The Greek heroic code and modern times

The Hollywood film 'Troy' (2004) was a pretty good depiction of Homer's Iliad: the costumes, the buildings, the roles in society and the action. That's probably what life looked like in the Aegean world of 1200BC.

The wooden horse is dragged inside the gates of Troy.
I also liked how the film brought out the heroic code. There was no great hope of a pleasant afterlife, so the best one could do was win glory in this life and achieve a sort of immortality in that way eg by excellence in fighting. In the film (and Homer's poem), Achilles lives out this principle most of all. As a loner on the edge of the Greek army, not submitting to King Agamemnon's authority, he is almost solely concerned with his own glory. Brad Pitt was fairly convincing as Achilles, though the original character is more brooding, distant and fierce. (Hector, the Trojan prince, is perhaps more of a good person in the modern (and Christian) sense in that he fights to defend his city (Troy) and ultimately his family, though also admittedly his own 'honour'.)


Brad Pitt as Achilles, the 'hero' of the Iliad: an awesome warrior, subservient to none




Hector in 'Troy' (2004) - the 'good' guy

The heroic code was transferred a few hundred years later to athletes in the ancient Olympics (founded 776BC by tradition) and other games, and the spirit of vying for glory lives on in modern athletics (cf the current European championships) and we find it too in the arts, not to mention among footballers and pop stars. In a sense the ancient Greeks invented the modern celebrity....

a laurel wreath, the prize for winning an event in ancient Greek games


ancient Greek runner

The problem with the heroic code, in ancient Greek and other cultures, is that it was egotistical and costly to others eg in war, through death, loss and injury. The same principle occurred in ancient Rome, where self-promoting generals went out conquering other peoples, to win glory and lots of booty for themselves.

The Roman triumph: a general enjoys his hour of glory as he parades through the streets of Rome.
(Yes, his face was painted red: to imitate the god Mars.)

The US rabbi Shmuley Boteach has an interesting book 'The Private Adam' in which he argues it is better to be a hero by serving others and making sacrifices: what he calls 'The Private Adam', drawing on Jewish teaching and the Hebrew Bible. This, not very surprisingly, lines up with Christian teaching on how to be outstanding: 'He who wishes to be great must be the servant of all'.

the book 'Private Adam'

Jesus washing his disciples' feet: the Christian pitch on being great

I suppose in our culture (UK, 21st century) we admire a mixture of the ancient Greek and the Jewish/Christian heroic: we like people who are strong and excel, but who also give to others.

However, the heroic code has been tamed: we don't admire or tolerate causing pain or loss. To be sure, when someone wins in business, sport or the arts, there have to be losers, but we don't want to see them ruined.

Perhaps this is why the celebrity who does lots for charity is one of the top heroes of today: they are glamorous and excel without hurting others, and then they help others.

Eddie Izzard's multi-marathon jog: an ultimate hero of our time ?

Perhaps it's inevitable we've ended up with a mix of striving for excellence and serving others as our ideal: you need to make efforts to have major admirable achievements, but we've learned it's better to help than to harm others.

What sort of hero would you be ?

Reading:

The Iliad by Homer

Private Adam: Becoming a Hero in a Selfish Age by Shmuley Boteach

Some handy ancient Greek words:

aristeuein = to excel

heros = hero

aidws = shame, honour

kleos = glory

Bible Belt by Dry The River

Just had a nice bit of serendipity. Came upon this new band 'Dry The River' on YouTube performing a song 'Bible Belt' live in a London park - just the four of them, acoustic. Click here to view.





It's quite a gem: airy folk vocals and strings, and meandering poetic words, deeply evocative. Am still working on figuring out what it's all about !



Clearly influenced by the Fleet Foxes, and not too far removed from Noah and the Whale. Very impressive musicianship, so expressive. And they look so folky too ! More info here:


And all because I was Googling 'prayers in the Bible' ....


PS Message to the guitarist: hope your arm gets better soon !

The Apostle Paul and childhood

Paul the Apostle - icon by Rublev

There's a line in the writings of Paul the Apostle which has always struck me as a bit curious. In his famous discourse on the nature of love - 1 Corinthians 13 - which is often read out at weddings and major events, he speaks about the transition from childhood to adulthood:

'When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I become a man, I put childish ways behind me.' (NIV translation) (Actually, the possibly more familar Authorised Version says: 'I put away childish things')

The expression 'put childish ways behind me'/ 'I put away childish things' always struck me as a bit laboured and elaborate.

