The epic poem, The Iliad written by Homer shows the conflicts and events that occurred between the Greeks and Trojans during the Trojan War. Among both sides there are warriors who follow a distinct code, known as the heroic code. This Heroic code helps portray the characteristics of the warriors and their perspective on war. This distinct code is composed of many elements such as arete, acceptance of fate, honour, excellence in war, leadership, courage and power. These traits are shown within the main warriors, Hector and Achilles throughout the epic war poem and helps to guide their decisions. However, in contrast, not all the characters are shown with heroic features, for example, Paris. Paris is a foil to both Achilles and Hector. He exhibits less heroic features to himself. The heroic code helps characterize the warriors and highlights their heroic features.
One of the main elements of the heroic code is arete. Arete is the highest level of excellence to pursue in strength, skill, determination on the battlefield which a warrior or hero could aspire. It also, includes their personal honour, and honour and
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These abilities are important as a warrior because both his men and the hero reflect and are influenced by them. Some of the abilities are excellence in war, courage, leadership and fighting qualities. These qualities are seen through the heroic characters Hector and Achilles. When Achilles is not present with his men, the Greeks are well defeated by the Trojans with no motivation or support. Achilles is also described by his men as a power figure when the poem says “These were his words,/ and all Achaeans gave a roar of joy/ to hear the Prince abjure his rage.” (R 23-35). The Greeks hearing Achilles return, gain strength, will and perseverance to carry on the war. The responsibility that Achilles takes plays massive role, affecting the men 's actions throughout the
Achilles vs Hektor The Iliad, an epic poem by Homer, takes place in the tenth year of the Trojan War. Recalling important events that take place bringing the war to an end the poem uses figurative language and literary devices to enhance its characters, presenting similarities and differences between how the characters handle specific situations and how they deal with the concept of masculinity. For example Homer uses the method of literary foils. A foil is a character that depicts traits that differ with the traits of another character. In The Iliad, Achilles and Hektor are foil characters.
In this way, a Homeric hero can achieve what is his ultimate goal, immortality through an honorable “hero’s death.’ Because, society in which the Homeric hero bases his life on values that are primarily in line with war and deeds of astounding strength and athleticism, this means that the heroes actions throughout the poem seek to reiterate that defining goal. Their every action is a reminder of the strict moral and societal guidelines that they find themselves trapped in. Agamemnon, for example, is introduced as a prideful man often controlled by his emotions. In the first book of the Iliad, entitled “the rage of Achilles” we see how when Achilles demands he give up his prize to the war god Apollo to appease his wrath, his immediate response is a negative and defensive reply.
The Iliad is primarily about how the war is affected because of Achilles anger. Achilles character does not precisely change but grows from what it was at the beginning of the fifty-one days. A characteristic that stays constant throughout the fifty-one days is, Achilles lets his emotion drive him into making blind a reckless decisions. A characteristic that develops throughout the book is Achilles sense of consequence(book 15-390 18).
It is so deeply rooted that it encompasses Achilles, becoming a characteristic of this great warrior, influencing his actions and chooses throughout the story, such as leaving the fighting and considering the idea to return to Pythia. The depth of Achilles rage and hatred is demonstrated through in his response to Agamemnon, concerning the gifts he offered as compensation for his wrongs, saying that “not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sand and dust in the earth, no not even then could Agamemnon bring my fighting spirit round” (9.470-472). The true rage of Achilles is extremely important to the entire story of The Iliad, as from Book One through Book Nine Achilles allows this rage to control his actions, causing him to Achilles remains absent from the fighting as well as causing him to pray to Zeus that Trojans may receive the upper hand in the fighting so that the Greeks may suffer for Agamemnon’s actions. Therefore, this profound rage is an extremely important aspect of The Iliad, as it ultimately effects not only Achilles actions but also course of the
In Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, Homer describes nine days of the Trojan War, focusing on Achille’s anger. Achilles, the best Greek warrior, becomes furious at the Greek commander Agamemnon due to a power struggle. Achilles decides not to fight, with the Greeks fighting the Trojans without their best warrior. Both sides battle gruesomely, with Homer often using literary devices to develop the brutality of war.
