We conclude the Iliad today. All right. So remember that the Iliad it's a war of wills. So the epic starts with the battle between Agamenon and Achilles. And um they're trying to impose their will on each other and it leads to disaster for the Greeks because Hector and the Trojans are now about to destroy them.
And the Greeks led by Odysius come to Achilles ship and beg him to return to the battlefield. But Achilles wants Aman to come and apologize and kneel before him which man is not going to do. So Achilles says no. But this leads to um a conundrum because Eggman is going to apologize. The children are going to come destroy the Greeks.
Achilles needs uh Eggman to apologize in order to save face. All right. So the Greeks and Achilles are all very anxious. So what Achilles does is he sends Petroas to get the Greece to come and beg some more. Right.
But Netor understands what Achilles is doing. He refuses to apologize, but he tells Petroas, "Listen, we can't get Achilles to fight, but maybe you can fight for us, and maybe that will save the day now." Protas is very excited, okay? Because he he's went all his life to outshine Achilles because all his life he's been in Achilles shadow, right? But now his problem is how does how does he convince his superior his commander Achilles to go with a plan. Okay.
So, so this leads to a conflict a battle of wills between Metropolis and Achilles. And remember we read the speech last week and I want us to visualize how the battle is being fought. Okay. So this is Petro [clears throat] and this is Aelius. [snorts] And if you if you read the speech, we will discover that this battle is being fought at three levels.
Okay? There is the conscious um emotional level. Okay? Then there is the calculating manipulative and then there is the strategic. Okay.
Planning level. All right. So imagine three different individuals together in Petropolis. The first person is the actor. Okay.
The person who appears before Petroles and cries like a girl, right? Then there's the calculating which is like why am I doing this? I'm doing this because I want Achilles to agree to me to join the battlefield against the Trojans. Okay. And the strategic, okay, the old wise man sitting in the back is like, "Okay, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna convince Achil Achilles to agree.
Then I'm going to join the battlefield and I'm going to win honor." Okay, does it make sense? Okay, the first person just appears before Achilles and does the acting. Second person is the one trying to explain the direction. Okay, the third person is the long-term director. Okay.
So, think of this as the actor, [clears throat] director, and producer. Okay? Or the investor. What is my long-term gain from this? Now, Achilles is the same, right?
Because Petroles cannot understand Achilles mentality. Okay? So, the actor in Achilles is like, "Why are you crying Petroles? This is not our war. The director in Achilles is ha maybe I can trick Petropolis in helping me enter the battlefield.
Right? And the producer is like I want to win glory for myself. Okay? And it's all very subtle, but if you read their dialogue, if you read the debate, you'll recognize that this is all happening at once. But not only that, but if you examine your own life and the decision decision you make, you will recognize that you're doing all three at once.
Okay? Subconsciously. All right? So [clears throat] um Simon Freud would say that this is the um id. Okay.
The id is just the basic desire, right? You want glory. You want sex. You want money. Okay.
There. This is the super ego. Okay. And this is the ego. [clears throat] Okay.
Or the maybe you can think of this as the um conscious subconscious. All right. So, we've known for a long time that we as humans operate at many different levels all at once. And so, we don't really know why we do what we do. Okay?
And so they are having this fight and it's all at a very subconscious level. And what Achilles does is he says something to Petetrois which as I said before it's very weird what he says to Petroles. Ultimately he agrees to um Petroles is going and that's all he has to do. Okay. Then nothing would happen.
Petus goes he faces Hector. He realized Hector is stronger than he is and he retreats. Right? That's what should have happened and that's what Neestor and the Greeks expect to happen. All right?
And then Prous comes and Achilles recognizes that he needs to join a battlefield because Hector is too strong. Okay? That's what's being planned. But what Achilles does is he adds an element to it which changes the dynamic of events. Okay?
which changes how things unfold. Okay, so uh Ivory, can you read this? Once you have whipped the enemy from the fleet, you must come back, Petroculus. Even if Zeus, defending Lord of Hera, lets you seize your glory, you must not burn from for war against these Trojans. Okay, stop.
Okay, this is what's happening. Achilles is implanting into Petetro some new ideas. And these new ideas is, "Oh my god, Petolis, once you enter the battlefield, Zeus, okay, Zeus is going to give you glory." All right, he's getting excited. Pet is hoping to win some glory on the battlefield to prove his worth, to prove at least he's equal to Achilles. But Achilles is saying, "Oh my god, Petroles, it's possible that you could be better than me.
