From lockyert@mweb.co.za Sun Aug 27 04:52:58 2000 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id EAA89690 for ; Sun, 27 Aug 2000 04:52:56 -0700 Received: from jhb-imta.mweb.co.za (jhb-imta.mweb.co.za [196.2.48.244]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id EAA17647 for ; Sun, 27 Aug 2000 04:52:53 -0700 Received: from default ([196.30.234.159]) by jhb-imta.mweb.co.za (Sun Internet Mail Server sims.3.5.2000.03.23.18.03.p10) with SMTP id <0FZY00BYR8ZSL9@jhb-imta.mweb.co.za> for classics@u.washington.edu; Sun, 27 Aug 2000 13:52:42 +0200 (GMT-2) Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 13:48:44 +0200 From: Terrence Lockyer Subject: Mercenary & Troy (was (long ago): East and West) To: Classics List Reply-to: Terrence Lockyer Message-id: <002701c0101d$1118ae20$9fea1ec4@default> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211 Content-type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211 X-Priority: 3 Note: Part (1) below is non-classical, part (2) classical. --- (1) On Sat, 26 Aug 2000, James M. Pfundstein wrote: : Only the *absence of any significant motive other than : remuneration* can justify the term "mercenary." And : SJW doesn't have the authority to assert this about the : entire class of individuals who are or have been enlisted : in modern volunteer military services, or even a significant : number of them. I think there may be a distinction to be drawn even in this direction. For instance, in this country, there is considerable interest in and competition for employment by the National Defense Force, as it is called. The reason is primarily economic: in a country with a high rate of unemployment and frequent cutbacks in the private sector, the military offers school-leavers who cannot compete on the basis of (expensive) qualifications a secure, reasonably paid and respectable alternative to the private sector. I doubt that I should be willing to call these volunteers mercenaries, though most of them are joining mainly to earn a salary, and few can expect to see active service in a war situation. --- (2) As for the Trojan War, does not Apollodoros provide at least one ancient answer to the question of why the Greek leaders went to Troy and followed Agamemnon? I quote from Robin Hard's translation of Apollodoros (OUP 1997). "When Menelaos heard of the abduction [of Helen], he went to Agamemnon in Mycenae, and asked him to assemble a force to attack Troy and to levy troops in Greece. So Agamemnon, sending a herald to each of the kings, reminded them of the oaths that they had sworn, and warned each of them to look to the safety of his own wife, saying that this insult to Greece affected all of them equally and in common." [Apollodoros, Epitome 3.6] The oaths are explained in another passage: " ... Odysseus told him [i. e., Tyndareus] to make all the suitors swear an oath that they would come to the aid of the chosen bridegroom [of Helen] if he were ever injured by another with regard to his marriage." [Apollodoros 3.10.9] Menelaos' reason for going to Agamemnon is not made explicit, so it is unclear whether he does so because A is his brother, or because A has some sort of greater authority (Iliad 2.108 implies, because this is the purpose of his inheriting the skEptron from Thyestes, that he 'rule[s] many islands and all of Argos'). The explicit mention of Mykenai in Apollodoros may indicate that, as has been suggested, A's rule there meant that he was especially wealthy and powerful, but it need not. The arguments Apollodoros makes A use, however, suggest that his status alone is *not* sufficient to enlist the aid of the other kings, but the oaths they have sworn (and therefore their honour) are. Terrence Lockyer Johannesburg, South Africa .