The Tale of Heike and The Iliad - Research Paper Example

21 December The Tale of Heike and The Iliad The Tale of Heike and The Iliad are some of the ancient epic stories of theirrespective cultures, which continue to be popular up to now, because of their characters and themes that modern society can relate to. They are both considered as military tales too, where military strategies are discussed in vivid details, enriched further by the textured personalities of their heroes and their struggles. This essay compares these stories and finds similarities and differences in their literary elements. These epics have differences in their literature structure, but they are similar because they are both epics in their respective nations; in addition, they are comparable in their war and royalty settings, plot that revolves around great wars, social hierarchies, transitions of power, and characters that struggle with the themes of life and death and loyalty to the gods and human rulers. The Tale of Heike (Heike) and The Iliad are national epics of their cultures and nations. Heike is an epic of the Japanese culture, because like The Iliad, it is a quasi-historical tale of a real war between prominent groups/families (Kawashima 2). Heike is “the most important source for No and Kabuki drama,” which is similar to the Homeric cycle that Greek tragedies often used (Kawashima 2). The Iliad is considered a great Western epic, particularly of Hellenic culture, and the Greeks treat it as a national epic with paramount importance to their culture. As epics, these stories have been translated many times as novels and motion pictures too (Kawashima 2). Furthermore, their popularity are both so entrenched in their cultures that most Japanese high school students can recite a few verses from Heike, while many Greeks are familiar with Achilles and Homer of The Iliad (Kawashima 2). Heike is an epic with twelve chapters that narrates the struggle between two warring clans who aim to control and dominate Japan during the 12th century CE (Tosa 6). The authorship of Heike is unknown, because it is an oral-tradition epic in Japan. It is believed that Heike has been told first by blind traveling Buddhist monks and they narrate and sing this epic with an instrument that looks like a flute (Tosa 6). Homer wrote The Iliad. Homer is called the “father of all poetry,” and The Iliad, as a “masterpiece for all time” (Weigel 3). Tradition says that Homer was a Greek of Asia Minor (Weigel 3). Herodotus thinks that Homer lived in the eighth century BCE, which could be right, because of the existence of modern scholarship and archeology during this time (Weigel 3). Homer combined legends about the siege of Troy and familiar oral stories about the Greeks to write The Iliad. Homer himself could not have transcribed the two other epics that people attribute to him, “but it is probable that he gave the poems their present shape” (Weigel 3). Heike and The Iliad are orally presented, instead of being read. Heike is sung for oral performance, and this is similar to The Iliad which is also orally performed. Unlike The Iliad, Heike has significant Buddhist influence, with Buddhist scripture pervading its prose. At the same time, Heike is sung as part of religious chanting, which makes it a “different form of oral composition than extemporaneous poetic composition”(Tosa 6). Heike, furthermore, is not the same epic as The Iliad, because it also has Japanese song rhythm. The Iliad is also religious in a sense, because it affirms the power of the gods over people. It is not a poetic prose like Heike. The gods are greatly humanized in this epic, because they take human shapes and passions. They have super powers, but they are also human-like, because they eat, fornicate, lie, cheat, change their minds, and protect their favorites (Weigel 4). Their system is both loose and structured like the humans, since they also oppose each other and Zeus (Weigel 4). Heike and The Iliad have similar plots. Both of them are about wars and changing political orders. Heike is the story that depicts the fate of the Heike clan of warriors (samurai), who had risen to power in the late 12th century. The Heike replaced the long-ruling aristocratic Fujiwara clan, but who also equally plummeted, because of the Genji, another clan of rising warriors, who defeated them (Kawashima 2). The Iliad narrates the wrath of Achilles against King Agamemnon. The battle episodes demonstrate the characters of the warriors, including their human strengths and weaknesses (Weigel 