From: João Simões Lopes Filho
Message: 3708
Date: 2000-09-14
----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft <jdcroft@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 10:26 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Achilles.
>
> Mark wrote
> > Achilles is religiously conservative, a representative of the
> matriarchal religion. Compare this to Odysseus, the
> most 'patriarchal' of the heros at Troy (Penelope moved to HIS home).
> Agamemmnon and Menelaus are midway, they being kings because of their
> wives but otherwise every inch the warmongering patriarch.
> >
> > Patroclus, and later Achilles, though, receive a funeral that
> echoes the kurgans of the Steppe. Achilles is a composite character.
>
> It is interesting that despite his "patriarchal" nature, Odysseus
> still has Athena as his constant companion and guide (and is attacked
> by Poseidon - the old Poseidon-Athena antagonism again). Odysseus
> rules, not by right of inheritance from his father but by right of
> his marriage to Penelope - who in an almost Celtic fashion
> represents "sovereignty". This is the whole point of the suitors, as
> by their marriage to Penelope they can become kings, just as Odysseus
> can only resume kingship by claiming his marriage to be still valid.
> Jean Houston's "The Hero and the Goddess" is an excellent work for
> anyone who wants to understand how this mythos stands on the gateway
> turning from Martifocal to Patriachal concepts of Power.
>
> The Funeral of Patroclus and Achiles is interesting as funeral pyres
> are not found in Mycenean Greece, but they were the common form of
> funeral throughout the Hittte realm. Pyres only became fashionable
> in Greece AFTER the Trojan War. It would appear that during their
> stay at Troy the Greeks adopted the funeral customs of the people
> they vanquished. Otto Gurney in the Hittites has a good comparison
> of Hittite funeral ritual and that given in the Illiad that I can
> copy if anyone is interested.
>
> Regards
>
> John
>
>
>
>