It's possible that Zeus himself anoints you the greatest warrior in the world. It's possible, Petroles, that you win all the glory for yourself." Okay, keep keep on reading. Mad men lusting for battle. Not without me. You will only make Okay, so do not outshine me, Petropolis.
I know all your life you've wanted to be better than me or at least prove you're my equal. But don't do that, man. Okay, I'm warning you. Do not prove you're better than me. Keep on going.
You'll only make my glory that much less. Okay? You [clears throat] must not lo you you must not lost in the flesh and fire of triumph, slaughtering Trojans outright. Drive your troops to Troy. So imagine this, Protasus.
Once you enter the battlefield, everyone's going to love you. You're going to kill Trojans one by one, but don't do that because you will make me look bad. Okay. What if one of the gods who never die comes down from Olympus Heights to intervene in battle? The deadly archer loves his Trojans dearly.
No, you must turn back soon as you bring the light of victory to the ships. Let the rest of them cut themselves to pieces on the plane. Oh, it's a to God, Father Zeus, Athena, and Lord Apollo. Not one of all these Trojans could flee his death. Not one.
No Argive either. But we could stride from the slaughter so we could bring Troy's hallowed crown of towers toppling down around us. You and I alone. Okay. So this little speech, okay, it's almost impossible to see to the naked eye.
But it dooms. Okay? Because what it does, it tells Petroas, Petroles, you have the opportunity to seek eternal glory. You have the opportunity to be better than me. In fact, you're probably better than me.
Okay? And that gives Petropolis hubris, right? And hubris is what's going to get him killed because he will challenge Hector. Okay? Okay.
Nowhere does Achilles in this speech say, "Be aware of Hector." Okay. All he says is, "Hey, Zeus is gonna support you and you'll be better than me." Okay? Now, if Achilles is stronger than Hector, Petroles can be stronger than Hector. All right? [snorts] And why does Achilles do this?
Achilles understands that Petroles, if he's young, he's impetuous, he's jealous. If you give it opportunity, he will see glory for himself and therefore he might get himself killed. And you know what? If he kills himself or he gets himself killed, good for me, Achilles, right? Because now I have the perfect excuse to join the battlefield when win all the glory for myself.
Okay, you understand? And this is impossible to see. No one, the Greeks don't see this. The gods can't see this, but Tro himself can't see this. And Achilles himself doesn't know he's doing this.
You understand? Okay. So, the question for us then is how does this happen? How are we able to function at three different levels and do things that are invisible to ourselves and to others? All right.
How is it that we make decisions? How is it that we manipulate other people as well ourselves? Okay, does that make sense? That's a question before us today. All right, so let's look at the standard understanding of psychology.
Okay, so remember what happens is this. We have experiences and then we turn this experience into memories and memories are really emotions. Okay. And then these emotions are organized in a way that creates a identity. All right?
And different memories [clears throat] can create different identities. And together we create the world view which is basically our personality or how we perceive the world. And our personality determines uh our preferences, what we like, how we how we make decisions and how we perceive the future. Okay. All right.
So this is a standard model of psychology which you should you should have learned in psychology class, right? All right. There's certain issues with this. The first issue is how do you filter experiences? We can have all the same experiences but the way we perceive the experiences are different which leads to different memories.
Okay. So what is the mechanism that allows for filtering? Okay. Second problem is that we know that memories are malible and flexible. They're always changing.
Okay, that's weird. All right, so it's possible over the course of your lifetime you go back to the same event, but each time you perceive it differently, which causes different emotional reaction in you. All right. So why is that the case? So for example, maybe you know when you were young, your dad hit you by accident.
Okay? And at first you really hurt and you perceived it as your dad doesn't love you. But maybe then when you get older and you have your own child, you hit your child accidentally and then you feel sympathy for your father. Okay? Do you understand?
So the memory changes according to your own development. So why does that happen? Okay. The third thing is that you have imagination. So we know from memories you can expand them outwards and create new worlds and universes.
That's how we create novels. That's how you write essays. Okay? But how do you do that? Right?
Cuz your material is limited. But the imagination is unlimited. All right? So there are clearly some issues with the standard model of consciousness. All right.
