Re: Double Transference and The Iliad -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 18:32:27 01/23/08 Wed
Author: Jonathan Dunn
Subject: Re: Double Transference and The Iliad
In reply to: Shannon 's message, "Double Transference and The Iliad" on 21:32:23 01/22/08 Tue

I think there are multiple ways of looking at the Iliad using the wee bit of Girard we have so far read, especially Achilles.

First, Agamemnon only wants Briseis because Achilles has her. That is fairly obvious. Agamemnon tells Achilles in his opening speech that he will "take Briseis in all her beauty, your own prize, so you can learn just how much greater I am than you..." If Achilles did not value and desire the girl, neither would Agamemnon. His main point, I think, is that he can desire whomever he wishes and doesn't need to explain himself.

Further, a common reading of the Iliad is that Achilles' and Agamemnon's struggle is a matter of honor and retribution. Both have a common mediator (the gods and heroes of the past) and both seek the same physical objects, the possession of which reflects that they have attained honor. These physical objects are not desired for their own merits and no one pretends that they are. (Well, this is certainly true for the wealth and plunder; but Briseis is more complicated. Agamemnon never did the deed when he had her with him, either because he wasn't in the mood or because he felt shamed at having taken her. Either way, however, if he had acted out of an actual desire for her, he would certainly have been in the mood. Achilles, on the other hand, at least claims that he thinks of her as a wife.)

Since I am already on the subject, there may also be a desire triangle with Achilles and Patroclus. And there is some serious mimetic action going on with Helen, and not only in Homer but also in Euripides.

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Replies:

And _The Odyssey_. -- j.jackson, 05:43:05 01/24/08 Thu
- Re: And _The Odyssey_. -- Jonathan Dunn, 07:54:29 01/24/08 Thu