Divine pity in the Iliad

Abstract

The main objective of the project is to investigate the manifestation of divine pity in the Iliad. To this end, it will start from Aristotle's proposition that pity is only possible when we can see ourselves in the same situation as the person that provoked the feeling in us. The investigation will be conducted with a cognitive approach, that is, considering that the gods manifest pity by looking at the mortals and reflecting on their situation and not as they instinctively respond to it. The discussion proposed considers that the gods in the Iliad, besides their role as characters in the epic story world, have further narrative functions in the poem: they may be used by rhapsodes to manipulate the audience's response since they constantly appear as an internal audience of the events in Troy, but they may also be employed as a way of moving forward the plot. Finally, as part of the hybrid methodology of the project, Foley's (1999) traditional referentiality will help to define, as far as possible, the referential directions of the scenes where the gods show pity. (AU)