Now this semester we've learned a new model of conscious consciousness. So let's take that model and apply it to the Ilia and explain why they behave the way they do. All right. Okay. So the model that we use is from Kant and Kant says that [snorts] rather being a passive observer of the world meaning that we just absorb experiences and children memories we are active participants in reality meaning that we create reality.
Okay. [snorts] And so through space and time, okay, [snorts] which can be influenced by language and media, okay? Um, we turn nana the things into themselves, okay? But the things themselves are just vibrations energy. Okay?
Into the phenomena things to us. Okay? Now there are certain problems with this model. The first problem of course is um where does our space and time come from? Okay, we know that we create space and time in our brains but why do our brains do that and what's the mechanism in our brain that does that?
Okay, number two is [clears throat] what is the na right? We can't see it but what is it? The third thing of course is if this is all subjective meaning that we all create our own reality how do we know we're creating creating the same reality okay [snorts] and so to solve this problem hey proposes this okay is the gist spirit um and the gist is what gives us space and time all Right? So as we are interacting with the nana, the nana itself re responds to us. Okay?
Does it make sense? And that's how we can all see the same thing because it's the same force that we're acting on. Okay? So this is a bit confusing. So so let's let's look at what what the Greeks say.
Okay. [snorts] [cough and clears throat] So um the Greeks have a metaphor for this. Okay. The metaphor is this. Imagine infinite number of people.
Okay. And the consciousness extends infinitely. Okay. So different dimensions, different waves. All right.
So on one level you are just talking to yourself. But another level you're talking to another person. On another level you're talking to more people. Okay. This goes on and on infinitely.
All right. Now remember that as you engage the guys, the guys talks back to you. Okay. What this means is that think of the internet where um whatever you produce is stored online but you also have some memory in on your own hardware. Okay.
All right. So this creates memories. Okay. So your memories is now part of the gist. And as a result, the guys is constantly evolving as you evolve as well.
All right? So it's like the internet. It's dynamic. It's not set. As you engage the internet, the internet changes.
Okay? And so what happens is that um these memories are stored in the guys. Some are permanent because these memories are extremely um visual or very powerful. Okay. And that gives rise to new consciousness like gods.
Okay. And there are higher gods. All right. So these are maybe new gods. [clears throat] [snorts] But then you have the old gods.
All right? And so the higher you go, there are different um consciousness or different um spirits. So the new gods are gods like Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite. They actually interfere in human events. Okay.
The old gods are older gods that have been there since the beginning of time. And there are things like um honor, um [clears throat] uh justice, fate, destiny. Okay? And they're stronger than the new gods. Okay?
But then you go up higher and you have God itself. All right? And how how can we understand God? We understand God as the immutable and unwritten laws of the universe. Okay, we don't know what they are, but they're like gravity.
They're going to be there to structure the universe. And so, think of them as like good and truth, [snorts] okay? And beauty. All right? So, there are different levels to this, right?
Why? Because as we engage the universe, the universe evolves and we implant our memories into the universe. So even though we die, our memories are still there and they're still living. We can access them at any time. Okay.
So what is interesting about this is that the infinity of the universe is also [clears throat] captured in us. Okay, we are a hologram of the universe, right? So the internet is vast, right? But on our computers, we have a hologram, a replica of the entire internet. All right?
Because we connected to it all the time. We engage in it all the time. So in other words, whatever we do here, okay, impacts the entire universe. Whatever we do here will have uh rep reparations throughout the entire universe, throughout all of humanity. One good act by yourself can impact the entire universe itself because universe is conscious.
Okay. Now we understand why Petetroas and Achilles are able to do what they do. Because if this is the universe, if this is our consciousness, then there are different spirits working within us. You understand? And so we are constantly able to um sorry let me do [snorts] this to operate at different dimensions.
Okay. We're able to see far ahead. We're able to uh focus on on right now we're able to um be strategic and occupy different people. Okay. We are literally a universe onto ourselves.
Does that make sense? Okay. All right. So, you're like, "Okay, uh, I don't think this makes sense." Well, if you read the Iliad, okay, Homer actually reveals to you how this works. Okay, that's what poetry is.
Poetry is a snapshot of this universe in motion. All right. So, what we're going to do is we're going to read together the shield of Achilles. All right. So, remember Petroles is dead, but Petroles took Achilles armor to the battlefield.
