Troy

Many characters show up in Virgil’s Aeneid, but none provide as much insight into the character of Aeneas as Dido, the Phrygian queen of Carthage. Pious Aeneas was the proto-Roman that demonstrated the classical definition of piety through his hardships and struggles to found Rome. Aeneas’s relationship with Dido is not the least of the many trials he faces, but how can the reader best understand her? This paper argues that Dido’s relationship with Aeneas can only be understood fully using…

In the epic, Aeneas sacrifices all of his happiness and private life for the good of his people and his duty. He embodies the Roman value of duty in the epic. In contrast, Odysseus is not driven by any sense of duty or obedience. He leaves Troy to return to Ithaca, but he does not reach home until ten years afterwards. And when he does arrive, he does so without any of the men he left with. Self-interest is what drives Odysseus. Odysseus even strays multiple times from his path. For example…

war known as the Trojan War. “How about this: what makes Virgil’s Aeneid connected to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey is also what makes it different from them” (Shmoop). The main character in the Aeneid is Aeneas. Aeneas is a survivor from the siege of troy. One difference from the Iliad and The Odyssey is that Aeneas was guided from his land, while Hector and Achilles were both tempted by the God’s to do certain…

The Iliad by Homer depicts a destructive war between the Achaeans and the Trojans as a criticism to the collective social norms and tradition that war promotes. Throughout the epic, the idea of war is championed by the both the Achaeans and the Trojan as the most formidable form of solving their dispute. However, this form of problem solving involves a social-Darwinian scenario where the strongest survive, while those who survive the war receive honor and praise from their people. Nevertheless,…

heroic and strong when he fought in previous battles, but against Achilles he demonstrates cowardice that could never be attributed to a hero. When Hector is approached by Achilles he becomes consumed by fear and runs three laps around the wall of Troy in hopes to delay the inevitable. Hector even attempts to reason with Achilles during battle and implores him to not treat his body in any “unseemly fashion,” (Homer, 434). This shows how cowardly Hector is, no heroic warrior runs away from their…

I believe the Trojan war was just that, a war. There are a few reasons I think this, first, it is called a war all throughout the book and throughout history, there is definitely a deeper meaning but at the end of the day, it was just a war. Second, Merriam Webster defines war as “a situation in which people or groups compete with or fight against each other”, which is exactly what it was, the Trojans and the Greeks fighting over Helen. Finally, what else would you call this happening? You could…

The Romans themselves, and later a Roman poet, Virgil, also stand among those notables in ancient history whom Homer’s epic had a significant historical impact on. Supposedly, after fleeing Troy at the end of the war, a Trojan by the name of Aeneas, who was briefly mentioned in the Iliad, went on to become a progenitor of Rome. This myth provided a basis to Roman mythology, and by extension introduced the founding myth of Romulus and Remus…

Throughout the history of literature, there have been many different examples of the characteristics present in a heros. Such works of literature come from great ancient societies such as the Greeks and the Romans. “Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis on literature and, according to many, the whole Western literary tradition began there, with the epic poems of Homer.”(Mastin) Examples of these include Homer’s, The Iliad and The Odyssey, as well as Virgil’s The Aeneid. The heroes…

“We don't mature through age. We mature in awareness.” Byron Katie, an American speaker and author. The Odyssey, by Homer, is about the main character Odysseus leaving his home of Ithaca to fight a battle in Troy. Odysseus also left behind his wife Penelope, and their newborn son, Telemachus. Odysseus has not been home in 20 years, so Telemachus did not have a father figure growing up. Telemachus is not very mature and he does not know how to act like a “real” man. Throughout The Odyssey,…

The quoted passage from Book Twenty-one of The Iliad is an excerpt of Achilles’ speech in rejection to Trojan prince Lykaon’s plea for life when he has finally resumed in the war. In this passage, Achilles contrasts the former and present way in which he treats the Trojans and states the reason of his change. By doing a close-reading of this passage, I hope to address the major shift in Achilles’ outlook on fate and death that is reflected in his change of attitude towards the Trojans.…