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Helen vs. Dido

 Compare Helen in the Iliad (Book 3) to Dido in the Aeneid (Book 4). Do you see any similarities? Differences? 

 

Book III of The Illiad and Book IV of The Aeneid are focused around the gods’ and goddesses’ strong grasp of the two women, Helen and Dido, whose fates they control to suit their own perverted interests. At the same rate, Helen experiences feelings of guilt and remorse for having been the cause of the war between Greece and Troy, and Dido regrets having fallen for Aeneas and cherished him.

Offered to Paris as a prize for naming Aphrodite the most beautiful goddess, Helen is influenced by Aphrodite to let herself seduced by Paris and elope with him, disregarding her marital status and possible outcome of her actions. After the death of her husband Dido vows never to remarry, but to serve her purpose, Venus sends Cupid to make her madly fall in love with Aeneas, thus the queen relinquishing any self-control over her feelings.

In Book III of The Iliad, the goddess Iris, disguised as Helen’s sister-in-law, Laodice, comes to summon her to witness a duel between her two husbands. Unsuspecting of her real identity, Helen follows her instructions. However, after the confrontation between Paris and Menelaus, Aphrodite, Paris’ protector, tries to lure Helen to his room, but the tormented wife refuses to obey, dissing the goddess. Infuriated, Aphrodite tightens her grasp on Helen and reminds her that she is in charge, “Venus was very angry, and said, ‘Bold hussy, do not provoke me; if you do, I shall leave you to your fate and hate you as much as I have loved you. I will stir up fierce hatred between Trojans and Achaeans, and you shall come to a bad end.’" The goddess’ threat instills fear in Helen, aware of the potential dangers of disobeying a god. Her fate was now controlled by Aphrodite, whose orders she followed precisely, “At this Helen was frightened. She wrapped her mantle about her and went in silence, following the goddess and unnoticed by the Trojan women.” In Paris’ quarters, under Aphrodite’s rule, Helen addresses her husband and fulfills her duty as his wife.

In Book IV of The Aeneid, Dido’s mad love for Aeneas becomes poisonous. The Queen no longer attends to her royal duties, she is no longer interested in her subjects, and lets her city stagnate. The passion instilled in her by Cupid’s arrow takes over her entire being, leaving her powerless in front of her feelings for Aeneas. Working to fulfill their own agendas, Juno and Venus interfere again in their lives by stirring up a storm that isolates Dido and Aeneas in a cave during a hunting session. Finding herself alone with him, Dido can no longer hide her feelings and to save her reputation in front of the rest of the world, she declares the couple’s union a marriage, although Aeneas does not consent to it. This was all facilitated by the meddling of the two goddesses, hopeful to be able to benefit from the union – Juno to save her beloved Carthage from being destroyed, and Venus to keep Aeneas safe from Dido’s madness.

The duel of her two husbands sets in Helen's heart a deep longing for her former husband, her city, and her oved ones. Seeing her distraught, King Priam tries to comfort her and blames the gods for the conflict. However, she loathes herself and laments for all the pain she had caused to herself and to those around her, for missing her dear ones and doing them wrong, "would that I had chosen death rather than to have come here with your son, far from my bridal chamber, my friends, my darling daughter, and all the companions of my girlhood. But it was not to be, and my lot is one of tears and sorrow,” “my abhorred and miserable self.” She wishes she had died before eloping with Paris to Troy, and her guilt and regrets grow deeper and deeper, tormenting her for her newly realized complicity in her abduction. However, she never attempts to take her own life despite her lamentation, which caused certain later writers to see her as perverted, opportunistic, selfish and treacherous, as described by Hecuba in Euripides’ The Trojan Women.