So, Achilles has no armor. So, he talks to his mother Thetus. And Thetus goes talk to Heesus, the great armorer of the gods in up in Mount Olympus. And m and physicists is going to design a shield for Achilles that will make him invincible. And the shield has living images.
It's like a movie. Okay? It's not a picture. It's a movie where the images are constantly appearing over and over. All right.
So I I this this is only a part of the skew. Okay. Can you read this? And he forged a fellow field. Broadri plow land tilted tilled forward the third time and across a cruise of plow men wheeled their teams driving them up and back and soon as they'd reach the end straight.
Okay, so really important guys. Okay, he's using a lot of verbs, right? Which says that this thing is in motion, right? You can see how they're moving. Um teal, sorry, teal.
Teal for the third time. Okay. So you can imagine the first and second time crews of plowman wheel their teams uh driving them. Okay. Moving.
Okay. Okay. Do you understand? It's all motion. It's all living.
This is what our memories are. Our memories are constantly images in motion, changing, reacting. Okay. Imagining. Okay.
Keep on going. A man would run up quickly and hand them a cup of honeyed mellow wine as the crews would turn back down along the furrows, pressing again to reach the end of the deep fow field and the earth turned black behind them like earth churning. I can't really read uh uh churning solid gold as it was. That was the wonder of Hephis' work. Wait, keep on going.
And he forged a king's estate where harvesters labored, reaping the ripe grain, swinging their witted sky. Some stalks fell in line with the reapers, row on row, and others to sheep binders skirted round with ropes. Three binders standing over the sheavs. Behind them, boys gathering up the cutswaffs, filling their arms, supplying grain to the binders, endless bundles. And there in the midst the king stepped her in hand at the at the head of the reaping rose stood tall in silence rejoicing in his heart.
And off to the side beneath a spreading oak the heralds were setting out the harvest feast. They were dressing a great ox they had slaughtered while attendant women poured out barley generous glistening handful strewn for the reaper's midday meal. Okay. So we said that this shield of Achilles is actually the soul of Achilles. Okay.
what his consciousness is, what is inside his what is inside him. And what this is ultimately is a universe onto itself, right? You have lots of different characters, right? The king, um the woman, okay, just lots and lots of people, okay? It's a universe onto itself.
And we know the soul is composed of memories. What this is telling us is that these memories don't come from our experiences. These memories comes from partner experiences but also comes from the universe itself. Okay, these experiences, these memories only allow us to access the universe in dialogue with it. And as a result, we're able to absorb memories from elsewhere.
Another way to understand this is that we are constantly living and dying. Okay, when we die, all we're doing is really shedding our own bodies and assuming new bodies. But our memories stay with us. Our experiences stay with us. The poetry in us stays with us and it's constantly being rewritten.
Okay? And that's where our power comes from. Our power, our will to live, our will to fight comes from the fact that we are conscious beings constantly in dialogue with the universe. That that is both infinite and internal. Okay?
And this is what this poetry represents. Right? Does it make sense to you guys? All right. So, this is only a snapshot, but you know, he goes on and on which tells us that we are extremely complex, sensitive and multifaceted beings.
We are the universe ourselves. Okay? Our consciousness is the universe. The universe is our consciousness. It's all interconnected.
All right? Does that make sense to you guys? Okay? All right. So this is an idea we'll come back to later when we read the other great books.
Okay. All right. But um something something that I want to discuss is this. All right. So Achilles jumps [snorts] in the battlefield and he he kills Hector.
All right. And at this point Achilles should be happy because he's killed the great Hector which proves that Achilles is the greatest warrior in the world. He's now secured eternal fame. But then he does something really weird. He decides to mutilate Hector's body.
He ties Hector's body to his chariot and runs um goes around the city of Troy and that causes Pry and Hecuba, the parents of Hector to go insane. Okay, they're screaming at this devil. And the Greeks, okay, Odysius are disgusted because for them, Hector is a great warrior. You respect a great warrior. You do not humiliate mutilate a great war like that.
Okay. Hector fought well on the battlefield. He never cheated. He was just fierce and he was great. So he was respected among everyone.
Okay. Also when Achilles jumped back from the battlefield, Hector didn't run away. Hector stood his ground and died. Right? Everyone else ran back in the state of Troy.
