Iliad Book 1 The Quarrel

"Withdrawing from his men, Achilles wept. He sat down by himself on the shore of the grey sea and looked across the watery wilderness. Then, stretching out his arms, he poured out prayers to his Mother." from the Iliad

I had a dream that seems to have consolidated this story into something else.

Thetis comes to him and putting her hand on his head, he crashes down onto his tripod, with the weight of his bronze armour he plunges water-like into a subconscious depth, which like a cannonball diver he then returns, in a swoosh, to a surface once more with the idea or realization.

This to me this was the idea of a painting.

We were all reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey and there was something of that too.

Years later I met Harold Bloom, the Yale Critic and walking down Bleeker Street asked him about Joseph Campbell. He took a breath and with a grand gesture said, "My boy he has taken this somewhat as his own, what he is talking about is the Romance Quest, it is the basis of all of western Literature." (I paraphrase)