Authority In The Iliad
It’s a well-accepted, and known fact that the term of the originator of the text ‘author’ and the term ‘authority’ both has a common root; this of course, should alert us immediately to the fact that this does not simply means a description of the person who is known to be restricted to producing a literary work, or writings, in older usage, the term ‘author’ had a broader meaning of ‘maker’, this usage means that we are all considered ‘makers’ and ‘authors of our own lives, the author then, is seen and considered to be an individual agent, and ‘authorship’ implies potential for creativity. Although, the term ‘authority’ originates from the same root as ‘author’ it has over time become connected with social forces or standards, and linked
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King Priam, then, begs for the return of Hector’s corpse, while Achilles is still haunted by the thoughts of his own fate, for that he knows, too that he will soon die at Troy, from his own land and his beloved father. When coming across Longley’s Ceasefire, one of the hugely interesting aspects of such a poem; is that it has firm roots in two very different contexts, the ancient Greek, and the modern history – and how these two contexts play off each other in the poem. Reading Ceasefire with the 90s Irish political, and social conflicts in mind somehow lends a poignant and striking relevance to the themes of death, grief, empathy, and the painful realities of coming to terms with one’s (in that case former) enemies. But, Ceasefire can also be considered a ‘remaking’ or a reworking of a famous moment from an ancient poem of the Greek history, so it can be said that Ceasefire is actually ‘a compressed version of a sequence of 200 or so lines of verse of book 24 of Homer’s Iliad’. The poem also brings together the past with its myths; and the tangible present in a hugely stimulating way, and with the two contexts of ancient, and modernity illuminating each other. The authoritative/canonical poetry of Homer is thus integrated with contemporary events; the authority of Homer’s Iliad provides a parallel to Northern Ireland’s memorable recent violent history. There are also some elements familiar with Homer’s Iliad that can be noted in Ceasefire, like how some elements of Priam-Achilles episode are less specific that the Iliad also the usage of the word ‘building’ in place of ‘hut’, also there is
King Priam, then, begs for the return of Hector’s corpse, while Achilles is still haunted by the thoughts of his own fate, for that he knows, too that he will soon die at Troy, from his own land and his beloved father. When coming across Longley’s Ceasefire, one of the hugely interesting aspects of such a poem; is that it has firm roots in two very different contexts, the ancient Greek, and the modern history – and how these two contexts play off each other in the poem. Reading Ceasefire with the 90s Irish political, and social conflicts in mind somehow lends a poignant and striking relevance to the themes of death, grief, empathy, and the painful realities of coming to terms with one’s (in that case former) enemies. But, Ceasefire can also be considered a ‘remaking’ or a reworking of a famous moment from an ancient poem of the Greek history, so it can be said that Ceasefire is actually ‘a compressed version of a sequence of 200 or so lines of verse of book 24 of Homer’s Iliad’. The poem also brings together the past with its myths; and the tangible present in a hugely stimulating way, and with the two contexts of ancient, and modernity illuminating each other. The authoritative/canonical poetry of Homer is thus integrated with contemporary events; the authority of Homer’s Iliad provides a parallel to Northern Ireland’s memorable recent violent history. There are also some elements familiar with Homer’s Iliad that can be noted in Ceasefire, like how some elements of Priam-Achilles episode are less specific that the Iliad also the usage of the word ‘building’ in place of ‘hut’, also there is