Then, recently, I discovered something which may help explain it: ancient Greek children became young adults at age 12 and 'were expected to throw away their toys, dedicating them to Apollo (for boys) or Artemis (for girls).'

Perhaps that's why Paul draws out the point: since there was a strong demarcation between child and adult status in Greek society, even marked with a ceremony of giving away your toys.


ancient Greek toys: did the young Paul have a toy horse like the one on the right ?

Paul would have had a mixed cultural background: raised in a Jewish family in Tarsus, but surrounded by Greek culture, and under Roman rule (though, as pious Jews, Paul's parents would not have had Paul dedicate his toys to pagan gods.)

I'd never have connected Paul with Toy Story 3, but both of course address the issue of what you do with your toys when you grow out of childhood ....

Reading:
1 Corinthians 13, The Bible
Ancient Greece - Collins Gem (p 131) by David Pickering

What makes a film poignant ? Why do we cry ?

Toy Story 3 opened in the UK on 16 July, and the big advance word from the US was that it is making grown men cry. So far, it's having the same effect over here ....

The toys tumble out of the box into a new adventure in Toy Story 3

Now, this is a very interesting phenomenon - that a light-hearted animated film about toys should provoke usually reserved adult males to tears.

This article from the BBC explores the issue well, essentially saying that poignancy is actually quite complex.

In fact, Toy Story 3 has kicked off wide discussion about which films make men cry:

We tend to think only very sad or tragic films will make us cry, but in fact a wide range of scenarios can provoke a welling-up of feelings among audiences: the bitter-sweetness of saying goodbye, memories of childhood, fondness for a friend.

Most of us have been affected by scenes which, while not sad or tragic, were moving. I remember being touched by the words in the film 'A River Runs Through It' when an old man think of people and events from decades earlier and reflects 'I am haunted by the waters'. Of course it is not the waters he is haunted by, but the memories of friends and times long gone.

Why do we weep in this way ? Well, we are reacting to the scenes placed before us in the film, which may be triggering feelings stored deeply within us. And this is probably a helpful role of art: to help bring out some unexpressed emotions. A colleague was saying this often happens by 'disassociation': one situation unlocks feelings which relate to another situation, which we haven't been able to access or express.

Similarly, in the Church, some talk of 'the ministry of tears': where people gain release from pent-up emotion through crying. It is seen as a gift from God, that we are able to deal with feelings in this way.

And Paul Simon recognises the unique role of weeping in his song 'The Cool Cool River' (1990) with its closing words 'Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears'.

Do fish sleep ?

Have you ever wondered whether fish sleep ? Fish are so different from us, in form and environment, that perhaps at some point it has occurred to you that sleeping might be a bit tricky for them. They float in deep water, moving almost continuously, and cannot go and lie down like a land creature. They’re very vulnerable so can hardly float around unconscious in the sea. And their eyes seem to be open all the time …. It’s just difficult to envisage them sleeping (especially tucked up in bed in pyjamas).

A friend posed this question recently (Thanks to C for asking !), and a few searches on the internet provided the answer, which is: ‘yes and no and sort of’.






Fish do need deep rest, like mammals, and for this they swim to a quiet sheltered place such as underneath a rock and lie very still. And yes, brain activity decreases, but we don‘t really know if it is the same as sleep among mammals. An alternative approach adopted by some fish is to keep swimming, with one half of the brain ‘sleeping’, and then the other half. A further twist is that fish cannot close their eyes, since they have no eyelids, so their eyes are always open.





Altogether, then, fish do have some deep rest, but whether it is sleep as we know it is unclear.
All this leads to another question: do fish dream ? Now that really is something we may never know ….

Elvis - how he could have been greater

Elvis was and is indisputably one of the true greats of pop and rock music. But for all his greatness, Elvis didn't reach his full potential: he could have made many more great records.

There were various reasons for this:

(a) he wasted a lot of time on films (which generally weren't that great anyway). Elvis actually wanted to be a film star more than a rock star, and he and his manager believed rock and roll would not last, so he was trying to build a career in films instead (for when the rock and roll dried up - yes, that's what Elvis and his manager thought would happen !).

