Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
There's a Greek cultural concept that you need to be aware of when reading the Iliad (and the Odyssey) since, without it, the whole thing won't make sense, and that's a concept called "kleos", which is often translated as "glory", but it's a lot more than that.
"Kleos" is the whole point of a Homeric warrior's existence. It could be translated as "street cred" in the modern vernacular; it's what other people think about you. The key thing about it is that it's a zero-sum game; there's only a certain amount of kleos around, and the only way to increase your kleos is to take it from someone else.
The reason that Achilles removes himself from battle in book 1 is that his kleos has been diminished by having his captive taken from him; he's been "disrespected", and that makes it impossible for him to carry on fighting alongside the people who have insulted him in that way. He is acting in the only way possible for him to act in that situation, other than by killing the man who's insulted him, and he can't do that because it would make the entire (fragile) Greek alliance fall apart.
|
Yes. I understood all of that very clearly. What I'm not sure about are the rights/privileges/meanings of those with "god" statuses. I'll need to go into more detail when I get home this evening.
My biggest question is, why is Achilles "just" a semi-god if his father is Jove and his mother is the daughter of a god?