 At the news that Aeneas is set to leave Carthage for Latium, Dido feels enraged and betrayed, coming to regret having loved and protected him, “Fool that I was- 't is little to repeat/ The rest- I stor'd and rigg'd his ruin'd fleet./ I rave, I rave!” She feels that this love destroyed her life and cost her her peace of mind, “These dear-bought pleasures had I never known,/ Had I continued free, and still my own;/ Avoiding love, I had not found despair.” Just like Homer’s Helen, she loathes life and wishes to die to escape her pain, “Now, sinking underneath a load of grief,/ From death alone she seeks her last relief.” However, unlike Helen, Dido goes all the way and commits suicide. The passion, the sorrow and the feeling of betrayal controlling her are too heavy for her to bear. She is overwhelmed by her poisonous love for the Trojan prince and cannot live without him, “Despair, and rage, and love divide her heart.” At the end of her ordeal, Juno and Iris help her find her peace in death after stabbing herself in a successful suicidal attempt.

 Both women are puppets in the hands of the gods. Despite their free will and attempts to oppose their fate, they cannot escape the tight divine grasp. Feelings of regret and self-loathing touch both of them, but at different degrees; Helen manages to survive the tragedy she caused and do whatever necessary to favor her circumstances, maybe because she is aware of the gods’ interference in her destiny, while Dido, clueless of the induced passion for Aeneas by Cupid, cannot handle the pain for her lost love and she takes her own life.

Fate in Virgil's Aeneid

Fate is a crucial concept in the Aeneid. Look for a few places in the Aeneid where fate is mentioned and discuss each occurance, explaining what you think Virgil meant by "Fate" in the context of the story. Do you think his concept of fate is like yours or different? How?

 

 In Virgil’s Aeneid, fate seems to be the predominant motif. Not only does it mark the human existence as temporary and determine the afterlife of a human, but also traces their destiny in the great scheme of things. What is written for Aeneas and his people by the gods cannot be changed or fought against; the gods’ will shall prevail regardless of the individual’s free will and search of their own path in life. This is also one of the reasons why Virgil was so popular among medieval Christians and his works embraced and valued as scholastic study material. Although a pagan, his ideas and concepts stand very close to those of the Christians of the time, especially the Catholic Church. They believed that one’s life course and purpose is in the hands of God and one must not oppose the divine order set for them, but piously obey and fulfill their destiny.

 

 The very first line opening the epic alludes to fate getting its way by leading Aeneas to fulfilling his destiny, “Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,/ And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,/ Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore,” setting the tone for what is to follow. Even great Juno, filled with hatred toward Troy and its people, is afraid that she will not be able to save her beloved Carthage and prevent Aeneas from founding Rome as fighting fate would be futile, “Yet she had heard an ancient rumor fly,/(…)/ That times to come should see the Trojan race/ Her Carthage ruin, and her tow'rs deface;/ (…)/ She ponder'd this, and fear'd it was in fate.” Powerless, she would have to give up opposing what is meant to be and let history be made, “So Fate will have it, and Jove adds his force;/ Nor can my pow'r divert their happy course.” Venus, Aeneas’ mother and goddess of Love, also fear powerless at the prospect of her son not being able to fulfill his destiny and addresses almighty Jove, desperate, uncertain of what is to come, “fates to fates I could oppose; but now,/ When Fortune still pursues her former blow,/ What can I hope? What worse can still succeed?/ What end of labors has your will decreed.” However, looking to soothe upset Venus, Jove replies in a loving, fatherly manner, that her son will accomplish what he himself has written for Aeneas, “’Daughter, dismiss thy fears; to thy desire/ The fates of thine are fix'd, and stand entire./ Thou shalt behold thy wish'd Lavinian walls;/ And, ripe for heav'n, when fate Aeneas calls,/ Then shalt thou bear him up, sublime, to me:/ No councils have revers'd my firm decree./ And, lest new fears disturb thy happy state,/ Know, I have search'd the mystic rolls of Fate:/ Thy son (nor is th' appointed season far)/ In Italy shall wage successful war’.”

 

 In Hades, similarly to those in The Odyssey, the shades desperately yearn for life. For those who did not appreciate the gift of life, it is impossible to gain it back as it is not in their destiny to be freed to the living world, “With late repentance now they would retrieve/ The bodies they forsook, and wish to live;/ (…)/ To view the light of heav'n, and breathe the vital air:/ But fate forbids.” However, in contrast to Homer’s Hades, the worthy souls are sent to the Elysian Fields which they enjoy for a thousand years before they can go back to earth as reincarnated souls. 

