Two key words for this dialogue: akhos and penthos, both meaning 'grief' or 'song of grief' = 'lament'
Passage (A) Iliad I 188-191:
The son of Peleus [= Achilles] felt grief [akhos], and his heart within his shaggy breast was divided [190] whether to draw his sword, push the others aside, and kill the son of Atreus [= Agamemnon], or to restrain himself and check his anger [kholos].
The word akhos is connected with the name of Achilles in the Iliad. Similarly, the word penthos is connected with the name of an Amazon called Penthesileia.
For the story of Penthesileia the Amazon, see the ancient plot summary of Proclus, = passage B:
Passage (B) From an ancient plot-summary of the lost epic Aithiopis ('Song of the Ethiopians'):
"The Amazon Penthesileia, daughter of Ares and Thracian by birth, comes to Troy as an ally of the Trojans. In the middle of her aristeia [= greatest epic moments], Achilles kills her and the Trojans arrange for her funeral. Thersites, reviling and reproaching Achilles by saying that he loved Penthesileia, is killed by Achilles."
A question about this plot: when Thersites says that Achilles was in love with Penthesileia, why is Achilles angry enough to kill him?
The name of this Amazon, Penthesileia, means 'penthos for the people [laos]'; it is parallel to the name of Achilles, which is understood in Homeric poetry to mean 'akhos for the people [laos]'.
Both these names - and the characters that are tied to them - have to do with themes of lament.
What is lament? When people like you and me cry, we just cry. When people in a song culture cry, they lament. That is, they sing while they cry, they cry while they sing, and this kind of singing *is* crying; this kind of crying *is* singing. The physical aspects of crying are all integrated into the singing: the flow of tears, the choking of the voice, the heaving of the whole body, and so on.
Laments and love songs are performed primarily by women. Another detail that is specific to women in ancient Greek song culture: letting down the hair while lamenting. In other song cultures, there are other ways to express loss of control and order, such as tearing one's clothes.
For an example of lament performed / cried by a person in the depths of real grief, see
When you visit such links, plese read the comments I have written there (GN).
Laments can switch to love songs and vice versa: love songs can switch to laments. The primary emotions involved in the singing of traditional love songs are love and sorrow mixed together. Why should a traditional love song be sad? It is because most traditional love songs are preoccupied with the themes of unrequited love.
Consider the Transylvanian love song "Szerelem" - which was used by the director of the film The English Patient. You will find it next to the link for "A Hungarian lament." We see here an example of stylized crying. The singer is not really crying. The crying is stylized.
For another example of stylized crying, consider the aria from Puccini's Madama Butterfly, "One fine day."
Passage (C) Repetition from Dialogue 02 Passage (D) Iliad IX 550-602:
So long as Meleager was in the field things went badly for the Curetes, and for all their numbers they could not hold their ground under the city walls; but in the course of time anger [kholos] entered Meleager in his thinking [noos], as will happen sometimes even to a sensible man. He was incensed with his mother Althaea, and therefore stayed at home with his wife, whom he had courted as a youth, fair Kleopatra, {note 1} who was daughter of Marpessa daughter of Euenus, and of Idēs a man then living. It was he who took his bow and faced King Apollo himself for fair Marpessa's sake; her father and mother then named her Alcyone, {note 2} because her mother had lamented with the plaintive strains of the halcyon-bird when Phoebus Apollo had carried her off. Meleager, then, stayed at home with wife, nursing the anger which he felt by reason of his mother's curses. His mother, grieving for the death of her brother, prayed to the gods, and beat the earth with her hands, calling upon Hades and on terrifying Persephone as she went down on her knees, and her bosom was wet with tears as she prayed that they should kill her son - and an Erinys that roams in darkness and knows no mercy heard her, from below in Erebus. Then was heard the din of battle about the gates of Calydon, and the dull thump of the battering against their walls. Now the elders of the Aetolians sought out Meleager; they sent the chief of their priests, and begged him to come out and help them, promising him a great reward. They told him to choose fifty acres, the most fertile in the plain of Calydon, the one-half vineyard and the other open plough-land. The old warrior Oeneus implored him, standing at the threshold of his room and beating the doors in supplication. His sisters and his mother herself implored him over and over again, but he kept on refusing them all the more; those of his comrades who were nearest and dearest [philtatoi] to him also begged him, but they could not move him till the enemy was battering at the very doors of his chamber, and the Curetes had scaled the walls and were setting fire to the city. Then at last his sorrowing wife detailed the horrors that befall those whose city is taken; she reminded him how the men are slain, and the city is given over to the flames, while the women and children are carried off into captivity; when he heard all this, his heart was touched, and he put on his armor to go forth. Thus yielding to his heart he saved the city of the Aetolians; but they now gave him nothing of those rich rewards that they had offered earlier, and though he saved the city he took nothing by it. Do not then, my near and dear one [philos], think this way; do not let a daimōn steer you in this direction. When the ships are burning it will be a harder matter to save them.
