Patrilineal Heritage In Homers Iliad - 1482 Words

The narrator of Homer’s Iliad is obsessed with patrilineal heritage. It is embedded in the very DNA of the epic, embodied in epithets concerning the connection between fathers and sons and even influencing the very cultural values around which the epic centers. Through the patrilineal structure of ancestry, the reader gains insight regarding the evolution of generations (or lack thereof) that has led to the institution of certain cultural customs. One such moment is Glaukos’ conversation with Diomedes in Book 6, in which he compares the birth and death cycle of generations to the blooming and dying of leaves throughout the seasons. One can view this metaphor as a synecdoche of sorts, a microcosmic look into the immortally continuous yet†¦show more content†¦The â€Å"leaves on the ground† are that of the men who have gone off to the war, and the â€Å"live timber burgeon[ing] with leaves† is the new generation of sons who will grow up while their fathers die at war. The choice of a ‘tree’ as the center of this metaphor connotes a cyclical nature, the idea that the perpetual blooming and dying of the generations is a natural order and that it has been and will continue to be how succeeding generations grow up. The implications of having a patriarchal society in which children grow up without present fathers from which they can track their lineage is that life takes on a volatile impermanence–the stories of individual bloodlines begin to blur as there become gaps in the family history where generations of young men were dying at war. It is from this necessity of maintaining the patrilineal connection that the reader sees concepts like kleos, where it is the glory obtained through battle and the stories that become passed down by those who return from the war–this is what maintains the family history. Therefore, in order to maintain the patrilineal structure, the manner in which sons secure their plac e in oral history–and therefore their family line–is through achieving the glory in battle that is exemplified by the cultural customs of kleos and aristeia, both of which prioritize the immortality achieved through stories and histories over the long yet obscure existence of domestic life. This idea–the choice between an