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Patience In The Iliad

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Patience is a Virtue: Odyssean v. Iliadic.
At heart Odysseus is an Odyssean character but like every Greek hero, he must use extreme violence sometimes. In the Greek society, murder is not frowned upon at all. It is very common. Usually, It is how men assert their power. When odysseus kills all the suitors, he does it to prove that he is the most powerful. Murder is also common when defending oneself, like when Odysseus and his men kill the Cyclops. Although he does commit violent crimes, this does not necessarily make him an Iliadic character. The Iliad and Odyssey are different types of stories, with different plot connotations.
The Iliad is a war story. The characters in the Iliad get angered easily and react quickly. “At one glance Hector …show more content…

A strong characteristic of Iliadic characters is: they are easily provoked. “It is no accident that the Iliad 's greatest hero is noted for his quickness to anger.” (Murnaghan). Achilles is angered by Agamemnon in “The Rage of Achilles”, he calls the powerful Agamemnon, “shameless-armoured in shamelessness-always shrewd with greed.” (Il.1.174-75). He insults a king, claiming that Agamemnon does not honor the warriors code and is selfish, thinking only for himself. If Achilles was in Odysseus’ place (in disguise while watching his house being disrespected) I doubt that he would be able to stay in disguise because he acts in the moment. He is strong minded; he doesnt think twice when he is faced with the choice to kill agamemnon, he thinks “Should [I] draw the long sharp sword slung at [my] hip thrust it through the ranks and kill Agamemnon now?”. Achilles almost does kill him but Hera sends down athena who tells Achilles, “Stop this fighting, now. Don 't lay hand to sword. Lash him with threats of the price that he will face” (Il. 1.149). It takes a goddess to stop

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