(scene from 'Jailhouse Rock' - one of Elvis' good films)

(b) he didn't move with the times. Despite his wild, rebellious style, he was very much a Southern conservative, both musically and in his social views. So the Sixties didn't mean much to him: neither the new music nor the counter-culture. Even in the 1970s, he had very few post-1965 records in his collection. The emerging social revolution was alien to him, though ironically he may have helped to kick-start it. As a result, he fell behind a bit, as you can see from his 1970s concerts - although great, they're out of step with the 70s music scene, belonging to another era. To continue to appeal to the contemporary market place, one has to be able to relate to the current scene - it's certainly one way of continuing to challenge oneself and keep developing as an artist.

(c) he didn't push himself to the peak of his expressive powers on records. It was too easy to come into the studio and rattle off another set of songs in the usual style. The album generally regarded as his best (From Elvis In Memphis, 1968) was partly the result of a producer pushing Elvis to the limit and not settling for second best.

So, what else could Elvis have done ? Well, he wasn't a creative songwriter or musician: his genius lay as a compelling performer and masterful interpreter, and he certainly laid on many outstanding concerts. Where he could have produced more would be in performing covers of many more good and great songs in the canons of pop, rock, country, gospel, blues and soul, and of any new songs composed, and leaving many more memorable recordings.

(scene from Elvis' early '70s concerts, with Elvis in trademark tailor-made white jumpsuits: although his 70s stage-costumes are sometimes regarded as over-the-top, Elvis made some of his best music about this time)

But, in Elvis' defence, he was the first major rock star, and so moved in territory no-one had yet ventured into. He had to make it up and guess his way forward, with no other careers to draw on as role models. It's easy for us, with the knowledge of many later pop and rock careers, to be wise with hindsight.

And finally, it's worth remembering Elvis did produce lots of great music and set the mould for how to do pop and rock. For many, he is still the original and best rock star. To some extent, most or all subsequent pop performers follow aspects of his style. As Madonna once said, 'Without Elvis, you're nothing'.

Anam Cara by John O'Donohue

Anam Cara (Irish Gaelic for 'Soul Friend') is a beautiful and profound work of reflection and poetic prose, by the late John O'Donohue, priest and philosopher. It is a truly great book - one of those rare books whose greatness you sense on reading only a few lines or pages.

the book - rather a small image !

I've discovered this work late. Published in 1997, I actually bought it several years ago, and struggled to make sense of it, because I couldn't place O'Donohue's worldview and frame of reference. Was he coming at the subject from a Christian, or a pagan, or a secular point of view ? Well, I picked the book up again a few weeks ago, and this time it all made sense (which possibly shows I've moved on in the interim.)

John O' Donohue

O'Donohue is painting a picture of human personhood, or being a human: how each person contains a great well of creativity, being and expression; how each person relates to the world and nature; and how we connect with the world in friendship, work and living. He spent many years studying this topic in academic circles, but also no doubt in his daily life as a priest.

The vision set out is that of the Celtic world, embraced by both pagan and Christian, with its sense of the sacredness and timelessness of everything and of the profundity and natural beauty in all things. He contrasts the shallow modern obsession with 'relationships' with the Celtic appreciation that true friendship was like a circle which is mysteriously completed when two people recognise each other, and it is best not analysed.

Celtic landscape

The quality of the writing is stunning: lines of prose read like poetry in their quiet sensitivity and colour of expression:

'The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields and faces are released from the prison of shape and the burden of exposure. Each thing creeps back into its own nature within the shelter of the dark.' (p 22)

'Love is also a force of light and nurture that liberates you to inhabit to the full your own difference. There should be no limitation of each other; no need to be defensive or protective in each other's presence. Love should encourage and free you fully into your full potential'. (p 53)

Anam Cara stone

Likewise, the insights into all manner of aspects of human experience are breathtaking in their depth.

'Once the soul awakes, the search begins and you can never go back.' (p 28)

'A friend is different from an acquaintance. A friendship is a deeper and more sacred connection .... A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.' (p 41)

'Your face is the icon of your life. In the human face a life looks out at the world and also looks in on itself .... The face always reveals who you are, and what life has done to you.' (p 68)

'People are often exceptionally careless in their style of belonging. Too many people belong too naively to the systems in which they are involved.... The heart of the matter is, you should never belong fully to something that is outside yourself .... You should belong first in your own interiority. If you belong there, and if you are in rhythm with yourself and connected to that deep unique source within, then you will never be vulnerable when your outside being is qualified, relativized or taken away.' (pps 181-2)

'Anam Cara' is wonderful spiritual food for anyone reflecting on what it means to be human, a magical and mystical blend of poetry, philosophy and observation. Highly recommended.

an Anam Cara plaque

Reading: 'Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World' by John O'Donohue, 1997.