Homer Iliad 24.200

analysis of the significance of nóos and néomai in the speech of Diomedes

The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector, not of Achilles. And it is Hector, not Achilles, who is lamented at the end. But it is Achilles who makes it all happen, since he has transcended his rage and has shown mercy to an old father. The tears of Priam had made Achilles think of his own old father, of his own ancestors—and of Patroklos, who embodied the glories of the ancestors. Achilles was looking bad at the beginning of Iliad 23 and even at the beginning of Iliad 24, but he looks very good by the time Iliad 24 comes to a close.

Mourners lament as Hector’s corpse is laid out in preparation for the funeral that closes Iliad Rhapsody 24. Copperplate etching (1795) by Tommaso Piroli, after a drawing (1793) by John Flaxman. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

analysis of thuoskoos as not a particularly prestigious occupation, in the context of analyzing Odysseus’ response to Leodes in O.22.321

The address that Hekabe makes to Priam as he leaves for Achilles' tent is explicitly presented in the language of lament ("she wailed [kōkusen], and answered with a muthos," 24.200). The speech starts with desperate rebukes of Priam's folly in going—a tone comparable to Andromakhe's lament at 24.743-45, chiding Hektor for not consoling her. Even more explicit is the call for others to join in her mourning, a theme found in Greek lament tradition. Hekabe concludes with a dramatization of her anger and grief: she could eat the liver of Achilles; only such violence would offer requital. In sum, the speech laments both her son, now dead, and her husband, whom she does not expect to see alive again (Martin 1993:87-88).

Given the male, heroic in-group orientation of the word muthos and its association with powerful self-presentation, it would seem to be a social taboo for women to employ this kind of speech. But both Hekabe and Helen, who also addresses Priam with a muthos at 3.166-80, are in fact enacting laments in the speeches labeled with this word. They fulfill an expected performance role, using a recognized genre of muthos as memory, but they are presented as doing so at unexpected times, to create dramatic effect (Martin 1993:87).

Helen's use is equally marked. When Priam on the wall asks her to name a hero below (3.166), she delays this identification and in her reply uses the language of lament, recalling her former home and wishing she had died when she followed Paris to Troy (3.171-80). The poet's use of the line Τὸν δ' Ελένη μύθοισιν ἀμείβετο, δῖα γυναικῶν keys an audience by the use of the word muthos to a graceful enactment of desire in the context of lament (Martin 1993:88).

These lamentations by Helen and Hekabe fulfill the conditions for performance found throughout the analysis of the three muthos genres: they are acts of self-presentation with an emphasis on extension and detail, in a public setting. It is, as well, the genre of lament in the context of larger memories that finally unites Achilles in thought with Priam and effects the closure of the Iliad, both men remembering their losses (Martin 1993:87).

References

Martin, R. P. 1993. The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Ithaca.