Troy Is Burning: Epic Archetypes

The paper discusses the Italian project on “Ilioupersis: Epic Archetypes,” which delves into the multifaceted concept of war violence across cultures and history, exploring its representation in various disciplines like literature, art, and cinema. Through seminars, conferences, and public actions, the project aims to enhance civil consciousness and collective memory, particularly focusing on the fall of Troy as a universal symbol of violence and its consequences. With a strong emphasis on engaging younger scholars and involving communities, the project seeks to foster a shared historical and cultural awareness around war violence themes. Moreover, it explores the transformative power of sport as a symbol of peace and cooperation, drawing parallels between ancient athletic ideals and contemporary societal values. Collaborations with institutions like UNESCO aim to extend these discussions to conflict-affected areas, promoting peace-building efforts through cultural understanding and dialogue. Ultimately, the project advocates for a civilization that values peace, understanding, and cooperation over violence and conflict.

the archaeological museums for immediate contact between the texts, documents, objects, and artistic representations of Ilioupersis and war.
Public lectures are scheduled in the Museums of the two World Wars, as places where ancient ideas and images about war encounter the symbols and memories of contemporary history.
In collaboration with UNESCO, we have begun discussing the idea of bringing the results of research on Ilioupersis to Sarajevo on the 30th anniversary of the siege in a combined action with Venice.At the Siege Museum, the rebuilt Library, and the National Museum in the center of the city, amid the various communities still in conflict, the universality of this mythical archetype could contribute to peace, helping to resolve the tensions that have not yet found a solution.
The themes are centered on the polar opposition between peace and war.Knowing the evils of war is necessary to think about peace.Experiencing difficulties creates the awareness required to build a better future: to invent a civilization within the civitas, within the ideal and universal polis where differences become a resource, an added value, a source of beauty, an agathon koinon, an asset to be shared.
I. The utopia of peace.It consists of all the symbols required to build peace as the foundation of happiness and prosperity in the life of the polis and its men, starting from the representation of the city in peace in polar opposition to the city at war in the shield of Achilles of Homer's Iliad.Weddings, courts, and altars.A paradigm of art and poetry that becomes a paradigm of history. 1 II.War as the end of civilization.When a war starts, the real consequences of its violence are impossible to predict, but it is undoubtedly the end of civilian life.To maintain a degree of humanity, other rules come into play, but the codes of honor, which are supposed to safeguard the respect for other humans, for the enemies, fail to be applied.They no longer have any meaning.When at war, only violence remains, blood that endlessly generates more violence and more blood.(1807).The Homeric definition of the city of peace becomes a cultural paradigm for the ancient world and for our times.2 On the motif of blood and massacre in the epic representation of the fall of Troy, see Barbaresco,"La terra e il sangue," 323-39.
III.The fall of the city, or the latest violence.It starts with Ilioupersis, which, for us, is the first archetype of limitless violence.When it comes to the siege and the fall of a city, there is a qualitative leap in the violence of war.All the rules are canceled, there are no human feelings, and a feral or, better still, monstrous dimension guides the winners' actions.But hybris, the violence of the assailants who destroy the city, is at the origin of the ruin of those who believe they are the winners. 3V.Sport is a principle of civilization that removes and denies war.Sport allows the construction of life and peace together with others, even the adversary, the enemy.Confrontation and struggle are part of human life, but the most ancient archetypes show that sport changes the symbol of hostility into a symbol of peace. 4It is a cognitive question, a logical structure that has become part of our thinking and behavior.In sports, the opponent becomes a friend through mutual recognition, precisely in competition, confrontation, and cooperation.Starting with Homer, the athloi are a symbol of civilization, of peace, of hospitality.Sport is a symbol of a happy utopian society aware of the limits and difficulties of human life -a positive symbol in search of prosperity and beauty, which immediately suspends all hostilities.Ekecheiria is born around Olympia: it is the inviolable suspension of every act of war.5It is the return of civilization and life.
The first experiments were as follows.
