Mηνιν - the Iliad and stages of Grief

As some earlier posts reflect, I have been going through a review of the Iliad with classmates from 40 years ago. My focus has been on μηνιν, a Greek work that depicts a certain sense of rage or fury that is characteristic of Achilles and the first word of the poem.

Since looking at personal experiences of such rage, I have come to the conclusion that "outrage" is the correct translation. Next I spent time reviewing the arc or impact that this "outrage" had an Achilles. My classmates, more sensitive to the pain of others, have viewed his "outrage" as "murderous, pornographic and obscene." In some ways, I view my lack of sharing this view as personal insensitivity and in other ways, I continue to view that they have missed the point of the theater.

Achilles experiences "outrage" due to an injured sense of personhood by Agamemnon. He's being, in effect, called a nothing. The shock and then anger seems to follow the stages outlined by Kubler-Ross in grief. To me, grief is a process of accepting reality. As the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous declares, "acceptance is the answer to all my problems." Achilles' outrage leads him into an existential cocooning in which I believe he explores the question we all explore - what's is all about? and, as always, the endpoint of grief is clouded - what is it he is accepting?

In the midst of this exploration, he is approached by Agamemnon's people. This is the "bargaining" stage of grief. Like most bargaining stages, there is no progress. Achilles cannot recover the sense of meaning that he experienced before his personal affront by Agamemnon. Having been told (in his mind) that he is a nothing, Agamemnon's entreaties do not restore him to somethingness. The restoration would only confirm Agamemnon as the something and Achilles as nothing. 

Then his beloved Patroclus is killed wearing his armor. Of course it is significant that they are lovers. Patroclus is very much one with Achilles as much as contemporary marriage vows where two become one. Patroclus, though, represents his non-injured self. When Patroclus dies, that injured part, that injured self-state dies and receives a reincarnation in the form of Hector wearing Achilles' armor. The killing of Hector drives Achilles into a sadness or depression. Having been told he is nothing, that life has no meaning, he witnesses that nothingness.

To deal with this sadness, Achilles begin to go into a repetition compulsion. Repetition compulsion is driven by an underlying belief that if you do the same thing over and over again, you can get a different result. Everyday Achilles drags Hectors dead body around the camp three times. What finally knocks Achilles out of this sadness phase is the arrival of Priam for Hector's dead body. The power of Priam's kissing Achilles hands moves Achilles into the final phase of acceptance of life on life's terms. Not Achilles' terms. He becomes a part of a larger whole. Herein is the transformation from the fantasy of individual self to the reality of connected self. After that, Achilles expresses his connectedness with love and concern for those around him in the care of Priam and presiding over the games.