But Hector is like, "No, I must take responsibility for this defeat." So he stands um outside the gates of Troy. Everyone's turning for Hector, come back you idiot. A kill is going to kill you. And Hector's like, no, I must face the consequence of my action. Which is the greatest act of bravery in the Iliad, right?
Cuz he knows he knows he's going to die. So everyone's everyone's looking at this and saying this is really terrible. Okay, so what's happened is Achilles has gone insane. That's the only explanation for it. And the Greeks try to comfort Achilles by holding this funeral games for Petetro, right?
But that doesn't really solve the problem. And now Achilles is in depre. He's depressed basically. He can't sleep. He can't eat.
He can't even cry for his friend. He's so overburdened by guilt. Okay. So that is the issue where you are connected with the universe. Okay.
The universe is conscious. You are the universe itself. So when you make when you do evil, okay, and he knows, he he in his heart knows he's the one who got Petroles killed. He manipulated Petetrois into his death. Then you know because the universe knows and this haunts you for the rest of your life.
Okay? You cannot escape it. So when you do evil, God doesn't have to punish you because you punish yourself with a memory of it. Okay? Your soul burns with regret and despair and guilt and shame.
Hey, does that make sense? All right. So now you have this other conflict emerging in the Iliad, which is okay, Achilles is about to go insane. He can't sleep, but he doesn't know what he did wrong. He cannot admit that what he did because he doesn't understand himself.
Okay. So what happens now now is interesting because if you read the Iliad the gods decide that they have this great meeting okay and decide that you know what we're going to broker a piece between Pry and Achilles. Hermes comes and takes Pry into the Greek camp and then Pry and Achilles meet. Okay. And and and this comes this is the ending of the Iliad.
But then the question then is how does that happen? Okay. Is this being metaphorical or is it being literal? My argument to you to is that it is literal. Okay.
So, let's explain how this works. All right. So, [clears throat] this is Achilles. This is Pry. Okay.
They hate each other. They could not be further apart. Okay. [snorts] But then you have everyone else. If you go back to this model, okay, [snorts] at some point, okay, Achilles and Pry their thoughts will converge together.
Okay, but this is the universe. So there are other consciousness within this universe and they see the conflict in here and they will now engage in a dialogue to resolve the differences between prime Achilles. Okay. And these are called the gods, right? Okay.
Doesn't make sense. The universe is full of these different memories that are constantly living and therefore they can engage in debate, dialogue and imagination. Okay. And so what they say is, "Hey, Prime and Achilles, you need to come to agreement." And then subconsciously Achilles knows, okay, you know what? Prime's going to come and talk to me.
And Prime's like, I need to go and see Achilles. Okay. And now what happens is the universe has come to an agreement. And so therefore, the universe now will um create a reality around this agreement. Okay?
Okay, does that make sense? So, what this means is a a prime can now walk directly from Troy to the Greek camp. And what the Greeks will do is walk away and pretend they didn't see Prime. Does that make sense, guys? Because the universe has instructed them, Prime and Achilles must meet.
Therefore, you must make it possible for them to meet. So then, you know, the guard is sitting around. Prime's walking this way. He's like, hm, I should turn that way. And then prime walks walks past him.
Does it make sense guys? Okay. Because we are again in constant dialogue with the universe. The universe has a plan. Then we must obey this plan.
Okay? And in China we call this what? The mandate of heaven. Right? The mandate of heaven.
It is the will of the gods that prime and Achilles must meet and reconcile their differences so that the universe can continue on. Okay? Otherwise, the universe must stop at this point because Achilles is not going to give up Hector's body. Prime will only suffer because of this. Okay?
Do you understand? And this is how the universe works. It's unbelievable. You think about it. Okay?
But you think about it really hard, it makes a lot of sense. Why do events happen the way they do when in China we say men of heaven because it is God's will. Right? Okay. How can we explain in China Maong who's this peasant?
He was able to win this war and establish people's republic of China. Not only that, but during this war he never got injured once. How do you explain that? Okay. There's all these things that happened in in history and these these people come out of nowhere and like wait a minute where did this guy come from?
How's he able to do what he does? The mandate of heaven guys. Okay. There is a consciousness universe. There's a plan.
