More than any other genre, fantasy tends to examine ancient epics. Whether it’s the study of archetypes and ectypes, a historical understanding of narrative itself, or simply a desire to experience myths and legends that have lived for ages, these books remain alive to us. This series of posts will be about some of the more important mythic texts in history, and how they relate to modern fantasy.
The Story Behind the Story
The Iliad is one of the most famous texts in all of literature. It was written about 2700 years ago by Homer. However, it is merely the written form of an oral tradition that predates even that. The poem was written in Ancient Greek, in hexameter. It is commonly believed that the style of the poem was specifically done to aid memory for people who had to memorize it. Rhymes and hexameter would help the poet in remembering precisely how lines would go in order to work within that system.
When the Dark Ages arrived and much of classical antiquity was lost, Homer’s works were also lost to Western civilization. They were preserved by Arabic translators and rediscovered. Since then, they have become not just a staple, but the origin, of the western canon.
Heinrich Schliemann began digging for Troy in 1871. He ignored much of the conventional wisdom of his day, instead focusing on Homer’s words to guide him. He believed that Homer would never lie, so that if geographical details were mentioned, all he had to do was find the right place that had all of the requirements Homer claimed. With over 2500 years between Homer’s words and Schliemann’s reading of the text, Homer didn’t lie: Schliemann found Troy.
The Iliad
One of the most surprising things about The Iliad is how close to the end of the war it is. Perhaps some of Homer’s work, lost to time, shows the entire build-up and all ten years of the war, but The Iliad stands without it perfectly well. In fact, the most famous scene of the entire Trojan War—the Trojan Horse—does not occur in the text. (In The Odyssey, Odysseus mentions it, but contrary to popular belief, it was not the trick that won the war.)
The triggering event of The Iliad is Achilles withdrawing from the war. Agamemnon has taken Briseus, who Achilles believed to be his prize, for himself. The Greeks continue to wage war against the Trojans, but without the might of Achilles, things go much more poorly.
Much of the first portion of the poem details the other Greek warriors besieging the city. In one of the epic’s best sequences, a fight scene that puts most modern ones to shame, Diomedes battles Aeneas (who will, of course, be the hero of Virgil’s The Aeneid.) Aphrodite goes to rescue Aeneas, so Diomedes simply attacks her too. She cries out to Ares for aid, and Diomedes is undeterred—he may be mortal, but he is willing to face down the God of War himself.
We also see Odysseus, hero of The Odyssey, putting his cleverness to work, and Ajax, one of the few primary warriors not blessed by any god. Patroclus believed that the Greeks needed to see Achilles on the field, and thus took his armour and wore it. When he was killed, Achilles returned to the war, gaining new weapons and armour from Hephaestus.
While he is instrumental in slaying Hector and destroying Troy, Achilles does not survive. In one of the more famous scenes, Paris slays him by shooting him in the heel with a poisoned arrow.
Influence
It is impossible to state definitively the influence this text had. Next to Medieval Europe, Ancient Greece and Rome (or second-world analogues thereof) are perhaps the most common settings for fantasy novels, and much of that can be attributed to The Iliad.
The Iliad is also fascinating for the simple fact that neither side is evil. There are more Greek protagonists, but Hector is always considered a good man and a hero—a sharp contrast to the more foolish divisions of the Greeks (such as the capture of Briseus). There are even Greek gods on both sides of the conflict.
Dan Simmons rewrote it as science fiction in his novel, Ilium. David Gemmell wrote of it in the Troy series. A character in Matthew Stover’s Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon was a veteran of the Trojan War. There was even a 2004 film of it, also called Troy, though it downplayed the mythic aspects of the poem.
The Iliad’s battle scenes are used as a model for battle sequences in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials and in R. Scott Bakker’s Second Apocalypse series.
Wherever there is war and tragically flawed heroes, there is The Iliad.
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins
Well… Schliemann found “a” Troy, but it’s fairly well accepted among Classical archaeology scholars that it wasn’t THE Troy (the remains were too late in the archaeological record). The site has many layers, and there continues to be raging debate over which one is the real thing, if any.
That said, good overview article! I think it’s very important for fantasy fans (and writers, in particular) to understand the origins of the genre they love. 😀
A good place to start (although there’s a case for putting the Epic of Gilgamesh first) and a good overview. One detail, though – the scene where Paris kills Achilles doesn’t come into the Iliad.
There was a whole cycle of poems describing the Trojan War from the outset to the returns home of all the heroes, but they seems to have been written around Homer’s work, not part of the same phase. For instance, the “Nostoi” (Returns) describes the return home of the various surviving heroes, but specifically leaves out Odysseus and Menelaus, the two that Homer covered. If there was a cycle that was contemporary with Homer, it’s vanished without trace.
Incidentally, another modern take on the Iliad was the 1965 Doctor Who story The Myth Makers. Unfortunately, almost as lost as the Trojan Cycle.
Gilgamesh came last month: http://fantasy-faction.com/2013/foundations-of-fantasy-the-epic-of-gilgamesh
Of course it did, and I read it too. Oops.