Theme Of Heroism In The Iliad

When you think about heroes, who do you think about? Do you think about the character that climbs buildings and releases spider webs from his hand? Or maybe the character that flies everywhere, giving parts of his head to people who are hungry? In the Iliad, the warriors display the aspects of heroism. Some characters are portrayed as great warriors who are loyal to their country, and some are written as cowards who do not have enough courage to fight. The Homeric heroes are meant to be skillful, courageous, mighty, determined, and intelligent on battlefields as well as when they are not fighting. Homer, the author of this epic poem, expresses both positive and negative sides of heroism throughout his poem in the form of three warriors: Hector, Achilles, and Paris, who each fight for different purposes and beliefs. Hector, the best warrior of Troy, represents aspects of heroism. He is the prince of Troy who is a dedicated warrior. In fact, Hector is the most heroic character in the poem, because he has all the traits of a Homeric hero. He is also very loyal to his country, and the readers can tell that by these lines: “Honour, for in my heart and soul I know / a day will come when ancient Ilium will perish” (J 6, L161-162). He demonstrates an aspect of heroism when his wife, Andromache, tells him not to go out of the walls of Troy to fight Achilles, …show more content…
He is also a prince of Troy, the younger brother of Hector, and a cowardly warrior who is “good” with women. In the Iliad, Paris is represented as the most unheroic warrior. The fact that Paris takes away Helen from her husband, Menelaus, the king of Sparta, triggers the Trojan war. To stop the war from happening, Paris says he will have a duel battle with one of the Greeks, which turns out to be Menelaus. This line describes how cowardly Paris is, when he runs away as fast as he could after seeing Menelaus, the powerful looking Greek