Homer Hickam

In the Iliad, King Agamemnon played the role of commander of the Greeks, and King Nestor played the role of an elder council (an advisor). In the scene between Achilles, Agamemnon, and Nestor; Homer does not portray Agamemnon as somebody who would directly be in opposition to Nestor’s words of wisdom. In his book, Raphael Sealey commented that in Homer’s Iliad, “Decisions are taken by the king, but the poems avoid the question whether the king…

give up his kidnapped woman rather than Achilles, the greater warrior. Homer casts Achilles in the light of the besieging hero and Agamemnon as the greedy king who cares more for wealth and honor than his men’s lives. As the book progresses and insults traded, Homer switches sides as Achilles removes himself from the battle. Homer reveals his true support not for the character, but the greater good of the Achaean war effort. Homer shows his audience that Agamemnon is not upset about returning…

The famous epic poem by Homer, The Odyssey, tells of Odysseus’ tumultuous journey back to his home on the island of Ithaka. Odysseus, the main character in the epic poem, appears to be the hero slaying the monsters, but as his journey continues it becomes more difficult to distinguish who the monster really is. Upon closer inspection, the true monster is not one of the various mythical creates Odysseus faces, but is instead Odysseus himself. Passages from book nine and book 22 of The Odyssey,…

The epic Iliad was made by the blind poet Homer in 700 B.C. the story is the oldest in ancient Greek times. It’s known throughout Western literature culture. Also, an epic is concerned with the fate of a nation and a people. But, in the epic The Iliad the hero Achilles has changed throughout the story. Achilles was first fighting for glory the honor of Menelaus, Agamemnon brother, and husband of Helen. Helen was stolen by Paris the Trojan prince, son of Priam. All Greeks made a pact that if one…

Additionally, this careful consideration has helped me determine how this affects what Thucydides says about human nature. The same careful consideration has helped me understand what Homer says in the Iliad about Achilles’…

The Comparison To The Underworld Many pieces of literature contain many similar characteristics to Greek and Roman mythology as these references illustrate a certain idea or image for the reader. Many authors in the past would draw these comparisons to invoke a deeper meaning to their writing. The Underworld of Roman mythology is the kingdom of Pluto and is where Romans believed the dead went to in afterlife. For one, the house of Trimalchio as well as the contents in it, are directly related to…

In the 2017 documentary, The Crest, directed by Mark Covino, the story of two cousins on opposite sides of the United States who are both surfers and both unaware of the other’s existence, and they discover that they are both descendants of An Ri, the last King of the Blasket Islands, a collection of rocky islands off the western-most point of Ireland. The cousins meet for the first time in Ireland on a quest to explore their shared heritage, learn what has been passed down to them from those…

In the movie Chariots of the Gods, based on the novel by Erich von Däniken, it brings up multiple pseudoarchaeological claims. A pseudoarchaeology claim “-involves the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of archaeological data to concoct a past that some feel is more satisfying” (Fader). One of the most interesting claims I heard about was the idea that the Egyptians could not have built the pyramids in Giza by themselves with the technology available at the time. Von Däniken creates this…

The Odyssey, an epic poem by Homer later adapted into a play by Simon Armitage, is a narrative depicting the journey of the greek hero Odysseus back to Ithaca after fighting in the Trojan War. His voyage spans twenty years, and throughout the course of his trip back home, Odysseus and his men encounter various obstacles that they need to overcome. Since Odysseus is essentially the leader of his crew, it is most often his responsibility to defeat the enemy and solve the problem at hand. At times,…

Empiricism. Depriving of the Greek word, Empeiria, meaning experience. Like many English words honored with deprivation from the language of our ancestors, the greek it was harvested from hints at its meaning. Empiricism is a philosophical theory, the theory of experience. It is the view that all knowledge comes from experience, furthermore sensory experience. The premise being that sensory experience is the most reliable source of knowledge. We can’t imagine the world without the sensory…