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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Allusions
Explanation and Analysis—Heracles:
The Iliad features numerous allusions to the divine hero Heracles. Although Heracles doesn't appear in the poem as a character, he nevertheless serves as a key reference point for the heroes of the Trojan War and the immortals who involve themselves in it. Through this motif, Homer places the poem within the timeline of Ancient Greek myth and reinforces a sense of historical continuity.
Throughout the poem, both mortal and immortal characters frequently look back on earlier times, sharing their own memories as well as more distant stories of a collective past. Occasionally, these recollections involve allusions to Heracles. By making Heracles a motif in the poem, Homer establishes that his life and labors are a core reference point in the Greek world.
Part of the reason why Heracles's name often comes up is that his descendants are fighting in the Trojan War. One of these is "Heracles’ son Tlepolemus," who leads "nine ships of the proud Rhodians out of Rhodes." Unsurprisingly, the identity of his father forms an important part of Tlepolemus's self-understanding. When Tlepolemus confronts Sarpedon in Book 5, he taunts him by saying he doesn't compare with other "fighters sired by Zeus in the generations long before us," contrasting him with "mighty Heracles." Before telling the story of Heracles's sack of Troy, Tlepolemus praises his father: "there was a man, my father, that dauntless, furious spirit, that lionheart." The glory he showers on Heracles and the stories he tells about his accomplishments reinforce the hero's mythical status.
However, mortals with no kinship ties to Heracles also bring him up. In Book 11, for example, when Nestor tells a story from his youth, he mentions that "mighty Heracles" has come against them years before: "he ground our lives out, killing off our best." And when Thetis expresses sorrow over her son's dark fate in Book 18, Achilles reminds her that "[n]ot even Heracles fled his death, for all his power, favorite son as he was to Father Zeus the King." Throughout the poem, the heroes often turn to myths to make sense of their situations, but Homer makes it clear that no hero of the past or present can compare to Heracles.
The immortal characters also make allusions to Heracles. After Diomedes stabs Aphrodite in Book 5, Dione comforts her by running through the many gods who "have had to endure such wounds from mortal men." One of her examples is when Heracles hit Hera "deep in the right breast with a three-barbed shaft, and pain seized her, nothing calmed the pain." Dione continues, recalling the time when even Hades was hurt by "the song of thunder-shielded Zeus." Before ending her speech, she rails against "that breakneck Heracles," whose arrows raked "the gods who hold Olympus."
In fact, it seems like the immortals' involvement in the Trojan War has something to do with Zeus's fatherly attachment to Heracles—and the resentment this sparked among the gods. To justify their participation in the war on the side of the Achaeans, Hera and Athena bitterly bring up Zeus's protection of Heracles. In Book 8, for example, Athena complains that Zeus didn't have "a thought for the many times [she] saved his son Heracles, worked to death by the labors of Eurystheus." Zeus himself is aware of Hera's jealousy of his attachment to Heracles. When he expresses rage at Hera in Book 15, he recalls the time he strung her in midair as punishment for sending Heracles to Cos: "Not even then would the stark grief for Heracles release my breaking heart—my own godlike son."
