Coming Sept. 11

Civilized Revolt is coming out on Sept. 11. A sister to Virtue Mag, she’ll present some old writers, and some new writers, and a fresh variety of thoughts in the political sphere. Classic liberalism isn’t unheard of anymore…

Aristeia – The Infectuous Plague

Aristeia.

At UD, for Lit. Trad. 1, we start out the semester by reading The Iliad. As of today we finished reading Book 1, and will have read Book 2 by Friday. The main characters in Bk 1 are Achilleus and Agamemnon. It centers around them, and also Zeus and Hera.

In The Iliad, the main problem in Bk 1 is that of pride. Specifically that of Achilleus and Agamemnon. Aristeia comes into play, not just as the purpose for heroic poems, but in the poem itself in Achilleus and Agamemnon. As typical mortals, and powerful warlords at that, they want aristeia. Fame, power, glory. Even Achilleus was given the choice to live a long life in peace and quiet, or a short one and be remembered forever. Typical of your normal warlord wannabe, Achilleus chose a short and glorious life. Let’s here it for aristeia.

The interesting thing though is that the Achaians and the Danaans and all the rest live in an very unpredictable world. When one thinks of God, one thinks of things such as omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, being outside of time, etc. But these gods–Zeus, Hera, Hephaistos, Aphrodite, Pallas Athene and all the rest–they hide things from each other, they don’t know everything that’s going on, they certainly aren’t all-powerful. They change their minds rather easily as well. The gods are unpredictable. Creating a world which is unpredictable.

There is one thing that can be constant in this world. That which one does oneself. Or, more succintly, an oath. The oath is the one thing that can be trusted, provided you show that you keep it. Which is why oaths are so highly looked upon, why they are so revered and why it is practically anathema to break an oath.

Which also explains one thing… why Achilleus did NOT break his oath and kill Agamemnon like he wanted to with the whole deal with Briseis. That itself is another thing… was it really over Briseis, or was it over who was in charge. Achilleus did have major authority problems, especially since he could (should?) have been the son of Zeus, the most powerful god…

All that to ask two questions. One, how much does aristeia affect us today, and two, does an oath carry the same meaning for us as it did for the Achaians?