Who’s Afraid Of Homer?
By PAUL KRAUSE
Homer was not a Christian. Homer wasn’t an Athenian either. Yet he is now considered part of the Christian and Athenian inheritance in culture and education — he finds a place of prominence in Christian education which seeks to revitalize the genius and contributions of Athens to Western civilization.
Homer is the greatest poet of all time. I have written on Homer somewhat extensively in various places. I love the blind traveling poet whose name is attributed to two of the most foundational works of the Western literary canon influencing over two millennia of Western literature.
Homer’s influence also extends beyond Europe and the European diaspora. He is widely read in the Arab world, where he is considered the greatest of the Greek poets. His reach has also entered Asia.
Despite the global reach of Homer, he is most derided by the children of the culture that his poetry gave birth to. The arguments against Homer are stereotypically bad and part of the woke zeitgeist. He is an old dead white European male. Out with Homer and in with anybody who isn’t an old dead white European male.
When reading Homer, however, we meet a poet whose world is much like our own. Sure, there are capricious gods and spirits, underworld visions, one-eyed monsters, and men of demigod strength and ability. But a close reading of Homer reveals a world of human love, sadness and rage, pity and forgiveness. Homer’s world is a world at war with all the complications of human life and struggle.
The Iliad is Homer’s greatest poem. It deals with the divine rage of Achilles, who is set apart from his human compatriots on account of his rage which makes him divine. Menis, the Greek word for Achilles’ rage, is a term associated with divinity and not humanity. Yet the poem’s end sees not the triumph of that rage but of human compassion, kindness, love.
After storming the sands of Troy and slaying Hector upon learning the death of his friend, Patroclus, Achilles sulks back into his tent whereupon he is visited by Priam. The King of Troy ventures into the killing warrior’s tent to plead the return of his son’s body. This is made more poignant by the fact that Achilles has just vowed to slay Priam and rid the world of his seed.
The defenseless king pleading with Achilles for the return of Hector’s body gives Achilles every opportunity to make his vow come true. He doesn’t. Witnessing the weeping love of Priam for his son, Achilles is reminded of his father’s love for him.
The butchering warrior who had just fought against the gods and man lifts up his foe in the spirit of loving forgiveness. They weep together in each other’s arms and Achilles returns the body of Hector to Priam and bestows a temporary peace so Hector can be properly buried.
That is how The Iliad ends. We know the rest of the story, but that’s not how Homer concluded his. His story which turned through war and rage ended on a note of peace brought forth by an act of human love and compassion to an enemy.
The other great epic poem that Homer’s name is attributed to is The Odyssey. It deals with the story of another demigod, Odysseus, a hero of the same Trojan War that was the focus of The Iliad. Odysseus’ story is the journey home, but not to just a spot of land and a warm palace — but to the warm embrace of a loving wife and son.
Odysseus’ heroic journey home isn’t to reclaim a kingdom, though that is an easy interpretation of the poem. After all, his kingdom is threatened by the conniving suitors trying to elope with Penelope and drive away Telemachus. In actuality, Odysseus’ odyssey is the quest to find love and how only love in a family provides sanctuary.
Homer offers Odysseus a home and kingdom with the gods: Calypso and Circe offer everything a mortal man often fantasizes about. A bed with a beautiful female and endless sex. This ultimately cannot satisfy Odysseus’ heart, however.
Odysseus yearns for something different. He seeks the only true love that exists: the love between dying creatures as my former teacher Roger Scruton so poignantly noted about the reality of human love.
So Odysseus struggles against the temptation of being a sexual slave to goddesses and the machinations of Poseidon and other gods seeking his downfall. He desires to return to the true household of love with Penelope and Telemachus. Home is not merely Ithaca. Home is where his wife and son are. That home is the place of true love.
Homer’s poems reflect on the power of human love.
In The Iliad we find a world torn apart by war that is only healed through an act of loving forgiveness. This is an act between human foes, Achilles and Priam. It is a free will choice and gift that Achilles bestows to the man he had just vowed to kill pages earlier. Achilles’ inhumanity, rooted in his divine rage, subsides and he becomes human through forgiving love. That is the metamorphosis of the hero’s journey.
The Odyssey, in conjunction with The Iliad, completes the vision of human love. Achilles learns forgiveness and in forgiveness peace is brought to the world. Odysseus learns that love is only possible between mortal humans and that the highest expression of that love between dying creatures is in the family.