Jan 24, 2020, 11:00 AM
—“You keep mentioning trials of Achilles but I have no idea what that’s intended to refer and I wonder if you’re not thinking of labors of Heracles?”—Martin Št?pán
The greeks invented the tragedy (nietzsche), and it was a novel technology of social order that justified sacrifice as heroism, and unity in that sacrifice and heroism. it made tragedy a positive social theme of shared debt (cost) experience.
The Iliad is a tragedy, the tragedy of achilles, as he goes through multiple trials.
The trials of achilles refer to each of the episodes where he prevails – only to ask, but at what cost?
“Trial: a person, thing, or situation that tests a person’s endurance or forbearance.”
It is easy to see why the jews tried to create an underclass Achilles. Because the tragedy had already been saturated across the greek world: “undermine from within.”
The same is true for the Odyssey. if we take achilles , alexander, and odyssey we have the entire arc of tragedy. The ‘weak’ (defensive) version is Arthur and Jesus.