Fire In The Odyssey

The brutal war between the Achaean and Trojan armies and the consequences of these battles are vividly depicted by Homer in The Iliad. Although the author crafted this story during a period of complex civilization, Homer’s descriptions give insight into just how primitive the people of his time still remained. Fire, one of society’s earliest tools, is an image that is used to portray the perpetual rage of various characters that drives the action of the story forward. Besides the metaphorical use of fire, it is also appears materially, and its frequent appearance throughout the story communicates the underlying concern with control and power that Homerian characters struggle to claim for themselves and their people.

Fire is first introduced

as a means of understanding rage. Agamemnon King of the Achaeans, has refused the request to return the Priest of Apollo’s daughter.

In turn, Apollo sends a plague to strike the Achaeans and a meeting of the ranks is called by Achilles to determine the cause of the plague. One man, Calchas, rises among them and offers a reply, with the promise that Achilles will protect him against the rage of whom he blames the plague. Calchas warns, “Even if he can swallow down his wrath today, still he will nurse the burning in his chest until, sooner or later, he sends it bursting forth,” (80). Although the word is not said explicitly, the description of rage is equated with that fire because of the surrounding vocabulary. The “burning” sensation of the rage is like heated sparks that can be kept down for a while. Like a fire, the burning sensation felt by Agamemnon will eventually burst forward, not into flames, but in the form of words and savage actions. Agamemnon, in

hearing this accusations that Calchas makes against him, becomes enraged. Homer describes the king’s rage using vocabulary that is similar to Calchas’ and says, “Agamemnon -- furious, his dark heart filled to the brim, blazing with anger now, his eyes searing like fire,” (81). The connections made by Homer between fire and rage are depictive of the regularity and continuity of the kinds of rulers that rule based on impulse and rampant temper. Homer chooses to use such a primal tool that holds so much power to describe the sentiment of men in power in order to give the reader the image of very human men, who are not as in control as they believe they are, still buried beneath the simplicities of life such as their own rage.
Later on in the story, the image of fire appears again but takes on a different purpose.

Instead of taking on a metaphorical life, Hector uses fire several times in order to achieve control over their situations. Mid-battle Zeus lets out three bolts of lightening in the face of the Achaeans, and Hector shouts out to his men, knowing victory is near for the Trojans:

They’ll never hold me back in my onslaught now, with a bound my team will leap that trench they dug. But as soon as I reach their hollow ships, torches -- don’t forget now, one of you bring me lethal fire! I’ll burn their ships, I’ll slaughter all their men, Argive heroes panicked in smoke along their hulls!

(237)

Hector wants a quick victory, and is going to get that through fire. In order to gain control and power Hector needs to induce a panic and disorder amongst the enemies. The sporadic nature of fire can get that job done with ease, which is why he chooses such a force of nature as his means of taking charge and reaping power. The characters of this story act civilized in some aspects of their being, but when it comes down to it power is an overwhelming force that drives the men of Homerian literature to kill with the most inhuman methods. Hector uses fire as a means to gain control at a later scene when he calls upon his Trojans, and he speaks with a continuous lust for glory:
Drive cattle out of the city, fat sheep too… and heap the firewood high. Then all night long till the breaking light of day we keep the watch fires blazing, hundreds of fires and the rising glares can leap and hit the skies, so the long haired Achaeans stand no chance tonight to cut and run on the sea’s broad back. (248)

Hector wants to use the blazing fires as a means of gaining control of the Achaeans, not allowing them to sneak out during the night. The city is a symbol for civilization, and by having the Trojans go outside the walls of their city in order to light these fires and keep watch, Homer perpetuates the connectivity between the primal nature of fire and the uncivilized means of maintaining control and gaining power.
Fire is used both metaphorically and materially by Homer continuously throughout The Iliad as a means of describing the rage and yearning for control that combine to drive the plot forward. The use of the words that pertain to fire, a primal force of nature, compliments the leaders of Achaea and Troy’s unenlightened and vicious tactics of rage and impulsive destruction in their quest to gain power and status.