I. We started from Venice, in Piazza San Marco, on 3 March 2022, at the National Archaeological Museum with the action "Death in the Eyes, " staged in front of the Hellenistic statues of the Galatians.A long series of actions and seminars ensued.Obviously, images of our world also emerge here and there, from the aberrations of the wars of these days, as for Iryna in Mariupol, or the yellow room in Dnipro, the young musicians Khrystyna and Svitlana killed in Zaporizhzhia, the devastation of the Odessa Cathedral , the grain silos on the bank of the Danube.Daily images.All normal images of peace and happiness are contaminated by weapons and death. 6We look at them with fear: there is the tension of ancient ideas that tell us something to be able to resist in the face of horror.Even with the sense of testimony.It is the experiment of a rhesis, a civil discourse, a different thought from the world of Classics and Ancient Literature.Sometimes it is a good thing for research, philology and literature: to speak.This is our parrhesia.7Through ancient thoughts.

II. "Women and the
From all these works, we propose here a simple example through the analysis of the images of the Pithos of Mykonos, so close to Homer's poems and to the time of the epic narratives of the fall of Troy.

THE FALL OF TROY: EPIC ARCHETYPES AT THE END OF CIVILIZATION
This is the first great iconographic testimony of Ilioupersis: it comes from the second quarter of the 7th century, between 675 and 670 BC, not far from the times of Homer and our most ancient epic songs.It may well belong to the lifespan of the same generation of men.8 It is a large vase, a pithos, from an island in the center of the Aegean Sea, Mykonos, near the sanctuaries of Apollo in Delos.The vase and the images were created to be seen by everyone on festive occasions, in public situations, just like the songs of rhapsodes were meant to be heard by everybody.At the top of the pithos, on its neck and so in a position of prominence, is depicted the wooden horse.This may well be the most beautiful image in the entire history of art.There are all the necessary elements: it is a large, impressive wooden horse that contains many armed men, and seven Achaean warriors with weapons, who appear in seven windows on the horse's body and neck.They let the weapons dangle from the windows above: we might say that the warriors are showing their weapons, a large helmet, a shield, and two swords ready to be drawn from their leather sheaths.They take pride in them, but this is also an authentic gesture: a simple and safe action before the last battle.Everything has been carefully prepared.This is what will resolve the war. 9s we can see, the wheels are applied to the horse's legs, a notable detail. 10This element suggests the function, thus allowing us to identify the equus Troianus and the myth of Ilioupersis. 11The horse must enter the city.Indeed, at this point of the story, the horse is already in the citadel: above and around, there are warriors in action. 12mmediately below the top representation on the neck of the vase, there are three bands divided into metopes, the tableaux of the story, and we immediately move on to the final events of the persis.The narrative gap, the logical leap, is impressive: the beginning and the end are in sequence, in contact.We will see what this means straight away. 13he wooden horse immediately declares the traditional tale of the fall of Troy.But what we see below is not the hard fighting nor the heroic scenes of the conquest that we would expect.Ultimately, this is not the Homeric αἰνότατον πόλεμον, "the most terrible battle" mentioned in Demodocus' song (Hom.Od. 8.519).At the end of his Ilioupersis, the formidable singer of Scheria narrates the deeds of Odysseus amid the battle for the city, in Deiphobus' home. 14Demodocus' song presents the signs of an aristeia: it recounts the final fight against the last defender, against the last husband of Helen, who thus also inherits the guilt of Paris and the role of the last target of the revenge of the Achaeans.
On the other hand, the images in relief on the large body of the vase are the scariest, most horrifying ones.Their sight is unbearable, no one would want to see scenes like these, neither the losers nor the winners.Even the old Argives say so at the return of Agamemnon's army, two centuries later in a tragedy by Aeschylus: it is the refusal of the persis, and so it even becomes impossible to think of the heroic attribute πτολιπόρθης, "destroyer of cities," because of its meaning, because of what we see on this vase with our eyes: μήτ' εἴην πτολιπόρθης μήτ' οὖν αὐτὸς ἁλοὺς ὑπ' ἄλλων βίον κατίδοιμι.
