Homer Iliad (or Odyssey?)

[maxCohen]

I'm pretty sure it's in the Iliad I just can't find where...

There is a scene where a mother has to say goodbye to her son because soldiers are forcing the first-born males to die (he has to jump off a cliff).

Does this ring a bell with anyone and if so, which chapter is it in?


t.i.a.

[maxCohen]

hmm...this was moved to an area where the latest post was 4 months ago. Hopefully this doesn't get lost.

[B-Mental]

I have absolutely no recollection of that in either book.

[bluevictim]

I'm drawing a blank, too. The closest thing I can think of is in Andromache's lament over Hector's body at the end of book 24 of the Iliad. She addresses her (and Hector's) son Astyanax and laments that he will either end up leading a miserable life or maybe some Greek will hurl him from a tower in anger over Hector having killed one of his (the Greek's) relatives (lines 732-739).

[ShoutGrace]

Could this be what you're thinking of? Throwing infants from the walls is something I've come across before, both in Biblical and Homeric circles, but as for the latter I can't remember where . . .

Originally Posted by bluevictim

I'm drawing a blank, too. The closest thing I can think of is in Andromache's lament over Hector's body at the end of book 24 of the Iliad. She addresses her (and Hector's) son Astyanax and laments that he will either end up leading a miserable life or maybe some Greek will hurl him from a tower in anger over Hector having killed one of his (the Greek's) relatives (lines 732-739).

That sounds like the kind of repetition (or foreshadowing, or whatever) that Homer uses elsewhere, I think. (?)

[bluevictim]

Originally Posted by ShoutGrace

Could this be what you're thinking of?

If it is indeed the death of Astyanax that maxCohen has in mind, he might be thinking of a scene in The Trojan Women by Euripides, where Andromache actually says goodbye to her son Astyanax before he is hurled from the city wall.

That sounds like the kind of repetition (or foreshadowing, or whatever) that Homer uses elsewhere, I think. (?)

I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean that Homer is using the lament of Andromache to foreshadow the eventual fall of Troy (which does not happen in the Iliad)? He does indeed use events in the Iliad to evoke parts of the Trojan War that occur outside his narrative. For example, the catalogue of ships in book 2 and Agamemnon's review of his forces in book 4 evoke the beginning of the war, many of the passages related to the death and mourning of Patroclus evoke the death and mourning of Achilles, and many passages evoke the fall of Troy, like Priam's petition to Hector to come inside the walls in book 22, or Andromache's lament over Hector's body in book 24 (as mentioned).