 

 Also, if Odysseus goes to Hades to find out news from his homeland and advice for his journey, Aeneas learns about the glorious future of the new race he is about to start. Anchises, Aeneas’ father, shows him “The long procession of his progeny,” assuring him that “These are th' Italian names, which fate will join/ With ours, and graff upon the Trojan line.” This is Aeneas’ destiny, and his father is prophesying it. What is more, while Homer’s Odysseus is concerned about himself and his immediate family and the perils he might encounter on his journey home, Virgil’s Aeneas is concerned about all of his people, which makes him a great leader of his time, fitted for founding the Roman people. His piety and selflessness however lead to his personal unhappiness as he suffers through the deaths of his wife, his father, many of his friends, and the fall of Troy, all dictated by Fate.

 

 Virgil’s ideas and concepts of fate and personal conduct have been tremendously appreciated in his time and the period following, especially during the Christian Middle Ages, and their value still carries on to our days. Concern for the greater good and selflessness are greatly praised nowadays as well. However, on a personal level, I believe that we need to combine our belief in fate with free will. From personal experience, I can attest that had I not been proactive in certain situations or had I not fought against what at the time seemed to be my fate, I would certainly not be where I am right now. Some people have told me I should just let go and embrace what was meant to be for me, but my determination to build my own road in life, to design my own destiny, have kept me active and fighting for my dreams and the dreams of those around me. Sometimes, starting change on an individual level can have a great impact on those around, leading to possibly changing their lives for the better also.

Hades in The Iliad vs. The Odyssey

Review the scenes in Hades in Books 11 and 24 of the Odyssey. What can you learn about Homer's conception of life after death from reading them? 


In sharing the perceptions of his fellow Greeks of his time on life and death, Homer expresses their belief on the matter in the Odyssey, that life is the greatest gift man has, and that there is nothing joyful after death. This very idea is expressed earlier in Book 9 of the Iliad by Achilles, “Not worth the value of my life are all the possessions they fable were won for Ilion. . . A man's life cannot come back again." However, another interesting point to make is that Achilles chose a glorious death over a long, dull life, despite his views of life and death. This goes to show how important honor and glory were for a hero of the time and how his heroic deeds and fame would continue to affect people’s lives long after his death.

There are lengthy, detailed rituals associated with someone’s death and burial in Homer’s time, and great importance is given to them. One example is the death of Elpenor, one of Ulysses’ men, who broke his neck after getting drunk and falling off the roof of Circe’s house. While in Hades, Odysseus gets to speak with his spirit,"The first ghost 'that came was that of my comrade Elpenor, for he had not yet been laid beneath the earth. We had left his body unwaked and unburied in Circe's house.” Elpenor asks Odysseus to see to his burial by all means, “Do not go thence leaving me unwaked and unburied behind you, or I may bring heaven's anger upon you; but burn me with whatever armour I have, build a barrow for me on the sea shore, that may tell people in days to come what a poor unlucky fellow I was, and plant over my grave the oar I used to row with when I was yet alive and with my messmates.' This goes along with the events in the Iliad where Achilles seeks revenge for the murder of his friend Patroclus. After killing Hector, Achilles drags his corpse around the camp in honor of Patroclus. For him and his people, mutilating a dead body was an extreme insult brought to the dead man and his pained family, which is also why King Priam ends up begging Achilles for the return of his deceased son’s corpse to his family.

As they reach the dark, sinister Hades, Odysseus and his men are “weeping and in great distress of mind.” Intrigued by comparisons made between scenes described in the Odyssey and What Dreams May Come, I watched the movie and could indeed relate the two. The place the characters were headed to was “enshrouded in mist and darkness,” the dead “came from every quarter and flitted round the trench with a strange kind of screaming sound that made me turn pale with fear,” “The ghosts were screaming round him like scared birds flying all whithers,” and they would “whine and squeal as Mercury the healer of sorrow led them down into the dark abode of death.” 

