The use of the Homeric epics to imagine a move from martial to pastoral metaphors is a fascinating project. While the utility of this reading in no way depends on the intentions of the original composers of the epics, there seem to be compelling arguments to suggest that these poets would not have agreed with it.

Any thematic changes between the Iliad and the Odyssey are not conscious changes by a single poet. The core components of the epics were sung by a number of itinerant performers who travelled around the Greek world before the advent of a writing system. Their songs were collated several hundred years later - perhaps by a single editor whom we now know as Homer. It is likely that the Iliad and the Odyssey were originally composed many decades, or even centuries, apart. A shift from martial to domestic themes between the two reflects gradual cultural change.

Although it is suggested that the narrative of Achilles demonstrates the channelling of anger into reflection, moral courage and productive pity, this seems to run counter to his professed motivations. His actions are best understood in the context of the choice he is given by the Fates as a young man. He is asked to choose between a long and uneventful life, and a short but glorious one. He opts for the second. So, when his prize is taken from him, Achilles feels that this choice has not been respected. His speech to Odysseus seems to make clear that thoughts of returning home are motivated by expediency alone.

Likewise, Achilles' treatment of Priam is best understood in the context of his choice. He is eventually moved to pity by Priam's appeal to think of his own father. When Achilles does so, he reflects that his father was fated to have only a single son, and one who has chosen to die young. Pity comes from empathy. Anger is only tenuously replaced - when Priam asks for Hector's body back straight away Achilles warns him not to press the issue or he will kill him.

It seems, then, that there is little in the Homeric epics to demonstrate the rejection of the martial for the pastoral. This is not to criticise the use of the epics to illustrate such a rejection, but it is likely to be a project that their poets would not have identified with.

Conflict of Interest:

None declared