As “Hear” or “What Others Hear About You”

Kleos is a Greek word often translated as “renown” or “glory”. Its meaning is often interpreted as “to hear” or “what others hear about you”. This word has over time become more or less synonymous with the Homeric epic; “The Iliad”. This epic has kleos as its underlying theme and it may be safe to say that every action of the war heroes in it are somewhat inspired by this one simple word. A simple word but with a meaning so dense that every individual construes it in a different way and thus, have different notions of the actions to be performed to attain kleos -the ultimate idea of abstract immortality. Kleos takes a centre stage in “The Iliad where every central character participates in the war to get a share of this divine asset.

Kleos in the contemporary world does not have a significance as huge as in Homer’s Iliad because the magnitude with which it is present and realised in the Homeric epic cannot be equalled by us. People over the ages have realised that such a virtue has no practicality in the contemporary world and hence its relevance in today’s age is almost non-existent. But Homeric heroes thought otherwise and they would rather die on the battlefield and attain immortal glory than die naturally and be considered a commoner by the generations to come. There are numerous examples of this in Homer’s Iliad where even the youngest of warriors were willing to die in battle and attain kleos than lead a normal life and die unremembered after death. Kleos , fame that stays with you after death were the Homeric heroes’ ultimate ambition.

We get to witness it in the very first book of this epic itself. “ The problem Achilles faces is that he is fated to live only a short life and therefore knows he has little time in which to earn eternal fame” (Homer, 2003, p. xv). In the subsequent books we are acquainted with the fact that Achilles’ death was not predestined in all situations whatsoever. He had the option of foregoing participation in the Trojan war at the cost of letting go of his kleos as well or else be a part of the war for eternal glory. Here we realise that being a warrior for the sake of being one and more or less attain kleos was not a compulsion for him but rather a choice which he had the option to either accept or deny. He chose the former and that foretells us the immense value with which Homeric heroes accredited kleos with.

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Another significant warrior we see in this Homeric epic is Hector -the warrior prince of Troy. He might have been weaker than Achilles but his passion for protecting his homeland and his heroic bravery was no less than Achilles. He provides sharp contrast to his own brother Paris who would not have even come to the war if not scorned by his elder brother. Hector shows the passion as well as the philosophical attributes which make a man strive for kleos. It is evident in his conversation with his wife Andromache where she implores him to stay back for the sake of her son and herself. She makes clear to him her apprehensions about her life in case Hector dies. Her concerns were justified and yet she could not convince Hector to not join the war who replies

If I hid myself like a coward and slunk from the fighting, I would feel nothing but shame.I have trained myself always to be a good warrior, to take my place in the front line and try to win glory for my father and myself. “There goes the wife of Hector” they will say when see your tears. “He was the greatest of the horse-taming Trojans who fought it round Ilium.” That is what they will say. Hence, we witness the heroic valour of Hector which any reader who reads this epic would observe. Unlike Achilles who had the choice of living for long but at the price of living a conventional life, Hector did not possess any choice as such. For him battling himself out in the battlefield was the only conceivable path he could choose to tread on for it was his homeland he was fighting for. Not participating in the war was to be taken as a sign of cowardice and it would not have anyway guaranteed immortality.

So he would rather die a glorious death than live on and carry on the shame of being a coward in battlefield. Clearly, he placed his honour, his kleos on a greater pedestal than his life itself. His wife, his son, his family, all were secondary aspects of his own glorified existence which was further immortalised by his heroic death. Some people are taken unaware by death and he was one such warrior but when it finally occurred to him that death was approaching him in the form of Achilles , he did not retreat his steps. He did have a choice then to retreat inside the city walls; in fact he had ample time to do so but then he would not have been remembered the way he is done today-Hector, the brave Trojan prince who died at the hands of the invincible Achilles. It is an irony that this duel did not really have a clear winner or loser. Both of them attained the kleos they wanted.

Hector got the honour of being called the bravest and the most heroic warrior Troy ever produced, an honour for which he laid down his life and Achilles by participating in the war opened the doors for attaining the kleos he wanted at the cost of nostos. Nostos is the Greek idea of an epic hero returning home by sea usually by overcoming many obstacles and it is not just about the physical return but also the retention of one’s identity upon arrival. This was the alternative Achilles had which he states in book nine that his mother Thetis told him that his further participation in the war will result in his inevitable death, though he will earn kleos and will never be forgotten which seems to outweigh considerably his desire for nostos as well.

Clearly, nostos is another central theme of this Homeric epic though present in a relatively less degree than kleos. Not to undermine the importance of nostos but it does not really find many takers in The Iliad. Warriors discuss it ,think of attaining it but when it comes to choosing one between kleos and nostos they would rather prefer glorious immortality than a safe return to home and a normal life. Achilles provides just the perfect example of the dilemma which these warriors face when given the task of choosing either of the two. In fact there are instances in the story where he somewhat contradicts his own stance by vouching for nostos and being content with it. In book nine of the epic he says For nothing, as I now see it, equals the value of life […] [Y]ou cannot lift or procure a man’s life, when once the breath has left his lips.[…] If I go back to the land of my fathers ,my heroic glory will be forfeit ,but my life will be long and I shall be spared an early death.

In fact in the same book he advised even other warriors to sail back home rather than try to seize Troy. We clearly get to see even his own heart’s desire to sail back to the fertile soils of his homeland and enjoy his fortunes with a well- matched girl of his own class. But nonetheless, his hunger for kleos could not be taken away and even such an ideal nostos could not tempt him to sail back home. And this desire is not only limited to Achilles, but to a certain extent every Greek soldier who had left his family to come on this war. Thus, we see that the idea of nostos is quite a recurring theme in Homer’s Iliad but the concept of kleos more often than not turns out to be the favoured one by the Homeric warriors.

But it is really hard to comprehend that which of the two ideas was the most deserving to be realised. No one idea can truly be the best and hence it would not be a surprise if people today disagree with the very idea of kleos. Death is the ultimate destination of every human soul and kleos does not make any sense if your life could not return no matter how alive you are in another man’s memory. After all what is the worth of such immortality if you could not live your mortal life to the fullest ?

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