There's an intention, a design to it and we all participate in its design. Okay. Right. The conflict now is there's a great injustice in the world where Achilles refuses to return Hector's body to prior and so everyone agrees both the Greeks and solders agree we are going to pretend [clears throat] that we don't see them meeting okay does that make sense you guys do you guys understand what what's happening all right okay so now we come to what is recognized as the greatest sorry as the greatest ending in all of literature. Okay, this is the final battle between Pryime and Achilles.
This is the greatest battle in human history, right? This these are two people who hate each other. Prime saw Achilles murder Hector, his beloved son. But not only that, but Prime also witnessed Achilles killed many many of his sons. Okay?
And for Achilles, prime is the great enemy. The person who stole uh Helen from the Greeks, the person who start this war. So now they're going to meet and this is the greatest battle in the Iliad. Okay. So um I can you read please.
The majestic king of Troy slipped past the rest and kneeling down beside Achilles claps clasped his knees and kissed his hands. Their terrible mankilling hands that has slaughtered primes as many sons in battle. Okay. So in the contrast, right, Achilles slaughtered many of Prime's sons in battle. Okay.
And what the Majestic King of Troy does is he kneels, kisses his hands. Okay? He kneels before Achilles. Pry is out behind Achilles. Prime could just take a dag and stab Achilles in the neck and kill Achilles.
He doesn't do that. Instead, he kneels before Achilles and kisses the hand, the very hand who killed all of his sons. All right, keep on going. Awesome as when the grip of madness seizes one who murders a man in his own fatherland and flees abroad to foreign shores to a wealthy noble host, and a sense of marvel runs through all who see him. So, Achilles marveled, beholding majestic Pry.
His men marveled too, trading startled glances. But Pryam prayed his heart out out to Achilles. And what's the effect? Awesome. Okay.
Okay. Achilles, the great warrior who bows to no one. He is stunned by this. He is defeated by this. He is a by the majesty of Pria.
Okay. Greatness does not come from defeating your enemies. It comes from forgiving your enemies. Right? This is an act.
Okay? This one act of kissing the hands of the man who killed all his sons. It's going to change the universe forever. Okay? One action is going to change the entire universe and bring and bring peace and reconciliation to the world.
All right. Um, and not only is um Achilles stunned, but so are everyone around him. Okay, his men marvel too. Okay, so this is reverberating across the universe where you're far away but like you feel as though an earthquake has happened. You feel as though something magical has happened and it changes you for the better.
Okay. So remember what's happened is what has happened when a group of men ceases one who murders a man in his own father land and flees or brought to foreign shore. So a wealthy noble holes and a sense of moral runs for all who see him. Okay. So what so there are people who do great murder.
Okay. And so they have to run away. Now when they run away the crime follows them. They become slaves in the new land. But some people are able to become successful in that place.
Okay? they're able to change their fate. So what this is saying is because Pry has the strength and the courage to forgive his great enemy. He's changing his fate. He's changing the fate of the world around him.
Okay? And the idea here is as above so below. Right? And this is a great secret of the universe. What we do today, what we do at this moment [snorts] can change the course of history because if what we do is memorable, it will implant itself throughout the universe and be there for all future generations.
All right? And and that's what's happening. Okay? So what Homer is doing is he is drawing from the universe this memory and showing it to us. That's what the Iliad is.
Okay. Elilad is a depiction of the universe in motion. A universe of consciousness. All right. Okay.
Keep on reading. Uh I Ivory. Remember your own father, great godlike, as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age. No doubt the countrymen around him plague him now with no one there to defend him. Beat away disaster.
No one. But at least he hears you're still alive and his old heart rejoices. Hopes rising day by day to see his beloved son come sailing home from Troy. But I, dear God, my life so cursed by fate. I fathered hero sons in the wild wide realm of Troy.
And now not a single one is left. I tell you. 50 sons I had when the sons of Aia came. 19 born to me from a single mother's womb and arrest by other women in the palace. Many most of them violent ours errors cut the knees from under but one one was left me to guard my walls my people the one you killed the other day defending his fatherland my Hector it's all for him I've come to the ships now to win him back from you I bring a priceless ransom rever the gods Achilles pity me in my own right remember [snorts] your own father I deserve more pity okay so prime is the greatest king in the world why because he's been the humble himself before Achilles, right?
Remember Agam Manon? This this this um struggle started because Agame Manon refuses to be humble. He refused to admit that Achilles is right. He re refuses to um apologize to Achilles. Okay.
