Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Glory of War
One can make a strong argument that The Iliad seems
to celebrate war. Characters emerge as worthy or despicable based
on their degree of competence and bravery in battle. Paris, for
example, doesn’t like to fight, and correspondingly receives the
scorn of both his family and his lover. Achilles, on the other hand,
wins eternal glory by explicitly rejecting the option of a long,
comfortable, uneventful life at home. The text itself seems to support
this means of judging character and extends it even to the gods.
The epic holds up warlike deities such as Athena for the reader’s
admiration while it makes fun of gods who run from aggression, using
the timidity of Aphrodite and Artemis to create a scene of comic
relief. To fight is to prove one’s honor and integrity, while to
avoid warfare is to demonstrate laziness, ignoble fear, or misaligned
priorities.
To be sure, The Iliad doesn’t
ignore the realities of war. Men die gruesome deaths; women become
slaves and concubines, estranged from their tearful fathers and
mothers; a plague breaks out in the Achaean camp and decimates the
army. In the face of these horrors, even the mightiest warriors
occasionally experience fear, and the poet tells us that both armies
regret that the war ever began. Though Achilles points out that
all men, whether brave or cowardly, meet the same death in the end,
the poem never asks the reader to question the legitimacy of the ongoing
struggle. Homer never implies that the fight constitutes a waste
of time or human life. Rather, he portrays each side as having a justifiable
reason to fight and depicts warfare as a respectable and even glorious
manner of settling the dispute.
Military Glory over Family Life
A theme in The Iliad closely related
to the glory of war is the predominance of military glory over family.
The text clearly admires the reciprocal bonds of deference and obligation
that bind Homeric families together, but it respects much more highly
the pursuit of kleos, the “glory” or “renown” that
one wins in the eyes of others by performing great deeds. Homer
constantly forces his characters to choose between their loved ones
and the quest for kleos, and the most heroic characters invariably
choose the latter. Andromache pleads with Hector not to risk orphaning
his son, but Hector knows that fighting among the front ranks represents
the only means of “winning my father great glory.” Paris, on the
other hand, chooses to spend time with Helen rather than fight in
the war; accordingly, both the text and the other characters treat
him with derision. Achilles debates returning home to live in ease
with his aging father, but he remains at Troy to win glory by killing
Hector and avenging Patroclus. The gravity of the decisions that
Hector and Achilles make is emphasized by the fact that each knows
his fate ahead of time. The characters prize so highly the martial
values of honor, noble bravery, and glory that they willingly sacrifice
the chance to live a long life with those they love.
The Impermanence of Human Life and Its Creations
Although The Iliad chronicles a very
brief period in a very long war, it remains acutely conscious of
the specific ends awaiting each of the people involved. Troy is
destined to fall, as Hector explains to his wife in Book 6.
The text announces that Priam and all of his children will die—Hector
dies even before the close of the poem. Achilles will meet an early
end as well, although not within the pages of The Iliad. Homer
constantly alludes to this event, especially toward the end of the
epic, making clear that even the greatest of men cannot escape death.
Indeed, he suggests that the very greatest—the noblest and bravest—may
yield to death sooner than others.
Similarly, The Iliad recognizes, and
repeatedly reminds its readers, that the creations of mortals have
a mortality of their own. The glory of men does not live on in their
constructions, institutions, or cities. The prophecy of Calchas,
as well as Hector’s tender words with Andromache and the debates
of the gods, constantly remind the reader that Troy’s lofty ramparts
will fall. But the Greek fortifications will not last much longer.
Though the Greeks erect their bulwarks only partway into the epic,
Apollo and Poseidon plan their destruction as early as Book 12. The
poem thus emphasizes the ephemeral nature of human beings and their
world, suggesting that mortals should try to live their lives as
honorably as possible, so that they will be remembered well. For
if mortals’ physical bodies and material creations cannot survive
them, perhaps their words and deeds can. Certainly the existence
of Homer’s poem would attest to this notion.
