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| 18 September 1998 | ||||||||||||
| When Fate has declared a death sentence, when a simple passing away in sleep will not suffice, when it takes the destruction of entire armies and cities to fulfill a prophecy, when innocent warriors give their lives not for the sakes of their country or their families or even themselves but for destiny's sake, when the slain man is a hero and his slayer just as heroic, and no one is to judge who is right or who is wrong, when everything that becomes the defining moment in the history of one of the greatest civilizations of Earth is all at the whim of Fate's dark forces - that is a tragedy for man of tragic proportions. It is "the forces of black death," the pervading destruction that the characters are helpless to stop, that ultimately make The Iliad a tragedy in the greatest sense of the word. With the gods as messengers and administrators, Fate weaves the web of tragedy with loss, guilt, ruin, and finally death. The hopelessness of the situations of Achilles, Hector, and others involved in the Trojan War illuminates the cold, relentless work of the twisted ways of Fate. | ||||||||||||
| Achilles, like all mortals and even half-mortals, was born with his thread of life doled out by Lachesis, but with that thread came the knowledge that he would live a short life (1.496). In Achilles, the forces that would lead to his death had already started gnawing into his life. In the tenth year of the Trojan War, these forces coalesce to produce the great tragedy of The Iliad. After a dispute with Agamemnon involving the re-appropriation of Briseis, Achilles shows an almost inhuman rage toward his former comrade. This overpowering rage leads Achilles to pray to his mother Thetis: "Persuade him [Zeus], somehow, to help the Trojan cause, /to pin the Achaeans back against their ships, /trap them round the bay and mow them down" (1.485-87). While Achilles may have set the wheels in motion, it is divine Fate that put the wheels there in the first place. And, once the wheels were there, there was no direction to go but forward. Unfortunately, this forward motion ends with the deaths of countless Achaeans as Zeus fulfills his promise, allowing Hector and the Trojans to battle their way to the ships. Eventually, a name is added to the roster of the dead Achaeans that forever changes the war; Patroclus, Achilles' best friend, dies at the hands of Apollo. This too was decreed by Zeus. He told Hera, | ||||||||||||
| This powerful Hector will never quit fighting, | ||||||||||||
| not till swift Achilles rises beside the ships | ||||||||||||
| that day they battle high against the high sterns, | ||||||||||||
| pinned in the fatal straits | ||||||||||||
| and grappling for the body of Patroclus. | ||||||||||||
| So runs the will of Zeus (8.547-51). | ||||||||||||
| Oddly enough, it was Patroclus' death and not the desperation of the Achaeans that finally motivates Achilles to fight. Achilles had originally requested that the Achaeans be forced against the ships, so he could enter the war and save the day, winning glory for himself as well. However, Achilles only entered the war after the tide of battle had turned in favor of the Achaeans and only to avenge his friend's death. Fate's cruel plan for the fall of Troy necessitated Patroclus' death to motivate Achilles, but the mounds of dead Achaeans that piled up in the meantime in no way impacted Achilles' decision, making their deaths irrelevant. As a side note, Troy could have been taken by the Achaeans before the conflict even arose between Achilles and Agamemnon, while Achilles was still active. But this would not have included the mass bloodshed, and thus would not have fit in with the senseless, wretched, and evil plan of Fate that required such a sacrifice. Although Achilles had wanted only glory for himself, he was forced to accept the tragic consequences of his wish, which included the near-complete slaughter of the Achaean army and the death of Patroclus. For the Achaeans, Fate may have allowed victory in the end, but not before its thirst for Greek blood had been quenched. | ||||||||||||
| Similarly, Fate had dealt the Trojans a situation from which the only escape is death. Even Hector knew that Troy would fall, but the never-ending thrust from the Achaeans gave him no choice but to continue in his quest to defend his beloved homeland. While the Trojans had initiated the conflict with Paris' theft of Helen while a guest of Menelaus and his refusal to return her, familial responsibilities forced the Trojans to fight beside their kin, even if they did not support his actions (13.888-9). The Trojans had no options that were honorable: either they return Helen and face the disgrace of ignoring their relational obligations, or they uphold their obligations and face utter ruin. Since the fall of Troy had been decreed as early as Book 2 (498),� both choices eventually led to the same outcome. In point of fact, it is not for the kidnapping of Helen that Achilles resumes his murderous rampage; rather, he is intent on avenging Patroclus' death. The very fact that the punishment (the fall of Troy) is not for the original crime (the taking of Helen) points to the injustice of Fate in this story. Although the story behind the Rape of Helen is not included in The Iliad, the fact that Paris took Helen only because the goddess Aphrodite had promised her as a prize is worth noting, for it was in fact the gods that initiated the fated and fateful plan of the fall of Troy. It was Hector that said, "We will whip the Achaeans...those dogs of war/the deadly fates drove here" (8.612-14). | ||||||||||||
| The perverse ways of Fate took any justice out of the war from the beginning. The outcome had been revealed to many of the principle players, but the bloody battles had to be borne so that bloodthirsty Fate could have its fill of blood. While it can be presupposed that all of the deaths on the battlefield had been decided prior to the war, there were several instances where several others suffered at the hands of Fate. Euchenor, son of a prophet named Polyidus, had been told by his father that "boarding the ships for Troy/ meant certain death" (13.766-7). Sure enough, Paris speared him through the ear and "life flew from his limbs" (13.775) . The son of Zeus himself, Sarpedon, was "doomed to die at the hands of Menoetius' son Patroclus" (16. 516), his "doom sealed long ago" (16.524). Sure enough, Patroclus speared him through the heart and "the end closed in around him" (16.592). For Pisander, "a grim fate was rushing him to the stroke of death" (13. 694). Sure enough, "Menelaus hacked Pisander between the eyes" (13.708). Although several characters allude to the possibility of thwarting Fate (20.36), no one ever does; everyone that is fated to die dies, and everyone that is fated to live lives. Fate is the only thing that is sure, and, in its omnipotence, leaves no possibility of alternatives. If Fate had not deigned the most blood-drenched and death-filled road for the participants of the Trojan War, The Iliad would just be a story about mortality and not a story about tragedy. But by being so "murderous" (21.93), so "deadly" (22.6), and so "strong" (24.248), Fate forces the story to shed its mediocrity and accept its descent into tragedy. | ||||||||||||
| Man is mortal. Man is fated to die. But man does not have to die with a newborn child crying at home, with a decrepit father dying in a far-off land, with a fellow soldier falling on the battlefield beside him, with an entire life of happiness and joy before him, and with the gods of Olympus laughing at the spectacle below. At times, man is noble, brave, and generous, yet he is at all times weak, frail, and powerless to stop the merciless decree of Fate. �In The Iliad, Fate acts with a vengeance against Achilles, Hector, and others. It is this vengeance, this cruel and unwarranted action, which makes The Iliad a tragedy. Said Thetis, "Already I see them looming up beside you-/ death and the strong force of fate" (24.160-1). The story of The Iliad is Fate's show, and no man, however noble, brave, or generous, escapes. | ||||||||||||