Ajax Essays

I have seen many a strange things since our editor sent me to join Ajax’s, son of Telamon, unit at the beginning of this war. But nothing compares to the events of the past seventy-two hours. It all began with a long battle between Ajax and Odysseus over who would inherit Achilles’ panoply. Odysseus was declared the winner after giving an incredible speech. Just in the neck of time too, as we were supposed to leave for home the next day. But in the middle of the night, I heard a distressing cry

Homer’s epic, The Odyssey has had a profound impact on all types of art that incorporates a hero. The archetype of a hero is followed to a ‘t’ and sets the stage for following works that include a main hero’s quest. Odysseus’ trials, tribulations, adversity, vengeance, and final victory outline the common tale of the hero’s journey throughout a plotline to an eventual victory over evil. This rough outline can be whittled down into two main themes of perseverance and vengeance. Homer’s two principal

Achilleus’ Rage Hero’s are found multiple times in Homer’s Iliad. The strong Patroklos is considered a hero in his selfless offering to go into battle to fight with his friends. As he pleads with Achilleus saying, “ then send me out at least, let the rest of the Myrmidon people follow me, and I may be a light given to the Danaans” (XVI. 38-39). Even though Patroklos has nothing to do with the war itself, he is selfless in feeling compassion for his friends and wanting to fight alongside them in

The Odyssey is a well known epic that brings the reader through the tale of how Odysseus and his family reunited. Odysseus spent twenty years away from his son, Telemachus, and his wife, Penelope. He was away for ten years at Troy and spent the other ten years on his journey back to his native land, Ithaca. Within the epic, author Homer reveals characters of gods and goddesses throughout the poem who impacted the families journey. One importantly, was the goddess of wisdom and war, Athena. She stayed

The gods and goddesses in Homer’s Odysseus perform a key role in the characters’ fates. They act as guides in reaching their destinies although sometimes they are petty, cruel and bent towards destruction of the characters. In this case, the gods have conflicting motives other than the main harmonious purpose utilized by those in union. However, the gods are like the human characters by which they influence their lives. The mortals in the story are experiencing some favour from the divine entity

How the themes of Fame and Ambition appear in The Iliad and Beowulf Do heroes and warriors truly crave the attention they gain, for showing acts of bravery and heroism? In The Iliad and Beowulf, there are several moments we see how elated the warriors get from fighting and winning battles. Both Beowulf and Achilles describes how powerful they are. From slaying many in the Trojan War, or by defeating sea monsters and dragons, we can tell both men are the greatest warriors of all time. While similar

In the Iliad, Achilles is responding to Odysseus’s speech attempting to convince him to return to the war. Achilles’ main argument against returning is his incalculable rage against Agamemnon for “the prize of honor / The warlord Agamemnon gave me / And in his insulting arrogance took back” which is not only an insult to Achilles’ status, but also to his honor as a warrior (Il. 9.378-379). In addition to focusing on the main argument of Achilles’ speech, it is worth noting the contradictions present

The study of Anglo-Saxon literature cannot be complete without an in-depth analysis of, ‘Beowulf’, one of the oldest and greatest poems ever written in the history of English Literature. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to introduce Beowulf as the epic of English poems and to describe features that make this poem an indispensible part of English literary history twelve hundred years down the road. Unfortunately, due to cultural and political turmoil, much of Anglo-Saxon literature was destroyed

Relationships are important for any human being and great ones can shape who we are and who we become. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Grete's relationship with her brother is shown to be strong and to have its role in making her who she is. Kafka uses phrasing and word choice to impactfully illustrate the effect of Gregor's metamorphosis on Grete. From the beginning of the novella, Grete has great respect for her brother. This is shown by the way she asked Gregor to open the door. The way each

The Iliad is a mild representation of a very precise feeling of emotion that connects with the texts; Petersen’s Troy and Malouf’s novel Ransom. Imagery is visualised by having the characters assemble between the setting of the text to show a greater understanding to all readers and/or viewers. Through exploring the personal concepts of Homer’s Book XXIV of The Iliad; it could be argued that finalising the ‘glory of war’ is set upon ‘celebration’. It is of great power to have such awe in such a defined

