Ransom, Revenge, and Heroic Identity in the Iliad [Hardcover]

This book presents a detailed anthropology of compensation in the Iliad, with reference to the wider Homeric society.Wilson examines the nature of compensation--ransom and revenge--in the Iliad, offering a fundamentally new reading of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilleus. She presents a detailed anthropology of compensation in Homer, located in the wider context of agonistic exchange, to demonstrate how the struggle over definitions is a central feature of elite competition for status in the zero-sum and fluid ranking system of Homeric society. Ransom, Revenge and Heroic Identity in the Iliad thus asserts the integral role of compensation in the traditional, cultural and poetic matrix of this foundational epic.Wilson examines the nature of compensation--ransom and revenge--in the Iliad, offering a fundamentally new reading of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilleus. She presents a detailed anthropology of compensation in Homer, located in the wider context of agonistic exchange, to demonstrate how the struggle over definitions is a central feature of elite competition for status in the zero-sum and fluid ranking system of Homeric society. Ransom, Revenge and Heroic Identity in the Iliad thus asserts the integral role of compensation in the traditional, cultural and poetic matrix of this foundational epic.Wilson examines the nature of compensation--ransom and revenge--in the liad, offering a fundamentally new reading of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles. She presents a detailed anthropology of compensation in Homer, located in the wider context of agonistic exchange, to demonstrate how the struggle over definitions is a central feature of elite competition for status in the zero-sum and fluid ranking system of Homeric society. The study thus asserts the integral role of compensation in the traditional, cultural and poetic matrix of this foundational epic.Preface and acknowledgements; Introduction: compensation and heroic identity; 1. Ransom and lC‘