Phoenix’s Story of How He Was Kicked Out of the House Essay Example
Phoenix’s Story of How He Was Kicked Out of the House Essay Example

Phoenix’s Story of How He Was Kicked Out of the House Essay Example

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  • Pages: 7 (1818 words)
  • Published: June 11, 2022
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He recounts the story of his life in an open way in the context of trying to persuade Achilles to return to fight for the Achaians. Phoenix is telling Achilles this story in his tent, after he, Odysseus, and Aias, are chosen by Agamemnon to offer Achilles an abundance of gifts in return for him coming back to fight with the Achaians. All four find Achilles next to his great friend Patroklos. Achilles immediately repels any notion of coming back to the battlelines when Odysseus tells him what Agammemnon has to offer. He says that instead he would prefer to stay in Phthia, which is is his homeland, and forsake the potential of glory in what would be a short life, recalling what his mother Thetis had foreshadowed his two possible fates to be.

Achilles offers Pheonix, who helped

...

raise him, to leave with him back to Pthia after staying with him in his tent overnight. At this point, Phoenix tries to convince Achilles to fight by telling two long, emotionally-ridden stories. This is where Phonix tells the first story (shown above), where his mother wanted his father to stop having a mistress, so she pled for a young Phoenix to sleep with the mistress in order to make her stop loving older men. According to the story, Phoenix agreed to sleep with the mistress, but his father reacts furiously to it, and even though Phoenix contemplates killing his father, the immortals tell him not to since his entire life would be in ruins since he would have committed patricide.

What is interesting about the excerpt is that it is not immediately clear how this story o

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incest and subsequent disownment enhances Phonix’s general argument in favor of Achilles returning to battle. One asks how such a passage is relevant, and what purpose it serves in a scene otherwise about Phoenix trying to convince Achilleus to return to Achaian battle lines. It is important to note, however, that the excerpt shown above only covers the story of how Phoenix was banished from his household. The aforementioned plot, however, set the stage for Phonoix to continue the story with some more critical information: notably, explaining where he ended up. How he continues the story is important, as it functions to establish the basis of his relationship with Achilleus. In short, Phoenix was forced to flee his house and country. Thus, Phoenix ran away until he came to household of Achilleus’ father, Peleus. Peleus took him in out of the goodness of his heart and treated him as one of his own. In this way, Phoenix became a mentor of sorts to the younger Achilleus, who almost became like his own adopted son.

This long story about his own origins not only serves persuasive purposes (such as evoking pity) but also as a practical way to segue into linking himself to Achilleus - the fact that he raised him being an important argumentative tactic. By emphasizing familial bonds and his role as an elder and authority who raised him, Achilleus might also be less inclined to disregard his will. In the Iliad, it is the elders whose counsel are viewed as valuable - most two most prominent examples of these elders being Priam on the Trojan side and Nestor on the Achaian one. Additionally, the

connection between individuals’ pasts is an effective persuasion strategy. Phoenix hopes to convince Achilles on the basis of their ties. Attends at supplication or changing wills most often fail in the Iliad (as it will in this case). That being said, ancestry does often prove to be an adhesive between individuals seldom matched in strength. Familial bonds are strong and important in the Iliad. For instance, in book 6, Diomedes stops trying to kill Glaukos in battle once he learns of his ancestry, notably, his father being great friends with his grandfather, the hero Bellerophontes. Through much storytelling of each other’s genealogy and the story of Bellerophontes, they “exchanged the promise of friendship” - and both “avoid each other’s spears”, a rare case in the Iliad.

The story Phoenix recounts of incest and his subsequent banishment also serves an important persuasive role, which is one of guilting Achilleus and making him feel pity for Phoenix. Phoenix implies that mistreating someone who went through all of this suffering throughout his life is unjust. The purpose of telling this long, personal story is also in order to put into perspective Achilleus’ loss of honor, supposed suffering and ensuing anger. Additionally, Phoenix implies that it would be ungrateful for Achilles to go against his will after going through the hassle of raising him. He tries to convince Achilles to return to battle from a perspective of pity, or helping those very close to him. Directly Phoinoix recounts the story, h e asks “how shall I, dear child, be left in this place behind you all alone?” He reminds Achilleus how, when Peleus sent Achillieus, as a child, from Phthia

to Agamemnon, they were together.

