Mount St. Helens

Messengers are always conveying the messages, never making the originals. It is a humbling position. We know that Hermes is the messenger of the gods and that he is a man. However, in the Iliad, all the messages are conveyed by Iris, a woman. "Away, Iris! / Quick as you can to the grand sea lord Poseidon. / Go, give him my message, start to finish-- / and see that every word of it rings exactly so" (15.198-192). This quote shows the typical attitude towards women in the Iliad. Zeus is giving…

Throughout The Iliad, mortal women are portrayed as property of man in the male-centric epic. They are confined to outdated gender roles; mortal women have little or no control over their own destiny. However, the immortal world creates a platform for Homer to exemplify and examine women personas thorough the Olympian goddesses. The three main goddesses presented in The Iliad are Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera. During the Trojan War, Athena and Hera fight with the Achaeans, while Aphrodite favors…

a young girl, an allusion to Helen of Troy, and the free verse style to represent the female desire to be desired. Subsequently, Szymborska choses to write about young girls in the stage of life where they have graduated from being cute children without a care, to gawky young adult girls with vast insecurities. The use of protagonists at this age creates…

Odysseus, a household name thanks to English class in high school. Students spend weeks analyzing his character and journey. Learning that Odysseus fits all the characteristics of the classic hero; strength, courage, nobility and his most distinguishing strait, intelligence. Many view Odysseus as the hero of the Odyssey but there is another character that has the same traits as Odysseus and that is Penelope, his wife. She is often forgotten in the shadow of her husband even though she is…

Pride is something that effect all manner of human nature. Pride is normally described as a deep satisfaction in one’s own achievements, abilities or qualities that are greatly admired. In a study done by Prisca Brosi, Matthias Spörrle, Isabell M. Welpe and Madeline E. Heilman called “Expressing Pride: Effects on Perceived Agency, Communality, and Stereotype-Based Gender Disparities” it says “Pride is closely connected to the achievement of personally or socially valued outcomes. Given the…

As soon as he latched his helmet securely to his sweaty head, he swiftly ran directly into the battlefield, meeting the enemy head on. Knowing full well of his fate to come, including the life and family he would leave behind, he showed no fear for there was something greater to be achieved at the end of his journey. As he approached his first enemy, he quickly took him down with one sudden movement of his sword. Following, he immediately took down another. And then another. He journeyed his way…

in Greek mythology, each choosing a notable figure who contributed to the fall of Troy. In “Leda and the Swan,” Yeats explains a famous Greek myth, where Leda is raped by Zeus in the form of a massive swan. This copulation led to the conception of Helen, who history deems as the beauty who launched a thousand ships in the Trojan War. In his sonnet, Yeats observes how the consequences…

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 of their wives was stolen they all would intervene. Also, an epic is concerned with the fate of a nation and a people. Achilles has had no problems…

In the world of Homer, the successful role of the family is crucial in how father and son relationships develop. In The Odyssey and The Iliad, the bond between father and son is important for the development of the family role in honor and pride, along with the expectation of loyalty from the son to the father and vice versa. In The Iliad, Hector is loyal to his father, Priam, when Hector himself heads back to the war without a second thought. Meanwhile, in The Odyssey, Orestes is loyal to his…

In Homer’s epic The Odyssey, the poet narrates a story of the homecoming of the Greek hero Odysseus after the Trojan war. Through narrating his readers Odysseus’s journey home, Homer gives many instances where women, mortals and immortals, have contributed to the success of the homecoming of Odysseus, indicating the importance of women during the Greek hero’s long and suffering journey back home. Odysseus has received numerous help from different female characters such as Athena, Nausikaa, and…