Review
Author(s): Bryan R. Warnick
Review by: Bryan R. Warnick
Source: Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Autumn, 2006), pp. 115-119
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4140183
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116 BookReviews
of salt. In contrast, Benardete wants to that swift-footedness is used to tie to-
argue that each particular use of an gether certain groups for the purpose
epithet has a significant meaning that of comparison. The description of
informs, and even constructs, the swiftness ties together Achilles, Hector,
epic's larger themes (for Benardete's and Paris:
purposes, the theme of heroism).
Benardete's success in this goal is Critics have been annoyed that
somewhat uneven, as even he later Hector obtains the same simile
came to realize. A few of his conclu- [as Paris] ... and yet the reason
sions appear rather stretched and ne- for the repetition is not hard to
glect to consider the whole in the analy- find. Both are equally swift but
sis of the parts. For example, Benardete exultant differently. Paris, god-
looks at the Trojanepithets megathymoi like in beauty, flashing like the
("great spirited") and hippodamoi sun and "smiling with self-satis-
("tamers of horses") and finds them to faction," puts on beautiful ar-
be two manifestations of a constant mor; while Hector returns to
Trojan character.One epithet is for the the fight after being almost
activities of war (megathymoi),the other mortally wounded, with re-
one for peace (hippodamoi). But for newed strength. Paris is beauti-
Benardete, they both say the same ful like Nireus, Hector like Ajax:
thing about the constantly emotional, even in war Paris has the glitter
almost animalistic nature of Homer's of peace, even in a lull Hector
Trojans, who are perfectly defined terrifieshis son... .They stand at
by passionate warfare: "The Trojans the two poles of heroic excel-
are more readily affected than the lence, beauty and power, which
Achaeans, who can remove their armor are fused in Achilles. (49)
and be different in peace than in war:
but the Trojanscannot so easily shake Through the use of the common desig-
nation "swiftness," Homer creates a
off their temper" (21). While certainly
group for comparison that serves to
interesting, such an analysis neglects to
take into account prominent scenes like highlight differences. They are all swift,
but swiftness is for one charactertied to
the one in which Astyanax, Hector's
a shallow beauty, for another to an irre-
son, cries at the sight of Hector dressed sistible power, and for yet another to a
in his battle gear, implying that this
perfect combination of both beauty and
Trojan has been disfigured and
power.
changed by war. For Hector, the leader Another example of Benardete's
of the Trojanarmy, there is a great dif-
ference between his nature at war and analytic skill is demonstrated in a dis-
cussion of gods and heroes. Benardete
his nature at peace.
notices that similes surrounding the
At other moments, however,
deaths of warriors are almost never
Benardete's conclusions are keen and
present when the gods have with-
insightful. He looks at the epithet drawn themselves from combat. When
"swift-footed," which, he admits, the gods are absent from the battlefield,
seems to occur in "reckless profusion" death is only clinically described; when
(47). Achilles is given this epithet, as the gods are present, death is adorned
are many other characters,both human
and animal. Even characters as differ- by simile. Death does not simply come
to Crethon and Orsilochus, then, when
ent as Hector and Paris are assigned
this description. Surely, we might they die in the presence of gods; rather,
think, this little phrase must not be so they are compared to "two lions who,
having caught sheep and cattle, are
meaningful. Benardete argues, though, slain at last by men; and they fall like
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BookReviews 117
tall pines" (79). Benardete writes, the tragedy of Achilles: "He must even
"Theirdeath appears not only as itself in war, while he proves himself virtu-
but as something else: doubled in the ous, collect the symbols of his future
simile's reflection, it magically loses all doom." He concludes that Achilles is
its horror, becoming beautiful and al- "never apart from his destiny: the
most pleasant" (79). He concludes that seeds of his wrath, his isolation, and his
the gods "transfigure death, which is, guilt were contained in the evidence of
without them unfeigned, but in their his prowess" (128).