13 Anderson, Fall of Troy, 182: "The upper panel narrates an early stage of the attack, while the lower group follows with later chapters of the same story.This progression may be described with more precision as preparation and execution, the ruse of the horse above forming a prelude to the murder and enslavement below."Metope after metope, in a repetitive and interminable sequence, we see an Achaean warrior with a sword.He is not facing an equally strong and well-armed opponent, another warrior in a memorable battle that will be told in epic songs forever and depicted on so many vases: in front of each Achaean warrior stands a woman with a child.Desperate gestures, pleas, cries, useless tears against the power of weapons, against the enemy's violence.It is absurd and embarrassing; there is simply something wrong with the image.This is not a heroic myth.According to the rules of warfare, the rigid and heroic rules of war, fights can only happen between warriors and their equals.
The war narrative is straightforward, even banal, but this is the only one still acceptable for those who believe in illusions and those who believe in mystifications.Here is an example.A duel is not possible between a young and strong fighter and a man who has become too old to bear arms. 16It would be a shame; there could be no glory; it would be an ambiguous, degenerate kleos.The epic codes make it clear.So surely a duel between a warrior in his splendid armor on one side and a helpless woman and child on the other is inconceivable.By definition, women and children have nothing to do with war.They know nothing about war and weapons. 17A helmet and a child do not go together; weapons are always awful.
15 Aeschyl., Ag. 472-74; translation by Alan H. Sommerstein.On the epic epithet πτολίπορθος and its metonymic meaning see Camerotto, Troia brucia, 21-26.16 On the epic values and infamy of the duel between Neoptolemus and Priamus, see Tanozzi, "L'antiduello," 430-37.17 Being a paradigm of weakness and terror, women and children incarnate the opposite of the qualities that make a good warrior; Hom., Il. 2.289-90: "ὥς τε γὰρ ἢ παῖδες νεαροὶ χῆραί τε γυναῖκες / ἀλλήλοισιν ὀδύρονται οἶκον δὲ νέεσθαι," 7.235-36: "μή τί μευ ἠΰτε παιδὸς ἀϕαυροῦ πειρήτιζε / ἠὲ γυναικός, ἣ οὐκ οἶδεν πολεμήϊα ἔργα."The formula "πόλεμος δ᾽ ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει" (Il.6.492, 20.137) is famous, also for its parodic re-uses in the comedy.See Graf, "Women, War, and Warlike Divinities," 245: "πόλεμος δ᾽ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει," is the counsel Hector gives to Andromache -Lysistrata will repeat it, in quite another vein; γυνὴ στρατηγεῖ and γυνὴ στρατοπεδεύεται are proverbs used ἐπὶ τῶν παραδόξων.Women did not fight."Loman, "No Woman No War," Rousseau, "War, Speech, and the Bow"; Farioli, "Le dita tagliate delle donne greche," 157s.The motif of children unaware of war will tragically return at the beginning of the persis in Quintus Smyrnaeus 13.123: "νηπιάχους τῶν οὔ πω ἐπίστατο κήδεα θυμός."Women and children are symbols of peace, they are the opposite of war: see This is the persis: no rules or respect for gods or men exist.Before our eyes, we see the formidable deeds of the Achaeans.On the body of the vase, in a position of prominence, maybe even too prominent, is the violence against women, the slaughter of infants, and warfare of the most ferocious, ruthless, and unacceptable kind.We could even say that it is repugnant.A sword pierces a child in the arms of his mother; another one is caught between his mother and the warrior, who impales him.His blood flows like a river, and it can be touched on the relief of the terracotta.Another child in a lower metope is smashed on the ground: this is the same way Astyanax is killed, it seems to become a pattern 18 for prefigurations. 19gai, "Nausicaa e lo straniero," 146, and Consoloni, "Le donne di Troia: fondamenta della città in pace," 67-69.18 Cf.All the other scenes are similar to these; they are variations on a theme.20Among the panels of the first higher band, we perhaps see Helen appearing in front of Menelaus -an educated guess.Helen would be among the victims, among the women and the prisoners of war. 21udging by their gestures, this is probably the depiction of the first attempt at reconciliation between husband and wife.There is also a fallen warrior.It could be Deiphobus, as a paradigm or metonymy of the Trojan defenders: the symbol of the last, vain defense. 22But he could also stand as a just victim of the revenge of the Achaeans and Menelaus.A symbolic function that is useful to everyone. 23But their names do not matter; identifications are helpful for the story but not essential.These images are valid for the entire city, these are necessarily unidentified images of the collective massacre and horror.As we well know, this is the war code of Agamemnon, the Achaeans' commander-in-chief (Hom., Il. 6.57-60): τῶν μή τις ὑπεκϕύγοι αἰπὺν ὄλεθρον χεῖράς θ᾽ ἡμετέρας, μηδ᾽ ὅν τινα γαστέρι μήτηρ κοῦρον ἐόντα ϕέροι, μηδ᾽ ὃς ϕύγοι, ἀλλ᾽ ἅμα πάντες ᾽Ιλίου ἐξαπολοίατ᾽ ἀκήδεστοι καὶ ἄϕαντοι.
