Homer and the Iliad, Sri Aurobindo and Ilion

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Illumination, Heroism and Harmony

Preface

The task of preparing teaching-learning material for value-oriented education is enormous.

There is, first, the idea that value-oriented education should be exploratory rather than prescriptive, and that the teaching learning material should provide to the learners a growing experience of exploration.

Secondly, it is rightly contended that the proper inspiration to turn to value-orientation is provided by biographies, autobiographical accounts, personal anecdotes, epistles, short poems, stories of humour, stories of human interest, brief passages filled with pregnant meanings, reflective short essays written in well-chiselled language, plays, powerful accounts of historical events, statements of personal experiences of values in actual situations of life, and similar other statements of scientific, philosophical, artistic and literary expression.

Thirdly, we may take into account the contemporary fact that the entire world is moving rapidly towards the synthesis of the East and the West, and in that context, it seems obvious that our teaching-learning material should foster the gradual familiarisation of students with global themes of universal significance as also those that underline the importance of diversity in unity. This implies that the material should bring the students nearer to their cultural heritage, but also to the highest that is available in the cultural experiences of the world at large.

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Fourthly, an attempt should be made to select from Indian and world history such examples that could illustrate the theme of the upward progress of humankind. The selected research material could be multi-sided, and it should be presented in such a manner and in the context in which they need in specific situations that might obtain or that can be created in respect of the students.

The research team at the Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research (SAIIER) has attempted the creation of the relevant teaching-learning material, and they have decided to present the same in the form of monographs. The total number of these monographs will be around eighty to eighty-five.

It appears that there are three major powers that uplift life to higher and higher normative levels, and the value of these powers, if well illustrated, could be effectively conveyed to the learners for their upliftment. These powers are those of illumination, heroism and harmony.

It may be useful to explore the meanings of these terms - illumination, heroism and harmony - since the aim of these
monographs is to provide material for a study of what is sought to be conveyed through these three terms. We offer here exploratory statements in regard to these three terms.

Illumination is that ignition of inner light in which meaning and value of substance and life-movement are seized, understood, comprehended, held, and possessed, stimulating and inspiring guided action and application and creativity culminating in joy, delight, even ecstasy. The width, depth and height of the light and vision determine the degrees of illumination, and when they reach the splendour and glory of synthesis and harmony, illumination ripens into wisdom. Wisdom, too, has varying degrees that can uncover powers of knowledge and action, which reveal unsuspected secrets and unimagined skills of art and craft of creativity and effectiveness. Heroism is, essentially, inspired force and self-giving and sacrifice in the operations of will that is applied to the quest,

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realisation and triumph of meaning and value against the resistance of limitations and obstacles by means of courage, battle and adventure. There are degrees and heights of heroism determined by the intensity, persistence and vastness of sacrifice. Heroism attains the highest states of greatness and refinement when it is guided by the highest wisdom and inspired by the sense of service to the ends of justice and harmony, as well as when tasks are executed with consummate skill.

Harmony is a progressive state and action of synthesis and equilibrium generated by the creative force of joy and beauty and delight that combines and unites knowledge and peace and stability with will and action and growth and development. Without harmony, there is no perfection, even though there could be maximisation of one or more elements of our nature. When illumination and heroism join and engender relations of mutuality and unity, each is perfected by the other and creativity is endless.

In Sri Aurobindo's Ilion, there is a continuous hymn of heroism. Every major character manifests some remarkable qualities of heroism, and in the case of Achilles, the central hero, these qualities combine together and rise to a high pitch of accomplishment. He was, indeed, in an earlier phase aggressive and brutal, but his soul-power pushed him to higher grades of a noble and visionary hero. Already in the Iliad of Homer, the way in which he responds to Priam's request to deliver Hector's dead body manifests a noble salute of a hero to a hero and a deeper perception and urge for harmomzation, In Ilion, Sri Aurobindo portrays Achilles as an exemplary hero. One feels in Ilion's Achilles the presence of a man not pray of power and courage but also a man of humanism and vision. Sri Aurobindo provides in this poem a vibrant and unforgettable image of the soul of heroism.

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Homer and the Iliad

A Brief Note

I

Homer is the name attached by the Greeks of ancient times themselves to the two great epic poems, Iliad and Odyssey. Unfortunately, not much is known of him, but there is no doubt that there was indeed an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping those two great poems. The text of these two poems exists, and their literary merit is so great that Homer is considered one of the very greatest of the world's literary artists.

According to a popular idea which was prevalent through out antiquity, Homer must have lived not much later than the Trojan War (1194-1184 BC) about which he sang. There is a so called Homeric Hymn to Delia Apollo, which is claimed to be the work of "a blind man who dwells in Chios," a reference to a tradition about Homer himself. Herodotus, the great Greek historian, assigns Homer to the 9th century BC. There is a trivial legend that Homer's death was caused by chagrin at not being able to solve some boy's riddle about catching lice! Factual information about the poet is lacking. It is believed that his home was in Ionia in Asia.

Among the front ranking poets of the world we could include Valmiki, Vyasa, Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Virgil, Kalidas, Shakespeare, Dante, Milton and Goethe. From the point of view of essential force and beauty, Homer and Shakespeare stand above all the rest, although Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharta is greater in his range than Homer in the

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Iliad. Similarly, Valmiki has a greater range than Homer in Odyssey. Both Vyasa and Valmiki, in their strength and in their achievement in regard to the largeness of the field are greater than the whole dramatic world of Shakespeare. According to Sri Aurobindo, both the Mahabharta and the Ramayana are "built on an almost cosmic vastness of plan and take all human life (the Mahabharta) all human thought as well in their scope and touch too on things which the Greek and Elizabethan poets could not even glimpse. But as poets — as masters of rhythm and language and the expression of poetic beauty — Vyasa and Valmiki though not inferior are not greater than either the English or the Greek poet."¹

Homer has given the presentation of life always at a high intensity of impulse and action and those who know Greek feel that he casts it in terms of beauty and in divine proportions. He is rightly compared with Phidias, whose field of creativity was sculpture; for Homer deals with human life as Phidias dealt with the human form when he wished to create a god in marble. In both the Iliad and Odyssey, one feels uplifted upon the earth that belongs to a higher plane of a greater dynamic of life, and so long as we remain there, we have a greater vision in a more lustrous air and we feel ourselves raised to a semi-divine stature.

Homer may be regarded as one of the most influential poets in world history, since the Iliad and Odyssey provided the basis of Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and they formed the backbone of humanistic education down to the time of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. We should also note that Virgil's Aeneid was loosely moulded after the pattern of the Iliad and Odyssey, and thus the Aeneid's influence on Roman and subsequent history can be traced to Homer's epics. These two epics had a period of revival under Byzantine culture from the late 8th century AD onward. Subsequently, they passed into Italy with the

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1 Sri Aurobindo: The future Poetry, Vol. 9 of the Centenary edition; p 523

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Greek scholars who fled westward from the Ottomans, and thus the Homeric epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy. Since then these two epics have been translated into various European languages and have become the most important poems of the classic European tradition, being valued even above the works of Virgil and Dante.