presence more poetic" (122). By look- The significance Benardete finds in
ing closely at Homer's use of simile, seemingly meaningless details, then, is
Benardete powerfully affirms the remarkable. He has a keen eye for
heroes' dependency on the divine. subtle connections among different
As a final example of Benardete's passages and for subtle differences
skilled reading ability, consider his among similar passages. He is able to
analysis of the discus that Achilles catch meaning in the continual repeti-
awards during the funeral games of tion and cessation of epithets and simi-
Patroclus.Homer remarks that the dis- les. For this reason alone, the book
cus is from the city of Eetion, a place should be read by anyone with a seri-
that the Achaeans and Achilles had ous interest in epic poetry. But it would
gloriously sacked in the early stages of also be beneficial for any student of the
their expedition. Rather than letting humanities to read, not because all of
this detail pass by, Benardete shows Benardete'sconclusions are correct,but
how the history of the discus connects because he shows himself to be a model
deeply to Achilles' character.He points of close and careful reading. Benardete
out that everything else we know about simply assumes that every piece of the
the city of Eetion-that it is the former Iliad is important and tries to connect
home of Cryseis, Andromache, and the the pieces into meaningful wholes. The
horse Pedasus, and the original loca- results speak for themselves. Students
tion of Achilles' lyre--connects to the could benefit from being exposed to
series of mistakes Achilles commits this sort of engagement with a text.
throughout the poem: Apart from helping us to under-
stand the text of the Iliad and serv-
The return of Cryseis provoked ing as a model of close reading, does
Agamemnon and led to his tak- Benardete's book have any larger sig-
ing Briseis, who came from nificance? Does his reading of Homer
Lyrnessus near Thebe (the city say anything of interest about issues of
of Eetion); Andromache, the human concern? I believe it does.
wife of his enemy, stood for Benardete's exercises in close reading
Patroclus in the story of Phoe- develop his larger argument about the
nix; the lyre showed us Achilles' paradoxical nature of heroism. The
inaction and the wasting of his Homeric hero is the embodiment of
virtue; the death of Pedasus, as contradiction. The Homeric hero
that of Patroclus, was the death stands in a strange limbo between the
of the mortal Achilles; and the gods, ordinary men, and animalistic
mass of iron, which he may impulse. They are driven by fate yet re-
not toss, stress again Achilles' main responsible for their actions.
idleness. (128) Their success depends on the gods, yet
The discus, which reminds us of Achil- they claim glory and honor for what
les' greatest exploit in sacking Eetion, they do. The heroes depend on their
communities for honor and prestige,
also seems to embody his failures.
Benardete sees this as emblematic of yet they must also stand independent
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118 BookReviews
from their communities in important be the perfect hero, each has
ways. In winning virtue, they sow the ceased to be a hero at all.
seeds of their destruction.
Benardete shows that the Homeric Benardete points out persuasively,
heroes must align themselves with then, how the hero is in a no-win situa-
tion. A strict integrity with regard to
multiple ideals and that these ideals
cannot easily coexist. In the end of the one ideal compromises another ideal.
Iliad,as Hector faces Achilles, they both Hector would be shamed by a lack of
are representatives of their respective courage in failing to meet Achilles, but
heroic failures, but these are failures meeting Achilles means that he violates
that are brought about by the tensions his responsibility to his city. Achilles
within the heroic code itself. By angrily could have properly aided his com-
standing apart from battle to maintain rades-in-arms, but doing so would
his honor, and by allowing Patroclus to have shown weakness in his dispute
enter combat in his stead, Achilles has with Agamemnon. In such contradic-
not been sufficiently sensitive to the tions can be found the tragedy of the
shame that should come from neglect- Homeric hero. Within a hero is the
ing one's comrades-in-arms.Hector, in negation of the hero.
turn, chooses to face Achilles rather Benardete does not discuss the sig-
than risk the shame of the people of nificance of his work beyond simply
Troy. In direct contrast with Achilles, understanding Homer. The hero, how-
Hector is overly wary of shame and ever, has been an important theme in
thus forfeits the only real chance to the work of some of Benardete'sfriends
defend Troy. Benardetewrites: and colleagues at the University of Chi-
cago, most famously in Allan Bloom's
Although [Hector] cares more book, The Closing the American Mind
for Andromache than for the (1988). In his controversial best seller,
rest of Troy, he prefers to act Bloom bemoans the demystification
rashly than to save even her; for of heroism in contemporary society.
