Mourning and Battlesong

The Iliad and Conan in "Rogues in the House"

In many respects, the Iliad is a memorial, recounting in detail the deeds of warriors and the mourning of those left behind. It is fitting that it ends with two funerals, and a temporary truce between both sides. I’m planning to write more after I finish reading “The Mourner’s Song” by James Tatum.

But just as I finish the Iliad, I read “Rogues in the House” [link goes to free version at gutenberg.net.au] by Robert E. Howard.

from-the-pedestal-of-the-column-of-trajan

Three rogues, two civilized and one barbarian are fighting Thak. Is he a man or a beast or something supernatural? But in the end, when Conan, the barbarian rogue defeats it, he says:

“I have slain a man tonight, not a beast. I will count him among the chiefs whose souls I’ve sent into the dark, and my women will sing of him.” From Rogues in the House, by Robert E. Howard

Thak is not a beast, although he’s covered in black hair and his eyes look red, reflecting the light like a nocturnal animal. And he’s not supernatural – he has no special powers: just intelligence and the strength his size and muscles give him. And now, he will be remembered by Conan and his women, like a man.

In the Iliad, the women who mourn their men do not also recount their deeds. Patroclus is mourned by his captive woman Iphis, and the two captive women of Achilles: Brisieis and Diomede. Hektor is mourned by his mother, Hekuba, his wife Andromache, and his brother’s wife, Helen. But his deeds are sung by Homer, in the Iliad.

Where are Conan’s women? There was only one in this story, who betrayed him to the police and already had a new lover while Conan awaited death in the dungeons at the beginning of the story. Who will sing of him?