Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Able leaders and fallible men: success and excess in Iliadic battle exhortations
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Able leaders and fallible men: success and excess in Iliadic battle exhortations

  • Poulheria Kyriakou EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: July 14, 2017
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract:

Battle exhortations are found throughout the fighting books of Homer’s Iliad, primarily in the narrative of the great battle that spans books 11 to 18. The early examples of exhortations prefigure their increasingly important role in later books, especially 15 and 17. From the perspective of the macro-narrative, the frequency of exhortations and the choice of motifs they feature serve as indicators of the progress of fighting. On the level of micro-narratives, the exhortations of individual leaders highlight their strengths and weaknesses, and to an extent those of their respective camps, especially in the case of paired exhortations and those delivered by the same leader such as Hector or Ajax. The narrator employs exhortations as a means of illustrating the back and forth between personal, emotional commitments, or deluded expectations, and sober, collective pursuit of a strategic goal. Despite their seniority or prowess, the exhorting leaders do not present themselves as models the addressees, especially the rank and file, should emulate. This indicates that the narrative of exhortations privileges collectivity and cooperation over competitiveness, fostering the ideal of fighting in solidarity for the common goal. The failure to draw distinctions by stressing one’s achievements or advantages contrasts with several rebukes, and with the paraenetic speeches of Nestor off the battlefield. References to the all-important epic ideal of the pursuit or acquisition of glory, and even to the past, occur very rarely. This is noteworthy, especially as the past also looms large in paraenetic speeches delivered off the battlefield, primarily those of Nestor and Phoenix. Iliadic speakers on the battlefield are generally efficient, although naturally to varying degrees, but they run the danger of deviating from their goal because of their personal illusions and limitations. Exhortations show how the attempt to achieve the common goal, to do one’s duty as leader and comrade, and especially to fulfill one’s personal ambitions may sometimes shape an idiosyncratic or distorted view of past and future.

Bibliography

Aceti, C. / Leuzzi, D. / Pagani, L. (eds.) (2008), Eroi nell’Iliade, Roma.Search in Google Scholar

Adkins, A.W.H. (1969), “Εὔχομαι, εὐχωλή, and εὖχος in Homer”, in: CQ 19, 20–33.Search in Google Scholar

Alden, M. (2000), Homer beside himself, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar

Andersen, Ø. (1978), Die Diomedesgestalt in der Ilias, Oslo.Search in Google Scholar

Andersen, Ø. (1990), “The making of the past in the Iliad”, in: HSCP 93, 25–45.10.2307/311281Search in Google Scholar

Barker, E.T.E. (2009), Entering the agon, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542710.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Cairns, D.L. (1993), Aidôs, Oxford.10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0034Search in Google Scholar

de Jong, I.J.F. (1987), Narrators and focalizers, Amsterdam.Search in Google Scholar

Donlan, W. (1998), “Political reciprocity in Dark Age Greece: Odysseus and his hetairoi”, in: C. Gill et al. (eds.), Reciprocity in ancient Greece, Oxford, 51–71.Search in Google Scholar

Edwards, M.W. (1991), The Iliad: a commentary. Volume V: books 17–20, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781139165976Search in Google Scholar

Fenik, B. (1968), Typical battle scenes in the Iliad, Wiesbaden.Search in Google Scholar

Fenik, B. (1986), Homer and the Nibelungenlied, Cambridge (Mass.).10.4159/harvard.9780674333642Search in Google Scholar

Fingerle, A. (1939), Typik der homerischen Reden, Diss. Munich.Search in Google Scholar

Frazer, R.M. (1985), “The crisis of leadership among the Greeks and Poseidon’s intervention in Iliad 14”, in: Hermes 113, 1–9.Search in Google Scholar

Griffin, J. (1980), Homer on life and death, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar

Griffin, J. (1986), “Homeric words and speakers”, in: JHS 106, 36–57.10.2307/629641Search in Google Scholar

Hainsworth, B. (1993), The Iliad: a commentary. Volume III: books 9–12, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511518386Search in Google Scholar

Haubold, J. (2000), Homer’s people, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781107297975Search in Google Scholar

Heiden, B. (2008), Homer’s cosmic fabrication, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341072.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Hoekstra, A. (1962), “A note on the dative of purpose (dativus finalis) in Greek”, in: Mnemosyne 15, 15–23.Search in Google Scholar

