How to give feedback like a Mycenaean
The Iliad is fairly light on plot, but heavy on battle scenes. Underlying all the drama surrounding Achilles’s wrath and Paris’s disastrous decision to abscond with Helen, the majority of the action is animated by a simple truth: the gods just want to see the Greeks and Trojans kill each other.
Some, like Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, have chosen sides. Others, like Ares and Poseidon, interpose themselves whenever the battle starts looking a little too one-sided. Zeus has made it his mission, as a favor to Achilles’s mother Thetis, to cause as many Greek deaths as possible so that Achilles can win all the glory. This leads not only to some truly graphic deaths, but some exceptional speeches as the various fighters egg their enemies on and stir up courage in their companions.
As a public service, I’ve compiled a handy how-to guide for feedback-giving, the bronze age way.
1. Always consider your audience
Class matters in bronze age society. A commoner can’t be expected to respond to the same kind of speech as a noble. Nobles have a code of honor to answer to, whereas the common man only understands beatings.
Odysseus understands this very well. Notice how, when he needs to keep the Greeks from fleeing, he addresses each audience differently:
… Whenever he encountered
an elite warrior, he stood beside him
and spoke to calm him and to hold him back.
“A spirit has possessed you. You must not
be frightened like a coward or a peasant.
Sit down and make the others sit as well.
You do not understand what Agamemnon
intends to do. This is a test! …”1
When speaking to nobles, it’s important to remind them of their high status, and it’s okay to let them in on the test.
Compare to how Odysseus addresses the common man in these same circumstances:
But when he saw and heard a common man
shouting, he used his staff to beat him back,
and called to him with orders and commands.2
Administer a beating if you must! They must first see that you are their superior before you remind them of their duty tell them how worthless they are:
“A spirit has possessed you! Now sit down,
be quiet, pay attention to your betters.
You are a coward and unfit for battle,
worthless in war and worthless in the council.
We cannot all be rulers in this army.
It is not good for many to share power.
Only one man should rule and be a master …”3
2. Use the sandwich method
Not just useful for giving feedback in modern times, see how Poseidon, in disguise as the Greek fighter Thoas uses a construction of praise-criticism-praise to urge Idomeneus into battle. First, he greets him with honor, “Lord Idomeneus / great councillor of Crete,” before getting to the meat of his feedback:
“If anybody slackens off today
and fails to fight, Lord Idomeneus,
I hope he never gets back home from Troy,
but stays here as a plaything for the dogs.”4
However, instead of ending on that negative note, he continues with and invocation to battle:
“We have to try to save the situation,
even if there are only two of us.
Even the weak fight better as a team,
and we are valiant and skilled at fighting.”5
3. Don’t neglect the importance of teamwork
Here’s Sarpedon employing two excellent techniques in one short speech. First, instead of making assumptions about his allies, he asks a question. Then, he reaffirms that winning a battle is a team effort:
“Lycians! Why have you ceased your zealous fighting?
I am a strong man but it is too hard
for me all by myself to break a path
and reach the ships. Join me and fight with me!
More hands make labor light.”6
4. Don’t spare the praise—or reward
It can sometimes feel awkward giving praise. People sometimes don’t know how to receive it, but praise goes a long way toward motivating others, and most people don’t give it out often enough. But praise should also come with reward, when appropriate, so people know they’re appreciated.
Here’s Idomeneus setting a good example with Othryoneus, after spearing him in the belly:
“Congratulations, Othryoneus!
You certainly are the very best,
better than any mortal man,
if you are really going to keep your word
and do exactly what you promised Priam.
He promised you his daughter. And in fact,
we Greeks would promise and provide the same—
the loveliest of Agamemnon’s daughters,
whom we will fetch from Argos and give you
to marry, if you sack this town for us,
the strong majestic citadel of Troy.”7
5. Highlight team members’ different strengths
Different people are good at different things. Asking every member of a team to perform to the same standard on every aspect of the work is expecting the impossible, and you may be overlooking ways to use peoples’ strengths.
Here’s Polydamas, reminding Hector that no one can be good at everything:
“Hector,
you are impossible! You never listen!
Some god has granted you great skill in battle,
and so you also want to be the best
at strategy. You cannot have it all!”8
6. Be thorough and specific
You have feedback to give and it’s very important that the other person hears it. Do not hold back or let them wriggle out of receiving the feedback. Cover your points with specific examples.
For example, here’s Diomedes giving much-needed feedback to Paris, after Paris has boasted about hitting Diomedes in the foot with an arrow.
“You good-for-nothing archer! Sleazy flirt!
So rude! So cocky in your silly hairstyle!
If you tried fighting with me face to face,
your bow and your swift arrows would be useless.
You brag like this because you grazed my foot.
I barely noticed it—as if a woman
or a foolish child had slapped me. Blows that come
from nobodies and cowards do not hurt.
Even a scratch from me cuts sharp and deep,
and instantly, my enemy is dead.
His grieving widow’s fingers tear her cheeks,
his children have no father now. His blood
reddens the earth. He rots and round his body
more birds than women gather.”9
Which brings us to the final and most important rule of giving feedback, Mycenaean-style: leave no survivors. After all, this is war.
Homer, The Iliad, trans. Emily Wilson (New York: W.W. Norton, 2023), 230.
Homer, The Iliad, 231.
Homer, The Iliad, 231.
Homer, The Iliad, 303.
Homer, The Iliad, 303.
Homer, The Iliad, 291.
Homer, The Iliad, 308-9.
Homer, The Iliad, 321.
Homer, The Iliad, 259.