An archetype is an image, a descriptive detail, a plot pattern, or a type of character that occurs multiple times in myth, literature, religion, or folk lore. Archetypes often provoke emotion in the reader as they awaken an image, calling illogical responses into play. Many novels, legends, and myth are made up of archetypes which causes similarities in the plots of many novels. For example, the Helper God, the golden place, seasons and metamorphosis are archetypes that make up modern literature

In the play “A Midnight Dream” composed by William Shakespeare, he ponders on a quote, “that course of true love never did run smooth” (I.I.134), emphasizing that love is complicated and is not easy. The idea that love is complicated is shown through the many plays that Shakespeare composed like “Much Ado about Nothing.” In Much Ado about Nothing one can correlate the quote from “A Midnight Dream” to the love scenes between Claudio and Hero and Benedick and Beatrice. Those scenes contain the desire

A hero does not fight for fame and glory but for the greater good. A hero is someone who goes through adversity to help others in desperate times. A hero fights evil, and defends people. Beowulf should be considered a hero because he is a strong, brave warrior who defended his people and slayed evil monsters. Beowulf proves himself to be a strong, brave warrior by killing Grendel the monster. This proves that he is strong and brave because no one else could kill Grendel let alone face him. Beowulf

Homer’s The Iliad proves that Hector and Achilles have vast differences but, their few similarities are some of what we see a lot throughout the epic poem. Both Achilles and Hector have their certain strengths and weaknesses, which are noticeable countless times throughout the conflicts that come up in the Iliad. These two characters have distinct differences in their approaches to fitting the noble form to which they both attempt to achieve. Nevertheless, regardless of their differences and the

lead to the downfall of Athens. Sophocles’ Ajax is, in some ways, a challenge to Pericles’ claim. Ajax the character is the practical “man of action,” the brave and heroic warrior, whose authority is not rooted in lofty speeches or thoughtful dialogue, but rather in combat, where he always comes out the victor. However, Sophocles opens the play just as the Trojan War has ended, and Achilles arms have been awarded to Odysseus by a tribunal, thus reducing Ajax to a man of words and speeches as he spends

Fate is something, so often, seen is a positive light, when two people meet, when they feel as if they were destined to be together, That feeling like you were destined to be something great, that feeling of knowing that life will play out as planned and you make choices along the way that create who you but in the end, you are who you were supposed to become. Seldomly do people think of how we are are all destined to die, that our lives are fated to end, sometimes in the worst of ways. that we all

In Euripides’s The Bacchae and in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I found the gender roles in these particular plays to be very interesting because this was my first exposure to cross-dressing in works of literature. In The Bacchae, women play a huge role because women are often portrayed as feminine and inferior in many past works, however, in The Bacchae, the women of Thebes decide to rebel against the men and join the Greek God of grape harvesting, wine, fertility, and partying, in the woods

“Don Quixote” is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes, written in the 1600s. It is about a man named, Alonso Quixano, a nobleman who after reading many novels about knights decides to go out and looking for adventures fitting for a knight. He renames himself Don Quixote and takes off with his neighbor Sancho, who he calls his squire. Don Quixote seems to have an idea of what is right and wrong. He does his best to right what he believes is wrong in the name of knighthood. However, these attempts

Sophocles used his position as a writer to influence his audience that he was writing for. One can well imagine that, when writing Ajax, Sophocles steeped himself in those parts of the Iliad which dealt with the hero and there are clear signs that he had done so. Ajax, like other Greek tragedies, was intended to educate Athenian men on the characteristics of the ideal citizen. All citizens were expected to serve in the military and family was also highly valued: adults took responsibility for their

"Operation Ajax: The Power of Propaganda in Shaping Public Opinion" Rishikarthik Velliangiri 220130 COMS101 Operation Ajax, commonly referred to as the Iranian coup of 1953, was an important event in the development of contemporary propaganda. The United States and the United Kingdom were successful in their endeavour to depose Iran's democratically elected government and replace it with a pro-Western one. The coup was orchestrated by the CIA and MI6 and was carried out on August