I repeat here two of the notes I gave for this passage the last time around:
{note 1} It is essential for the plot of the macro-narrative that Kleopatra is a name that means the same thing as the name Patrokleēs = Patroklos.
{note 2} Alcyone is the second name of the wife of Meleager. In ancient Greek lore, the alcyon / halcyon is a bird that sings songs of lament over the destruction of cities.
For background, let me take a moment to point out some special ways of thinking about emotions in ancient Greek culture.
The philosopher Aristotle (4th century) thinks that the emotions of "feat" (phobos) and "pity" (eleos) are essential for understanding Classical tragedy. In his way of thinking, the epic of the Homeric tradition is like a prototype of tragedy.
The English translations "fear" and "pity" do not quite capture the range of meanings and applications. It is easier if we start thinking of the fear / pity contrast in these terms:
fear: a feeling of repulsion when you see or hear someone else suffering (that is, you feel like getting far away from that person)
pity: a feeling of attraction when you see or hear someone else suffering (that is, you feel like getting closer to that person).
When you yourself are suffering, you feel grief. When you feel fear or pity, you are repelled by or attracted to the grief.
Of course, the emotion of fear goes beyond what you feel about others' grief: you can more basically fear for yourself. But the same basic feeling is at work when you experience fear in reaction to someone else's suffering: you are afraid that something might happen to you that will make you suffer the same way.
Another word that I will use, from here on, to express the idea of fear is terror.
Another point about emotions as explored in song culturesÉ confusion may be considered an emotion. In opera, for example (as we will see later), confusion is a mixture of more than one emotion. That is, confusion results from a mixture of grief and anger, anger and hate, hate and love, and so on.
This background will help us analyze the micro-narrative about Meleager and his wife Cleopatra.
The Meleager narrative is a micro-narrative meant for Achilles and for the Iliad, which is the macro-narrative about Achilles; in its compressed form, the Meleager narrative "replays" or "repeats" some of the major themes of the expanded form that is the Iliad.
For my use of the word "repeat" here, compare É
Kierkegaard (Repetition, 1843):
"The dialectic of repetition is easy, for that which is repeated has been - otherwise it could not be repeated - but the very fact that it has been makes the repetition into something new."
I hope that, every time you look back at this passage, you will be seeing new things in the same passage.
An essential word in the micro-narrative is philos, which measures the hero's ascending scale of affection: elders, priests, father, sisters, mother, companions [hetairoi], {wife}.
I will explain in a moment why I highlight the word "wife" but putting it within braces.
The sequence in which these characters are presented in the narration corresponds to the ordering of the hero's ascending scale of affection.
Notice how the wife gets into the sequence. The logic of the narrative dictates it, not the logic of the narrator Phoenix.
