46 Ancient Ideals
your sons, / so many fi ne brave boys?” (XXIV, 605–608). For a long
time Achilles has inhabited only his own mind and heart. The force
of his perceptions and the focused intensity of his speech arise in
part from his dwelling fi rmly within himself and seriously enter-
taining no perspective but his own.
Now though, there is another way of being and of suff ering in the
world— that of old king Priam. The state will not last: Achilles will
soon be the shining center of his cosmos again. But for an instant
he— and Homer— have been open to an alternative mode of being,
one that values not strength or beauty or even shining intellect, but
compassion. As time unfolds, the idea that we are all bro th ers and
sisters and that we bear a kinship to every creature that lives and
suff ers on the earth will become manifest in dramatic ways. With
Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus the idea will at times seem to domi-
nate the world. Here, passingly, it appears that Achilles tastes the
spring of human benevolence; for an instant he is not a hero, not an
individual, not a power, but simply one with another suff ering being
within a universe of pain. Here Homer shadows forth the compas-
sionate ideal, just as, more indirectly, his depiction of Thersites
shadows forth the ideal of contemplation.
Yet just after he touches on the experience of compassion, Achilles
also fi nds a way to reaffi rm his own priority. Priam tells Achilles that
the Trojans will want a protracted period of mourning for Hector.
The Trojans will need eleven days, Priam says: nine to mourn him
in their halls, the tenth to hold a public feast, and the eleventh to
build a barrow and burn the corpse. The Trojans will also need to
be able to leave their city to gather wood for the pyre—so they will
be vulnerable to Greek attack.
Achilles answers immediately. “All will be done, old Priam, as
you command. / I will hold our attack as long as you require”
(XXIV, 787–788). Before making this promise, Achilles consults no
one. Shouldn’t he talk with Agamemnon? Shouldn’t he bring the