Janko. R. (1992), The Iliad: a commentary. Volume IV: books 13–16, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511620249Search in Google Scholar

Keitel, E. (1987), “Homeric antecedents to the cohortatio in the ancient historians”, in: CW 80, 153–72.10.2307/4350006Search in Google Scholar

Kirk, G.S. (1990), The Iliad: a commentary. Volume II: books 5–8, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511620270Search in Google Scholar

Knudsen, Rachel Ahern (2014), Homeric speech and the origins of rhetoric, Baltimore.10.1353/book.28978Search in Google Scholar

Kyriakou, P. (2001), “Warrior vaunts in the Iliad”, in: RhM 144, 250–77.Search in Google Scholar

Latacz, J. (1977), Kampfparänese, Kampfdarstellung und Kampfwirklichkeit in der Ilias, bei Kallinos und Tyrtaios, Munich.Search in Google Scholar

Lohmann, D. (1970), Die Komposition der Reden in der Ilias, Berlin.10.1515/9783110833768Search in Google Scholar

Mackie, H. (1996), Talking Trojan, Lanham.Search in Google Scholar

Martin, R. (1989), The language of heroes, Ithaca-London.Search in Google Scholar

Michel, C. (1971), Erläuterungen zum N der Ilias, Heidelberg.Search in Google Scholar

Moulton, C. (1981), “The speech of Glaukos in Iliad 17”, in: Hermes 109, 1–18.Search in Google Scholar

Μπεζαντάκος, Ν.Π. (1996), Η ρητορική της Ομηρικής μάχης, Αθήνα.Search in Google Scholar

Muellner, L. (1976), The meaning of ΕΥΧΟΜΑΙ through its formulas, Innsbruck.Search in Google Scholar

Neal, T. (2006), The wounded hero, Bern.Search in Google Scholar

O’Sullivan, J.N. (1989), “θοός, -ῶς”, in: LfgrE ΙΙ 13, 1053–55.Search in Google Scholar

Parks, W. (1990), Verbal dueling in heroic narrative, Princeton.10.1515/9781400860883Search in Google Scholar

Rabel, R.J. (1991), “Agamemnon’s Iliad”, in: GRBS 32, 103–117.Search in Google Scholar

Richardson, S. (1990), The Homeric narrator, Nashville.Search in Google Scholar

Schnapp-Gourbeillon, A. (1981), Lions, héros, masques. Paris.10.3917/dec.schna.1981.01Search in Google Scholar

Stoevesandt, M. (2004), Feinde-Gegner-Opfer, Basel.Search in Google Scholar

Stoevesandt, M. (2008), Homers Ilias Gesamtkommentar. Band IV. Sechster Gesang (Z). Faszikel 2, Kommentar, Berlin-New York.Search in Google Scholar

Taplin, O. (1990), “Agamemnon’s role in the Iliad”, in C. Pelling (ed.), Characterization and individuality in Greek literature, Oxford, 60–82.Search in Google Scholar

van Wees, H. (1988), “Kings in combat: Battles and heroes in the Iliad”, in: CQ 38, 1–24.10.1017/S0009838800031219Search in Google Scholar

von Erffa, C. (1937), Aidos und verwandte Begriffe in ihrer Entwicklung von Homer bis Demokrit, Leipzig.Search in Google Scholar

Whitman, C.H. / Scodel, R. (1981), “Sequence and simultaneity in Iliad Ν, Ξ, and Ο”, in: HSCP 85, 1–15.Search in Google Scholar

Willcock, M. (1977), “Ad hoc invention in the Iliad”, in: HSCP 81, 41–53.10.2307/311110Search in Google Scholar

Willcock, M. (2002), “Menelaos in the Iliad”, in: M. Reichel / A. Rengakos (eds.), Epea pteroenta: Beiträge zur Homerforschung, Stuttgart, 221–229.Search in Google Scholar

Winter, F.J. (1956), Die Kampfszenen in den Gesängen M N O der Ilias, Diss. Frankfurt.Search in Google Scholar

Wißmann, J. (1997), Motivation und Schmähung, Stuttgart.10.1007/978-3-476-04284-2Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2017-7-14
Published in Print: 2017-7-26

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 17.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/tc-2017-0002/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button