Moment Of Death In The Iliad

“Most of the duels in the Iliad are described quite economically, but Homer seems to linger over the actual moment of death, vividly recounting the actual and painful wound, the fall of the body, the departure of the soul. Compare a number of these scenes, and focus on Homer’s use of similes here. What is their purpose and what do they achieve?” The detail of the death of many characters in The Iliad is accompanied by similes to compare the moment of death and the actions taken to that of an animal and also to achieve the brutal moment of death and highlight the nature of men at the time by comparing them to the nature of an animal. The purpose of the similes and detailed death is to capture and highlight the significance of …show more content…
The build up to the death of Patroclus begins with his efforts to enter into the gates of Troy, and Apollo becoming angered with his effort to keep Patroclus out. Apollo then incites Hector to fight Patroclus and a big fight scene breaks out between both Hector and Patroclus. They continue on fighting for quite some time, until Apollo steps in and slams Patroclus in between the shoulders to knock him down, knocked his helmet off his head, and stripped him of the armor so that he lay there defenseless. A Dardan fighter then spears Patroclus in the back and he lay on the ground arriving closer to his death. Hector approaches Patroclus and finishes him off, only after Patroclus explains to Hector that Apollo was the reason for his death because he tore the armor off and incited Hector to kill Patroclus. In some of his final words he tells Hector that his fate will come soon and Achilles will fight back and kill him. The actual moment of Patroclus’ death is described in far more detail compared to Pyraechmes’ because the significane in Patroclus’ death is major turning point in the war because it provokes Achilles to enter back into battle to avenge the death of his best friend