On The Iliad Analysis

The Iliad; “the first great book about the suffering and loss of war”, stated by Rachel Bespaloff in On the Iliad. “Its subject is war; its characters are men in battle and women whose fate depends on the outcome.” One may ask why does Homer writes about this and why it is so gruesome like. It’s to catch the human eye, with in-depth descriptions and brutality which is nearly a copy of what everyday life on this planet is today. There’s always murder, battles, and war occurring for food, territory, money and even a simple purse with a few dollars in it. There are numerous ways to start a story like “Once upon a time” or “There once was a…”. The Iliad is started with the single word “Rage”. In the aspect of breaking down the book and understanding it rather than reading a brutal war story, rage is taken into consideration to understand what Homer is thinking and what he wants us to get through the characters in the Iliad. But this may be easier said than done with this statement from Homer; “People make war, they put up with it, they curse it, they even praise it in songs and verses, but it is not to be judged any more than destiny is.” This leaves us difficulty to distinguish whether Homer loves war or fears it. In the Odyssey by Homer, the first word is “man” and the entire story is depicted …show more content…
I feel people really don’t get passed the fear because no one is truly ready to die. Yeah the quote of Hector to Achilles, “I no longer wish to flee you, son of Peleus…It is over…I will have you or you will have me.”, shows that Hector is ready but one can never be convinced or ready for it. Achilles is beyond ready to avenge Patroclus and full of “rage” to kill Hector but what was his emotions when he had first killed a man. He may be “born to bring death” but one has to get passed that point and to me, it seems like a jump across the Grand