“It is therefore appropriate that Homer’s message is the life of heroes and Plato’s dialogues are the loves of young men. Everything in Homer overflows with noble virtue; Odysseus is prudent; Ajax is brave; Penelope is chaste; Nestor is just in all things; and Telemachus is reverent towards his father while Achilles is most loyal in his friendships. What of these things remain in Plato, the philosopher? Unless we were to claim that there was some useful honor in the sacred chirpings of his ‘ideas’, mocked even by his student Aristotle! For this reason, I imagine he suffered worthy punishment for his words about Homer, that man “who has an unhindered tongue, the most shameful sickness” [Eur. Or. 10] just like Tantalos or Kapaneus, who suffered endless misfortunes because of their grievous tongue.
Plato often wore himself out going to the doors of tyrants and he submitted a free body to a slave’s fortune, even being sold. No one is ignorant about Pollis the Spartan* or how Plato was saved by a Libyan’s deed when his price had been set at twenty minae, cheap for a slave. These events were the punishment he owed for his slandering of Homer and for his ungoverned and unguarded tongue. Even though I could say more still against Plato, I’ll let it be because I respect the name of Socratic wisdom.”
*Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse gave Plato to Pollis as a slave
Welcome to the semifinal of the #NANAIHB (the Non-Atreid, Non-Achilles Iliadic hero Bracket), the definitive tournament to decide who really is the second best of the Achaeans. The first round saw six contests, most of which were blowouts. The second round was equally lopsided, leaving us with two ‘classic’ matches. Odysseus vs. Ajax and Patroklos vs. Diomedes.
Semifinal 1 Results, Ajax Over Odysseus!
#NANAIHB Semi@nfinals, Match 1: The Contest of the Arms, The Prequel!
Just as the hottest part of the day began to give way to the evening shadows, the Achaeans stood in a noisy but tense assembly, awaiting the match of Telamon’s massive son and the clever child of Laertes. Achilles stood near Ajax, giving him advice and putting on a show of laughter while Nestor stood muttering next to an Odysseus who remained oddly and passively still. But when Agamemnon sounded the beginning of the fight, Odysseus leapt into action, loosing both of his spears almost before Ajax could raise his giant shield. Neither one penetrated farther than three or four layers of that ox-hide bulk, but they were fixed in deep and made the weapon even harder to wield.
Here are some screenshots I took as the contest unfolded.
Ajax tried to match Odysseus’ initiative and threw first once and then twice, missing his mark wide to the left and the right as Odysseus danced from side to side. The devious father of Telemachus drew his sword and rushed Ajax, moving around him faster than the larger man could match. In one quick move he slashed at the back of Ajax’s leg and drew blood, eliciting a gasp and then roar from the crowd. Odysseus gazed at the assembled Achaeans a moment too long and then found himself flying through the air, struck full on the side with the cumbersome shield.
From the ground, a shaken Odysseus looked up and saw Ajax’s eyes fixed upon him. He leapt up and backed out of the range of the larger man’s sword and shouted, “Aiakos’ lesser grandson, Lord of an island of salt and waste. Are you man enough to strip your armor and fight me hand to hand!” Ajax glared and said nothing, dropping his shield and exposing the full strength of his body in a few moves. He stood there, sweet and blood running down his leg, waiting for Odysseus to meet him.
The two men began to circle and box, Odysseus never slowing and Ajax never landing a full blow on the Ithacan rogue. Ajax’s pace was clearly slowed by his wounded leg and Odysseus took full advantage, landing punches in his kidney and spine.
The crowd was long past impatient and most believed that Odysseus’ would win. But under the light of the rising moon and the flickering bonfires, Odysseus stepped back and paused. Later, some would claim that they saw a mist or cloud of dust whirl about his head and that the much-devising Laertides seemed to be speaking to himself. The moment passed and Odysseus smiled. He rushed at Ajax and seemed to trip to him, falling into a half-released blow from Telamon’s son.
Odysseus fell to the ground, clutching at his ankle and wrist, raising a voice with a tremor, “Ajax, son of Telamon. I yield. You have beat me. But I think we will meet again in another contest in days to come.”
The Achaeans cheered in confusion and surprise. Ajax stood, exhausted, chest heaving, eyes fixed on the shadowed ground.
Today’s Match: Patroklos vs. Diomedes
Patroklos is coming off the widest margin of victory in round 2 where he easily bested Nestorides. Diomedes earned a forfeit over Thersites in round 2 and has not so match as suffered a scratch on his foot in the tournament. Both heroes are more important in Homer than in Greek myth in general as demonstrated by their relative absence in extant art from the Classical age.
