The Iliad: A faulty understanding of Glory

Kieran Klukas
Carrie Klukas
Writing

The Iliad is an ancient story that seems irrelevant in today’s world. But it teaches valuable lessons about rage, pride, and forgiveness. It tells the story of Achilles, who goes to fight in the Trojan War with his friend Patroclus. When Achilles’ prize, the beautiful woman Briseis, is taken away, he refuses to fight. However, he ultimately returns to battle when Patroclus is killed by Hector, the Trojan prince. Seeking revenge, Achilles kills Hector, but feels no happiness, the prince’s father, King Priam, comes to beg Achilles to release Hector’s body and Achilles, reminded of his own father, grants his request. The faulty understanding of glory in the Iliad creates a state of blind rage and pride, fueled by the need to protect our reputation and good name. This, however, is not our true purpose, and brings discontent, pain, and hurt. The antidote is humility, which stems from understanding our purpose, not to bring glory to ourselves, but rather to God through laying ourselves down for others.

We start with the false pursuit of personal glory. In the Iliad, this is characterized by the attitude to their own glory by the characters. Achilles says in one such instance: “… two fates bear me on to the day of death. / If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, / my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.” (Robert Fagles, lines 499-501). The characters are so obsessed with immortalizing their fame and glory, that they value it over their lives and continue in their course, but despite knowing it is wrong, they won’t admit it. One example of this, besides the main plot between Achilles and Agamemnon, is this quote: “No way out. If I slip inside the gates and walls, / Polydamas will be first to heap disgrace on me … / But did I give way? / Not at all. And how much better it would have been! / Now my army’s ruined, thanks to my own reckless pride” (Fagles, lines 118-119 and 122-124) and “… So now, better by far for me / to stand up to Achilles, kill him, come home alive / or die at his hands in glory out before the walls” (Fagles, lines 129-131). Here Hector recognizes his mistakes, but then his pride stops him from retreating and he sees his only option as to kill Achilles or die.

We now turn to the hurt and pain, the pursuit of personal glory causes. Achilles’ story is an excellent example: Briseis is taken by Agamemnon as compensation for Apollo declaring he must give up his prize, and as a result Achilles withdraws from battle. Both men are prideful and will not yield to one another. Many lives are extinguished by this senseless quarrel, and eventually Agamemnon comes to his senses and sends a delegation to Achilles to ask for his forgiveness, bringing many gifts to try to appease him. Achilles refuses, not letting his anger go even with a retribution gift. Eventually Achilles loses the one that is closest to him, Patroclus, and then motivated by revenge he rejoins the battle and even then works for his own glory in everything he does.

Lastly, we look at God’s intention for the pursuit of glory. God designed us not to pursue glory for ourselves, as it brings pride and destruction, but to seek to do everything for the glory of Him who died for us. As Saint Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” To rightly pursue glory, we must lay our own glory down and surrender it for others as Jesus did. Through humility, we will truly fulfill our purpose by bringing glory to God.

As we have seen, the Iliad has important lessons on the pursuit of glory. We have observed how the false pursuit of glory brings death, destruction, and broken relationships and how when we find our true purpose of bringing glory to God our own glory becomes less important. Through helping us understand our purpose, and becoming less focused on our own glory, we can avoid damaging relationships, hurting others, and other damaging effects of selfish glory. Ultimately, our true worth is found in God and not man, and this simple truth can transform us and bring us closer to God.