Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/71

49 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 49 of his dearest friend, whoir he had sent to battle, not to save the Greeks, but for his own glory*, suddenly changes his hostile attitude towards the Greeks, and is overpowered by entirely opposite feelings. In this manner the exaltation of the son of Thetis is united to that almost imperceptible operation of destiny, which the Greeks were re- quired to observe in all human afiairs. It is evident that the Iliad does not so much aim at the individual exaltation of Achilles, as at that of the hero before whom all the other Grecian heroes humble themselves, and through whom alone the Tro- jans were to be subdued. The Grecian poetry has never shown itself favourable to the absolute elevation of a single individual, not even if he was reckoned the greatest of their heroes; and hence a character like that of Achilles could not excite the entire sympathy of the poet. It is clear that the poet conceives his hero as striving after something super-human and inhuman. Hence he falls from one excess of passion into another, as we see in his insatiable hatred to the Greeks, his despe- rate grief for Patroclus, and his vehement anger against Hector ; but still it is impossible to deny that Achilles is the first, greatest, and most ele- vated character of the Iliad ; we find in him, quite distinct from his heroic strength, which far eclipses that of all the others, a god-like lofti- ness of soul. Compared with the melancholy which Hector, however determined, carries with him to the field of battle, anticipating the dark destiny that awaits him, how lofty is the feeling of Achilles, who sees his early death before his eyes, and, knowing how close it must follow upon the slaughter of Hector f, yet, in spite of this, shows the most determined resolution before, and the most dignified calmness after the deed. Achilles appears greatest at the funeral games and at the inter- view with Priam, — a scene to be compared with no other in ancient poe- try ; in which, both with the heroes of the event and with the hearers national hatred and personal ambition, and all the hostile and most opposite feelings, dissolve themselves into the gentlest and most humane, just as the human countenance beams with some new expression after long-concealed and passionate grief; and thus the purifying and ele- vating process which the character of Achilles undergoes, and by which the divine part of his nature is freed from all obscurities, is one continued idea running through the whole of the poem ; and the manner in which this process is at the same time communicated to the mind of a hearer, fiom Hera and the other gods, notwithstanding their anger on account of the suf- ferings of the Achaeans: lie does nut reveal them to Hera till alter his sleep upon Ida. II. xv. 65. The spuriousness of the verses (II. viii. -173 — 0) was recognized by the ancients, although the principal objection to them is not mentioned. See Schol. Ven. A. a sign that Achilles' wrath is appeased : Achilles, on this very occasion, expresses a wish that no Greek may escape death, hut that they two alone, Achilles and Patro- clus, may mount the walls of llion. 11. xvi. 97. f Iliad, xviii. 95 ; xix. 117.
 * Homer does not wish that the going forth of Patroclus should he considered as