Reading/Questions for Homer, The Iliad, Books 22, 23 & 24 (the end!)

NOTE: For next week, be sure to finish the book and read the last three books (or get as close as you can). Answer 2 of the following questions--your last set for The Iliad! And don't forget to turn in your papers! For Monday classes it's due on Wednesday by 5pm; for Wednesday classes it's due on Friday by 5pm; and for Friday classes it's due on Monday by 5pm. The assignment sheet is a few posts down...please look it over again before you write the paper!  

Q1: In a passage omitted from our version of Book 24, the gods debate about whether Achilles should give up Hector’s body.  Apollo, who thinks he should, speaks:

How callous can you get?  Has Hector

Never burned for you thighs of bulls and goats?

…but now you cannot

Bring yourselves to save even his bare corpse

For his wife to look upon, and his mother,

And child, and Priam, and his people…

No, it’s the dread Achilles that you prefer,

His twisted mind is set on what he wants,

As savage as a lion bristling with pride,

Attacking men’s flocks to make himself a feast.

Achilles has lost all pity and has no shame left.

Shame sometimes hurts men, but it helps them too.

A man may lose someone dearer than Achilles has,

A brother from the same womb, or a son,

But when he has wept and mourned, he lets go.

The Fates have given men an enduring heart.

But this man?  After he kills Hector,

He ties him behind his charior

And drags him around his dear friend’s tomb.

Does this make him a better or nobler man? (lines 37-57)

What do you think Apollo means by an “enduring heart,” and why might this speech suggest that hubris is a quality of gods—not men? 

Q2: How does Book 24 present Achilles’ decision to give Hector’s body back to Priam?  Is it still an act of compassion and mercy?  Does this book redeem Achilles in our eyes, or is he merely a pawn of the gods, forced to do Zeus’ bidding? 

Q3: How do the various women respond to Hector’s body—Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen?  How does this give us different perspectives on who Hector was, and whether or not he died honorably—or for the right reason? 

Q4: Why do you think the book ends with the funeral of Hector, rather than with the fall of Troy, or even the death of Achilles?  If the story is about Achilles’ rage, then why not end with the natural outcome of his rage—his death?  Why is ending the book here, rather than later on in the actual story of Troy, somehow satisfying?