Homer has come to be seen as a staple of Greek education, the repository of Greek myth, the source of a thousand dramas, the foundation of moral training and even the scripture of orthodox theology. Herodotus has said, probably with some exaggeration, that it was Homer and Hesoid who gave definite and human form to the Olympic Gods, and order to the hierarchy of heaven.

II

The only other civilization of ancient times, which was equally amazing and difficult to account for, was the Vedic

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1 Bertand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, pp 25

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civilization, which was more ancient than the Greek and had, in the field of mysticism, much greater and more lasting consequences. And, if we consider the role the Orphic mysticism played in the development of the Greek civilization, it is not altogether impossible to conceive in a large canvas of world view of history a subtle linkage between the Vedic civilization and the Greek civilization. For as Burnett has pointed out, there is a striking similarity between Orphic beliefs and those prevalent in India at about the same time.

Both the Vedic civilization and the Greek civilization belong to the infrarational age of humanity. The surprise is that even when the infrarational reigned over the earth, an extraordinary Age of Intuition flourished through the Veda and Upanishad in India and the Age of Reason flourished and culminated in Greece, particularly in Periclean Athens. How and why such amazing things should happen can perhaps be explained only if we undertake a study from the point of view of the psychological development of the human race, a study that has been initiated by Sri Aurobindo in his illuminative work, The Human Cycle.

Ill

The story of Iliad, which is centered on the siege of Troy, had its beginning, according to the Greek mythology, at a feast of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis.

Peleus was the king of Phithia and Thetis was the goddess of the sea. All the gods came to the wedding to present their gifts and take part in the banquet, but Eris, goddess of discord, had been left out. Eris, therefore, waited for the moment when she tossed a golden apple in from of three of the goddesses: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. The apple bore an inscription: "To the most beautiful". When the quarrel broke out amongst three goddesses, each claiming the apple, the task was given to Paris, the Trojan Prince, to judge which of these goddesses ought to receive the golden apple.

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Helen on the remparts of Troy by Gustave Moreau

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Hera promised to give Paris rule over Asia and Europe; Athena promised heroism and victory; and Aphrodite promised love, in the person of the lovely Helen.

Although Paris had never seen Helen, he had heard of her reputation, and his desire for love was so strong that he offered the apple to the beautiful Aphrodite. Thereafter, Hera and Athena showed their opposition to Paris, while Aphrodite offered her advice to Paris how best to conquer Helen.

In the meantime, Achilles was born to Thetis, who wanted to make her son immortal; she dipped the child in the waters of the sacred river of Styx, but since she held him by the heel, he remained vulnerable at that point. Later on, Peleus took his son Achilles to Chiron, the Centaur who taught him the arts of war and other arts like music and painting. Achilles was destined to be the greatest of the heroes of the Trojan War.

IV

The city of Troy stood on Mt. Ida. This mountain forms part of Phrygia.

On a hill three miles from the sea, Schliemann and Dorpfeld, in their excavations found 9 cities, superimposed each upon its predecessor, as if Troy1 had nine lives. According to Schliemann, the ruins of the second city belong to Homer's Troy; current opinion identifies the sixth city with Homer's

1 Troy also known as Troas, Ilios, Ilion, Ilium.

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Troy and we are assured that that city had perished by fire, shortly after 1200 BC. Greek historians traditionally assigned
the Siege of Troy to 1194-1184 BC.

Geographically, Troy had a strategic position near the entrance to Hellespont and the rich lands about the Black Sea. The plain was moderately fertile, and precious metals lay in the soil to the east. The city was admirably placed to levy tolls upon vessels wishing to pass through the Hellespont, while it was too far inland to be conveniently assailed from the sea. The city's trade grew rapidly. As Will Durant points out: "From the lower Aegean came copper, olive oil, wine, and pottery; from the Danube and Thrace came pottery, amber, horses and swords; from distant China came so great a rarity as jade. In return Troy brought from the interior, and exported, timber, silver, gold, and wild asses. Sealed proudly behind their walls, the 'horse-taming Trojans' dominated the Troad, and taxed its trade on land and sea."1

Ancient historians believed that the main cause of the Troyan War was the quest of the Greeks for new life, and since Troy was rich and prosperous, Troy became the target of the Greeks. While this may be true, the Iliad and other legends indicate that the immediate cause was related to Paris and Helen. Paris was one of the princes of Troy, which was at that time ruled by king Priam. It is said that Priam had fifty sons and countless daughters. The first born son was Hector, followed by Paris, Deiphobus, Helen, Polydorus, Troilus and others; the best known of his daughters were Creousa, Paodice, Polyxene and Cassandra, who was gifted with the power of divination..

Under the inspiration of Aphrodite, Paris visited Sparta, which was ruled by Menelaus. Menelaus extended warm welcome to Paris to whom he introduced his beautiful wife Helen. As soon as Paris set eyes on Helen, her beauty dazzled him. It so happened that on the 10th day after Paris' arrival, Menelaus was forced to leave for Crete. During the absence of

1 Will Durant: The Story of Civilization, Vol. 2; p.36.

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Menelaus, Paris made his advances to Helen, who accepted the treasures which Paris offered her. Both Paris and Helen found in each other a perfect agreement of beauty and joined and escaped by night and fled to Troy, where their wedding was celebrated. As soon as Menelaus heard of this in Crete, he sailed away from Crete and went straight to his brother Agamemnon who was the ruler of Mycenae. The two brothers decided to raise all the kings and heroes of Greece in a campaign. It was felt that the question was that of honour and that the ravisher of Helen must be punished. It was not easy to rouse the kings and heroes of the various domains of Greece, and it took ten whole years to gather the Greek army.

Among those who joined were Odysseus, king of Ithaca, Achilles of Phthia, Nestor, king of Pylos; Diomedes, the hero of Aetolia, Ajax, the Telamonian, Ajax the Lorcian, Idas, king of Crete and Idomeneus.

When the fleet was ready for the departure in the harbour of Aulis, the winds stopped blowing, and the ships could not move forward. It was suggested to Agamemnon to sacrifice his elder daughter, beautiful Iphigenia, but Agamemnon refused.The troops, however, revolted, and so Odysseus prepared a plan, according to which a message was sent to the Palace at Mycenae. The message was that Iphigenia should go over to Aulis with her mother, Clytemnestra (who was the sister of Helen), where Iphigenia could be married to Achilles. Tempted by this message, the mother and the daughter reached Aulis where everything was got ready for the sacrifice of Iphigenia. The atmosphere was charged with greatest tension. However, as the Priest raised the knife, the Goddess Artemis bore Iphigenia to Tauris where she became a Priestess in the temple of Artemis. A doe was sacrificed instead to the delight of the troops. Wind immediately filled the sails of the ships, and the Greek fleet sailed out of Aulis on its way to Troy. The most powerful tribe that led the Greek army was that of Achaeans. Because of their leadership, all the Greeks engaged in the Siege of Troy came to be called Achaeans. The Siege of Troy proved

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to be unyielding, and continued for nine years during which Achilles played a leading role. Achilles captured quite a number of the cities around Troy, and according to the custom of those times, he enslaved many beautiful women, whom he presented to his commander-in-chief, Agamemnon. Among the women prisoners was Breseis, who had been captured during a raid on the strong cities of Thebes, together with another woman called Chryseida. Since Breseis and Achilles felt deep mutual affection he offered Chryseida to Agamemnon.