It is interesting to analyze the way Homer looks at death and afterlife in the Odyssey especially when comparing it to today’s perceptions in Christianity. Although Hades is definitely not the equivalent of the Christian hell, nor is there any mentioning of the Elysian Fields nor the Tartarus (the equivalents of Heaven and Hell, respectively) in the Odyssey, those terrifying images of the way to Hell were very well represented in the movie.
Although a precursor of Epicurus, Homer expresses a belief that somewhat seems to be later shared by him, that of no existence of Heaven or Hell, nor of the interference of gods in human life. Although he talks about gods in his works, Homer has often been thought of as one to not believe in gods, or to simply mock them. To him, it is death that gives meaning to life, it is happiness and dear friends at the heart of good living, it is human interactions that fulfill us, as Mercury himself wonders while at Circe’s secluded cave, “who could possibly want to come all this way over the sea where there are no cities full of people to offer me sacrifices or choice hecatombs?” Zeus himself “says that [she is] to let this by man go at once, for it is decreed that he shall not perish here, far from his own people, but shall return to his house and country and see his friends again." 

In Hades, the shades of both good people and wrongdoers coexist. Nothing happens in Hades, it is just “limbo” as Elpenor calls it. No life means no joy, and the spirits are starved for a connection with the living, for news from the living world. Achilles expresses this idea very well in Book 11 in his conversation with Ulysses in Hades, “'Say not a word,' he answered, 'in death's favour; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead. But give me news about son; is he gone to the wars and will he be a great soldier, or is this not so? Tell me also if you have heard anything about my father Peleus- does he still rule among the Myrmidons, or do they show him no respect throughout Hellas and Phthia now that he is old and his limbs fail him?” That is also why the ghosts of the dead are attracted to the sacrificial blood. For them, it represents the juice of life, their communication channel with the living, from which they try to drain life for themselves, “so many thousands of ghosts came round me and uttered such appalling cries, that [Ulysses] was panic stricken.”

Although Odysseus had travelled to Hades to get advice from the Theban seer Tiresias on his journey back to Ithaca, his encounter with the shades was a painful one, especially in the case of his own mother. After drinking the sacrificial blood, she finally recognized him, and spoke to him about the events in Ithaca and gave him news about his family. His pain only grows harder when he tries to lovingly hug his mother but is unable to, “Then [he] tried to find some way of embracing my mother's ghost. Thrice sprang towards her and tried to clasp her in [his] arms, but each time she flitted from [his] embrace as it were a dream or phantom, and being touched to the quick [he] said to her, 'Mother, why do you not stay still when I would embrace you? If we could throw our arms around one another
we might find sad comfort in the sharing of our sorrows even in the house of Hades.” In reply, she explains that “all people are like this when they are dead. The sinews no longer hold the flesh and bones together; these perish in the fierceness of consuming fire as soon as life has left the body, and the soul flits away as though it were a dream,” which gives us more insight on the Greeks’ perception of the human soul and its states throughout a person’s life.

Discovering Homer’s and his fellow Greeks’ ideas of life and death is an amazing journey in itself. They made a priority out of trying to lead a fulfilling life as they feared the “nothing” after death. They praised life and gave great importance to it, as they saw afterlife as a “limbo” state of sorrow and emptiness, dull and action deprived, a realm of purposelessness and mindless wandering.

Women and their Roles in Homer's Odyssey

List at least six of the women, mortal and divine in the Odyssey and write a brief description of each one. Then explain in specific detail what role each one plays in the Odyssey. Finally, write a paragraph or two summing up Homer's ideas about the roles of women in the Odyssey--what they are like and how they are treated. 

Homer’s  Odyssey brings a new perspective on the female status in the aftermath of the fall of Troy. The women’s roles in this work are of significant importance as three main themes emerge from the epic, the goddess, the faithful wife and loving mother, and the seductress.

