{"id":2513,"date":"2022-08-21T11:23:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-21T10:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2022-08-21T11:24:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T10:24:38","slug":"eddie-the-banished-and-aristodemus-the-trembler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/2022\/08\/21\/eddie-the-banished-and-aristodemus-the-trembler\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie \u2018the Banished\u2019 and Aristodemus \u2018the Trembler\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\n
\n\t

Atimia<\/em>, redemption, and internalised standards of behaviour<\/span><\/h1>\n

by <\/span>Linda Rocchi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

*SPOILER ALERT: major spoilers<\/span> for Stranger Things<\/a> Season 4 ahead*<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHear me now \u2013 there will be no more retreating from Eddie the Banished!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So Eddie Munson<\/a>, the metal-head D&D<\/a> master (and new fan-favourite) of \u2018Stranger Things\u2019<\/a> Season 4, proclaims, as he gets ready with his friends, home-made spiked shield in hand, for the final battle against their fearsome foe, Vecna. And, in a sense, Eddie \u2013 who was already a bit of an outcast to begin with \u2013 has done nothing but retreating, up to that point: since witnessing, powerless and terrified, the gruesome murder of Chrissy at the (supernatural) hands of Vecna in the very first episode of the season, and understandably running away from the scene, Eddie has been hunted down by the whole city of Hawkins, and chiefly by Chrissy\u2019s vengeful boyfriend Jason and his cronies.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we watch him desperately going into hiding, we viewers do get the sense that Eddie is, indeed, \u2018banished\u2019 \u2013 held responsible for a crime he did not commit (and could do next to nothing to prevent) and believed to be innocent only by a handful of his \u2018outsider\u2019 friends, he has no hope of clearing his name with the rest of Hawkins. <\/span><\/p>\n

But then why, when the battle against Vecna finally comes and Eddie, with Dustin\u2019s help, has completed the task that was assigned to him by the group \u2013 that is, drawing the Demobats away from Creel House in the Upside Down by shredding Metallica\u2019s \u2018Master of Puppets\u2019<\/a> on his guitar on top of his uncle\u2019s campervan \u2013 does he end up sacrificing himself for the safety of a city that hates him? Why, after the most metal concert ever, and just one step away from (relative) safety, does Eddie decide to \u201cbuy more time\u201d \u2013 something arguably barely needed at this point in the battle \u2013 and do precisely what he had promised his friends not to do: rush back to the Upside Down to take on the impossible feat of fighting the Demobats alone? Is it just that, by this point, he understands that he will never be reintegrated in the community, is tired of running, and decides to die instead? Or is there something more behind his choice?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

\"\"<\/p>\n

While I sat watching Eddie\u2019s final moments, helplessly bawling and surrounded by a sea of tissues, I couldn\u2019t help but thinking \u2013 as you do \u2013 of Aristodemus, the Spartan soldier who, according to Herodotus (7.229\u2013232)<\/a> ended up missing the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE \u2013 either because he was on \u2018sick leave\u2019 shortly before the battle and prudently chose to prolong it a bit once he heard that the Spartans were surrounded by the Persians, or because he had been sent as an envoy by Leonidas and, sensing danger, decided to take the long way back to the camp. <\/span><\/p>\n

Accordingly, upon his return to Sparta after the battle, Aristodemus\u2019 reputation is forever tarnished: he gets nicknamed \u2018the Trembler\u2019 and suffers the penalty of atimia<\/em> (dishonour), by virtue of which he effectively becomes a pariah in his community. However, one year later, at the battle of Plataea, he \u2013 like Eddie \u2013 effectively engages in a suicide mission: as Herodotus (9.71)<\/a> tells us, Aristodemus, manifestly wanting to die, disregards the orders he\u2019s been given, leaves the formation, and rushes towards the Persian army, getting slaughtered at their hands. And yet, although Herodotus does admit that Aristodemus is basically trying to kill himself, the mode the \u2018Trembler\u2019 selects for his suicide might reveal something more about his motives. <\/span><\/p>\n