How can we fairly compare these two heroes? Diomedes sacked Thebes before he came to Troy, but Patroklos is of such precocious anger that he killed his first foe as a child! If we think about their impact on the war, both are dominant in separate parts. According to my count and this site, Diomedes killed 34 people during the epic (although 12 of them were Rhesus and his sleeping men along with the unarmed Dolon). Patroklos killed 27 during his aristeia. What about their opponents? Diomedes wounded Aeneas while Patroklos killed the second best of the Trojans, Sarpedon. Diomedes wounded a god, but he was also wounded in turn by Athena. It takes Apollo, Euphorbos, and the best of the Trojans to take Patroklos down.
Even though this is a competition of who is the best warrior, both of these heroes likely do equally important work off the battlefield. Patroklos is “kind” (ἤπιος ὢν; πρᾷός ) and pities the Achaeans (οἰκτείρει τοὺς ᾿Αχαιούς, Schol. BT a Il. 307b). His compassion keeps Achilles connected to the very people he has consigned to doom and ensures that the best of the Achaeans will stay at Troy. Diomedes is as good in council as he is in war, and his progression during the Iliadmay demonstrate how a hero becomes “a doer of deeds and speaker of words” (μύθων τε ῥητῆρ’ ἔμεναι πρηκτῆρά τε ἔργων) as Achilles was meant to.
So this comes down to more than a theomakhos vs. a dice-killer. This is Achilles’ replacement vs. Achilles’ ritual substitute.
Will Patroklos have Achilles armor and go berserker? Will Diomedes have Athena on her side? Who gets to face Ajax in the end?
“A life commingled with virtue is like an eternal spring: it is clean, untroubled, drinkable and sweet, communal and wealthy, without harm and indestructible”
“Examine in yourself whether you desire to be wealthy or lucky. If you want wealth, know that it is neither good nor wholly yours. If you desire to be happy understand that it is good and under your power. One is the timely gift of chance, the other is a choice.”
“…They will heap up a mound [sêma] on the broad Hellespont
And someone of the men who are born in the future may say
As he says over the wine-faced sea in his many-benched ship:
This is the marker [sêma] of a man who died long ago,
A man whom shining Hektor killed when he was at his best”
So someone someday will say. And my glory will never perish”
“After heaping up the mound [sêma] they returned. Then
Once they were well gathered they shared a fine feast
In the halls of the god-nourished king, Priam.
Thus they were completing the burial of horse-taming Hektor.”
“They quickly placed the bones in an empty trench and then
They covered it with great, well-fitted stones.
They rushed to heap up a marker [sêma], around which they set guards
In case the well-greaved Achaeans should attack too soon.”
“Don’t leave me unmourned, unburied when you turn around
And go back—so that I might not be a reason for the gods to rage—
But burn me with my weapons and everything which is mind
Then build a mound [sêma] for me on the shore of the grey sea,
For a pitiful man, and for those to come to learn of me.
Finish these things for me and then affix an oar onto my tomb,
The one I was rowing with when I was alive and with my companions”
I will speak to you an obvious sign [sêma] and it will not escape you.
Whenever some other traveler meets you and asks
Why you have a winnowing fan on your fine shoulder,
At that very point drive the well-shaped oar into the ground
Welcome to the semifinal of the #NANAIHB (the Non-Atreid, Non-Achilles Iliadic hero Bracket), the definitive tournament to decide who really is the second best of the Achaeans. The first round saw six contests, most of which were blowouts. The second round was equally lopsided, leaving us with two ‘classic’ matches. Odysseus vs. Ajax and Patroklos vs. Diomedes.
Semifinal 1: Odysseus vs. Ajax
#NANAIHB Semi@nfinals, Match 1: The Contest of the Arms, The Prequel!
Imagine if Rocky 2 happened before Rocky? That’s kind of what this contest is like. The clash between Odysseus and Ajax over Achilles’ arms after his death was well known in the 6th century BCE when it appears on many black figure vases. The tension between them is arguably felt in our Iliad where they meet in a wrestling match so evenly that Achilles stops it:
Iliad 24.735-7
“Stop competing, the two of you! don’t wear yourselves out with injuries.
Both of you win! Leave the contest now and take equal prizes
So that the rest of the Achaeans can compete!”
