Iliad

During the times of the Classical Greeks, culture began to abandon the principle of fate, and, at the same time, moved toward a firm belief in free will. In The Iliad, which Homer wrote around 750 BCE ("Reading the Iliad." Reading the Iliad. Web.), the author suggested that the people of the time had no control over their actions; rather, the gods controlled everything. In contrast, in Oedipus Rex, which Sophocles wrote in 429 B.C. ("Background for Antigone." Background for Antigone. Web.),…

In the Iliad, there is a young soldier named Achilles. Achilles was a Greek warrior who after getting his prize of honor taken from him decided to leave the Greek army to defend for themselves. This decision led to his best friend Patroclus to be slain by the hands of a Trojan warrior Hector. In the Iliad Antilochus informs Achilles. As said in the Iliad “A mist of black grief enveloped Achilles” ( Iliad book XVIII, 159, 23). Due to this incident Achilles is faced with the ultimate dilemma,…

The Iliad is a story of anger and war, honor and death, glory and fate, but most importantly, The Iliad is a story of Friendship. Believed to have first been composed by a poet called Homer sometime around 800 BCE, the actual narrative of the epic poem takes place 400 years earlier during the Greek Bronze Age. Over the course of The Iliad, many values of people in Homeric culture were reveled, including honor, glory, pride, and heroism. However, at some point in The Iliad, all of these are put…

The Image of Women in The Iliad The Iliad by Homer is an epic ancient Greek poem that focuses on the Trojan and Achaeans War which lasted ten years in Troy. Agamemnon, the King Mycenae returns Chryseis, the daughter of Priest Chryses after a plaque hits them by Apollo and only Briseis is captured. Agamemnon evokes a heated argument with Achilles, the most powerful warrior over Briseis, the prize of honor for Achilles. Agamemnon is envious as he gets no recognition by the Achaeans for the battles…

as the Greek gods were amoral and rarely showed sympathy towards mankind. This demonstrates the extent of Achilles’ fury and hatred towards Hector for killing Patroclus. Another important aspect of the Iliad is the involvement of gods in comparison to their almost total absence in Troy. In the Iliad, the gods have a massive influence on the course of war. This is because during Homer’s time there was a tendency to present a world where the deities influence the fates of humans. People of the…

The Iliad is a Greek epic poem written by Homer, about the noteworthy events during the end of the Trojan war. The Iliad only focuses on the last few months of the 10-year Trojan war, but it does discuss the past events during the war throughout the poem. War began because Paris’ son of King Priam of Troy kidnaped Helen, who was the wife of the King Menelaus. Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus and he led the Greek army during the Trojan war; Priam was the King of Troy and…

inseparable in their entanglements, both with each other and with mortals. I felt that I would understand the Iliad itself better if I understood these supreme gods better. Achilles is, of course, the hero of the Iliad and is the axis of the entire storyline. I will present, in order, the biographies of these three characters. Then I will explain how I more clearly understand a particular scene from the Iliad. For Zeus, the scene I kept in mind while researching his theography (to coin a term)…

The story of Achilles as it is presented in The Iliad by Homer has many takeaway lessons, from those concerning love to those about forgiveness. However, when it comes to educating the young guardians from Plato’s The Republic, Achilles should not be studied, least of all as a role model. This is the case for several reasons, one being that Achilles’ actions alone do not align with the desired ideals of the guardians, another being that the few things that Achilles does have to offer are often…

varied forms. Honor triggers an epic war, in The Iliad, it takes the life of many men and shapes their character. The fall of Troy is “a thing…whose glory shall perish never” (Homer, Iliad 2.324). Honor guides every action and response, for example honor of the family, community, and individual shapes the poem as a whole. Honor defines the hero, which sets up the foundation of everything that happens in The Iliad. Understanding honor in The Iliad helps understand the motivation of the heroes.…

of the Iliad. Weil states that the Iliad demonstrates the force that kills. She focuses mainly on a grotesque, bloody, and forever conquering weight of force that hangs over the helpless heads of all. However, the Iliad is not a poem of violence, but rather an epic that proves the inevitableness of fate and the beauty of coming to terms with the meaning of humanity. In fact, the Iliad is a poem embodied within the idea of fate. One may say that fate is in fact a force, but within the Iliad fate…