| Popis: |
The very experience of war is a brutalizing process in which human beings sometimes get caught up in the cycle of violence and commit what can only be regarded as the basest of acts, killing civilians and unarmed soldiers, and in extreme moments mutilating their enemies. The Greeks lived in a world in which violence was a commonplace and memories of it confronted them virtually everyday and in many ways. Evidence for the mutilation of the dead in ancient Greece requires careful reading and attention to the usual allusive nature of the sources. That for Vietnam is clear and unequivocal. Two after action accounts from ancient Greece and modern America allow some comments and thoughts on the treatment of the fallen. Achilles dragged Hector's body around Troy subjecting it to horrible disfigurement. Two factors, rage and revenge, impel Achilles in his violent struggle with Hector, his equally violent impulse to abuse Hector's body, and not any 'dehumanization' of his enemy. |
