Answer:
Disagree,Despite its position as one of the fundamental documents of western civilization, the Idiad is in many ways almost incomprehensible to the modern western mind. Its incomprehensibility results not only from the passage of time but also from a basic shift in the mythic paradigms by which we interpret warfare. James Aho identifies two basic types of holy war myths: the immanentist-cosmological type and the transcendent-historical type (11). After a brief examination of the present influence of the transcendent-historical war myth on our culture, this paper focuses on the war myth in the Iliad. The thesis of this paper is that the Iliad best matches the immanentist-cosmological war myth.
The purpose of transcendent-historical warfare is to redeem the fallen world by restoring it to a proper relation to a transcendent god. Adherents believe in the possibility of historical advancement as their god establishes his justice (Aho 145-151). Aho traces the roots of the transcendent-historical myth to ancient Hebraism, from which it spread to Christianity (excluding medieval Catholicism) and Islam (Aho 11). According to Robert Jewett and John Lawrence, this attitude had undergone secularization in the west, but the structure of the myth remains intact in Communism, Nazism, and the American monomyth. In America for example, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” represents a stage of civil religion. Despite secularization the mythic structure has remained intact in subsequent wars as we have sought to fight the war to end all wars, to make the world safe for democracy, to overcome the Evil Empire, and to solve a domestic drug problem through Operation Just Cause (Jewett and Lawrence 25-45).
The immanentist-cosmological holy war is similar to the transcendent-historical one in that both seek to preserve νομός — ἄνομός (nomos — anomos, law vs lawless, order vs disorder) in the face of and to reunify the human with the divine. Both also exhibit a relationship between the mythological and operational aspects of war’s symbolism. Thethesis of this paper is that the Iliad best matches the immanentist-cosmological war myth.
The purpose of transcendent-historical warfare is to redeem the fallen world by restoring it to a proper relation to a transcendent god. Adherents believe in the possibility of historical advancement as their god establishes his justice (Aho 145-151). Aho traces the roots of the transcendent-historical myth to ancient Hebraism, from which it spread to Christianity (excluding medieval Catholicism) and Islam (Aho 11). According to Robert Jewett and John Lawrence, this attitude had undergone secularization in the west, but the structure of the myth remains intact in Communism, Nazism, and the American monomyth. In America for example, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” represents a stage of civil religion. Despite secularization the mythic structure has remained intact in subsequent wars as we have sought to fight the war to end all wars, to make the world safe for democracy, to overcome the Evil Empire, and to solve a domestic drug problem through Operation Just Cause (Jewett and Lawrence 25-45).
The immanentist-cosmological holy war is similar to the transcendent-historical one in that both seek to preserve νομός — ἄνομός (nomos — anomos, law vs lawless, order vs disorder) in the face of and to reunify the human with the divine. Both also exhibit a relationship between the mythological and operational aspects of war’s symbolism. The differences in the ways wars are fought in the two mythical systems are interrelated to their divergent views of reality. The immanentist-cosmological myth stresses the presence of the divine in the cosmos, with the result that it differs from the transcendent-historical type in motives for war, attitudes toward war, and approved ways of fighting (Aho 10-12).