Ransom: Hero and Achilles
Ransom
Qualities of the ‘epic’ hero:
Heroes embody the values of their civilisation * Wisdom * Humility * Compassion * Endurance * Honour * Integrity * Bravery
Key Quotes:
Mortality: “a hero’s death out there in full sunlight under the gaze of gods and men, for which the hardened self, the hardened body, had to be daily exercised and prepared”
Hero: “to break free of the obligation of being always the hero…to take on the lighter bond of simply being man”
Human condition: “To be seen as a man like other men, humans as we are …would have suggested that I was impermanent and weak”
“We are mortals, not gods. We die. Death is in our nature”
Frailty (Hecuba and Priam): “two children holding hands in the dark”
Achilles Quotes: * “earth is his element” * “with the pious resignation of the old man he will never become” * “he felt his soul change colour” * “like a man obeying the needs of some other darker agency” * “the gods continue to defy him” * “the tears he brings fall inwardly, his cheeks are dry” * “All this….is for you…but it is never enough” * “swiftness of foot is his special distinction….Achilles the runner” * “his runner spirit has deserted him” * “only Achilles among mortal men could manage it alone” * “boldest, most ferocious and most unpredictable of the Greeks”
Wisdom:
* “with the pious resignation of the old man he will never become” * “What he feels in himself as a perfect order o f body, heart, occasion, is the enactment, under the stars, in the very breath of the gods, of the true Achilles, the one he has come all this way to find.”
Compassion:
-“He offers the man, who seems too weak to get up, his hand” * “All this….is for you…but it is never enough” * “wept without restraint”
Endurance:
* “swiftness of foot is his special distinction….Achilles the runner” * “earth is his element”
Humility: * “with a cry he falls on
Qualities of the ‘epic’ hero:
Heroes embody the values of their civilisation * Wisdom * Humility * Compassion * Endurance * Honour * Integrity * Bravery
Key Quotes:
Mortality: “a hero’s death out there in full sunlight under the gaze of gods and men, for which the hardened self, the hardened body, had to be daily exercised and prepared”
Hero: “to break free of the obligation of being always the hero…to take on the lighter bond of simply being man”
Human condition: “To be seen as a man like other men, humans as we are …would have suggested that I was impermanent and weak”
“We are mortals, not gods. We die. Death is in our nature”
Frailty (Hecuba and Priam): “two children holding hands in the dark”
Achilles Quotes: * “earth is his element” * “with the pious resignation of the old man he will never become” * “he felt his soul change colour” * “like a man obeying the needs of some other darker agency” * “the gods continue to defy him” * “the tears he brings fall inwardly, his cheeks are dry” * “All this….is for you…but it is never enough” * “swiftness of foot is his special distinction….Achilles the runner” * “his runner spirit has deserted him” * “only Achilles among mortal men could manage it alone” * “boldest, most ferocious and most unpredictable of the Greeks”
Wisdom:
* “with the pious resignation of the old man he will never become” * “What he feels in himself as a perfect order o f body, heart, occasion, is the enactment, under the stars, in the very breath of the gods, of the true Achilles, the one he has come all this way to find.”
Compassion:
-“He offers the man, who seems too weak to get up, his hand” * “All this….is for you…but it is never enough” * “wept without restraint”
Endurance:
* “swiftness of foot is his special distinction….Achilles the runner” * “earth is his element”
Humility: * “with a cry he falls on