The Iliad: Structure, Myth, and Meaning

Conclusion

www Conclusion This study has sought to provide two sets of tools, two different contexts, for understanding the Iliad. The first context, and tool, is the narrative pattern, introductory and principal, in its three sequences. The thricerecurring string of interconnected type-scenes and motifs provides a context for interpreting a given episode by offering three parallel scenes for most of the motifs in the pattern. As we have seen, particularly in our analysis of the duals in book 9, the parallels can be quite valuable in helping to establish the conventions and norms of a given context, such as which characters are most likely to participate in a specific type of episode. The narrative pattern demonstrates that an aristeia by the best of the Akhaians is structured around having him face three champions—Dardanian, Lykian, and Trojan.The narrative pattern reveals how significant neck wounds are woven into the tapestry of the Iliad, from Hektor’s duel with Aias, ending when a spear grazes his neck, to Athena, a goddess who wields the spear, in- flicting a neck wound on Ares, to the climax of Akhilleus’ aristeia, the lethal wound his special spear inflicts on Hektor. Nestor’s suggestions for building the wall and declaring a truce to gather the dead, so often criticized as a later addition, can now be seen to point to the truce that allows the recovery of Hektor’s corpse, each scene recurring as the final motif in its respective sequences of the pattern.The narrative pattern thus serves as a hermeneutic for these and many other episodes. Recognition of the narrative pattern reveals the unique function of book 3.The duel between Paris and Menelaus and other episodes not only invoke the roots of the war, as is commonly held, but rehearse the three major duels to come, familiarizing the audience with key motifs from the narrative pattern. Paris, as Hektor’s brother, and Menelaus, as a best of the Akhaians, are depicted in motifs that occur again when Hektor duels Aias, when Hektor slays Patroklos, and when Hektor is slain by Akhilleus. The Iliad initiates the series of neck wounds associated with Hektor when Mene- laus almost strangles Paris by his chin strap. When Helen looks out from the wall and cannot see her brothers, she prefigures Andromakhe looking in vain for the slain Hektor. Book 3 thus incorporates key motifs from the narrative pattern and first sounds some of the Iliad’s most stirring themes as an overture for the epic. Variations between the narrative pattern’s sequences reveal significant use of parody in the Iliad. Motifs that occur in the initial and final sequences in their usual function are inverted in the middle sequence, sometimes with humorous results, as in Hera’s seduction of Zeus. Other inversions reverse fundamental dynamics in the poem: Hektor and the Trojans now defeat the Greeks, if only temporarily. Paris, who himself parodies the typical relationships and choices of a warrior, and clearly loses the duel in book 3, here meets with his greatest success, wounding Diomedes and Makhaon. In the initial sequence Hektor’s concern with proper treatment of the slain warrior’s corpse is vivid. But he himself violates such observances when he attempts to decapitate Patroklos. Aphrodite’s relations with Aineias and Paris parody Thetis’ and Athena’s with Akhilleus. The repetitions of the three sequences reveal the thematic functions of specific characters, such as Odysseus and Telamonian Aias. Odysseus repeatedly restores order, often after a blunder by Agamemnon. Thus in book 1 Odysseus conducts the hecatomb to appease Apollo’s wrath (after Agamemnon provoked it), and Odysseus restores order at the assemblies in books 2 and 19. Although Akhilleus slays Hektor, Aias has the thematic role as the best of the Akhaians defeats Hektor, because he plays this role several times from book 7 on. Nestor, though a respected figure, is revealed to be thematically ineffective at mediating between Agamemnon and Akhilleus. The Iliad thus implies an opposition between Odysseus and Nestor, as the successful and ineffectual counselors on the Greek side. The existence of the narrative pattern has significant ramifications for the study of the transmission of the Iliad. The three sequences, and the parody of the pattern in book 3, together underlie virtually the entire epic. Since such close correspondences could hardly be the result of later additions or rhapsodic contributions, the pattern reveals a persistent stability at...