismeant to cut the other way. It is generally taken to be awarning toHector that he will be killed or at least seriously injuredif he engages Agamemnon during the king's aristeia. Another possibility might beconsidered: Hector might kill Agamemnon and ruin the full honoring of Achilles,since Achilles is quite prepared to humiliate a chastened Agamemnon not once buttwice, first in Book XIX, in which he disregards Agamemnon's gifts, and again in

Book XXIII, when, under the guise of awarding the king a prize, he prevents himfrom displaying his prowess in the spear-throw; see the cogent analysis ofPostlethwaite (1995).

31 It is just worth recalling that Vico argued that Ajax was not alone when hedefended the ships, but alone with his vassals (1984, 1.559, 4.1033).32Nimis in general provides a valuable discussion of the relationship of the similes to the action in Book XI.33 Possibly we see here an echo of the story of Ajax 's invulnerability, but as allour sources for this are post-Homeric, and Ajax, far from being unafraid of being

wounded, is very directly concerned over the possibility, as in XV.727 (repeated atXVI. 102); it seems more likely that this is poetic intervention: Zeus is explicitlydoing something that the poet wants done. He will do it again.

34 Itwill be obvious how much I owe to Ford (1992,147-57) who reminds usthat the wall is certainly more than a collection of stones. Scodel (1982, 33-53) usefully connects the flooding and the subsequent destruction of the wall to the plan ofZeus in the Kypria to destroy the race of heroes. For doubts about the wall, see Page(1959,315f?), who cites in support Jacoby (1944,37ff). Kirk (1990,276-80) defendsboth Nestor's speech inBook VII (although he allows, following Jacoby, thatVII.33435 must be anAttic interpolation) and the wall itself.Hainsworth (1993, 317) makesthe most cogent remark against Thucydides (Page, et al.) when he points out that the

Uiad is, after all, a work of fiction.35 On the equivalence of weaving to the making of poetry, see Clader (1976,7

8), Suzuki (1989, 40), on metis as a possible category encompassing the poet's craft,see Ford (1992, 35).36 It is just tempting to read Hera's remark that the other gods will not agreewith you, as a coded way of saying, break the tradition, and other poets will beunhappy with you.37 Ford (1992,144-45) remarks upon the stele that serves as the turning post inthe funeral games of Patroclus. That stele failed its purpose, since the Greeks had no

way of knowing whose marker it was, or even if it was a funeral monument.

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Homer and the Will of Zeus