The origin of the conflict between these two heroes is, I think, probably part of a redefinition of what a hero is and what qualities are most important. Ajax is definitely the biggest and baddest dude after Achilles, but Odysseus is a survivor and a schemer. Both figures are important to Achilles as well: Gregory Nagy argues that Ajax and Odysseus are a thematic pair during the embassy to Achilles in book 9. As Nagy notes, Phoinix calls them “the best men in the Achaean army” (9.520-1).
The real difficulty is where they really are the best: Ajax is second in the Iliadbut Odysseus is the first in the Odyssey, even if only because he’s still alive! Odysseus is definitely in on their differences: he bestows faint praise upon him when he describes: “Ajax, who was best in size and looks / of all the Danaans after Peleus’ blameless son” Αἴαντός θ’, ὃς ἄριστος ἔην εἶδός τε δέμας τε / τῶν ἄλλων Δαναῶν μετ’ ἀμύμονα Πηλεΐωνα. (11.469-470). And he allegedly addressed him when he went to consult the ghost of Teiresias.
Odyssey 11. 543-562
“Only the ghost of Telamon’s son, Ajax
Stood apart, still angry over the victory
That I won over him in when I competed near the ships
For Achilles’ weapons. His divine mother set the competition
And the Trojan children judged it along with Pallas Athen.
Oh, I wish that I had never won in that kind of a contest!
The earth covered over such a man as Ajax over these things,
A man who was preeminent in size and accomplishments
Among the rest of the Danaans after Peleus’ blameless son.
I was trying to address him with kind words:
“Ajax, blameless child of Telamon, even in death
Were you not ready to give up your anger with me over the weapons,
Those ruinous weapons which the gods gave as pain to the Argives!
For you were lost as such a tower over them! The Achaians
Grieved over your passing endlessly even equal to
The loss of the life of Peleus’ son Achilles.
No one is to blame apart from Zeus who tortured the army
Of the spear-carrying Danaans so terribly, he set this fate for you.
Come, lord, com here to listen to my word and speech.
Master your anger and your proud heart.”
Personally, I don’t know if Odysseus is entirely serious when he laments “Oh, I wish that I had never won in that kind of a contest!” And it seems typical of this particular hero that he does not allow us to hear Ajax speak.
This passage is typically taken as our earliest evidence of the conflict. According to a scholion, the “Trojan children” were captives Agamemnon assigned to judge, asking which of the two heroes had caused the Trojans the most harm (Schol. In Hom. Od H. 11.547). In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the two of them deliver orations explaining why they deserve the weapons and the people vote. In Sophocles’ play, it seems that the Atreids made the choice together.
The conflict over the weapons is in some sources over the glory of retrieving the Palladion for the city (see Gantz 1993, 645-6) while more sources place the argument over the arms in the lost Aithiopis or the Little Iliad where Odysseus wins through Athena’s help and, as best dramatized in Sophocles’ Ajax, Telamon’s son loses his mind and kills himself.
I am not saying that we could redress an injustice committed long ago, but think about Odysseus’ words when you cast your vote.
“Serenus, if it seems apt to you, we need to distinguish injury from insult. The first is more serious by its nature and the other is lighter and an issue only for the overly sensitive because people are not wounded but offended. Some spirits are nevertheless so fragile and vain that they believe nothing is more bitter. For this reason you will find an enslaved person who would prefer lashes to fists and believes death and beatings more tolerable than insulting words.
The situation has gone to such a point of ridiculousness that we are harmed not just by pain but by opinion about pain like children whom dark shadows and the appearance of masks or changed appearances terrify! We are people moved to tears by somewhat painful words touching our ears, by rude signs with fingers, and other things which the ignorant rush from in panicked error.
Injury means to do someone evil; but wisdom allows no space for evil because the only evil it recognizes is debasement, which is incapable of entering anywhere virtue and truth already live.”
Dividamus, si tibi videtur, Serene, iniuriam a contumelia. Prior illa natura gravior est, haec levior et tantum delicatis gravis, qua non laeduntur homines sed offenduntur. Tanta est tamen animorum dissolutio et vanitas, ut quidam nihil acerbius putent. Sic invenies servum qui flagellis quam colaphis caedi malit et qui mortem ac verbera tolerabiliora credat quam contumeliosa verba. Ad tantas ineptias perventum est, ut non dolore tantum sed doloris opinione vexemur more puerorum, quibus metum incutit umbra et personarum deformitas et depravata facies, lacrimas vero evocant nomina parum grata auribus et digitorum motus et alia quae impetu quodam erroris improvidi refugiunt. Iniuria propositum hoc habet aliquem malo adficere; malo autem sapientia non relinquit locum, unum enim illi malum est turpitudo, quae intrare eo ubi iam virtus honestumque est non potest.