Aristodemus doesn\u2019t simply take his own life (for instance, by hanging himself, as another disgraced Spartan soldier, Pantites, is said to have done in the same circumstances): he, like Eddie, finds death by doing the opposite of the very action which brought about his atimia<\/em> in the first place \u2013 instead of running away, he rushes into battle, and seeks redemption by balancing out his previous cowardice with the supreme act of courage.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s hard to deny that Eddie, too, has redemption on his mind when he takes on the Demobats by himself. But what kind of redemption? Not before the city of Hawkins \u2013 they believe him to be a Satanist serial killer, and do not seem inclined to believe that it\u2019s actually a villain from a parallel dimension the one who\u2019s perpetrating the murders Eddie stands accused of. Nor, arguably, before his friends \u2013 they already know he\u2019s innocent, and repeatedly made clear to him that he couldn\u2019t have saved Chrissy even if he had stayed. In terms of redemption, then, Eddie\u2019s situation is again similar to Aristodemus\u2019: if atimia<\/em> in Sparta worked anything like atimia<\/em> in Athens, chances of overturning a verdict were very slim indeed, and there was no guarantee that even a heroic death would rehabilitate a \u2018trembler\u2019 (although we should note that, at least according to Herodotus, in Aristodemus\u2019 case it actually worked). The redemption both Eddie and Aristodemus are seeking, then, seems to be chiefly before their own eyes \u2013 they feel the need of building (or rebuilding) a positive self-image.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOutside of D&D, I am no hero\u201d, Eddie had bitterly told Steve the first time they went to the Upside Down. \u201cI see danger, and I just turn heel and run. Or at least that\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned about myself this week.\u201d And then again, right before the final battle, after Steve had warned Eddie and Dustin against \u201ctrying to be heroes\u201d, Eddie tells him straight up: \u201cI mean, look at us. We are not heroes\u201d \u2013 even though Steve has already told him to give himself a break. So, when he decides to face danger head-on, it\u2019s clear that something inside of Eddie has shifted \u2013 he doesn\u2019t want his previous statements about himself to be true. He wants to prove to himself that he can live up to the standards of behaviour he has gradually come to set for himself \u2013 standards of behaviour that he has learnt (like almost all standards of behaviour) through his interactions with his peer group. But it\u2019s not just that he\u2019s abiding by a learned behavioural code because he\u2019s looking for external validation: although he does admit, during the first journey to the Upside Down, that he followed the group because he was \u201ctoo ashamed to be the one who stayed behind\u201d, by the end of the season this behavioural code is so internalised that Eddie is willing to die for it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

And indeed, right before dying in Dustin\u2019s arms, Eddie seems to be responding precisely to his own first remark about himself (\u201cI see danger, and I just turn heel and run\u201d) when he tearfully, but proudly, tells Dustin: \u201cI didn\u2019t run away this time, right?\u201d \u2013 this is all that matters to him. Sure enough, Dustin seems determined to rehabilitate Eddie\u2019s name in Hawkins, and, although he does manage to share scraps of truth with Eddie\u2019s uncle, it\u2019s obvious that the task is going to be difficult \u2013 perhaps even more difficult than cleansing Aristodemus\u2019 atimia<\/em> and restoring his honour among the Spartans. But, since it worked out for Aristodemus \u2018the Trembler\u2019, we can maybe still hope that, come Season 5, it will work out for Eddie \u2018the Banished\u2019, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

Linda Rocchi<\/a><\/p>\n

All featured images are from: https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/tudum<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atimia, redemption, and internalised standards of behaviour by Linda Rocchi     *SPOILER ALERT: major spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4 ahead*   \u201cHear me now \u2013 there will be no more retreating from Eddie the Banished!\u201d So Eddie Munson, the metal-head D&D master (and new fan-favourite) of \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Season 4, proclaims, as he … Continue reading Eddie \u2018the Banished\u2019 and Aristodemus \u2018the Trembler\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":2524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[137,143,16,138,139,142,140,141],"class_list":["post-2513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-atimia","tag-herodotus","tag-honour","tag-internalised-standards","tag-redemption","tag-sparta","tag-stranger-things","tag-thermopylae"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2513"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}