From the very beginning of the narrative, Athena is portrayed as the strong protector of Odysseus, using her goddess power to sway both the gods and the mortals in favor of her protégé. Flattered by the resemblance of Odysseus’ traits of character to her own, she loves him not in a motherly or romantic way, but as a higher force that has the power to change his destiny and bring him happiness, especially during his trials and tribulations, as she herself admits that “it is for Ulysses that my/ heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt/ island, far away, poor man, from all his friends.” (Homer, The Odyssey, Book 1) Her love for brave Odysseus is immense, and it extends over his immediate family also, as we can see in Books 1-4. Eager to avenge her protégé and punish his wrongdoers, she takes the form of friends and relatives of the hero to protect, encourage and guide Telemachus, his son, in maintaining his faith in his father’s return and promoting his name as King of Ithaca. Therefore, in Book 1, she is introduced to Telemachus in the shape of an old friend of his grandfather's, Laertes. “Disguised as/ a visitor, Mentes, chief of the Taphians,” she managed “to put heart into Ulysses’ son Telemachus” against his mother’s greedy suitors and for defending his father’s honor, giving him hope that he is alive and that the parasites depleting his father’s earthly possessions will receive their punishment.

Alongside Telemachus in grieving Odysseus is his loving mother, Penelope. Her heart full of sorrow, she has faithfully awaited her beloved husband to return from war for twenty years. Her continuous pain and pitiful crying make her seem weak, and her obeying her son’s orders to retire to her quarters and leave the important business to the man of the house suggest a submissive character and an inferior status in the familial hierarchy, “Go, then, within the house and busy yourself with your/ daily duties,” “for speech is man’s matter, and mine above all others- for it is I/ who am master here.” However, she uses her feminine wiles to keep her suitors under control. Her love for and loyalty to her missing husband have kept her from remarrying during the years of his absence, and to keep the suitors’ pressure to a minimum, she cleverly devises a scheme to trick them. She promises them that when she finishes weaving a shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, she would marry one of them, but she wittingly unweaves it at night, leading them on with her secret. As a mother, she is very caring and concerned about her son’s wellbeing when she learns that her suitors are plotting to murder him, but finds comfort when protective Athena consoles her by sending “a phantom in the likeness of a woman friend to reassure Penelope that Telemachus will be all right.” (Thompson, p 65)

Another female character contributing to the theme of the good family woman is Arete, Queen of the Phaeacians, and mother of Princess Nausicaa. Arete shows mercy and kindness to the stranger begging at her feet and honors him as a guest. Not only is she a great hostess – she joins her husband, King Alcinous, in welcoming and honoring Ulysses – but she is very generous, sending the hero on his journey on a ship filled with magnificent riches.

Nausicaa, Arete’s daughter, is modest and fearful during her encounter with the naked Odysseus on the beach where she was washing laundry. However, she treats him well, she feeds him and clothes him, and sends him to the Queen with good advice on how to make himself pleasant to her and her people.

In the string of seductresses that Ulysses deals with, Calypso is the one who gets to hold on to him the longest time. The nymph, “daughter of the magician Atlas,” traps Ulysses and keeps him prisoner for seven years. Seducing him with her beauty, she “will not let him go” and instead makes him her lover and plans on marrying him and giving him eternal life. However, her plans are ruined when Hermes informs her that she is to let Odysseus go and return to his family as it has been ordered by Zeus. Upset with this turn of events, she tries to lure Odysseus to stay against his destiny by vainly using her looks again, but the hero is determined to return home. She has to accept Zeus’ will and obey him, leaving her powerless in front of the almighty god. Eventually, she helps her captive set sail by providing materials for his raft and provisions for the road.

Wicked Circe is the next in line to seduce Odysseus and keep him close. The witch manages to turn Odysseus’ scouts into pigs after tainting their drinks with drugs, and then attempts to do the same to him. However, with help from Hermes, he resists her drugs and gets her to undo the spell she had put on his crew. Threatened by him, “she fell with a loud scream, clasped my knees, and spoke piteously,” giving in to his request before Odysseus agrees to become her lover, “I shall certainly not consent to go to bed with you unless you will first take your solemn oath to plot no further harm against me.'/ "So she swore at once as I had told her, and when she had completed her oath then I went to bed with her." After spending a year at her house and living a lavish life, the hero and his men set sail again.

 The ultimate temptation, the Sirens, also appear as an obstacle in Odysseus’ journey home.  Luring sailors with their sweet, seductive songs, they try to grab and pull them into the water and kill them. Bound to the rocks in the sea, these evil female creatures cannot leave the waters they lurk in, which strips them of the ability to move beyond their ties. Their only trick to get the sailors is to seduce them with their voices and drag them underneath. However, with advice from Circe, Odysseus outsmarts them by having his men tie him tightly to the mast and stuff their ears with wax. The Sirens then become powerless when their only trick fails to work.