The father of Chryseida was a priest of Apollo, who demanded the return of Chryseida; but Agamemnon refused the demand and drove away the priest with harsh words — thus incurring the wrath of Apollo. As a result, the Achaean camp came to be gripped by a plague. In order to prevent this great disaster, Achilles asked Agamemnon to send Chryseida back to her father. In the end, Agamemnon was forced to let Chryseida go; however, he snatched Breseis from Achilles. Achilles was angered by this unjust act, and he spoke to Agamemnon

Achilles and Hector in battle
(Attic vase 490 BC)

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to protest, and then he withdrew to his tent where he sat refusing to take any part in the fighting.

In the first Book of the Iliad, we are told that the Greeks had already besieged Troy for nine years in vain. Thereafter we have the story connected with the sacrifice of Iphigenia, followed by the, story connected with Breseis. The first book ends with Achilles taking the vow that neither he nor his soldiers would stir a hand to help the Greeks. The most important part of the story is told in Book 15 where Homer rises to a height of fervid narrative as the Greeks fought desperately in a retreat that must mean death. In Book 16, Patroclus, one of the most favoured friends of Achilles, wins his permission to lead Achilles' troops against Troy; Hector kills him, and in Book 17, Hector fights Ajax fiercely over the body of the slain Patroclus.In Book 18, Achilles, on hearing of the death of his beloved friend, Patroclus, resolves to fight, and in Book 19, he is reconciled with Agamemnon. Agamemnon apologized for his behavior, and returned Breseis to him swearing that he had never laid a finger on her. In Books 20 and 21, we find Achilles slaughtering a host of Trojans, as a result of which Trojans fly from 'Achilles, except Hector. The father and mother of Hector, the king Priam and queen Hecuba, advise Hector to stay behind the walls, but he refuses. Then suddenly, as Achilles advances upon him, Hector begins to run away. Achilles pursues him three times around the walls of Troy; Hector makes a stand, and is killed. But Achilles, in his anger ties the corpse behind his chariot, and in Book 24, Achilles drags it three times around the pyre. He then returns to his camp for the funeral of Patroclus. Then comes the moment of serenity and real greatness on the pan of Priam and on the part of Achilles. Priam comes in a state of sorrow to beg for the remains of his son, Hector. Achilles politely and respectfully, forgetting all his enmity, returns the body of Hector for burial, issuing orders that it was to be treated in a manner befitting a brave warrior.

Here the great poem suddenly ends, and the rest of the story is to be collected from the subsequent literature.

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v

Indeed, the war of Troy continued. The terrible Achilles struck fear into the Trojans. In one incident, he fought a duel with Penthesilea, the famous queen of the Amazons, whom he wounded mortally. He was overcome with sadness at the sight of the death drawing its veil across her beautiful face. We also hear of the story of Achilles passing a moment with the daughter of Priam, Polyxene, whom he loved deeply and whom he warned to marry.

The courage and heroism of Achilles were unparalleled throughout the war. But death was near him also. Achilles, at the head of his troops, had driven the Trojans back until they were at the walls of the city. At that moment, Paris, favoured by Apollo, aimed his fatal arrow at the hero's only weak point: his heel. Achilles fell, and a murderous battle ensued over his body. In the end, Odysseus and Ajax managed to carry it back to the camp. His body was cremated and a magnificent tomb was built.

After the death of Achilles, there was such a great vacuum that the Greeks were gripped by despair. However, in the course of the war, Paris was killed by Philoctetes, who avenged the death of Achilles. At the same time, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, thought of a plan, and all the other leaders agreed with it and began to carry it out. A huge wooden horse was built with a hollow stomach. When it was finished, Odysseus and eight other warriors entered the stomach of the horse through a hidden trap door. Thereafter, the wooden horse was left outside the Greek camp in a place where it could be seen from the Trojan walls. At the same time, the Greek forces burnt their own tents and sailed off in their ships. Indeed, they did not go far, but they managed to hide near the Island of Tenedus, where the Trojans could not see them.

The Trojans watched the retreat of the Greeks, and they were truly astonished. When they approached the side of the

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camp of the Greeks, they saw the wooden horse on which an inscription was found, which declared that the horse was dedicated by the Greeks to Athena. At that point, Cassandra, one of the Princesses of Priam, who had the power of divination, prophesied that the horse would bring evil on the Trojans. But not one was prepared to listen to her. The Trojans felt that Athena would punish them if they failed to take the gift. So they towed it into the city. At night when there was darkness and when the Trojans were asleep, Odysseus and the others came out of the wooden horse and opened the city gates. At the same time, the Greek ships sailed back and launched an

The Trojan Horse (Relief on amphora - 670 BC)

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attack with great force. They rushed in through the open gates, and in the midst of the general massacre and destruction, Odysseus killed Priam at the altar of Zeus. The city was burned and looted. Menelaus ransacked the royal apartments of Troy in search of his wife. In the meantime, when Paris was killed, Helen had married a brother of Paris, Demophobus. Menelaus killed him on the same night and rushed into the room of Helen; Helen was expecting death from Menelaus, and when he entered her room she bared her breast to accept the blow from him. But Menelaus' sword fell to the floor, and husband and wife reunited with a kiss.

VI

Troy had fallen as a result of the planning of Odysseus and the surviving heroes of the war set out on the journey home.
Many of them were ship-wrecked, and some of them were stranded on foreign shores and founded Greek colonies in Asia, the Aegean and in Italy. Menelaus returned to Sparta along with Helen as his queen. When Agamemnon reached Mycenae he clasped his land and kissed it. But during his long absence, his wife, Clytaemnestra, had taken his cousin Aegisthus for king; and when Agamemnon entered the Palace, they killed him.

