Iliad

When a warrior dies in Homer’s Iliad and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, he loses his ability to take control of his own life. Having surrendered to his fate (moira), the duty to protect the fallen warrior falls upon his comrades. These warriors feel that they have a moral duty to protect the bodies of the fallen, particularly those who died in service to their communities and cities (poleis). If a man does not die in the line of duty, however, his body may not receive the same…

goes on. But heroes are human, they can’t be perfect, they make mistakes, they change, just like the qualifications of being a hero change over time. In ancient Greece, a hero was typically a great glorified warrior, like Achilles and Hector in the Iliad.…

War is unpredictable. It can drag on for years and in the process both enemies and allies can be lost. In Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Achilles is a great hero fighting in the ten-year long Trojan War. Octavius Caesar, of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, is one of the three rulers of the Roman Republic and during the course of the play he enter into war against his fellow triumvirs. Unforeseeable circumstances can completely alter any pre-conceived plans formulated even by the most acclaimed…

The Iliad is the epic poem of war between the Achaeans and Trojans; the cause of the war is credited to Helen running away with the Trojan Prince Paris. There are myths that state that Helen and Paris were in love and Paris kidnapped her and they eloped, causing Menelaus, Helen’s husband, to begin the war. Although this myth uses the illusion of love to justify the beginnings of the war, Helen expresses to Aphrodite that she is only with cowardly Paris due to the goddess. When Aphrodite appears…

Patroclus is the hero of The Iliad because he is more concerned with saving the lives of his fellow Greek soldiers than in preserving himself and because he is able to perform tasks that no one else could such as convincing Achilles to let him take the Myrmidons to battle while wearing Achilles’ armor, leaping his chariot with the immortal horses over a daunting trench, and dying in battle, giving Achilles the will to fight for the Greeks. After the battle over Troy's city has raged and killed…

"What god drove them to fight with such fury?" The Iliad, written by Homer, a Greek poet, was a story that outlined the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Books 1, 6, 22, and 24 takes us through a journey first about Agamemnon, Achilles and their victims. Then about Hector, Paris ' brother going away to battle and his wife mourning his death prematurely, then Hector dying in book 22. And lastly book 24 illustrates Hectors father, Priam, king of Troy, begging Achilles to accept his ransom…

the Hebrews and the Greeks. There has been much controversy over these topics throughout the years, but each is to be interpreted by the reader. According to Epics for Students, The Iliad suggested to be a work about the Trojan War that is fought between the Myrmidons and the Trojans. When Homer states that The Iliad “tells the story of the clash of two great civilizations and the effects the war has on both the winners and the losers,” he is showing the reader that war should not be taken…

In Homer’s The Iliad not only is Achilles the main character, he is also the perfect depiction of what a self-sufficient man looks like. Sometimes we get the idea that we are able to accomplish and conquer anything without help. To add on, the point of human interaction is to create human empowerment. Human empowerment is the ability to come together as a unified whole. Thus when you are unified together as a group you can conquer, solve and learn from one another. Human interaction is also…

In his epic poem The Iliad, Homer portrays Hektor in a seemingly different light compared to other prestigious Greek and Trojan warriors. Although a large majority of the poem focuses on the glories associated with the brutalities of war and the aspirations of the warriors for glory, the importance of Hector and Andromache’s farewell represents important aspects of life lost in the wake of the war. Elements related to the theme of goodbyes can be seen through other Greek poets, in particular…

Written in two different times, The Iliad by Homer and by The Aeneids by Virgil focuses on two war heroes and the paths they must take. Homer makes Achilles a Greek who is fated to destroy the city of the Trojans. Virgil, who was inspired Homer, came to create a Trojan named Aeneas and his quest to eventually settle on the foundations of rome. The Greek influence on Homer’s story, and certain themes like the gods and mythos, carried mixed in and carried over with Roman influence. What is…