THE DAMAGE OF WAR
SOPHOCLES,
AIAS
LECTURE
21
MARCH 1,
2017
LECTURE OUTLINE
1. A Broken Man
2. Friends & Enemies
Tekmessa
And he cried! Like I never heard before!
Always he taught me only cowards
Cry like that. And broken men.
(398-400)
AIAS BREAKS DOWN
•
Backstory: Contest for Achilles’ armor
•
•
Aias feels disrespected
What Aias does while out of his mind
•
Plans to murder Agamemnon, Menelaos, &
Odysseus
•
Athena redirects his rage toward the flocks
•
He slaughters them, takes “captives,” and
tortures them
•
Not an issue of guilt, but of what happens after shame
•
The crime is not the madness itself
•
•
The flocks were war spoils, belonging to everyone
•
Attempt at treason
Motivations
•
Madness and envy, says Athena
•
“It must be a god wailing through him” (312)
•
Athena diverts Aias’ incurable “rush of horrible joy”,
but she’s not responsible for the actions (81-3)
•
Frenzy’s double nature
•
Here Aias’ frenzy is shameful
•
Usually, it’s exactly what wins him honor in war
•
“Savage discipline” is second nature
•
When he breaks, it manifests in frenzied violence
•
“Isn’t it foolish to think / you can teach me, now,
to change my nature?” (738-9)
HONOR
•
Aias is in a difficult situation (592-7)
•
All honor gained can be lost
•
•
Passages: 257-8, 281-2, 388-9, 526-30
Challenges to honor
•
Friendship
•
Joy
•
Tekmessa: “when a man lets slip away the joy /
he’s had, there’s nothing noble in that” (648-9)
Aias
If he’s noble he’ll live with honor
or die with it. That’s all there is to it.
Leader
Aias, no one says you’re doing anything
but telling the truth. The way you feel it.
But hold on. Give your friends
a say in this.
(592-7)
BROKEN MAN
•
Aias feels abandoned
•
•
By the distributors of honor (Agamemnon)
But he is not alone (Family, people of Salamis &
Athens)
•
Burden of responsibility: All those people depend on
Aias
•
Dependence carries on after Aias dies
•
Visceral suffering of Aias (533-9)
•
Tekmessa in ruins: “You imagine my life. I live it” (1111)
Aias
Aiai! My very name, Aias
is a cry in the wilderness.
Who’d have thought
my name would sound my life?
I really can cry out now
Aiai! aiai! aiai!
my name in pieces.
(533-9)
MENELAOS
•
Menelaos orders them not to bury Aias
•
Lacks sympathy and sense
•
Justifications: “I say so” & Aias was a traitor
•
Demands obedience to his authority
•
Teukros: Aias was his own master
•
Becomes a class conflict between Menelaos &
Teukros
•
Stories as transparent insults (1322-37)
AGAMEMNON
•
Argues with Teukros about “nobility”
•
Issue of power, not blood
•
“Listen to reason” = “know your place”
•
At the edge of violence, Odysseus intervenes
ODYSSEUS
•
•
Assumptions about Odysseus
•
Thrilled with the fall of Aias
•
Aias calls him a “foxfucker” (151)
•
Suspected of spreading the rumors about Aias
What he actually does in the play
•
Asks Athena to “let him be” (116)
•
Intervention between Teukros & Agamemnon
•
•
Masterful persuasion!
•
“There’s no justice in disrespecting him” (1519)
•
Calls Aias a “noble enemy” (1538)
•
Gives Agamemnon an honorable way out (1528-35)
•
Odysseus echoes Aias on friends & enemies
•
Appeals to shared humanity in death (1549)
Teukros: “I misjudged you, completely” (1568)
•
There remain limits
•
It’s for those who loved Aias to bury him
Odysseus
O son of Atreus, what honor is there
gloating over such a triumph?
Agamemnon
For the ruler, it’s hard to show piety.
Odysseus
It’s not hard to respect friends
who give him good advice.
Agamemnon
A loyal man defers to those who rule him.
Odysseus
Easy now! You have the best of it
when you listen to your friends.
(1528-35)