Equal Honor

“The fate is the same if a man hangs back, and if he battles greatly,

in equal honor are both coward and warrior;

and they die alike, both the man who has done nothing and he who has accomplished many things.” -Achilles

The Iliad by Homer, Book IX -Caroline Alexander Translation

The influence of the Greek (and some Roman) classics on Camus’ thought cannot be understated, even if they’re a little “reinterpreted” for his own use. Camus references Homer and his depictions of Sisyphus and others numerous times throughout his works, and in his most famous essay and title of the collection of essays: The Myth of Sisyphus. But I admit, I was unable to find as much about Sisyphus in Homer as I remembered, and as I’ve been re-reading them this year. I was not the only one apparently. When looking at this 2012 article by Luke Richardson, https://academic.oup.com/crj/article/4/1/66/340709 he mentions an earlier attempt by Paul Archambault (Archambault, P. ‘Camus’ Hellenic Sources, University of North Carolina Studies in Languages and Literatures, 1972) to detail his sources and inspiration. I couldn’t get access to this in time to go over it, but I did see the reference to Sisyphus while reading Caroline Alexander’s translation of the Iliad in book VI (which the quote above is also from) when Glaukos is discussing his heritage. Sisyphus was, “born most cunning of men.” Then in the Odyssey book XI while Odysseus is recounting his time in the underworld, he describes Sisyphus’ fate on the mountain. I think there’s maybe a dozen other references to Sisyphus I could put together from various sources in antiquity, including Pherekydes, Euripides (Critias?), Horace, Ovid, Cicero, Seneca and Martial among others. But I digress. This quote is from Achilles.

It would definitely be a stretch to attribute Absurdist thought to anyone in the ancient world. Certainly one can draw inspiration there, and even recognize the Absurd Hero there, but definitely no one outright making these connections. However, there have been attempts to detail the Atheism in the Ancient World and one of my favorite books that I keep in my personal library The Greeks and the Irrational from E.R. Dodds. What we do find throughout classical literature, is the awareness recognition of the inevitability of death. Camus links this recognition in his writings in Sisyphus to the absurdity of life, but as previously discussed, one must first accept it. While Achilles certainly wasn’t thinking about life being absurd, he was contemplating the choices put before him through prophecy, of a long life in obscurity or a short life with eternal recognition. Spoiler alert, the fact that I’m talking about him in 2019, tells us which choice he made. But it wasn’t made lightly or hastily, and he contemplated outcomes a LOT. I really sensed the roots of the Absurd in this passage, where he is essentially saying, “it doesn’t matter what I or anyone else does, we’re all going to die.” The bulk of this passage really makes you truly feel Achilles pouty angst and frustration about everything happening and that has happened. I think he too may be an Absurd Hero, one of the earliest recorded. Proto-Absurdist?

-DA