Welcome to the second round of the #NANAIHB (the Non-Atreid, Non-Achilles Iliadic hero Bracket), the definitive tournament to decide who really is the second best of the Achaeans. The first round saw six contests, most of which were blowouts. The second round introduces heroes who received first-round byes: Odysseus, Ajax,and Diomedes.
#NANAIHB Round 2, Match 4: Getting it On in Calydon
The Achaeans assembled in the late afternoon for the final match of the elite eight between Diomedes and Thersites. Diomedes was fully armed and standing with his shield at ready at the appointed hour as Sthenelos stood next to him, chattering about how much he was going to destroy Thersites. At first, the crowd seemed giddy at the prospect but as the moments stretched out to minutes and then approached half an hour, boredom slipped into frustration.
Once an hour had passed, Agamemnon spoke, and said, “Look, Greeks, Thersites didn’t show up because of his cowardice!*” He waited a moment for a laugh and then sighed at the silence, speaking up again only to call the match by forfeit to Diomedes who had remained motionless, shield at the ready the entire time. As soon as Agamemnon spoke, Diomedes roared, “Sthenelos, put on your weapons. Let’s spar. Sweat is the least price I can pay for victory.”
A few Achaeans laughed. Most shook their heads as they left the assembly. Achilles called as he was leaving, “Don’t bruise him too much, Sthenelos. Patroklos is going to wear my armor in the match. And you know how hard he already is to turn over!” At this, the Greeks laughed, unaccustomed to such bawdy banter from shining Achilles.
*διὰ τὸ ἀθαρσὲς αὐτοῦ [dia to atharsos] an easy punning on Thersites’ name which is likely built on the world tharsos/thrasos, “boldness”. From Agamemnon this is less than effective because everyone makes this joke and Atreus’ son thinks he just made it up.
The Semifinals: The Semifinal matches were probably spun up by the Fates themselves. We get a rematch of the famous and tragic struggle between Ajax and Odysseus and an intriguing contest between Achilles’ replacement and his better half.
The Achaeans are taking the day off. The Semifinals will be the next two days, setting up a match for the coveted Second Best of the Achaeans title on Tuesday.
“A young man who had run on a rough road developed pain in his heel, especially close to the bottom. The area did not permit any draining of liquid because it was still producing moisture. On the fourth day, after his run, the whole area started turning dark right up to the joint of the ankle and below to the arch of the foot. It did not break out completely, instead he died first. He lived twenty full days after his run.”
“Shit.
Nothing is credible, not a good reputation
Nor that one who is lucky will not do badly in the end.
The gods churn these waters up back and forth
Mixing in confusion so that we worship them
In our ignorance. But why mourn at all?
It has no effect on our sufferings to come.”
“You haven’t paid up, but perhaps you’ll pay soon.
Like a man who has fallen into water with no harbor
You’ll fall far from your heart’s desire
And lose your life. The meeting place
Of debt to Justice and to the gods
Is a terrible, terrible place.”
“Agamemnon, it’s not right for people
To possess tongues stronger than deeds.
If someone has done good things, then they ought to speak well
If they do evil things, well, their words are rotten too,
And they are incapable of ever speaking of injustice well.
Wise are those who have become masters of precise speech!
But even they cannot be wise all the way to the end.
They all die terribly. There’s no escape from that.”
There is the noted tyrannicide who, though his work was incomplete, was captured and when he was tortured to inform upon his fellow conspirators, named the friends of the tyrant standing around, to whom he knew the life of the tyrant was actually very dear. And when Hippias ordered them to be killed one by one as they were named, he asked whether anyone remained. The tyrannicide responded, ‘Only you – for I have left out no one else to whom you were dear.’ Anger brought it about that the tyrant accommodated his hands to the tyrannicide, and killed his guard with his very own hand.
Notus est ille tyrannicida qui, inperfecto opere comprehensus et ab Hippia tortus ut conscios indicaret, circumstantes amicos tyranni nominauit quibusque maxime caram salutem eius sciebat. Et cum ille singulos, ut nominati erant, occidi iussisset, interrogauit ecquis superesset: ‘tu’ inquit ‘solus; neminem enim alium cui carus esses reliqui.’ Effecit ira ut tyrannus tyrannicidae manus accommodaret et praesidia sua gladio suo caederet.