Okay. But Pryam is the opposite of Mega Man. Okay. He's begging for Achilles forgiveness even though he hates Achilles. And why does he do this?
What gives him the power to ask for forgiveness to beg Achilles? The answer is his love for Hector. Right? I He's doing this because he wants Hector's body back. All right?
So, what animates what unifies this car universe is love. Love is God, guys. To really access this universe, to really know this universe, you must love. Okay, love makes you invincible. And so Pry has the courage to come to Achilles, but he also has has the courage to beg Achilles to forgive Achilles.
All right. And what Prime says is remember your father Achilles, right? Okay. As I love Hector, you also love your father. And how and and how does he know that?
Because we're all connected by the universe. Okay. He's able to imagine the soul of Achilles. He knows that how Achilles loves his father, okay? As much as he loves Hector.
So this is what allows them to come together. All right. The love of Hector makes prime imagine the love of Achilles for his father. Right? And these are the two forces.
Love activates the imagination. [snorts] [clears throat] Okay. So love is the unifying force of universe. It brings us all together. The imagination is the animating force of universe.
It makes the universe alive. Okay. And that is our purpose in this world to love each other and then to activate our imagination to create the re the reality that that that we live in. Okay. A world where the pillar is love is perfect and it's just all right.
Keep on reading. Um Ivory, I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before. I put to lips the hands of the man who killed myself. Okay, so what he's saying is that this is a unique moment in history. No one has done this before, especially a king.
A king submits himself before the murderer of his beloved son. All right? And because it is unique because it is a perfect distillation of a father's love for um his son. This will be remembered forever. Okay?
This will become now part of the universe. And how? Because Homer is able to access it. Okay, this might have happened somewhere. He doesn't know where.
And this but this hap and this might have happened between two people. He doesn't know who. Okay, but he knows this happened. He's able to draw on this to create the Ilia. Do you understand?
The universe are the living memories of great deeds. And Homer is able to create this by accessing this because they're all within us if we allow it to uh be in us. Okay, keep on going. Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire to grieve for for his own father. Okay, so you see how how this works.
When you imagine things, you see the truth for what it is. Okay, keep on going. Taking the old man's hand, he g he gently moved him back. And overpowered by memory, both men gave way to grief. Prime wept freely for man killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles's feet as Achilles whipped himself.
Now for his father, now for Petraulus once again, and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house. Then when brilliant Achilles had had his feel of tears and longing for it has left his mind and body. Okay. So, okay. So what's happened is that Pryam has defeated Achilles.
Okay, remember Achilles's great problem is he can't cry. He can't he doesn't know what he did wrong. He doesn't know how to express his guilt and and shame. Okay. But now that Prime has forgiven him, Prime has actually liberated Achilles.
Okay. Before Achilles, his soul was trapped in evil. And now by forgiving [music] Achilles, Prime has let his soul loose to reconnect the universe and therefore to return to its poetic self. Okay, keep on going. [sighs] Then uh he rose from his seat, raised the old man by the hand, and filled with pity now for his gray head and gray beard, he spoke out wing words, flying straight to the heart.
Poor man, how much you've borne. [snorts] Pain to break the spirit. What daring brought you down to the ships all alone to face the glance of the man who killed your sons. So many fine, brave boys. You have a heart of iron.
Come, please sit down on this chair here. Okay. And so now the And now this is a resolution. Okay. This is the epiphany of Achilles.
He recognizes his guilt. And now because Prime is able to forgive him, he's able to forgive himself. And so he's become wiser, more gentle, more poetic, more generous. All right? And this is what life is.
This is what it means to be human. All right? To to do battle with our own heart. Okay? So um let me talk um about what this all means like who are we why are we here where are we going so in the Buddhist and the Hindu tradition the idea is that we are constantly uh reincarnating okay and this world that we live in it's one of pain it's one one of suffering but it's one that gives us insight.
It's one that trains us to be wise. It's one that allows us to have the memories to create a more divine universe. Okay? Um and we do that because we we incarnate and we assume different roles, right? So maybe in this life we are the murderer, then next life we are the murderer.
