The Anti-Hero

One thing that caught my interest while I was reading Books 2 and 3 of the Iliad for class this week was the introduction of the Anti-Hero. While reading and analyzing Homeric Epics (or any epics for that matter) we almost always discuss the question, "what makes a hero?". The majority of soldiers in the armies (Greek or Trojan) are not heroes in the epic sense of the word. Not to say they are not brave and well-trained, they are just ordinary people as opposed to "heroes" like Achilles or Odysseus. There must be, however, a way of distinguishing not only a hero from everyone else but an anti-hero from everyone else as well.

I noticed that each side, Greek and Trojan, has an anti-hero that is mentioned in Books 2 and 3. For the Greeks this person is Thersites. Homer describes this man as "a blathering fool and a rabble rouser" (2.232-231) and a man who constantly insults the heroic leaders of the Grecian army in a crazy attempt to get the rest of the army to laugh at them. Even his appearance is so opposite that of the great Homeric heroes, "he was also the ugliest soldier at the siege of Troy, bowlegged, walked with a limp, his shoulders slumped over his caved in-chest, and up top scraggly fuzz sprouted on his pointy head" (2.236-239). Everyone dislikes him including Achilles, Odysseus, and the other men. This is obvious when Odysseus strikes him over the head for being a coward and insulting Agamemnon and the entire Greek army laughs at him.

On the other side of the battlefield the man who appears to be an anti-hero (at least in Book 3) is Paris. Paris is not as great an anti-hero as Thersites is for the Greeks though. It becomes clear from the moment the audience first is introduced to him that he is a coward. He stands in front of the Trojan army flaunting himself until he notices Menelaus about to come attack him for stealing Helen. Paris, "turned milky when he saw him coming on, and he faded back into the Trojan troops with cheeks...pale"  (3.37-39). In addition, the Trojan army does not seem very fond of Paris. They seem to see him as a "womanizing pretty boy" (3.45). They would be more than happy to turn him over to the Greeks when he flees to go sleep with Helen after his duel with Menelaus.

Although Paris and Thersites are two very different kinds of Anti-Heroes they are both non-heroes at this point and still worse than the average Greek or Trojan soldier. Something about their behavior makes them unlikable to their comrades and this very explicit dislike suggests the true qualities that are valued in the society of the time period.