Reading the Iliad after October 7

With thanks to AVI, a story about the war in Israel from another perspective.

Major Amir Skoury entered my class in October 2022. He was 30 years old, married with two daughters, and an officer in Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) special forces. Like many officers, he took a leave to attend college... Like all students at Shalem, he began his studies reading Homer’s Iliad, the great epic about the Trojan War. By the time Amir took the seminar, I’d been teaching it for nine years. 

Amir approached me after the second class and said he was frustrated. He couldn’t get into the Illiad. We had a short conversation, and by the next meeting he came prepared like a skilled warrior, not a young man enjoying a cultural experience. He learned the text as an officer would learn a map before navigating his company to its destination. I expected to meet him again on October 9, 2023, at the opening of his sophomore year, but instead, I stood before his grave and eulogized him. Two days earlier, Amir had led a team of soldiers toward the Gaza border communities that were being attacked by terrorists. He was one of the Israelis killed on October 7.

The reason I have friends in Israel is because of their devotion to Western civilization, which caused them to invite me to travel there in 2014 to attend a conference. We usually hear about 'Judeo-Christian civilization,' a concept which may hide as much as it illuminates given the deep divisions in both theology and history (as well as the more obvious connections). Israel, though, is unique in the region as being an outpost of Western civilization. 

They are deeply interested in the Greeks. They study Abraham Lincoln. The long diaspora exposed their predecessors to generations of being embedded in parts of the West, from France and Germany to Poland and Russia. They also participated in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and though their experiences of those things were different they were part of the overall experience. 

You can see that in the fact that every student at this college begins their studies with Homer, as is proper. If you want to study philosophy, Homer is a good start because Plato and Aristotle both quote him and make analogies to him. If you want to study anything else, Homer, Plato, and Aristotle are still good places to begin. Natural philosophy gave rise to all the modern sciences, and Aristotle gave the foundations for most of them -- after he finished studying with Plato. 

The Iliad is also a worthy study for warriors because it treats its enemies as human beings throughout. This is unusual and valuable in a study of war. Read on in the linked piece for more on that subject.