to maintain his own self-esteem Bloom may be right or wrong in his
exceeds all other cares. In this re- analysis, but I believe he certainly
spect he resembles Achilles, who could have benefited from an engage-
had cherished anger, though it ment with detailed discussions of hero-
meant death to the Achaeans, ism like that found in Benardete. He
and now belatedly defends them could have discussed, for example, this
for the sake of Patroclus. . . tragic element of heroism. For Homer
Hector has become an alien be- and for us, heroism not only seems to
cause of his shame, Achilles was demand tragic and perilous circum-
isolated from the Achaeans out stances for its existence, but it also usu-
of shamelessness. Both are ally involves strict allegiance to prin-
driven to a combat each had ciples that will necessarily conflict.
sought to avoid. Achilles' vain Worries about a culture of heroism go
effort to re-establish his honor beyond the modern demystifiers that
corresponds to Hector's attempt Bloom despises in contemporary uni-
to correct his mistake: as if versities; Homer himself worried about
Achilles could balance the death such things.
of Hector against the loss of The themes Benardeteaddresses are
Patroclus, and Hector, in cling- significant in other ways. Benardetenot
ing to his civil shame, could only has much to say about heroes but
maintain his renown. . . . Each also the context in which heroes are
has made his own excellence found. He traces with intricate detail
contradict itself. In his desire to how the rationale for the Trojan War
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BookReviews 119
changes during the Iliad.At first it is a recognized as flawed or irrelevant,
dispute about Helen. As that rationale one should not expect the conflict to
for war diminishes, however, the war draw to its logical closure. The practice
becomes an arena for the winning of of warfare will itself have created a
honor. And finally, it becomes a re- multitude of reasons to keep on fight-
venge match again, but not between ing, be it for vengeance, greed, or
Menelaus and Paris. The war, in the shame. "Frompersonal revenge to im-
end of the Iliad,is all about Achilles and personal ambition and back again to re-
his search for vengeance. In tracing this venge is the Iliad's plot," Benardete
development, Benardetenot only helps writes. "The love for Helen turns into
us to understand the Iliad, but also to the love for fame, which in turn be-
understand the nature of warfare. come Achilles' love for Patroclus" (p.
World history and Benardete's 90). One reason for war spawns others;
Homer unite to show us that war has war breeds its own rationalizations.
a momentum of its own; rationales Perhaps we are not so distant from the
given for war at first will not be those Greeks and Trojansas we might expect.
given at the end. Even when original Benardete does well to warn us about
justifications for war become publicly ourselves.
Bryan R. Warnick
Ohio State University
NOTE
1. See http://www.benardetearchive
.org/about_benardete /
obituary.html.
COLERIDGE,SCHILLER,AND AESTHETICEDUCATION, by Michael John
Kooy. New York:Palgrave, 2002, 241 pp.
Who reads Friedrich Schiller today? raised our hopes, only to fall silent
With the Aesthetic Educationof Man when they were so comprehensively
struggling to remain in print in the En- dashed? Perhaps betrayal is putting it
glish-speaking world (at least in the too strongly, but the fact remains that
UK, from where I am writing this) it we seem to have ended up with a no-
would seem fewer and fewer readers tion of aesthetic education that edu-
are prepared to engage with (or be cates nobody, not even those within art
educated by) this once influential education who need it more than most.
aestheticization of the world; and as for But then perhaps the whole notion
Marcuse on Schiller, or the young(er) of aesthetic education as a promise
Frederic Jameson on Schiller and is itself fundamentally flawed, the
Marcuse,they, too, seem to be speaking product of a political reading-the
from another era, an ancient time when politicization of the aestheticization of
the humanist utopian promise could the world-that casts the lessons of the
still be taken seriously. Promises are aesthetic into the future rather than en-
made to be broken, of course, espe- gaging with the event of the artwork as
cially the promessede bonheur,but are it erupts in a "now," which is aporetic
we right to feel betrayed by the as- in the extreme, and thus ill-equipped
sorted Schillerianswho so passionately
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