The return of Odysseus to Ithaca was also very sad. Homer tells the entire story of the return of Odysseus to Ithaca in another long epic poem, Odyssey. Odysseus took ten years to return from Troy to Ithaca. He had set off with an entire fleet, and when he returned to Ithaca, he was alone, exhausted but not defeated by a number of unfortunate trials. His yearning for Ithaca had kept him alive during his wanderings. Sometimes Odysseus found himself in inhospitable lands with barbarous people and strange creatures. At other times he was well received in unknown places and was offered gifts. The wandering took Odysseus to the Lotus-eaters, to the country of

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Cyclope, to the Island of Aeolus, to the island of Circe, to the Sirens island, and thereafter passed through the channel between Scylla and Charybdis. The next stop was the Island of Calypso and then, to the island of the Phaeacians. At last, he reached Ithaca. No one recognized him, except his favourite dog, Argus. Odysseus found that his queen Penelope was surrounded by a number of suitors. As Penelope wanted to hear the news about Odysseus, and although she could not recognize him, she wanted to talk to him. Odysseus did not reveal himself to her, but he raised her hopes that Odysseus would be coming back soon. Penelope could not believe him, and she declared that she would marry one of the suitors who would win in a competition against each other. The archery contest required that they had to bend the bow of Odysseus, which Penelope had kept safe. Then they had to shoot the arrow through the holes in a number of axes set in a line. All the suitors failed; in the end, Odysseus asked if he could try. With amazement, everyone saw him bend the bow easily and hit the target effortlessly with his first shot. As pre-planned, Odysseus's devoted servants locked all the palace doors and Odysseus and his son Telemachus picked up the weapons which they had left earlier in an upper room; the slaughter of the suitors followed. When Penelope heard of this in her apartments, she hardly dared believe that her husband had come home. In the end, he convinced her of his identity by revealing secrets that only the two of them knew and by describing her bridal chamber. Thus it could be said in the end that the one who had brought about the victory over Troy had a well deserved return and was united with his queen and his son.

It may be mentioned that earlier, Telemachus, who was anxious to find out what had happened to his father had embarked upon the sea in search of his father. He had visited Nestor at Pylus and Menelaus at Sparta; neither of them was able to tell him where to find his father. At that point, Homer has painted an attractive picture of Helen subtle and subdued, but still divinely beautiful. She had long since been forgiven,

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and she had made a remark that when Troy fell she had grown tired of the city anyway. Will Durant has appended the following footnote on Helen: "After her death, said Greek tradition, she was worshipped as a goddess. It was a common belief in Greece that those who spoke ill of her were punished by the gods; even Homer's blindness, it was hinted, came upon him because he had lent his song to the calumnious notion that Helen had eloped to Troy, instead of being snatched off to Egypt against her will. "¹

We may also mention that the greatest tragedy in Greek legend was pursuing its course in the land of Agamemnon.Orestes, son of Agamemnon, grown to manhood and aroused by his bitter sister Electra, avenged their father by murdering their mother, Clytaemnestra and her paramour, Aegisthus.Later on, Orestes ascended the throne and still later added Sparta to his kingdom. But from his ascension started the decline. By the end of the age that had opened with the Siege of Troy, the Achaean power was spent; the dynasty of Pelops ² was exhausted, and the people waited patiently for a saner
dynasty.

About the year 1104 BC, Dorians invaded Greece. Hence, there came about the contact of five cultures — Cretan, Mycenaean, Achaean, Dorian, oriental — and this brought new youth to a civilization that would have died. The mixture of races contributed to produce the variety, flexibility, and subtley of Greek thought and life. Hellas was created and the Greek culture came to shine as a brilliant flame amid a dark sea of barbarism.

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1. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 2, p. 60

2. Actually Tantalos was the founder of the Achaean dynasty; Pelops was his son, who had two sons, Atreus and Thysetes. Thysetes and his sons were killed by Atreus. Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus. Orestes was the son of Agamemnon, and with his decline and death, the dynasty of Pelops was exhausted. The new dynasty that followed was that of the Dorians.

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Sri Aurobindo and Ilion

I

Sri Aurobindo was born on the 15th August 1872 at Calcutta. At an early age of seven, he was taken along with his elder brothers to England for education, since his father wanted him to have no Indian influence in the shaping of his outlook and personality. And yet, even though Sri Aurobindo assimilated in himself richly the best of the European culture, he returned to India in 1893 with a burning aspiration to work for the liberation of India from foreign rule. While in England, Sri Aurobindo passed the I.C.S. Examination, and yet he felt no call for it; so he got himself disqualified by remaining absent from the riding test. The Gaekwar of Baroda happened to be there at that time, and Sri Aurobindo accepted the proposal to be his Personal Secretary, and returned to India.

Soon thereafter, however, Sri Aurobindo switched over to the Baroda College as Professor of French and then of English, and when in 1906, he left for Bengal, he was the acting Principal of the College. It was during the Baroda period that Sri Aurobindo assimilated in himself the spirit and culture of India and prepared himself for his future political and spiritual work. Indeed, his political work had already begun in Baroda, but it was behind the scenes, largely of the nature of a preparation for an armed revolution for the liberation of India. Sri Aurobindo was the first among the Indian leaders to declare and work for the aim of complete Independence of India. In 1905, Bengal was divided, and Sri Aurobindo left

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Baroda and, invited by the nationalistic leaders, he joined at Calcutta the newly started National College as its first Principal. It was here that Sri Aurobindo, while working secretly for the revolution, chalked out also a plan of outer action. This plan consisted of the programme of passive Resistance, Boycott and Swadeshi, which was later adopted as the policy of the struggle for freedom. It was here again that Sri Aurobindo wrote powerfully and boldly for Bande Mataram, and later for Karma Yogin; through his writings, he electrified the nation and surcharged the people with a new energy which ultimately led the nation to her freedom. It was, therefore, significant that when India attained her liberation in 1947, it was on the 15th August, the birthday of Sri Aurobindo.

The pioneering work that Sri Aurobindo did for the liberation of India was evidently a part of his larger work for the entire humanity and for the whole earth. For him, the liberation of India was an indispensable part of the new world order. Moreover, the practice of Yoga, which he had started in 1902, led him, even while in the thick of intense political and literary activity, to major realisations of the Brahmic Silence, Nirvana, and also of the universal dynamic Presence of the Divine. And, in 1908, when he was in Alipore jail during his trial under the charge of sedition, he received through numerous experiences and realisations the assurance of the liberation of the country and also the knowledge of the initial lines on which his own future work was to proceed. For he saw that even in the field of Yoga something was still lacking, something radical that alone would help resolve the problems of the world and would lead mankind to its next evolutionary stage. And so, in 1910, soon after his acquittal from the jail, he withdrew to Pondicherry to concentrate upon this new research work, to hew a new path. It has been a most dynamic work with the entire earth as its central field. It was in the course of this work that Sri Aurobindo declared that the Supramental is the Truth and that its advent on the earth is inevitable. To bring down the supramental consciousness and power on the

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earth has been the central work of Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo has explained the nature of this work, the nature of the Supermind, the necessity of its descent, the process of this descent and the dynamic consequences of this descent for the solutions of the problems of mankind, in his voluminous writings most of which were written serially in the philosophical monthly, Arya, which was started in 1914, immediately after the first arrival of the Mother from France to Pondicherry. Some of the most important of these and other writings are: The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, The Ideal of Human Unity, The Human Cycle, The Foundations of Indian Culture, Essays on the Gita, On the Veda, The Upanishads, The Future Poetry, The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, and the epic Savitri.