“Therefore apart from you, dear child, I would not be willing to be left behind, not were the god in person to promise he would scale away my old age and make me a young man'. After Phoinoix recounts the story of himself fleeing across the Hellas and going to Phthia, Peleus’ house, and becoming a lord and a rich man, he tells Achellius that he 'made you all that you are now, and loved you out of my heart', and recounts how he would always nourish him well and provide feasts. Phonoix talks about the 'troublesomeness' of Achilleus’ 'childhood'. To Achilleus, he says that he has 'suffered much through you, and have had much trouble'. Since the Gods would not grant Phonoix his own child, Achilleus was made his own child, “so that some day you might keep hard affliction from me”. By recounting this story, Phoenix is trying to elicit the sympathy of Achilleus, whom he is addressing. This use of pathos through the extensive description of this stage of this personal life is intended to show Achilles the fact that he has suffered much in his life, both on Achilleus’ behalf and without.

It is written that Phoinix speaks these words of the story in a “stormburst of tears”, which sets the stage for the emotional nature of his overall plea for Achilleus to return to battle. He establishes the fact of the suffering he has endured in order to insinuate that it would be cruel for someone who he has taken care of for so long in his life, Achilles, to abandon his will. Similarly, by emphasizing the

struggle he has endured in his private life, he shows what he has gone through in order to persuade him to be sympathetic towards his cause. However, the pity he wishes Achilleus to feel is not limited to Phonoix himself, though there is a more personal element in that relationship. He is “fearing for the ships of the Achaians”; it is also written, and urges him to have pity for his fellow Achaians, as Odysseus already argued unsuccessfully; “unwilling to drive the obliterating fire from the fast ships”

Typically, emotional appeals fail in the Iliad. Pity seldom motivates action in the Iliad. Various characters throughout the Iliad use storytelling in the context of supplication in order to persuade someone to show mercy. One example is the charioteer Adrestus in chapter 6 who begs for his life to be spared. He relies on an appeal to pity that falls flat after Agamemnon convinces Menelaos to kill him instead of taking a ransom. The same occurs with the Trojan Dolon in book 10, who supplicates for his life to be spared to no avail. In both cases, they plead for their lives in a way that is intended to be sympathetic. One of the best examples of storytelling within the context of eliciting pity for the purpose of persuasion is found in Book 6. At the Skaian gates, Andromache, the wife of Hektor, weeps and relies extensively on a pity-inducing use of storytelling in order to beg Hektor not to return to battle where he is fated to die and she become a slave for the Achaians. She recounts the story of how the rest of her family

members died, mostly at the hands of Achilleus, and accuses Hektor of having no pity for his soon-to-be widowed wife and his soon-to-be orphaned son. Concerned more with appearing as a coward and winning glory, the Greek notion of kleos in this warrior culture prevails once again, and he returns to battle.

It seems to me that most instances of storytelling in the Iliad are used for the purpose of persuasion. In the instances where it isn’t used directly within an argument in support of an action, it is used to persuade the person it is addressing of the speaker’s legitimacy or record of glory. Advising, especially from elders such Nestor, is usually is coupled with storytelling of their glory or glorious men they have witnessed (one of many examples is Nestors' long storytelling regarding charioteering in book thirty-three). Oration in the context of storytelling is used in the Iliad as an important tool of convincing and rallying troops; which is why Greek lords often have such strong abilities in that domain (one of many examples is when a commander gives 'abuse' used to spur one into battle; an example of this can be found in book 4 when Agamemnon chides Diomedes for being cowardly for not being in front of the battlefield, and recounts the story of the glory of his father Tydeus in the fight for Thebes in order to argue that he pales in comparison as a warrior). However, the purpose in this instance of storytelling was less typical.

It played a functional role, that is for Phoenix to establish his familial bond with Achilleus and appeal to his loyalty for those close to

him. Apart from that, it was also a brazen attempt to elicit pity from Achillieus. After recounting this story, Phoenix implores achilleus to 'beat down your great anger' and to stop having a 'pitiless heart'. As most other instances of storytelling in context of evoking pity, it was not effective in its desired effect, and it was trounced by other, stronger sentiments - in this case, Achilleus’ arrogance and rage. As a storyteller, Homer typically hopes the reader to be able to sympathize and potentially be persuaded with the storytellers; in this case, the reader sees how Achilleus' rage blinds him to any argument. By presenting the reader with persuasive tales, the reader can pick sides. Homer, however, doesn't choose sides. Like Helen, who weaves her great tapestry of the Trojan War’s stories in Book 3 showing struggles from the perspective of both sides, his only role as an artist is to depict these stories in as a compelling way as possible.

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