it is an epic clash of civilizations a
defining moment in prehistory to which
once again Homer may be our best witness
in the 16 thousand lines or so of
Homer's Iliad he explores all the major
questions which we still grapple with as
we make war today and consider the
questions around warfare the
justification for a major military
exercise the accountability the quality
of military leadership the nature of
courage and cowardice on the battlefield
and indeed what happens to victors and
defeated alike in the face of day to day
brutality and yet in his Iliad Homer
doesn't Chronicle the entire ten years
of battle
he focuses on just four days of the wars
tenth and final year
he brings us I think to the very heart
of what human conflict is all about some
of his most memorable descriptions are
of men dying the 240 deaths that occur
in the Iliad all are different homer
must have seen action at firsthand he
must surely have gone over the
battlefield at Troy and tried in his own
imagination to recreate how this battle
took place we see warfare from so many
different angles and we see it up close
and personal from Homer warriors face
off on the battlefield calling out names
and insults soldiers thrust Spears
through enemy eyes swinging swords
hacking off limbs Homer says black blood
stains the battlefield his name defines
this brutal age of warfare known as the
heroic or Homeric era this was very much
an individual contest for personal glory
and there was believed to be a glory in
the nature of your opponent's and any
extent of your successful
it's a bit more tribal the nature of
your military reputation depends upon
who you individually fight and how well
you do an instance though ending a war
with a duel between two leaders may be
wishful fantasy many of Homer's
observations of battle are timelessly
true one of the underlying themes that
you draw out of the Iliad and the
Odyssey that remains relevant today in a
military setting is that character
matters that theme remains with us we
still are very concerned for the
character of our officers and their
soldiers
modern armies can learn from the
soldiers of the Trojan War
but the greatest of the Greek warriors
Achilles might not last long in today's
army in front of other warlords Achilles
threatens and insults Agamemnon his
commanding officer what a worthless
burnt-out coward I'd be called if I
would submit to you and all your orders
whatever you blurt out fling them at
others don't give me commands never
again I trust will Achilles yield to you
two homers audience Achilles rage
against Agamemnon reflects a conflicted
hero defending his honor
but today his insults would be
court-martialled as insubordination
Achilles was preoccupied with his
reputation and his personal standing
amongst the Greeks the absolute opposite
of a team player Odysseus is it is of
course a different character and again
is yet another expression of the fact
the character matters he is wily he's
compared to a fox
even today we compare some of our most
capable military figures to foxes The
Swamp Fox Francis Marion of the American
Revolution and general Frank's of the
war in Iraq are among some with
reputations of cunning like a fox but
Homer highlights another key quality of
leadership by demonstrating the opposite
never once did you arm with the troops
and go to battle you lack the courage
King who devours his people unlike an
ideal general like George Washington who
leads his troops by example Agamemnon is
accused of hanging out in the back while
others fight and die Agamemnon is
arrogant overweening very much given to
advance his own personal agenda and
inclined in the mind of others to take
advantage of his position for his
personal gain rather
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be a servant breast ironically the
soldier who is idealized by homer his
Hector who fights for Troy he has the
character of the model soldier and
citizen
Hector is more inclined to set the
welfare of his people in his city above
his own reputation and his own survival
and ultimately he faced down Achilles
even though he knew that the odds were
against him and that his time was up the
battle between the two greatest heroes
Greek Achilles and Trojan Hector is the
climax of the ill and homers story of
Troy
when Hector takes leave of his wife and
child on his way to battle homer
foreshadows the end of the war and tilts
the sympathies of his audience in favor
of the Trojans hector envisages that
Andromache will be a widow and that his
son has died an ax would be an orphan
and like any true husband there he says
I care for you more than I do for my
countrymen it's your fate that really
matters to me
homer portrays Hector as a family man
while the Greeks are fighting for
revenge and greed Hector is fighting to
defend his wife his child and his home
Hector sees Achilles charging like a
stallion Achilles closes helmet flashing
throws his spear and misses
Hector hurls his beer striking a Killi
shield dead center and glances off
Hector draws his sword and charges but
achilles as a second sphere and drives
it clean through Hector's neck
Hector falls to the dust and gasps
pleading with Achilles to return his
dead body
to Troy but Achilles promises to feed
his body to the dogs lashes his corpse
to his chariot whips his horses to run
around the walls of Troy and as Homer
says defiles Hector's body in the land
of his own father's
and in the last great scene of Homer's
poem King Priam comes to beg for the
mutilated body of Hector his son
King Brian comes and he grasped the
man-slaying hands of Achilles and like a
suppliant he appeals to Achilles his
compassion and Achilles yields and the
two men collapsed together in an
acknowledgment of their human identity
they're no longer Greek and trojan they
no longer deadly enemies instead they
are like father and son it is here where
Homer reveals his subversive mission he
ends what is perhaps the world's
greatest war story with an anti-war
message
we are all human we are all fathers and
sons
we all have attachments that go way
beyond our national identity we are
human beings first and foremost