Sri Aurobindo was a supreme poet, and his most famous poetical work, Savitri, presents a new kind of poetry, which has been termed as overhead poetry. This is an epic, the longest in English literature (about 24000 lines), a prophetic vision of the future. Sri Aurobindo has written a number of other short and long poems, among which Ilion (extending over 100 pages) is an innovative experimentation in an epic in quantitative hexameters in the history of English literature. Sri Aurobindo has also written five dramas, Perseus the Deliverer, Rodogune, Viziers of Bassora, Vasavdutta and Eric. He has also translated two plays of Kalidasa from the original Sanskrit into English. When Sri Aurobindo withdrew in 1926 into his room for concentrating in the required way on the 'Supramental Yoga', Mother organised and developed his Ashram. In 1943, a school for the education of children was founded, and after the passing of Sri Aurobindo in 1950, Mother developed that school into an international University Centre, where numerous original and bold experiments of education were carried out under her guidance. This educational work was a part of the Supramental Yoga, and we have rare insights into education and yoga in the volumes entitled Questions and Answers, which contain conversations of the Mother that took place in her classes. In 1958, Mother

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withdrew to her room in order to come to terms with the research in the problems related to the supramental transformation of the physical consciousness at the cellular level. In 1968, Mother founded Auroville, an international city as a collective field for the material and spiritual researches required for realising human unity as a part of the supramental action on the earth. Mother's exploration into the body-consciousness and her discovery of a 'cellular mind' capable of restructuring the nature of the body is contained in a document of more than 6000 pages, published in 13 volumes. This is L'Agenda de Mère (Mother's Agenda), an account of her extraordinary exploration covering a period of more than twenty years, during which Mother slowly uncovered the 'Great Passage' to the next species by the supramental transformation of the physical consciousness and fulfilled the work that Sri Aurobindo had given to her.

II

When exactly Sri Aurobindo wrote this epic in quantitative hexameters is not known, but a fragment of this epic running to 380 lines appeared in 1942 at the end of the second volume of Collected Poems and Plays. The whole work was published 15 years later in 1957. This work comprises 8 books and an incomplete 9th book. It appears that this poem had not received final revision at Sri Aurobindo's hands except the 380 lines which had appeared in 1942.

Like Homer's Iliad, Sri Aurobindo's Ilion is also an incomplete work. Iliad is spread over eight days, ending with the death of Hector at the hands of Achilles. Sri Aurobindo's Ilion covers the events of a single day, the last day of the doomed city of Troy. In Homer's Iliad, the action begins with the wrath of Achilles with Agamemnon. In Sri Aurobindo's Ilion, the action begins with the proposal of Achilles to Troy conveyed at the dawn by a messenger, "carrying Fate in his helpless hands and the doom of an empire." Eight books are

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Apollo ( Detail of a painting by Gustave Moreau )

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entitled respectively, The Book of the Herald; The Book of the Statesman; The Book of the Assembly; The Book of Partings;

The Book of Achilles; The Book of the Chieftains; The Book of the Woman; and The Book of the Gods. The ninth book does not bear any title, and it is left incomplete, although the end of the story of Troy is sufficiently indicated. The story of one single day, ending in the doom and ruin of Troy at the hands of Greeks appears to be the plan of the poem.

At dawn, the proposal of Achilles is conveyed through his messenger to the leaders of Troy, including Deiphobus, Aeneas, Paris, Penthesilia and Priam; the proposal is rejected in the morning by Troy's assembled chieftains; there is then the call to arms and the narration of partings of the Trojan leaders, including the parting of Paris from Helen; and in the same morning, the messenger returns to Achilles to convey the reply of Troy, who also directs the messenger to the assembly of the kings; the message is delivered to the chieftains of the Greek army who, after the debate, rise with the decision to destroy Ilion (Troy), so that they can turn their ships to their children.

In the Book of the Woman, we have the parting dialogue between Breseis and Achilles, and in the Book of the Gods. we have the assembly of the Gods presided over by Zeus. In the ninth book, we have the battle where Penthesilea is in search of Achilles in order to slay him, and where Achilles appears, "loud as the outbursting thunder." The impending catastrophe was already foreshadowed at the end of the assembly of the Gods, when it was seen that "in the noon there was night. And Apollo passed out of Troya."

Ill

An important element of this epic that strikes us forcefully is its unveiling of the profound meaning of the Siege of Troy and the fall of Troy. In Sri Aurobindo's vision of history one is required to look into the greater purposes which struggle to

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realize themselves through a complex working out of forces by mutual shocks under the eye of supervening determination and action. In that context, the question that can be raised is: Why should Troy have fallen?

Nature seeks multi-sided and integral perfection, not merely one-sided splendour or climax. When such a splendour is achieved, Nature seeks to integrate it with potentialities that may eventually grow into a more complex efflorescence and fruition, even though temporarily the higher may have to yield to the lower or even though the one-sided splendour may have to be destroyed in order to make way for a greater and more comprehensive movement of development.

As Sri Aurobindo reveals:

So when the Eye supreme perceives that we rise up too swiftly,

Drawn towards height but fullness contemning, called by the azure,

Life when we fail in, poor in our base and forget ting our mother,

Back we are hurled to our roots; we recover our sap from the savage.¹

Troy had reached splendid greatness; there were not only great palaces and shining domes and magnificent tower-tops, there were also love and laughter and flourishing highways and temples and sculptures of beauty; there was also the sunshine of mysteries of Apollo that had still survived from ancient luminous dawns. Priam ruled with might and Hector breathed noble heroism and Paris lived in joy and beauty and laughter, and Cassandra, one of the princesses, could divine in her visions Apollo's boons of light and knowledge of past, present and future.

Achaeans, the most powerful of the Greek tribes, and all other Greeks, who had laid the siege of Troy, were less civilized than the Trojans, and the issue at heart was the direction in

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Zeus ( Bronze Statue 470 460 BC )

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which humanity had to advance in centuries to come. Troy was splendid, and great and had the halo of the light of Apollo, but this was only one-sided, a mere peak among many other actual and potential peaks of human culture. And Trojans or Dardans opposed the Achaeans, even when there was a possibility of a more harmonious and less destructive process of a joint progression. As Will Durant points out, "It was a pity that these noble Dardans stood in the way of an expanding Greece which, despite its multitude of faults, would in the end bring to this and every other region of the Mediterranean a higher civilization than they had ever known."²

In Sri Aurobindo's Ilion, we hear the message of Achilles, the chief of the Achaean heroes, delivered to Trojans, a message of a conditional truce, which was rejected. We also hear in that epic the supreme Zeus and other Olympian gods who had watched the rejection revealing the deeper design of the unfolding of human history. Zeus, addressing the assembly of the gods, declares:

"Troy shall fall at last and the ancient ages shall perish. ...

Let not one nation resist by its glory the good of the ages."

He continues:

"Twilight thickens over man and he moves to his winter of darkness.

Troy that displaced with her force and her arms the luminous ancients,

Sinks in her turn by the ruder strength of the half-savage Achaians.

They to the Hellene shall yield and the Hellene fall by the Roman.

Rome too shall not endure, but by strengths ill shaped shall be broken,

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Nations formed in the ice and mist, confused and crude-hearted.

