Culture. Culture affects us all. It affects everything we do. It’s why your mom taught you how to eat with a fork and knife. Her culture was taught to you when she told you to have manners at the dinner table. It affects everyday conversation. Culture gives certain decades and centuries particular themes and characteristics that make them stand out from the rest. Culture also affects social order and standards that are expected in a community of people. In Iliad, the aspiration for Kleos was a piece of culture that was engraved upon their living. All the little boys didn’t want to be fire fighters, doctors, or astronauts. They knew they were expected to be brave warriors. That’s what they all wanted to be when they “grow up.” They would make their mothers proud by being Warriors of great honor. Much like today, if someone finds you are pursuing an education, you automatically are given a certain amount of honor, by that person. Your parents are proud, and your grandma brags about you to another grandma.
Reasoning all this, I found it shocking when Achilles (lines 318- 322, book eight) went head first against the culture he had fully embraced in years past. Perhaps in his free time from war, he had space to sit and think. He turned down a great opportunity for huge honor. To him it was worthless. In this he went directly against the culture of his day. He was in a way, a rebel. Many people would disrespect him for turning down the fight. Yet, he felt strongly enough to say it in front of people he highly respected. Was this action of turning down the fight respectable or not? That’s what we discussed in class. I think this is a matter of personal opinion. But it does bring up the question: What culture is wrong, and what culture is right? What makes a culture right or wrong? Is it okay to be a rebel? When is it okay to rebel against the norm? What part of our culture is merely tradition? How does our culture affect our standards and morals? Are morals merely cultural, or is there more? What about Kleos? Was it merely cultural, or was there something more behind it too?
Anna Rhodes
P.S. I commented on Lucas' "Where There's Dark Water..."
1. I would like to pose a question. Where did this cultural "norm" as you call it, come from in the first place? What situation did they originally find themselves in that supposed the warrior lifestyle to be an honor?
ReplyDelete2. I would also like to mention that not only is Achilles' decision a matter of Kleos, but it could also be considered a matter of selfishness. From the Achaeans' standpoint the decision not to fight surely seemed selfish. But from Achilles point of view, it was selfish of them to except everything out of him and then take away his gain.
3. The last thing I would mention is...what does Achilles think of the afterlife. I know I may be jumping ahead to the Odyssey, though I've never read it. But think about it. His choices are between Kleos and a long life. What does he think Kleos will gain him personally. You don't hear what people say about you when your dead. Was he questioning his afterlife perhaps? A long life with his family was clearly more valuable than that.