The first meeting of Grundtvig mobility in Greece. COURSE: 2010-1-CY1-GRU06-009312

1. Homeric Heroes from Fthia The first meeting of Grundtvig mobility in Greece. COURSE: 2010-1-CY1-GRU06-009312 Athens and Lamia, 22-29/10/2010, Ourania N. Toutountzi dr Philosophy of language -writer

2. Achilles • In the rhapsody A of ILIAD, we see how Achilles, feeling deeply insulted by Agamemnon, decides not to take part in the battle any more. Some days later, a deputation composed of Odysseus, Ajax (Aias), Phoenix and two heralds, send by Agamemnon, meets Achilles and begs him to forget his anger and return to the battle. His absence could cause the destruction of the Achaean army.

3. Achilles, proud, answers that he would never accept and forgive any insult, even if it comes from a very powerful king. He also says that if he decides to depart from Ilion the very next morning, with his ships and his army of myrmidons, in three days he would arrive –with the help of the great Poseidon- in the fertile Fthia: «ΕΙ ΔΕ ΚΕΝ ΕΥΠΛΟΙΗΝ ΔΩΗ ΚΛΥΤΟΣ ΕΝΝΟΣΙΓΑΙΟΣ ΗΜΑΤΙ ΚΕ ΤΡΙΤΑΤΩ ΦΘΙΗΝ ΕΡΙΒΩΛΟΝ ΙΚΟΙΜΗΝ» (ILIAS, Ι, 362 -363)

4. More than eight hundred years later –much more, in my opinion- the philosophe Socrates, in his prison, waiting for the execution of his condemnation to death, talks to his student and friend Kriton about his dream. • Socrates had dreamt that a beautiful young woman, in white clothes, came near him and told him: • «Socrates, in three days you will arrive at the fertile Fthia»

5. We meet here (Plato’ s “Kriton” 44b) exactly the same words used by Achilles in ILIAD: • «Ω ΣΩΚΡΑΤΕΣ,ΗΜΑΤΙ ΚΕΝ ΤΡΙΤΑΤΩ ΦΘΙΗΝ ΕΡΙΒΩΛΟΝ ΙΚΟΙΟ» Socrates’ dream has, of course, an obvious meaning. And if, for Achilles, Fthia is his fatherland, the place where he lives, the place he misses, for Socrates Fthia is fatherland and motherland of all beings. With other words, for the philosophe Socrates, Fthia is the place where every being returns one day, by dying. Since then, the Homeric Fthia has become a sort of ontological determination for the human existence.

6. The Homeric Fthia… fatherland or motherland of many heroes. We learn from Homer that Achilles had come to Ilion with a fleet of fifty ships, which transferred warriors from Pelasgic Argos, Alos, Alopi, Trihina, Fthia, and Hellas – “καλλιγύναικα Ελλάδα” as Homer says, which means «The Hellas with the beautiful women». And the men who came to Ilion with Achilles, also says Homer, were called “myrmidons” and “hellenes” and “achaioi”. The name “Hellenes”, though maybe already familiar to Homer in its today’s sense, is attributed by the great poet only to the men who came to Ilion with Achilles. • The Homeric Hellas is a city of Thessalia, build at the prehistorical years. It is also possible that a city with the same name existed near the oracle of Dodona.

7. As for the name of the Myrmidons, it comes from the Hellenic word “mirmigi” which means “ant”. • Achilles’ grandfather was called Aiakos. They say that he was the fairest man in earth. He lived alone in the island of Aigina, but his father, which was Zeus, the father of gods and mortals, transformed all the ants on the island to men and women. • A human tribe was born, the tribe of Myrmidons. Aiakos became their king. This people, after living for several years in Aigina, moved later to Thessalia. They installed themselves in the city of Fthia, and Pileas, one of Aiakos’ sons, became their new king.

8. Thetis Achilles • Pileas, although mortal, was married to the goddess of sea Nereid Thetis. • Achilles was their son. He was brave, honest and proud. • He incarnates the human impulsion, but also the marriage between the mortal and the immortal element into the world.

9. Achilles’ closest friend and comrade in the battle is Patroklus, the son of Menitios. This probably is an innovation brought to the Trojan Myth by Homer. In the prehomeric tradition, we find Antilochus (the son of Pylos’ king Nestor) instead of Patroklus as Achilles’ comrade and closest friend. Patroklus was born in Lokrida, but when he was a child he killed unwillingly his friend Klisonymus. It was then that Menitios took his son away from Lokrida and brought him to Fthia. Pileas accepted them to his palace. Patroklus was by a few years elder than Achilles, but the two boys soon became the close friends that we meet in ILIAD. Patroclus is very courteous and also brave and candid. He incarnates the affection and reminds us, with his heroic death, the destiny of all mortals.

10. In the rhapsody B of ILIAD, Homer relates in detail who were the chieftains in each one of the two armies. Among them, he includes Filoktitis, the king of the Thessalian cities Methoni, Thaumakia, Melivia and Olizone. His father was Poias. It is possible that Filoktitis was also one of the Argonauts. • Filoktitis was the man who lighted Hercules’ (Heracles’) funeral pyre, on the peak of the Thessalian mount Oiti. Hercules (Heracles) was raised up into the ether and joined the gods. That was the hero’s theosis. But before that, he handed on Filoktitis his bow and darts. This event was somehow connected with Troy’s destiny.

11. According to an oracle, only Hercules’ (Heracles’) bow could conquer the city of Troy. And Filoktitis joined the Achaean army carrying with him the hero’s bow. But in the island of Chrysi, Filoktitis was bitten by a poisonous water snake. His wound was infected and exhaled a very bad smell. His fellows, who couldn’t stand the smell, quitted him to the island of Limnos. It was only after Achilles’ death that the chieftains of the army remembered Filoktitis and the oracle about Hercules’ (Hearecles’) bow. They returned to Limnos, and Mahaon, the son of god Aesculapius (Asklipios), cured Filoktitis’ wound. So the hero joined again the Achaean army and returned with them to Troy.

12. So, do we honestly have any doubt that the oracle was finally accomplished? The story about “Dourios Ippos” (the “Wooden Horse”), although widely known today, is not in accord with the Homeric Heroic Ideal -as we perceive this ideal in ILIAD. ILIAD’s heroes would never deign to conquer Ilion using a deceit. For them, a victory is more than everything else a moral victory and the result from their excellence («αριστεία»), in battle and in life. It is reasonable –and we have a lot of evidence on our side- to suggest that Troy was indeed conquered after a heroic and deeply tragic for both armies battle.

13. And that the poet who wrote ILIAD (because ILIAD was written by one genius poet, either his name was Homer or not) ignored the story about the Wooden Horse. He ignored it, for the simple reason that this story was invented later, when the heroic ideal had already lost its original brightness. Unhappily, nearly all of the information included in the prehomeric epic tradition is lost. • In ODYSSEY we find, of course, some reference to the Wooden Horse. But there is no doubt –and we can prove this- that ODYSSEY has been created several centuries (at least three hundred years) after the creation of ILIAD and, obviously, not by the some poet who wrote ILIAD.

14. Thank You