So shall the darker and ruder always prevail o'er the brilliant

Till in its turn to a ruder and darker it falls and is shattered. ...

So shall it last till the fallen ages return to their greatness.

For if the twilight be helped not, night o'er the world cannot darken;

Night forbidden how shall a greater dawn be effected?" ³

In terms of the Greek Mythology, the. immediate issue was that of the departure of Apollo, the god of spiritual light, and enthronement of Athene, the goddess of Reason.

The beautiful mystic Apollo knows this and responds to Zeus:

"Zeus, I know that I fade; already the night is around me.

Dusk she extends her reign and obscures my lightnings with error.

Therefore my prophets mislead men's hearts to the ruin appointed,

Therefore Cassandra cries in vain to her sire and her brothers.

All I endure I foresee and the strength in me waits for its coming;

All I foresee I approve; for I know what is willed,

O Cronion. ...

I will go forth from your seats and descend to the night among mortals

There to guard the flame and the mystery; vast in my moments

Rare and sublime to sound like a sea against Time

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and its limits,

Cry like a spirit in pain in the hearts of the priest and the poet,

Cry against limits set and disorder sanities bounded.

Jealous for truth to the end my might shall prevail and for ever

Shatter the moulds that men make to imprison their limitless spirits."⁴

And let us listen to the direction that Zeus gives to Athene:

"Girl, thou shalt rule with the Greek and the Saxon, the Frank and the Roman.

Worker and fighter and builder and thinker, light of the reason,

Men shall leave all temples to crowd in thy courts,

O Athene.

Go then and do my will, prepare men's tribes for their fullness."⁵

It was then with the departure of Apollo from Troy and with the fall of Troy, Hellas was created under the rule of Athene, the goddess of Reason. But aware of her real role in shaping human culture to its fullness, she had replied to Zeus:

"Zeus, I see and I am not deceived by thy words in my spirit.

We but build forms for thy thought while thou smilest down high o'er our toiling;

Even as men are we tools for thee, who are thy children and dear ones. ...

This too I know that I pass preparing the paths of Apollo

And at the end as his sister and slave and bride I must sojourn

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Rapt to his courts of mystic light and unbearable brilliance. ...

Such the reward that thou keepst for my labour obedient always.

Yet I work and I do thy will, for 'tis mine, O my father."⁶

If we study human history and critical issues of today in the light of Sri Aurobindo's vision, we shall find that the line of development that began with the siege of Troy and culminated in the creation of Hellas, we shall find that the Periclean Athens was only a precursor of the Curve of Reason that re-emerged in the fifteenth Century (AD) in the Renascent Europe and which has guided and governed not only Europe but increasingly the entire globe and swept our times with momentous results in various fields of life. The contemporary crisis through which we are passing today is also the crisis of the rule of Reason, and we can perceive that this is the time when Athene is preparing herself to depart from her supremacy and to sojourn with Apollo.

IV

Ilion is a continuous hymn of heroism. Every major character manifests some remarkable qualities of heroism, and in the case of Achilles, the central hero, these qualities combine together and rise to a high pitch of accomplishment. In the Book of the Herald, in the Book of Achilles, and in the Book of the Woman, the characterization of Achilles brings to our experience the living power of a hero actuated by uplifted will-force and the dynamic pulsation of strength, energy, courage, leadership, victory in every kind of battle, and will power that compels men and environment to accept its domination. He was, indeed, in an earlier phase aggressive and brutal, but his soul-power pushed him to higher grades of a noble and visionary hero. Already in the Iliad of Homer, the way in

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Athena

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which he responds to Priam's request to deliver Hector's dead body manifests a noble salute of a hero to a hero and a deeper perception and urge for harmonization.

The character of Achilles in Ilion portrays higher degrees of heroism. There is, firstly, high fearlessness which no danger or difficulty can daunt and which feels its power equal to meet and face and bear even the assault of fortune and adverse gods; secondly, dynamic daring which shrinks from no adventure or enterprise; thirdly, freedom from disabling weakness and fear; and, fourthly, love of honour which can scale the heights of the highest nobility and which stoops to nothing little, base, vulgar or weak. We perceive in him increasing embodiment of the ideal of high courage, straightforwardness, sacrifice of the lower to the higher self, unflinching resistance to injustice and oppression, noble leading, and warrior hood that seeks to accomplish the work that is to be done, to maintain the glorious results of the past or to destroy only to that limited extent which would be necessary to make clear the paths of the future. Let us read the words of Achilles where he describes his transition from the lower to the higher qualities of his warrior hood:

"Fierce was my heart in my youth and exulted in triumph and slaughter.

Now as I grow in my spirit like to my kin the immortals,

Joy more I find in saving and cherishing than in the carnage.

Greater it seems to my mind to be king over men than their slayer,

... The cup of my victory sweetens

Not with the joys of hate, but the human pride of the triumph."⁷

The story of Ilion is the story of Achilles who has lost nothing of his earlier heroism but which has become much

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greater, and much nobler by the experience of a higher vision and a higher impulse of love, peace and harmony. In the very first Book, the Book of the Herald, we find the old Talthybius carrying the message of Achilles, a message of peace and love and justice, the message that is sent to the leaders of Troy directly, "not as his vassal who leads, Agamemnon, the Argive, But as a ruler in Hellas, ... king of my nations." For he knows that the mighty is mightiest when he is alone, and when the strength within him is accompanied by the supreme strength of the Supreme. As Achilles declares later:

... "I with Zeus am enough. ...

Need has he none for a leader who himself is the soul of his action.

Zeus and his Fate and his spear are enough for the Phthian Achilles."⁸

Let us listen to the conciliatory tone and atmosphere of the message of the great hero:

"Princes of Troy, I have sat in your halls, I have slept in your chambers;

Not in the battle alone, as a warrior glad of his foemen,

Glad of the strength that mates with his own, in peace we encountered.

Marvelling I sat in the halls of my enemies, close to the bosoms

Scarred by the dints of my sword and the eyes I had seen through the battle,

Ate rejoicing the food of the East at the tables of Priam,

Served by the delicatest hands in the world, by Hecuba's daugher."⁹

A little later, the message explains to the Trojan leaders his

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yearning for peace in the following words:

"Long have I waited for wisdom to dawn on your violent natures.

Lonely I paced o'er the sands by the thousand throated waters

Praying to Pallas the wise that the doom might turn from your mansions

Buildings delightful, gracious as rhythms, lyrics in marble,

Works of the transient gods; — and I yearned forthe end of the war-din

Hoping that Death might relent to the beautiful sons of the Trojans."¹⁰

The message also refers to Polyxena, daughter of Priam, whom Achilles loves:

"And for Polyxena's sake I will speak to you yet as your lover

Once ere the Fury, abrupt from Erebus, deaf to your crying,

Mad with the joy of the massacre, seizes on wealth and on women

Calling to Fire as it strides and Ilion sinks into ashes.

