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War, Making Friends From Enemies // Jackson Riddle

    What is war? Some say war is spurred out of a deep passion in a man's heart to defend that which he holds dear. Others stand by their view that war is driven by overarching powers pushing those below them to fight, kill and ultimately die for a cause personal to the political leaders. Regarding the Iliad, I find that much of the passion behind the battle between the Achaeans and the Argives, while fueled by personal passions specific to each man, is mainly driven by the clash between Achilles and Agamemnon. Each man is compelled to fight for the honor of his country or city, ordered to fight valiantly and destroy the opposition. For the most part.
    As I was reading book six, several pages stood out from the others, pages 199 to 203, line numbers 138 to 282. In this passage, Homer takes a break from describing the war to writing about an encounter between two warriors of opposing forces, Glaucus and Diomedes, Glaucus defending the Achaeans and Diomedes defending the Argives. Instead of immediately jumping into battle, Diomedes asks his opponent "Who are you, my fine friend?-- another born to die? . . . But if you are an immortal come from the blue, I'm not the man to fight the gods of heaven." (Homer, 199). Glaucus procedes to tell his backstory, and the two find that they are not enemies, but are in fact old friends, and decide that their fate is not unnecessary slaughter of the other. They even encourage each other to kill as many men as they can! 
    Overall, I found this to be an interesting passage, because, as Homer described earlier, there are droves upon droves of men fighting to the death all around, but these two men decide to go against the methods of their peers. Instead of fighting for a leader who has a personal vendetta, they put aside their differences and find friendship on the battlefield. 

P.S. I commented on Micah Powers' post and Clabo

Comments

  1. IsabelleAugust 24, 2020 at 8:38 PM

    Let me just start off by saying, your entire post is written beautifully! I also enjoyed the Diomedes and Glaucus break. It almost seemed like Homer was trying to remind his audience that there is still light in the darkest of times. -Isabelle Ferguson

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