The epic, “The Iliad,” written by the Greek poet Homer, contains many occurrences of the psychologist Freud’s personality approach to the three elements of Superego, Id, and Ego. Superego, the little angel on one’s shoulder, is considered to be the voice of our moral compass (conscience) that speaks from the unconscious mind on the difference between real and ideal situations. It strives for perfection with tracking what we ought to behave like based on our standards and ideas we have learned from our parents and society. Id, opposite to Superego, is the little devil on the other side of one’s shoulder. Its unconscious energy strives to satisfy the basic needs, drives, instincts, and repressed material to survive, reproduce, and aggress. To
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It is represented whenever Achilles is pondering between two choices, one being to “…calm his temper and keep himself in check” (Page 7). If Achilles chooses this option, he is suppressing his desire for power in order to follow the rules of society, never degrading a higher powered individual, Agamemnon. Superego can also represent, hypothetically, if Achilles had a sense of right and wrong, influencing his decision to not kill Hector. By focusing on killing every Trojan to finally reach Hector and ending him, he is giving into his desire of vengeance for killing Patroclus (Id), “I may kill Hector first with my own spear and make him pay the death-prince for Patroclus Menotiades!” (Page 264). If Achilles let bygones be bygones, since Hector killed Patroclus only under Zeus’s manipulation, he would suppress his desire for vengeance, following the societal rule of not killing everyone or everything in one’s …show more content…
Fate in the Iliad is neither good nor bad, rather what one will have to endure. One example of fate is that of Achilles, stated by his mother, Thetis, that if he fights in battle, he will die young, “Oh poor child, why did I ever bring you up for such a dreadful fate?…Why could you not have been spared tears and tribulation, since your life is but a minute. But now you have both a speedy doom and sorrow beyond all men!” (Page 13). His prophecy is mentioned multiple times and out of those, Achilles occasionally pretends it to be nonexistent. Eventually Achilles does give in to the pleasure of fighting and ending Hector’s life; nonetheless, soon after Patroclus’s killer’s death, Achilles is killed off by Paris, his victim’s brother. Paris receives the credit of killing the most powerful Achilles by hitting him in the heel with an arrow; however, Apollo is the true killer. Achilles’ desire for vengeful killing is satisfied, but with the price of his own
It is represented whenever Achilles is pondering between two choices, one being to “…calm his temper and keep himself in check” (Page 7). If Achilles chooses this option, he is suppressing his desire for power in order to follow the rules of society, never degrading a higher powered individual, Agamemnon. Superego can also represent, hypothetically, if Achilles had a sense of right and wrong, influencing his decision to not kill Hector. By focusing on killing every Trojan to finally reach Hector and ending him, he is giving into his desire of vengeance for killing Patroclus (Id), “I may kill Hector first with my own spear and make him pay the death-prince for Patroclus Menotiades!” (Page 264). If Achilles let bygones be bygones, since Hector killed Patroclus only under Zeus’s manipulation, he would suppress his desire for vengeance, following the societal rule of not killing everyone or everything in one’s …show more content…
Fate in the Iliad is neither good nor bad, rather what one will have to endure. One example of fate is that of Achilles, stated by his mother, Thetis, that if he fights in battle, he will die young, “Oh poor child, why did I ever bring you up for such a dreadful fate?…Why could you not have been spared tears and tribulation, since your life is but a minute. But now you have both a speedy doom and sorrow beyond all men!” (Page 13). His prophecy is mentioned multiple times and out of those, Achilles occasionally pretends it to be nonexistent. Eventually Achilles does give in to the pleasure of fighting and ending Hector’s life; nonetheless, soon after Patroclus’s killer’s death, Achilles is killed off by Paris, his victim’s brother. Paris receives the credit of killing the most powerful Achilles by hitting him in the heel with an arrow; however, Apollo is the true killer. Achilles’ desire for vengeful killing is satisfied, but with the price of his own