A) Iliad I 1ff: Sing, O goddess, the anger [mênis] of Achilles son of Peleus, which brought countless pains [algos pl.] upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul [psûkhê] did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and birds, and the Will of Zeus was fulfilled.

B) Iliad I 188ff: The son of Peleus [= Achilles] felt grief [akhos], and his heart within his shaggy breast was divided whether to draw his sword, push the others aside, and kill the son of Atreus [= Agamemnon], or to restrain himself and check his anger [kholos]. While he was thus of two minds, and was drawing his mighty sword from its scabbard, Athena came down from the sky (for Hera had sent her in the love she bore for them both), and seized the son of Peleus by his golden hair, visible to him alone, for of the others no man could see her.

C) Iliad 1.233ff.: Therefore I say, and swear it with a great oath… that hereafter the Achaeans shall look fondly for Achilles and shall not find him. In the day of your distress, when your men fall dying by the murderous hand of Hektor, you shall not know how to help them, and shall rend your heart with rage for the hour when you offered insult to the best [aristos] of the Achaeans.

D) Iliad 18.54-60

Ah me, the wretch! Ah me, the mother, so sad it is, of the very best.
I gave birth to a faultless and strong son,
the very best of heroes. And he shot up like a sapling.
I nurtured him like a shoot in the choicest spot of the orchard,
only to send him off on curved ships to fight at Troy. And I will never be
welcoming him back home as returning warrior, back to the House of Peleus.

E) From the poetry of Sappho:

To what shall I compare you, dear bridegroom? | To a slender shoot, I most liken you.

 

Bibliography for this lecture:

Alexiou, M. The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge, 1974. 2nd edition, forthcoming, 2001.

Holst-Warhaft, G. Dangerous Voices: Women's Lament and Greek Literature. London, 1992.

Muellner, L. The Anger of Achilles: Mênis in Greek Epic. Ithaca, 1996.

Nagy, G. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry. Baltimore, 1979. 2nd edition 1999. (See especially the chapter entitled "Lamentation and the Hero.")

When We Were Kings Theatrical Trailer: This is not the clip I showed in class, but it does capture the charisma of Muhammad Ali and some of his melodic, almost poetic boasting.