Week IV: Diomedes
RECOGNIZING GODS & MEN; WAR WITH & WITHOUT THE GODS
October 14, 6:00 PM - 7:30 pm
Reading: Iliad, 5.1-470, 590-607, 699-702, 778-909; 6.1-311; (the Wall) 7.323-482, 12.1-37; (the Doloneia) 10.1-579.
In Book 5, the Greek warrior Diomedes, a rival to Achilles for “best of the Achaeans” (5.103, 5.415), has his aristeia, reaching the peak of his glory (5.1-8). Besides superhuman strength and resistance to wounds (5.87-122, 188-191, 302-304), he is given the power to distinguish gods and men, and even to injure gods (5.127-132, 334-340).
Are the gods, or at least men’s understanding of their grievances as divinely rooted or vindicated, in some sense the truest cause of the war (1.1, 1.8, 1.218, 1.233-244)?
Pandaros thinks Diomedes may be a god (5.180-191, cf. 5.440-442). With his new sight, does Diomedes merely recognize gods? If Diomedes can injure the gods, are they truly immortal (5.352-4. 5.388)?What is the connection between Diomedes’ new power to see the gods and his loss of awe of them (5.434)? What thought might be the cause of his regaining his fear, if not awe, of Apollo (5.438-444, or of the gods generally, 5.596-606)? Could seeing the gods as vulnerable make one less brave by exposing the inevitability of mortality (5.440-444, 594-606, 809-813, cf. his lie at 5.817)?
After this encounter, Diomedes never reaches the same peaks of heroism: In Book 10, he takes part in a sordid nighttime mission, appearing less restrained, and less competent, than his wily partner Odysseus (10.102-107, 502-511). Why is it that the Greeks tend to act audaciously, lawlessly, stealthily, dishonorably, and even savagely (6.42-71, 7.336-344, 433-450, 10.382-3, 446-457, 482-497; also 10.233-239), when they believe the gods are absent or unfavorable to their cause (6.1-4, 7.325-331, 10.42-46, 70-71, 86-90; consider 10.118, 172-4, and 143-147 (to Odysseus only)). Do gods most satisfy or complete us when they are to us as fathers and mothers (e.g. 1.351-355, 16.220-256)?
At the extreme, what would be the long-term implications for human life of a world without gods (12.18-23, cf. 7.459-463)? Can heroes exist in a world without gods (5.1-8; 12.10-12, 23)—or are the generations of men like the falling of leaves every year (6.144-149) when they lack divine ancestry? Which world is sweeter, one ruled by indifferent natural forces or one ruled by punitive gods?
Are the gods arbitrary opponents of our longings, and so hostile; or benevolent punishers of our unworthiness, injustice, and hubris (6.476-482)? Can they be the latter without also being the former?