Teachings,+model+of+the+hero+in+ancient+greece

Model of the hero in ancient greece
(Silmerion Skywalker)

Recently, I had the occasion to study the "Iliad" (composed of 24 books) and especially the model of the heroe in Antic Greece. The men found in heroism a way to fight death and to have immortality, not physically, but through eternal glory. Men realized that they would die and worked on themselves all their lives to have a glorious death. The values they trained to have were courage, honor and glory.

The most famous heroe of this time was Achilles, son of a man and a Goddess. It's interesting to see that Greek people considered Gods and Goddesses what I would call their emotional energies, like the God of love, the Goddess of Wisdom... The heroes were completely moved by these Gods and in a way, they were their "slaves", to me, it means that they were slaves of their emotions. The Gods themselves had to obey to the Destiny, which for me is the Will of God. Zeus who is considered the father of the Gods had to allow the Destiny of men to be fulfilled.

Achilles had chosen a glorious death rather than a long and peaceful life. That is why he went to Troy, when he discovered that the real intention of the greek king was not to fight for honor but to take the great city of Troy, Achilles refused to fight, until his best friend was killed by the heroe of Troy, Hector, who was fighting not for the ideals but to defend his city and people. (Book 16) At this moment Achilles let his rage explode and his only thought was revenge. He killed Hector (Book 22) but denied him to have a burial which was the sign of the greatest hate and disrespect, while usually, the greek heroe respected his enemy because according to his point of view, the enemy would have given him glory, giving him victory or a glorious death. However at this moment, Achilles's pain and rage were stronger than his sense of honor and respect. Only one person managed to change that: the old king of Troy, Priam, father of Hector. The king went to Achilles's camp by night, alone, without escort or protection (Book 24). He humbly bowed to the one who had killed his son to ask for Hector's corpse. Achilles was amazed by his inner strength, in this time of huge pain and saw him almost as his own father. He gave him back his beloved son and his rage ended.

I believe that Achilles is very much like Anakin who though the strongest heroe, is unable to control his emotions, and many persons suffer from it. I see Priam very much like a Jedi. He suffers a lot too, he has just lost his son who was also the hope of Troy, but he managed to be stronger than his own pain, and what gave him this strength was precisely the love he had for his son. This love and inner strength won against Achilles's hate and suffering. Priam not only was able to give a worth burial to Hector, but he also saved Achilles from himself.

Of course, Achilles behaved according to the tradition of his time, as probably killing his friend's murderer was a sign of his love for his friend, Jesus came also to change these customs. Anyway I think what Achilles should not have done is losing respect for his enemy, I believe that this weakness takes away part of his greatness.

Meditating on this story, I understood even more the necessity to have self-control. Emotions are really powerful energies and we are the ones who can choose which of them are positive and the best way to use them. It is a lifetime work but it is also what makes the Jedi different from the heroes of the history. As Christian Jedi, we have Jesus's help in the difficulties, we are human beings, we can mistake just like Achilles but Jesus is with us and gives us His strength. Jesus came to teach us the real meaning of heroism so that we can achieve immortality in a total way, acting for the common good of the world.

Master Silmerion Skywalker