Let us consider the significance of the wife's name:
Cleopatra = Kleopatra = Kleopatra
We have already compared the name of Achilles' nearest and dearest comrade:
Patroklos = Patrokleēs
Why is the lament of Cleopatra essential to the plot of the micro-narrative? It is because this lament is a performance.
The poetry and song of kleos is itself a performance. It is a speech-act.
On the concept of "speech-act," see J. L. Austin, How to do things with words. A speech-act has authority, but you have to say it in the right context. Examples: "You're fired!" [but only in a context where the employer says it to the employee]; "I do" [but only in the context of answering the question: "Do you take this woman/man to be your lawfully-wedded wife/husband"?]; "All hands on deck" [but only in the context of sailing a ship, when the commanding officer says it].
The epic of Homer is a speech-act. It comes to life only in performance. Live performance. Compare, in today's world, a concert in a concert-hall; a lecture in a lecture-hall; a sermon in church.
Performance is ritual. To perform Homer, that is.
Ritual is doing things and saying things in a special way. Myth is saying things in a special way. So ritual frames myth.
I have more to say about ritual and myth in my article "The Epic Hero," which is "Introduction #3" on the Heroes website (under "Texts").
Another illustration of the power of the speech-act...
Passage (D) Alcman song 1 lines 39-43
"And I sing the radiance of Agido, as I look upon her like the sun, which Agido summons to shine as witness."
In other words, the performance "summons" the sun to shine. The performance equates the girl Agido with the sun. I will turn to this topic later.
Now we look at passage showing another lament, a very stylized one, which occurs within the context of the farewell scene of Hector and Andromache.
In this passage, Andromache laments the death of her husband Hector even before he dies. In this case, her lament is an act of premonition.
Passage (E) Iliad VI 404-432
Hector smiled as he looked at the boy, but he did not speak, and Andromache stood next to him weeping and taking his hand in her own. "Dear husband," said she, "your valor will bring you to destruction; think of your infant son, and on my hapless self who before long shall be your widow - for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you. It would be better for me, should I lose you, to lie dead and buried, for I shall have nothing left to comfort me when you are gone, except for grief [akhos]. I have neither father nor mother now. Achilles slew my father when he destroyed Thebe the beautiful city of the Cilicians. ... I had seven brothers in my father's house, but on the same day they all went down into the house of Hades. Achilles killed them as they were with their sheep and cattle. My mother - her who had been queen of all the land under Mount Placus - he brought here with the spoil, and freed her for a great sum, but the archer - queen Artemis took her away from the house of your father. O Hector - you who to me are father, mother, brother, and dear husband - have mercy on me; stay here at this wall; make not your child fatherless, and your wife a widow.
When Andromache laments the death of her father, whose name is E‘tion, we begin to understand the deep irony of the reference to the lyre of Achilles in Passage C of Dialogue 02, Iliad IX 186-191. There we see Achilles playing on the lyre that once belonged to E‘tion, the father of Andromache. In a way, he is playing on the pain of Andromache. What a metonymy! And what is he playing, what is he performing? He is performing klea andr™n, the 'glories of heroes of the past' (Iliad IX 189). And there is a vitally important parallel. When Phoenix tells Achilles the micro-narrative about the hero Meleager and his wife Cleopatra, the old man is likewise performing klea andr™n, the 'glories of heroes of the past' (Iliad IX 524). And what is the point of that micro-narrative? One way to answer that question is to say that point is the meaning of Cleopatra herself, of her name, which has to do with the 'glories of the ancestors', the 'glories of heroes of the past'.
I compare another lament as an act of premonition. It comes from the Korean film Chunhyang, which is based on a medieval Korean "epic" known by the same name.
Note the way the stylized singing of the Pansur singer is "echoed" by the more natural crying / singing of Chunhyang. What we hear here is two registers of lament.