Yield; for your doom is impatient."¹¹

And then comes the central part of the message:

"Princes of Pergama, open your gates to our Peace who would enter

Life in her gracious clasp and forgetfulness, grave of earth's passions,

Healer of wounds and the past. In a comity equal,

Hellenic,

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Asia join with Greece, our world from the frozen rivers

Trod by the hooves of the Scythian to farthest undulant Ganges.

Tyndarid Helen yield, the desirable cause of your danger,

Back to Greece that is empty long of her smile and her movements.

Broider with riches her coming, pomp of her slaves and the wagons

Endlessly groaning with gold that arrive with the ransom of nations.

So shall the Fury be pacified, she who exultant from Sparta

Breathed in the sails of the Trojan ravisher helping his oarsmen.

So shall the gods be appeased and the thoughts of their wrath shall be cancelled,

Justice contented trace back her steps and for brands of the burning

Torches delightful shall break into Troy with the swords of the bridal.

I like a bridegroom will seize on your city and clasp and defend her

Safe from the envy of Argos, from Lacedaemonian hatred,

Safe from the hunger of Crete and the Locrian's violent rapine.

But if you turn from my voice and you hearken only to Ares

Crying for battle within you deluded by Hera and Pallas,

Swiftly fierce death's surges shall close over Troy and her ramparts

Built by the gods shall be stubble and earth to the tread of the Hellene. ...

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Apollo (Temple of Zeus, Olympia, c. 470 BC )

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Rest shall I then when the borders of Greece are fringed with the Ganges;

Thus shall the past pay its Titan ransom and, Fate her balance

Changing, a continent ravished suffer the fortune of Helen.

This I have sworn allying my will to Zeus and Ananke."¹²

There is in this message the heroism of a warrior whose heart is inspired by the fire that wants to burn away the Trojan act of injustice; but there is also here the noble aim to tread the path of peace and preservation rather than that of massacre and destruction. Achilles has a deep -appreciation of the greatness of Troy and of the beauty and grandeur of the Trojan palaces and sculptures. In fact, even when the message was rejected by the Trojans and war and destruction had become inevitable, Achilles sent to his own legions a warning that burns with his concern for "Ilion's marble splendours." These axe the fiery words of the warning:

But when my arm and my Fate have vanquished their gods and Apollo,

Brilliant with blood when we stand amid Ilion's marble splendours,

Then let none seat deaf flame on the glory of Phrygia's marbles

Or with his barbarous rapine shatter the chambers of sweetness

Slaying the work of the gods and the beauty the ages have lived for.

For he shall moan in the night remote from the earth and her greenness,

Spurred like a steed to its goal by my spear dug deep in his bosom;

Fast he shall fleet to the waters of wailing, the

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pleasureless pastures.

Touch not the city Apollo built, where Poseidon has laboured.

Seized and dishelmed and disgirdled of Apollonian ramparts,

Empty of wide-rolling wheels and the tramp of a turbulent people

Troy with her marble domes shall live for ournations in beauty

Hushed mid the trees and the corn and the pictured halls of the ancients,

Watching her image of dreams in the gliding waves of Scamander,

Sacred and still, a city of memory spared by the Grecians."¹³

It is rightly said that the great and noble heroes are softer than flowers and harder than steel. And this aspect is very well brought out in Ilion in the Book of the Woman, where Breseis "the fatal and beautiful captive," for whom the body of Achilles is her entire world, addresses him. Just when Achilles was striding forth to the battle, Breseis, who has already the premonition through her visions of the previous night that she would no more see him again, pours out her woman's heart and reveals her own image of the heroic Achilles:

"Art thou not gentle, even as terrible, lion of Hellas?

Others have whispered the deeds of thy wrath; we have heard, but not seen it;

Marvelling much at their pallor and awe we have listened and wondered.

Never with thrall or slave-girl or captive saw I thee angered,

Hero, nor any humble heart ever trembled to near thee.

Pardoning rather our many faults and our failures in service

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Lightly thou layest thy yoke on us, kind as the clasp of a lover

Sparing the weak as thou breakest the mighty, O godlike Achilles.

Only thy equals have felt all the dread of the deathgod within thee;

We have presumed and played with the strength at which nations have trembled."¹⁴

What was Achilles' view of himself and his heroism? He sums it up in his parting advice to his son, Pyrrhus, in the following words:

"Pyrrhus, be like thy father in virtue, though canst not excel him;

Noble be in peace, invincible, brave in the battle,

Stern and calm to they foe, to the suppliant merciful. Mortal

Favour and wrath as thou walkst heed never, son of Achilles.

Always thy will and the right impose on thy friend and thy foeman.

Count not life nor death, defeat nor triumph, Pyrrhus.

Only thy soul regard and the gods in thy joy or thy labour."¹⁵

^V

There is another heroic character in Ilion who commands our attention, even in this brief Note. This is Penthesilia. In
Homer's Iliad, this heroine is the Queen of the Amazons; in Sri Aurobindo's Ilion, she is an Indian Queen, who has yearned for Achilles since her early years and wanted to meet that hero in a heroic situation and in a heroic manner, — to be seized in

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the battle and to be united with him, even though slain by him or in the act of slaying him.

We meet her first in the Book of the Herald, where she emerges from "her chamber of sleep where she lay in the Ilion mansion" to listen to Talthybius, the herald of Achilles, and to challenge him and to ridicule him. She is "noble and tall and erect in a nimbus of youth and of glory," and her voice is "mighty and dire in its sweetness."

When the message is delivered by Talthybius, she notes, presumably, with the deep quenching of her great thirst, the throbbing words of Achilles that describe her courage and strength and the panic she has spread among her Greek enemies. Achilles had said:

, "... She is turbulent, swift in the battle.
Clanging her voice of the swan as a summons to death and disaster,

Fleet-footed, happy and pitiless, laughing she runs to the slaughter;

Strong with the gait that allures she leaps from her car to the slaying,

Dabbles in blood smooth hands like lilies. Europe astonished

Reels from her shock to the Ocean. She is the panic and mellay,

War is her paean, the chariots thunder of Penthesilea."¹⁶

In her answer to the message, she hastens to confess and confront and declare her longing to meet Achilles in war. Her words are spoken "with a magical laughter sweet as the jangling bells upon anklets leaping in measure." The virgin Penthesilea speaks:

"Long I had heard in my distant realms of the fameof Achilles,

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Ignorant still while I played with the ball and ran in the dances

Thinking not ever to war; but I dreamed of the shock of the hero.

So might a poet inland who imagines the rumour of Ocean

Yearn with his lust for its giant upheaval, its dance as of hill-tops,

Toss of the yellow mane and the tawny march and the voices

Lionlike claiming earth as a prey for the clamorous waters.

So have I longed as I came for the cry and the speed of Achilles.

But he has lurked in his ships, he has sulked like a boy that is angry.

Glad am I now of his soul that arises hungry for battle,

Glad, whether victor I live or defeated travel to the shadows.