Okay? Maybe in this life we're a human. next life we are a uh plant then the next life is an animal but it goes on in infinitely until we've achieved wisdom okay so in other words the point of this life is to develop empathy okay because empathy leads to wisdom and enlightenment right But the great thing about a great book is it's a universe onto itself and therefore you can actually speed up the process of wisdom enlightenment because by reading the Iliad you can assume different lives. You can have different lives all at once. Okay, does that make sense?
So what makes Iliad so powerful is that you're constantly switching perspectives. Once today you're Eggman, then you're Achilles, then you're Hector. Okay. And what's amazing is that he Homer is a Greek and he's speaking for the Greeks. But it ends from the perspective of the Trojans.
Okay. It ends with Pry getting back Hector's body, taking it back to Troy and everyone in Troy coming to see the body and crying. Okay. Especially uh the wife of Hector Atrom Mackey. Okay.
So uh so this is this this is the ending. Okay. C can you read? He he is prime. Okay.
So he calls and the crowds fell back on either side making way for the for the wagon. So everyone's coming and crying over Hector's body but he but he tells them to move away. Okay. Because they need to bury the body properly. So they so people depart like the sea and heck and Prime is able to move the body forward.
Keep on going. [snorts] Once they had borne him into the famous holes, they laid his body down on his large carved bed and set him set beside him singers to lead off the laments and their voices rose in grief. They lifted the dirt high as the women wailed in answer. and white armed armed andro Andrew Maki Andrew Maki led their songs of sorrow cradling the head of Hector man killing Hector gently in his in her arms. Oh my husband cut off from life so young.
You leave me a widow lost in the royal halls and the boy a lonely b only a baby. The son we bore together. You and I so doomed. I cannot think that he will ever come to manhood. Long before that, the city will be sacked, plundered top to bottom.
Because you are dead, her great guardian. You who always defended Troy, who kept her loyal wives and helpless children safe. All who will be soon carried who will soon be carried off in the hol ships and I with them. Okay, so this is how it ends. It ends be it ends with a prophecy.
Okay, and this prophecy will turn out to be accurate where the son of Hector will die because that that's the way of war. Okay. When a city is conquered, all the men and all children are killed and all the women are enslaved. Okay. So, this is Enaki saying, "I'm going to be enslaved." And this is the coming of the Trojan horse, right?
So, the great hero of the Tro the Trojans, Hector, is now dead. So, the Greeks are going to come and destroy all Troy. So, you're a Greek, okay? And all your life you've heard about the great victory of the Greeks against the Trojans. Okay, the Trojan War is the most famous story in your life.
Now suddenly this guy Homer he tells you about he asked you to imagine what it's like to be a Trojan woman knowing that in a few months your entire city will be sacked. Your husband will be killed. Your children will be murdered. And you'll be put on a on a on a ship to be enslaved while you watch your city burn. Okay?
Think about the power of that. Okay? Think about what's happening in Gaza, in Palestine today, right? Where the Israelis are bombing uh the Palestinians. They're killing a lot of children and they think it's right that we do so because we are defending our land.
Now imagine one day they have a dream and they imagine themselves as the Palestinian who's being attacked for no reason. As a child who's lost his mother. As a mother who's lost her child. Think about the emotional impact on that. Okay.
What this is is the big bang of civilization. Because when you read this, okay, when you're forced to switch perspectives, it's a violent assault on your own consciousness, your prejudice, your beliefs, your values all being destroyed at once, which allows you to access the entirety of the universe. Okay? Does that make sense? Only through trauma, only through pain, only through suffering can you access empathy and wisdom.
And that's a great truth of the Iliad. But also this is why the Iliad has to be a lifelong journey because it will take you a life life entire life to appreciate the nuance, the beauty, the power of the Iliad. It will take you a lifetime to understand the motivations, the uh psychology of all the characters. Okay? These are all living beings.
But if you were to spend your entire life doing so, I guarantee you, you will come out a much more wise person who now has a universe in your soul and that will make you invincible and eternal. Okay? But it's your choice. Okay? All right.
That's it for the Iliad. Uh we we'll start the Odyssey next. Okay. Which is a continuation of the um Iliad. Any questions?
Ask a question, guys. Come on. You guys understand this? Does it make sense to you? I'm going to ask a question to make to to make sure you understand what's what's going on.
[snorts] Okay. All right. All right. This was a lot to take in. Um but this will stay with you for the rest of your life.
Okay? So over time this will become much much more clear. All right. So we start the honesty next class. Okay.