Here is a song by Sappho referring back to a happier time for Hector and Andromache:
Passage (F) Sappho 44 ("The Wedding of Hector and Andromache"):
...The herald Idaios came...a swift messenger | ...and the rest of Asia...unwilting glory (kleos aphthiton). | Hector and his companions led the dark-eyed | luxuriant Andromache from holy Thebes and...Plakia | in ships upon the salty sea. | Many golden bracelets and purple | robes..., intricately-worked ornaments, | countless silver cups and ivory. | Thus he spoke. And his dear father quickly leapt up. | And the story went to his friends through the broad city. | And the Trojans joined mules to smooth-running carriages. | And the whole band of women and...maidens got on. | Separately, the daughters of Priam... | And the unmarried men led horses beneath the chariots | and greatly...charioteers... |<...> | like gods | ... | ...holy | set forth into Troy... | And the sweet song of the flute mixed... | And the sound of the cymbals, and then the maidens | sang in clear tones a sacred song | and a divinely-sweet echo reached the sky... | And everywhere through the streets... | Mixing bowls and cups... | And myrrh and cassia and frankincense were mingled. | And the older women wailed aloud. | And all the men gave forth a high-pitched song, | calling on Apollo, the far-shooter, skilled in the lyre. | And they sang of Hector and Andromache like-to-the-gods [theoeikeloi].
There is a deep irony in the fact that the epithet theoeikelos 'like to the gods' is an epithet reserved for Achilles in the Iliad.
By now we see that the kleos or 'fame' of Achilles is interchangeable with the kleos or 'fame' of Hector and his wife Andromache. Their stories are interchangeable.
Note that numphē means both 'bride' (e.g. Iliad XVIII 492) and 'goddess', that is, 'nymph' (e.g. Iliad XXIV 616). A nymph, as we will see later, is a local goddess.
When Andromache sings, she sings like a goddess. Or, to say it in terms of Italian opera, she sings like a diva.
Her song is a fusion of love and sadness.
Compare the fusion or "confusion" of love and sadness in Classical opera.
Reminder: Classical opera is a Renaissance "reinvention" of ancient drama and, by extension, of epic themes transmitted by drama.
"Here I am, committed to love, and yet rejected."
If a performer of epic "quotes" a woman who is singing a lament or love song, then he is singing a lament or love song.
Compare the example from Korean pansur singing.
The word "quote" is anachronistic. From the standpoint of ancient Greek song culture, it would be better for us to say perform.
When a hero like Achilles is "quoted", his quoted words become a super-star performance.
When a super-star performer "quotes" the words of a hero, he becomes the hero in the moment of performance.
Hero and singer develop a reciprocal relationship. The hero becomes a super-star performer in his own right, while the singer becomes heroic, larger-than-life, even god-like in sacred moments (just as the hero becomes god-like in sacred moments).
Achilles is a super-star performer in his own right: note that he sings the klea andrōn to himself at Iliad IX 189, as we saw in Dialogue 02.
In Iliad XXIV 540: Achilles is described as pan-a-(h)ōr-ios 'the most unseasonal of them all'. His unseasonality is a major cause for his grief, which makes him "a man of constant sorrow."
Thetis' lament, Iliad XVIII 54-60: a mother's expression of her son's grief. Here is my literal translation (Best of the Achaeans pp. 182-183):
Ah me, the wretch! Ah me, the mother, so sad it is, of the very best.
I gave birth to a faultless and strong son,
the very best of heroes. And he shot up like a seedling.
I nurtured him like a shoot in the choicest spot of the orchard,
only to send him off on curved ships to fight at Troy. And I will never be
welcoming him back home as returning warrior, back to the House of Peleus.
The emotions of Achilles, which shape the macro-Narrative of the Iliad, can be understood by thinking through the emotions of Meleager, which shape the micro-narrative told by Phoenix in Iliad IX. A key to these emotions is the principle of an ascending scale of affection. This principle is activated in the Meleager narrative, which calls itself klea andrōn (IX 524), told in the midst of philoi (IX 528).