Once shall my spear have rung on the shield of thePhithian Achilles."¹⁷

Talthybius, in his report to Achilles, describes Penthesilea as "insolent, warlike, regal and swift" and delivers to him her message in these words:

"Sea of renown and of valour that fillest the world with thy rumour,

Speed of the battle incarnate, mortal image of Ares!

Terror and tawny delight like a lion one hums or is hunted!

Dread of the world and my target, swift-footed glorious hero!

Thus have I imaged thee, son of Peleus, dreaming in countries

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Far from thy knowledge, in mountains that never have rung to thy war-cry.

O, I have longed for thee, warrior! Therefore today by thy message

So was I seized with delight that my heart was hurt with its rapture,

Knowing today I shall gaze with my eyes on that which I imaged

Only in air of the mind or met in the paths of my dreaming.

Thus have I praised thee first with my speech; with my spear I would answer.

Yet for thy haughty scorn who deeming of me as some Hellene

Or as a woman weak of these plains fit but for the distaff,

Promises! capture in war and fame as thy slave-girl in Phithia, —

Surely I think that death today will reply to that promise, —

Now I will give thee my answer and warn thee ere we encounter.

Know me queen of a race that never was conquered in battle!

Know me armed with a spear that never has missed in the combat!

There where my car-wheels run, good fruit gets the husbandman after.

This thou knowest. Ajax has told thee, thy friend, in his dying.

Has not Meriones' spirit come in thy dreams then to warn thee?

Didst thou not number the Argives over ere I came to the battle?

Number them now and measure the warrior Penthesilea.

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Such am I then whom thy dreams have seen meek browed in Larissa,

And in the battle behind me thunder the heroes

Eoan,

Ranks whose feeblest can match with the vaunted chiefs of the Argives.

Never yet from the shock have they fled; if they turn from the foeman,

Always 'tis to return like death recircling on mortals.

Yet being such, having such for my armies, this do I promise:

I on the left of the Trojans war with my bright armed numbers,

Thou on the Argive right come forth, Achilles, and meet me!

If thou canst drive us with rout into Troy, I will own thee for master,

Do thy utmost will and make thee more glorious than gods are,

Serving thy couch in Phthia and drawing the jar from thy rivers.

Nay, if thou hast that strength, then hunt me, O hunter, and seize me,

If 'tis thy hope indeed that the sun can turn back from the Orient,

But if thou canst not, death of myself or thyself thou shalt capture."¹⁸

If Penthesilea is, in her speech, swift and sharp, even so is she in her action like a hissing spear that shatters her target. In the untitled and incomplete Book 9 we witness the war scene in which the heroine is advancing like the racing and whistling north-wind and when Zethus, the Hellene, cries out to her: "Curb, but curb thy advance, 0 Amazon Penthesilea!", she shots back:

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"Who art thou biddest to pose the horse-hooves of Penthesilea,
Hellene, thou in thy strength who standest forth from thy shielders?

Turn yet, save thy life; for I deem that thou art not

Achilles.'¹⁹

She did not have time for dialogue, and when Zethus asked her to turn back, she spoke a few sharp words but she rose high in action, and

Forward swung to the blow and loosed it hissing and ruthless
Straight at the Hellene shield, and it tore through the bronze and groaning
Butted and pushed through the cuirass and split the breast of the hero.²⁰

Her shafts in their angry succession hardly endured delay between, and after slaying the other brothers of Zetus, and in her speed like the sea or the sea or the Storm-wind, she drove towards the ranks of the foe and her spear-shafts hastened before her.

"Hynamus fell, Admetusis was wounded, Charmidas slaughtered;

Cirrhes died, though he f faced not the blow while he hastened to shelter.
Itylus, bright and beautiful, went down to night and to Hades.

Back, ever back the Hellens recoiled from the shock of the Virgin,

Slain by her prowess fierce, alarmed by the might of her helpers."²¹

The scene is well set for a climatic encounter between Achilles and Penthesilea, but the poem has remained incomplete; the

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untold story is, however, well-known, and we can imagine Achilles overpowering Penthesilea, where the hero, the slayer, bestows on the heroine, the slain, the fulfillment of the mutual mingling of courage with courage, honour with honour, and undying heroism with heroism that lives for ever, despite death —which eventually dies. We glimpse heroism that is immortal.

VI

The entire epic, even though incomplete, has yet a kind of completeness as a forceful song with uplifting hymns of heroism, supervening vision of a crucial struggle of human civilization at a critical juncture of transition, and overpowering sense of convergence of greatness and beauty.

Passages after passages gallop with swiftness and upward flight, lines after lines punctuate invisible stress and drama, words after words fly before us like hissing spears that tear open the secret meaning of unfolding vistas of experience. The poem achieves a powerful union of intensities of rhythm, vision and varied shades of aesthetic beauty and joy.

Above all, the greatness and supremacy of Homer revisits us here through the surpassing poetic genius of Sri Aurobindo.
There is here fresh youthfulness and enlivening revelations of the deeper springs of action that actuate gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and even the old and the young. Troy and Mount Ida are repainted here in their golden hues, and ships and tents seem to have sprung up anew on the sea coasts, and men and women of those ancient days appear to be breathing again with all their hopes and yearnings and anxieties. We witness here the contemporary living history.

Let us also mention here that this great poem comes to us in the royal garment of hexameter in the contemporary English language. Sri Aurobindo had suggested in his essay On Quantitative Metre that "The Hexameter, half a dozen of the greater or more beautiful lyrical forms and the freedom of

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the use quantitative verse for the creation of new original rhythms would be enough to add a wide field to the large and opulent state of English poetry."^{22 I}n the successful experiment in which the ancient Homeric story is attempted to be told, Sri Aurobindo has bridged the old and the new, and opened a new chapter of the unfolding Future Poetry.

Again, as Sri Aurobindo points out, the hexameter is made for nobler purposes, and it is a fit medium of epic or pastoral or of a powerful or forcefully pointed expression of thought and observation. Considering that the theme of Ilion requires great power and beauty and deals with the epic struggle of destinies of human civilization, the hexameter suits perfectly, and this poem succeeds greatly in imprinting in our consciousness a marvellous song of heroism and a vision of Time that Zeus and Hera can witness from their Olympian heights.

* * *

1 Sri Aurobindo, Ilion, in Centenary Edition, Vol.5, p.484-5

2 Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol, p.367

3 Sri Aurobindo, Ilion, in Centenary Edition, Vol.5, p.497-8

4 ibid. p. 503-4

5 ibid, p. 506

6 ibid, p. 506-7

7 ibid, p.466-67

8 ibid, p.468

9 ibid, p.402-3

10 ibid, P-403

11 ibid, P.404

12 ibid, p. 405-6..

13 ibid, p. 468-69

14 ibid, p.488-89

15 ibid, P.488

16 ibid, P.404

17 ibid, P.406

18 ibid, P.465-66

19 ibid, P.514

20 ibid, P.515

21 ibid, p.515-16

22 Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems and Plays, Vol.5 (Centenary Edition), p.387

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