The Iliad: Poem Analysis

The Iliad is a poem that begins nine years into a war where there are gods and goddess that support different sides. The god’s interference affects the outcome of the Trojan War. It begins with the character, Achilles who withdraws from the war and goes to the Zeus to pray for assistance, which begins his rage and towards the end, we see someone who is able to overcome himself for another.
In the beginning of the poem, Achilles’ battle prize is taken from him, and in a childish manner, he ‘quits’ the war and prays to the god Zeus. Achilles is a character who has been dishonored, and during the time the poem was written, honor is something very important. Achilles is prepared to do what it takes in order for him to be remembered after death, which makes him someone who desires glory. He also was given the choice to live longer without his name being remembered. Because he decides not to fight, …show more content…
When he confronts Achilles, he tells him to think of his own father and to have ‘compassion’ for him. He convinces Achilles to return the body of his son by telling him of his situation, which causes Achilles to become overwhelmed. Achilles puts himself aside and opens up to Priam, he has accepted someone else’s grief, which allows him to give Hectors body to his father. Here we see that Achilles character is able to change. For the first time in the Iliad, we see that Achilles forgets about his fate and pride to show someone else respect.
At the end of the poem, we see that Achilles has gone through a lot and we become aware of what he has been through and come to understand the reason for his actions, for instance abusing the body of Hector. It was already known that the Greek would win the war since the beginning. Achilles was mortal but characterized to be somewhat god-like in power, but not considered god-like due to the anger that he had been holding inside and the actions caused because of his