3). Gilbert Murray stresses that The Iliad has a “subject [that] is second-rate” and a hero who is "sulking is not a noble, nor yet a poetical, state of mind”(Bloom 23). Bloom agrees that “Achilles does sulk,” because he feels that “he has been despoiled of everything; his is a child's outrage, single-minded and ruthless” (Bloom 23). Achilles' flaw, for Bloom, does not oppose his heroism, because his emotions dictate his rash actions that drive the plot (Bloom 23). Bloom concludes that: “Achilles' limits are the limits of the heroic code, and he is as much a monument to its glories and tragedies as is the Iliad itself. Even his flaw is noble” (Bloom 23). The Iliad is not just a chronicle of events in the Trojan War too, because it also explores the particular and significant events of the war. It starts with the quarrel of Achilles with his commander, Agamemnon. Then, Achilles withdraws from the war and the fighting goes on without him. Agamemnon tries to conciliate with Achilles, but with no success. Soon, Trojan victories fill the story. Patroclus helps Agamemnon, but he dies at Hector’s hands. With the death of his best friend, Achilles re-enters the war and avenges Patroclus' death. He kills Hector and Achilles takes Priam’s ransom of Hector’s body. The sequence has two powerful implications. First, in the absence of Achilles, the strongest fighter, the Greeks' morale declines with their losses (Weigel 3). Since Achilles died before Troy is taken, the Greeks think of other ways to defeat Troy. Second, the poem's climax, the killing of Hector, foregrounds Troy's eventual fall (Weigel 3). As long as Hector lives, the Greeks cannot defeat the Trojans, so when he died, the Greeks had a chance to win the war (Weigel 3). Heike is also based on a great war, the Gen-pei War or “the war between the clans of the Genji and the Heike” and like The Iliad, it shows the themes of life and death, as intertwined with people's fates. The opening lines of Heike are among the most well-known in all classical Japanese literature: The sound of the Gion Shoja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind. (translated by Helen Craig McCullough) This passage typically entails the Buddhist notion of mujo, which means impermanence (Kawashima 4). Impermanence is a strong image in Heike. The epic, however, is not heavily pessimistic (Kawashima 4). Even when it describes the Heike's problems and weaknesses, it also cherishes the spirit of the samurais who fought the challenges that fate brought them (Kawashima 4). This is the same ethos that underlies the samurai’s code of ethics, where they are dedicated to their rulers. One of the significant passages of the strength of the Samurai can be seen from the prominent scene at the final sea-battle of Dan-no-ura, which did not end well for the Heike clan. The New Middle Counselor Tomomori goes outside of the cabin and says: “Today’s battle is the last one!” He adds: Don’t let a thought of retreat enter your heads, men! In China, India, and our own country of Japan, even a peerless commander or warrior is helpless if his luck has run out. But honor is precious! Don’t show weakness in front of the easterners. What is there to save our lives for? That is all I have to say. (Chapter 11.7) The same honor in fighting can be seen in The Iliad. For them, war is the way of life. There is more honor in dying than living and not fighting. In Heike, when the Genji warriors defeat the Heike boats and kill the sailors and helmsmen, Tomomori realizes that the end is near. His last words are: “Now I have seen everything in this world there is to see,’said Tomomori. ‘Let me put an end to myself'” (Chapter 11.11 translated by Hiroshi Kitagawa and Bruce T. Tsuchida). This is a relevant speech, because Tomomori does not say what he actually sees. He must be pertaining to the cruelty of fate that affects history and the transition from “ancient aristocratic society to a medieval warrior society” (Kawashima 6). The political transition can be seen from The Iliad, when the Trojans decline, while the Greeks rise to power. Hector also accepts his fate in a noble manner like Tomomori. In Book 6 of The Iliad, Hector says to his wife: Poor Andromache! Why does your heart sorrow so much for me? No man is going to hurl me to Hades, unless it is fated, but as for fate, I think that no man yet has escaped it once it has taken its first form, neither brave man nor coward. Go therefore back to our house, and take up your own work, the loom and the distaff, and see to it that your handmaidens ply their work also; but the men must see to the fighting, all men who are the people of Ilion, but I beyond others.’ (Book 6.486-493, translated by Richard Lattimore) Hector is saying that fate applies to all human beings, and that to accept it is also honorable. He contrasts with Achilles who cannot accept his fate (Kawashima 7). In Book 22, Hector realizes his fate and that his end is coming, because he cannot defeat Achilles. He says: and now Evil death is close to me, and no longer far away, and there is no way out. So it must long since have been pleasing to Zeus, and Zeus ‘son who strikes from afar, this way; though before this they defended me gladly. But now my death is upon me. Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious, but do some big thing first, that men to come shall know of it.’ (22.300-306) Homer shows compassion to Hector, even if he is an enemy of the Greeks, because of his nobility in surrendering to his fate (Kawashima 7). Social and divine hierarchies are also prominent in Heike and The Iliad. Heike shows the hierarchy between emperors and samurais, and between warriors and their leaders (Yamagata 36). The Iliad also portrays the hierarchies between Agamemnon and soldiers like Achilles. Agamemnon also has spatial differences with Achilles, because he lives in the palace, in the same way that Japanese emperors do. In addition, gods are higher than human beings in The Iliad. Zeus controls the fates of people, and other gods impact these people too. For instance, in The Iliad, goddess Aphrodite, who loves Paris, takes Paris to the chamber. She calls Helen there to take care of her wounded lord. Menelaus is then declared as the winner. The gods who support Troy do not support this action. Athena visits Trojan Pandarus and tells him to find Menelaus and kill him. He shoots the king with an arrow, but the goddess who watches Menelaus deflects the arrow so that it only stings him. When Agamemnon sees this, he stops the existing peace and recalls war. Many Trojans and Greeks died because of Pandarus. Hence, the gods also impact the fates of these characters. After reading these epics, I appreciated more the reality that despite cultural differences, many cultures share the same epics and heroes. They also both value courage and loyalty. I am no Achilles, but I have demonstrated my loyalty too to my family, when I had to choose between them and my extra-curricular activities. I had been involved in some work before, but it took too much time from my family. Later on, I realized that my family also needed me, especially after my father got sick. I stopped my work and helped my mother take care of our family. When my father got better, my mother took me aside and thanked me with tears. She said that she could not have been so strong without my support and help. I felt like Achilles, victorious as a vital member of my family. These epics remark on similar cultures that are hierarchical and war-immersed. They have strong rulers, but who also have human flaws. They are noble, nevertheless, despite their weaknesses, because they submit to their fates, while continuing their struggles. The Tale of Heike and The Iliad also describe the transition from one power to another. They stress that power is fleeting. Moreover, they assert that the gods rule over the people. Human fate is not based on human will alone, but also subjected to what the gods want for humanity. Thus, The Tale of Heike and The Iliad exemplify cultures that believe in determinism, but with full recognition of the immense nobility of the human free will. Works Cited Bloom, Harold. “Thematic Analysis of the Iliad.” Bloom's Major Poets: Homer, Bloom's Major Poets (2001): 17-23. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. Literary Reference Center Database. Homer. The Iliad. Kawashima, Shigenari. “Life and Death in the Iliad and The Tale of the Heike.” Symposium at University of Athens, 1999. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. . The Tale of the Heike. Tosa, Dygo.“Creativity and Contextual Sensitivity in Classical Japanese Formulae and Homeric Epithets.” 105th Annual Meeting of CAMWS, The University of Texas at Austin, Minneapolis. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. . Yamagata, Naoko. “Locating Power: Spatial Signs of Social Ranking in Homer and The Tale of the Heike.” Classics Seminar, 2000. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. . Weigel, Jr., James. “Iliad.” Masterplots (2010): 1-4.Web. 11 Dec. 2011. Literary Reference Center Database. Read More