Epic Cycle

In every hero's journey, their ordinary selves become extraordinary after they face hardship. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer describes an ordinary man and his crew who goes through a 10-year long journey to reach home while facing many obstacles on the way. One day, a man that goes by the name Odysseus was called upon to go to war called the Trojan War, which lasted 10 brutal years. He then had a plan to build a trojan horse and filled with solders to attack the other side in the night…

In the time since its discovery, many artists have interpreted Homer’s story of Achilles’ shield. They have created and shared paintings and poems, each showing a slightly different version of the famous piece of metal. One artist who describes the shield of Achilles is the poet W. H. Auden. His rendition of the shield differs markedly from Homer’s original. Homer’s depiction of the ancient Greek world on the shield is a microcosm of humanity, displaying both peace and conflict enveloped by…

“The Final Hours of Troy” Virgil is a first century B.C.E. Roman epic poem writer. Virgil wrote the greatest epic poem and the most influential work of all classical literature, The Aeneid. The Aeneid makes up twelve books in total and it incorporates various legends of Aeneas who later becomes the founder of the Roman Empire. The story of “The Final Hours of Troy” is Book II of The Aeneid and it’s told by the Trojan Prince, Aeneas, to a Queen named Didio and her court. This long and tragic…

Like an avalanche in the mountains change is inevitable and unstoppable. In the Iliad, by Homer, an epic/poem retelling the tale of the Trojan war, there was a bloody battle between Greece and Troy. One of the main characters is Achilles, an almost invincible Greek warrior. The author uses characterization to show Achilles experiences great change throughout the poem, from stubborn to devastated to avengement seeking, all because his good friend and comrade, Patroclus, was killed in battle.…

The Odyssey is a mythological epic about the travels of a man and his crew along the waves of the sea. The Odyssey was written by a blind poet named Homer and it is said that he dictated the story poetic style in Greek with the intention of the story to be conveyed orally. There has been speculation that while Homer was verbally telling The Odyssey and The Iliad, scribes recorded these epics. Homer is estimated to have been born in eight-hundred BCE and died in seven-hundred BCE. The Odyssey is…

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus is a celebrated king and hero who is tragically lost at sea for 20 years, tirelessly defeating every obstacle him and his crew stumble upon in attempt to get back home to his wife and son in his kingdom of Ithaca. Although Odysseus faces many temptations along his journey, he doesn’t stray from his goal to return home, by always keeping his family in mind. Despite being written centuries ago, this novel holds strong connections to modern day, and our education…

The Iliad is an epic poem written by Homer to record the events of the Trojan War. The Trojan War is famous for its massive, bloody, and deadly battles. A very interesting element of The Iliad is how Homer tells the story from both the humans’ and the god’s perspective. The gods in the story contain so much human characteristics that they feel more like humans than gods. This contradicts the image of gods. In The Iliad, the gods are not superior and great; they are the reason to why the war…

the most famous epics to date. It follows the adventures of the Greek king, Odysseus, as he travels through the Mediterranean, trying to return home. The protagonist of an epic is called the “epic hero”, and he must exhibit certain characteristics to fulfill this title: he must represent the values of his culture, be either aided or hindered by the gods, and demonstrate one or more character flaws. Because he meets all three criteria, Odysseus can be considered the definitive epic hero.…

From Beginning to End and Back Again: An Analysis of Cycles in Bei Dao’s ‘At the Sky’s Edge’ At the end of Süskind’s Perfume, Grenouille realizes how much he actually hates people and decides to return to Paris where he allows himself to be torn to pieces and consumed by those drawn to his perfume. Grenouille was born to a fishwife that left him and many other illegitimate infants die, but unfortunately Grenouille was rescued and lived a life void of love and emotion. Grenouille turned out to…

The story of the great artists of literature is glorified by history tells their tale. Homer is such one great poet. He is the author of the epic-tale of the Greek-Troy war entitled the Iliad. Homer immortalized it and its epic heroes .In this essay, I will examine the similes, that immortalize Homer as a poet, consider the canonization of his work, and end up offering a short poem as an example of how a literary work can become canonical. Homer’s similes characterized that they are long,…