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 fact that their armies are rivals and are brought to each other with execration in battle, they also have numerous identical traits which reasonably show the comparison between the two men, Hector and Achilles.
The Heroic Code In his work, Greenblatt discusses the idea of the heroic code, which Anglo-Saxons adopted from the Germanics. According to Greenblatt, ‘Germanic heroic poetry continued to be performed orally in alliterative verse and was at times used to describe current events’ (Greenblatt 6). The heroic code defines how a noble should behave, which is to be courageous, strong, honourable and loyal. These traits are essential and prevalent within poems such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as the nobles want to heighten their reputations. Though both Beowulf and Gawain strive for perfection, they are anything but perfect.
In the epic poem, the Iliad written by Homer, several characters taking part in the warfare between the Achaeans and the Trojans are portrayed as embodying the heroic code of courage, physical strength, leadership, arete of value of honour, and the acceptance of fate. The heroic code is illustrated by the actions of the Trojan prince, Hector and the Achaeans strongest warrior, Achilles. Both of these characters display the Greek’s image of a hero, and can also let the reader discern what the society admires, looks up to and aspires to in its heroes. There are also characters who fail to be heroic, such as the Trojan “vivid and beautiful” prince, Paris. These characters in the Iliad illustrate the qualities that Ancient Greek society values.
The characters Achilles, Hector, and Paris in The Iliad retain comparable personalities. Although the characters differ each other in more ways than resemble, the dense trait of pride ties them together. Pride is an important concept to recognize in order to develop a perception on each character throughout the story. Hector upholds strong senses of bravery, compassion, and leadership.
At night the fighting was over and the trojans thought they have one with the greek retreat. But little did they know Achilles had
The Aeneas Archetype The long literary history of mankind is full of archetypes and motifs that span not only individual works of a single culture, but across works of many different cultures. One such an archetype is the ‘epic hero’, such as Aeneas from the Roman myth the Aeneid by Virgil. The epic hero archetype is that of a protagonist who best embodies the character traits of an ideal person. The definition of an epic hero fits Aeneas because he shares many of the characteristics typically given to an epic hero: bravery, courage, leadership, and confidence.
The Iliad also spotlights the individual qualities of a Greek hero or non-hero. Numerous characters in the Iliad demonstrated exceptional qualities of a Greek person that was valued, such as bravery and helpfulness and that was disproved of like selfishness. One trait that is highly appreciated by the greeks in the Iliad is bravery. In battle Hector killed Achilles´s best friend Pactorlos in battle.
These characteristics are traced in multiple contexts, and it creates an extensive picture of the character. Honor, pride, loyalty, courage, and vengefulness are the fundamental traits of Achilles’ character that determine his behavior and manifest themselves in his speech and actions. Pride and honor are the fundamental characteristic of Achilles, and there are several key episodes that can prove it. From the very beginning of the poem, one can see that Achilles is very sensitive when it comes to honor and reputation. The conflict with Agamemnon related to Chryseis, who was taken as a slave, is the turning point.
The shields of Achilles is another important image within The Iliad to be considered when Homeric culture is addressed. The shield is made up by the god Hephaestus to Thetis as an offer for Achilles in the war, it is delivered with Thetis’ hope that her son would admire the spectacular paintings of a utopian universe featuring farmers harvesting, cattlemen in their farm sheep, children playing in a fertile land, and the myriad of oral traditions rather than venturing in the battlefield. It is Homer’s alternative of war and his desire to sing of his oral tradition that is far from violence (Oliver Taplin). In The Shield of Achilles within The Iliad, Oliver Taplin pointed out that in his Story of The Iliad, Owen emphasizes this view further
Madariaga 1 Luis A. Madariaga Ms.Kohut MYP English Period 3 1 November 2016 The Illiad The book The Illiad written by the author Homer is a book on greek methology, and heroic code. Heroic code is to achieve personal honor for fighting in a war or somewhere else for a specific reason also for their certain actions,and loyalty in warriors.