Iliad Books XVI-XVIII

In class, we discussed the concept of artesteia (a soldier’s killing rampage). There are five distinct points to the artesteia. 1) Hero arms himself, 2) Turns the tide of battle, 3) Wreaks havoc, 4) Wounded, prays, healed, killed important foe, and finally, 5) Battle for corpse. At this point in the text, I’ve been considering this cycle in regards to Patroclus. In Book XVI, Patroclus arms himself in Achilles’ armor (line 156). Patroclus rallies the troops and turns the tide of the battle. Even the enemy—Hector—realizes that the ball has shifted into the Greek court (Book 16, line 427-8). Although Patroclus is described as being superhuman (Book 16, line 914), he becomes wounded. He struggles to live, and offers a prayer to Zeus with a prophesy regarding Hector and his fate (Book 16, line 986-1000). But death comes; he does not seem to complete a full artesteia. He does kill important foes, but he does not kill THE FOE (Hector). This has been left to Achilles. Book XVII does feature the battle for Patroclus’ body. Menelaus emerges as a strong warrior.
So along these lines of the artesteia, I have been musing over how modern popular culture has seemed to adopt this idea. Think of Star Wars. Luke arms himself with a lightsaber and receives the proper training on how to wield a weapon “for a more civilized age.” At the end of A New Hope, the tide of the battle turns when Luke destroys the Death Star. In Empire Strikes Back, Luke wreaks havoc on Hoth by destroying the AT-ATs. In fact, it was Luke who told the Rogue Squadron how the AT-ATs could be taken down. Later in the same film, Luke is wounded by Darth Vader—his hand is cut off. He prays (seeks wisdom from Yoda and Obi-Wan). He is physically healed, but more importantly, he learns the truth about his family and his role. In Return of the Jedi, Luke goes on to destroy Darth Vader. (When Vader follows Luke’s counsel and destroys the Emperor, Vader dies and Anakin emerges.) Battle for the corpse is a bit of a stretch, but Luke does take the suit and burns it to show respect similar to the Greeks.