 In Book 11, during his visit to Hades, Odysseus speaks with the ghost of Agamemnon, who mentions another evil seductress, his own wife, Clytemnestra, saying, “there is nothing in this world so cruel and so shameless as a woman when she has fallen into such guilt as hers was. Fancy murdering her own husband!” Having been killed by her after she had made his cousin her lover during Agamemnon’s absence, the King is pained and disgusted by her deed, which causes him to lose faith in all women, “her abominable crime has brought disgrace on herself and all women who shall come after- even on the good ones.” As a friend, he advises Odysseus to be watchful even of his own wife, although he praises her, saying that “Penelope is a very admirable woman, and has an excellent nature.”

 In my opinion, it is the female characters that sustain and spice up our hero’s journey as the tone changes in comparison with the portrayal of the women in The Iliad. This offers the audience a new point of view on the status of the women of the time, that of being submissive and obedient in a man’s world, but making great use of their feminine charms to reach their goals. Their intricate ways of seduction, their promiscuity or faithful natures are indubitably a source of great entertainment for the reader as the story unfolds.

Works Cited

Homer. The Odyssey

Thompson, Diane. The Trojan War. “Homer’s Odyssey: The Long Journey Home”

Women and their Roles in Homer's Iliad

List at least six of the women, mortal and divine in the Iliad and write a brief description of each one, explaining her role in the Iliad. Be sure to include Helen and Andromache. Finally, write a paragraph or two summing up Homer's ideas about women in the Iliad--what they are like and how they are treated.

The women of the Iliad undoubtedly play important roles in the tale, but one cannot help but notice that they are portrayed as “ second-class” citizens, playing the roles of long suffering wives, war prizes, and unfaithful wives, reserving the deeds, fame, and credit for the men. Regardless, they are the undercurrent that drives and shapes the events and conflicts of the tale, and plays off of their male counterparts, whether it be as a beauty that sparks a war, or a deity acting with cat’s paws to use their male counterparts.

Helen stands at the center of the Iliad, the indubitable royal catalyst for the war of “honor” between the Achaeans and the Trojans. Though “abducted”, the Spartan Queen allows herself to remain with Paris, though she eventually comes to loathe him for his cowardly nature, as well as herself for being the cause for the bloodshed.

Andromache serves as the antithesis of Helen, portraying the image of a loving, dutiful, and otherwise “perfect wife,” a councilor who seeks to persuade her husband Hector toward a less reckless strategy against the Achaeans.  Her story is marked by that unique tragedy and suffering that only a woman can know, both as a widow and as a grieving mother; while the men die and have their glory, she has only suffering and bitterness left to her.

Thetis, the divine mother of Achilles, serves as her son’s divine petitioner and last resort, making an emotional, rather than rational appeal to Zeus to aid her demigod offspring against the Trojans. Her strong maternal instincts serve to humanize her, but unfortunately her need to rely on Zeus’ favor rather than her own actions makes her seem more a beggar than a goddess.

Queen of the Gods and wife to Zeus, Hera is portrayed as a schemer and a plotter, working behind Zeus’ back when she finds herself on the opposite side of the battle. Even though she is characterized as relying on her wits rather than wiles (as do her fellow female deities), she still comes off as being a bad woman and person.

Briseis, the war-prize woman of Achilles, is more property than person, and ultimately becomes a commodity of peace, when she is forcibly taken by Agamemnon to replace his own war-bride woman, Chryseis. She too becomes a source of strife, causing a major rift between Agamemnon and Achilles, which spawns hardships for the Achaeans and the death of Patroclus.

As Hera used wit, and Thetis emotion, Aphrodite picks wiles as her weapon of choice, and will stop at nothing to have herself proclaimed the most fair of the Gods. Whereas others may receive praise for being so cutthroat, Aphrodite does not make the clean break that a male counterpart may do in her situation.

In summary, women share not in equality, or glory, or fame, and suffer the harshest judgment for what are often commensurate actions or natures.