Nicole Tschida ENG 210 Paper 1 2-26-18 The Iliad and The Consequences of War The plot of the Iliad takes place in the middle of the war between the Greeks and the Trojans that lasted for ten years. This conflict according to Homer and ancient Greek mythology occurred because the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaus, brother to king Agamemnon. In this paper, I will be examining the consequences of war, as outlined by Homer. I will be analyzing a battle scene to answer the
In his epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer provides an even-handed portrait of the heroes Achilles and Odysseus. By choosing not to idealize these heroes, Homer provides an insight into the values of ancient Greek culture; both Achilles and Odysseus represent prized characteristics, but also illustrate the dangers of hubris and excessive individualism. Both Achilles and Odysseus cause numerous deaths through their own inflated sense of individualism and pride, but both also illuminate the benefits
“The Iliad has been called from the beginning to end a poem of death yet one could also argue that form beginning to end the Iliad is a poem of life. In the world of the poem war is the medium of human existence and achievement. Bravery and excellence in the battle win honor and glory, and thus endow life with meaning. The Iliad is both a poem of death and poem of life. In the other words it is a poem of mortality.” -Seth L Schein. An epic according to Aristotle is a poem about men in action
The Iliad by Homer is one of the first and greatest epic poems ever written. It sets it stage during the ninth gruesome year of the lingering Trojan War and highlights the plight of two armies as they battle for a cause now forgotten. Nevertheless, the story of the Iliad is not one of bloodshed, struggle and conflict. It is a depiction of the vulnerability of humans and the effect of emotion on the resolutions of even the most honorable men. One such example of an emotion driven character in the
The Iliad, epic hero Achilles serves as an example of how rage, when unchecked, leads to disastrous repercussions. Achilles, though nearly superhuman in his physical abilities, struggles repeatedly to contain his anger. Throughout The Iliad, as Achilles’ fury compounds, the consequences of his actions become catastrophic, eventually leading to the death of his best friend, Patroclus. Although Achilles ultimately chooses to avenge Patroclus’ death and achieve his own kleos, or honor, his rage-driven
critical essay, ‘The Iliad, or, The Poem of Force,’ Simone Weil submits Homer’s epic poem to her concept of force. Through her analysis of the epic, she demonstrates what it is to pay attention to an object — and by extension, another being. That is to say, the way in which Weil analyses the Iliad demonstrates what it is in her terms to love through attention in the face of force. ‘The Poem of Force,’ then, is not merely a passive analysis, nor is it a simple illustration of an example. Weil’s essay does
The Glory of War One can make a strong argument that The Iliad seems to celebrate war. Characters emerge as worthy or despicable based on their degree of competence and bravery in battle. Paris, for example, doesn’t like to fight, and correspondingly receives the scorn of both his family and his lover. Achilles, on the other hand, wins eternal glory by explicitly rejecting the option of a long, comfortable, uneventful life at home. The text itself seems to support this means of judging character
to interact with animals in antiquity to help give them clues of the task that they need to complete. These animals can be anything from a common hawk grazing the sky to a God of Olympus that has taken the form of a heron to signal warriors. In The Iliad specifically, birds play an interesting role as a medium between the world of humans and the world of the divine Gods. The ability of birds to traverse from one world to another is parallel to the divine powers that the Gods of Olympus have as well
in titled Between Lions and Men, Images of the Hero in the Iliad by Michael Clarke is a very innovate piece of work. In the article, Clarke puts forward the idea of how the referencing of wild animals in the Iliad is symbolic and highly significant to the ethical and psychological problems of heroism within Homer’s Iliad. The focus that Clarke is placing in relation to the animal similes within the Iliad is the lion similes. As the Iliad is focused on Achilles and his death, it is no wonder that
differs from person to person. In The Iliad, Homer uses Nestor’s speeches to give examples of how immortality was achieved in the past. He then uses the short life of Achilles to show how immortality no longer brings glory, and instead humility fulfills ones heart. Nestor’s speeches provide an insight to the hearts of men and their desire to access immortality through glory in war; however, his speeches also reveal the mortality of man. Throughout The Iliad, Nestor describes his youthful warrior