Of them let not one escape sheer destruction and our hands, not even the boy whom his mother carries in her womb; let not even him escape, but let all perish together from Ilios, unmourned and unseen.24When the story is a persis, then one can observe the impotence of the women and the mothers whose children are being massacred in their arms, in front of their eyes; there is desperation and blood, and slavery.It is the time of the doulion emar (see Figure 1).
Why these images?Why does the artist choose to depict precisely these scenes, these images, and these motifs to narrate the persis?Such questions arise almost automatically.Even if these images were made for the public of the Hellenes, the context cannot be festive.It may be impressive, but it is not celebratory.There is nothing heroic about raping a woman; there is nothing great about killing a child, about massacring children without mercy before the eyes of their mothers.This cannot be the celebration of the winners.Why, then, do the Greeks of Homer's time represent and want to see the slaugh ter of infants, something that Euripides will call an ignominy, a shame for Hellas? 25 The vase is certainly not a heroic celebration of victory over enemies.There is no sign of triumph.After the spectacular scene of the horse, we see the Achaeans immediately below: not even a single duel between heroes can be seen, and this is impressive since they are so frequent in many later representations of ceramics.The duel with the two warriors in arms facing each other becomes one of the most popular epic and iconographic themes.The structure is the same as that of the duel, but the variation is problematic, creating embarrassing and certainly terrible results.With the strength of their bodies, with the violence of their gestures, with the great weapons in the foreground, the Achaean heroes face the weakest, the helpless, in a literal sense.Women and children cannot be the protagonists of a duel.This is a massacre, but there exists a more precise term: it is genocide because the goal is the death of those who could become the future of the city. 26So, if heroic values reside in face-to-face fighting against an equally strong opponent, then here we have the complete opposite. 27Narrating the persis, then, is precisely narrating the violence.When the massacre of innocents becomes the dominant motif, the one that occupies the whole narrative, the one that is put in greatest prominence in the broader space of the scene of the pithos, then there can be no misunderstandings, no ambiguities.The artist's goal, the desired effect, is in what we see with our eyes.The tale of Ilioupersis is the testimony of the true nature of war, not of the memorable actions of heroes.Their glory is cursed, as we well know.Telling the persis shows the desperation in the eyes of women, their gestures, the tremendous emotions, the words, and the cries of their voices. 28e can see in these images the end of Troy through the eyes of Priamus, Hecabe, and Andromache: before our eyes, we see death, devastation, fire, pain, and blood.The representations, images, and songs become collective consciousness, essential because of this effect.
There are at least two perspectives.It is good to show everything: works of art have the necessary detachment and enargeia.This is the goal of the artist of this vase.We must have the courage to show the tragedy on stage before the people.As we know, this is also the aim and effect of Demodocus' song.

2 1
Hom., Il. 18.490-508.See Edwards, The Iliad: A Commentary, 213: "The blessings of ordered communal life are represented by weddings, which unite different families and bring festivities for all, and the peaceful settlement of a dispute over a man's death by a city's judicial institutions."For the Homeric principle of human civilization see Ugo Foscolo, Dei Sepolcri, 119-21: "Dal dì che nozze e tribunali ed are / Diero alle umane belve esser pietose / Di sé stesse e d'altrui"