The Aristocratic-Warrior Ethos in Homer’s Iliad

Let’s examine Sarpedon’s speech to Glaucon in Book XII. This constitutes the single most succinct statement of the aristocratic-warrior ethos in the Iliad. It rightly comes from the lips of Sarpedon, who is the hero most closely connected to Zeus; he is in fact his son begotten of a mortal woman. Sarpedon is neither an Achian nor a Trojan. He is a Lykian, an important ally of the Trojans. The quarrel between the Achians and the Trojans is not directly his. Perhaps he needs to remind himself why he is fighting at this point. The Trojans have exhausted nearly all their wealth, so it can’t be for mercenary gain.

He speaks first of his social position within Lykian society. As a noble, he enjoys a position of honor within his society. Rank has its privileges: he is accorded preference at the religious cookouts. The gods receive the choice meats at sacrifices and the pouring of libations. Likewise he receives "the choice meats" and " the filled wine cups." He is treated like a god by his countrymen. Besides great honor, wealth accompanies his place in society. He owns a great agricultural estate, encompassing an orchard, a vineyard, and an especially fertile track of farmland. Besides this, he likely has a flock of fat sheep.

With all these advantages to enjoy, why isn’t Sarpedon at home? Away from home, hunkered down before Troy, he cannot enjoy these good things. But more importantly, he risks losing them forever. He might die in battle and never return to Lykia.

Why then risk death in battle? One could say: "to preserve or to enhance one’s reputation by a display of one’s strength, skill, and courage". The manifestation of one’s superiority conveys entitlement to the benefits that society may confer. It is not enough to be nobly born and inherit great wealth. One must prove before the rest of the world that one is entitled to pre-eminence in society. And the way to do that is by demonstrating one’s superiority on the battlefield. This is nobless oblige, the burden of the aristocrat in an aristocratic society.

Sarpedon’s remarks go further than this. Contemplating the divine honors he is accorded by human society, he imagines what it would actually be like to be a god, not merely to be treated as one. He tells Glaucon that if he were a god, he would not go forth into battle, nor would he urge others to do so. Of course, as a god, there would be no threat of death, though gods can be painfully wounded. The important difference is that gods owe nothing to others for the advantages they enjoy. Their reputations are secure. They enjoy good things in abundance. Scarcity is not a problem; the gods are forever feasting. There is some competition among the Olympians, but the principal issue regarding governance has been settled—the position of Zeus is beyond questioning.

The Olympian gods present an idealized vision of human happiness, where eternal honor is parceled out to all, competition is restrained, there is an abundance of good things to be enjoyed without the possibility of surfeit.

The actual human condition is much worse. Honor is a scarce commodity; competition is keen and unrelenting. Since the warrior can only add to his honor through victory over another in battle, one man’s gain is another man’s loss. The pursuit of honor is a zero-sum game. Likewise, there is not enough wealth to satisfy everyone, particularly since wealth is accumulated for the sake of increasing one’s reputation and elevating one’s social standing. The wealthy aristocrat can command the allegiance of those less wealthy who are dependent upon him for support.

Sarpedon’s point is that the fact of human mortality takes away the choice between a life of peaceful enjoyment in relative security and a life of rough and dangerous competition. Human happiness is based upon amassing and possessing objects essentially beyond one’s control. Wealth is to be obtained primarily through expropriation; and reputations are at the mercy of the opinions of others. To beg off competing is to open oneself up to the depredations of others and to forfeit the considerations of others—to abandon the human quest for happiness. Yet to compete is to risk everything—to perchance die at the hands of one’s rival. Human happiness may well be a shadow of divine happiness, but that is all that humans are offered. We must all die—sometime or other—so to die having sampled bliss is many times preferable to dying never having tasted the sweetest fruits of life.

It is by reflecting on the immortal state of the Olympians that Sarpedon grasps the tensions within the human condition. The competition for honor, which is supported by human communities and which is validated by love of the immortal gods (or at least the desire to be like them as far as human limitations allow), can undermine community bonds and ultimately cast doubt on the justness of the human-god connection.

--unfinished lecture  ©Hudson Reynolds, Ph.D., September 1999