For hundreds, even thousands of years, society has taught us at an early age to do what is “right”. If we didn’t do the right thing, we are faced with consequences such as imprisonment or even death. Three pieces of literary art, written in different eras couldn’t tell us better of Society’s teachings.The Odyssey by Homer tells Odysseus’s long, perilous journey home after the trojan war. Chapter two of The Aeneid by Virgil tells the story of the Trojan Horse from the perspective of Aeneas, a trojan who goes on to found Rome. William Golding’s Lord of the flies is about the clash between two “tribes” of british boys stranded on a deserted island, left to govern themselves. These works of literature reinforce that all actions lead to certain …show more content…
In Book two of the Aeneid, the protagonist and his city face consequential outcomes for believing the Greek’s lies. Sinon, a Greek warrior, entered the Trojan hall and delivered a “whimpering speech” (Virgil 36) and claimed to deny all allegiance to his country. The Trojans find a wooden horse outside of the city and questioned Sinon as to why it was there. Sinon swears the horse is an offering to Minerva and “If this proud offering, drawn by your hands, should mount into your city, then so far as the walls of Pelops’ town the tide of Asia surged in war: that doom awaits our children” (Virgil 40). Following the entrance of the horse, Sinon lets out the rest Greek warriors from the horse and they proceed to annihilate Troy. Only after Father Aeneas criticized the Greeks who are “trained in trickery” (Virgil 38) for their practice of “the Greek deceptive arts” (Virgil 35). Just like the Odyssey, many of the Greeks were known to have a habit of hiding the …show more content…
As a result, the unfaithful maids were forced to clean the bloody halls and were later hanged. Consequences come to those who
In Lord of the flies, Jack was under the impression that savagery was the only way to live away from the real world. At first, Jack’s desire to hunt started out as an innocent need for food, but gradually gives in to innate savagery and his “desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering” (Golding ch. 7). His ability to kill without thinking scared most of the children the Jack’s tribe. Consequently, in an attempt to kill Ralph, the protagonist, he sets the forest on fire and burns to
In “Lord of the Flies” Ralph has the goal of getting himself and the rest of the tribe off the island. His plan to execute it is by making a signal fire that a passing ship or boat will see to rescue them. Ralph realizes that maintaining order within their tribe is crucial to their survival and chance of being saved. As chief of their group, he assigns Jack the leader of the hunters. He then puts them in charge of keeping the signal fire lit. During this process, Jack and his boys get distracted from keeping it lit as they attempt to kill a pig. After a couple of hunts, Jack and his boys finally kill a pig and return in cheers. As they get back, Ralph gets mad at Jack saying “You and your blood Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home” (70). Ralph is angry with Jack because he realizes as leader that he has to make sure everyone understands their main goal, and are able to focus on that by blocking out distractions. These actions that Ralph show display why he is successful as a leader and why they accomplish the goal of getting
In William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies”, it can be seen that Jack’s obsession with hunting and the discord he creates in the group is prohibiting the development of the boys’ society. Jack has become so obsessed with hunting that he does not want to help with anything else. The first time Jack refused to help was on page 52 with Ralph saying, “You wouldn’t care to help with the shelters, I suppose?” Then Jack replied with, “We want meat-.” In this passage, Jack clearly refuses to help Ralph with building the shelters because he has prioritized hunting over everything else. As the book continues, Jack becomes more and more obsessed with hunting. Thinking of new ideas to help him hunt such as painting his face or surrounding the prey. In
The Odyssey and In the Beginning can be related because they are epics. In addition to that the authors are also similar in a way, Homer, the author of the Odyssey is unknown if he was real and if he ever existed. The author of In the Beginning is still unknown till this day, all we know is that it is found in the bible and talks about how it all started when God created the world. While in the Odyssey it has many gods and goddesses as well as In the Beginning but it only has one main god. The main characters are Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, and in the other story, their is the god, serpent, Adam and Eve.
won) fighting a war against the city of Troy and has been held captive by
are followed and proper respect given the gods, it is possible for man to live
The fact that Jack acts like this is very important to the story. Jack’s lust for power and blood sped the story up a lot faster. It’s possible that without Jack the boys wouldn’t even become savage. Jack is also a bully, and forces the boys out of fear into what he wants them to do. In, “The Lord of the Flies”, by William Golding, Jack is pretty much equivalent to a middle school bully, but the circumstances he is in, turns him into something even worse.
After he says this, the Trojans give him their full trust and decide to take the horse into Troy. This quote also displays the deception of the Greeks, because what happens turns out to be the total opposite of what Sinon says. When Laocoon objects about allowing the giant wooden horse into the city, a serpent devours him; consequently, this causes the Trojans to believe that the Gods want the horse to be accepted into Troy. After all of the Trojans fall asleep, the Greek army exits the hollow stomach of the horse and destroy the city of Troy.The Aeneid depiction of the Greeks shows them as untrustworthy people who use trickery and lies to win a battle rather than using sheer intelligence. The Trojans are seen in a much better lighting than the Greeks in the Aeneid. While Sinon uses his lies to deceive the Trojans, the Trojans listen and believe what he
The Odyssey and The Aeneid are both classic pieces of literature that have impacted the modern academic world. These two stories have compelling similarities, however, they also have copious differences. Both stories follow a hero after the Trojan War, one searching for the comfort of his wife and son, another determined to establish an empire and fulfill his destiny.
There has been much debate on who is the greatest hero of the ancient world. There has also been much dispute on which is the greatest epic poem of the ancient world. However, comparing The Aeneid to The Odyssey is entirely a difficult task itself. Odysseus' journeys, both physical and emotional, are essential in the overall work because it defines The Odyssey as an epic poem. Aeneas also shares a similar experience as Odysseus as well. Both stories are similar in countless ways because they both undergo comparable experiences on their travels and their life journeys. With that being said, they both demonstrated leadership in their own way. However, it is difficult to determine who the best leader actually is. Both men exhibit great leadership skills; therefore, causing a challenge for some in determining which the greater epic is. After analyzing both texts, it is possible to conclude that Aeneas is the better leader, but The Odyssey is the greater epic.
On the Mediterranean Sea, Aeneas and his fellow Trojans flee from their home city of Troy, which has been destroyed by the Greeks. They sail for Italy, where Aeneas is destined to found Rome. As they near their destination, a fierce storm throws them off course and lands them in Carthage. Dido, Carthage’s founder and queen, welcomes them. Aeneas relates to Dido the long and painfuAeneas tells of the sack of Troy that ended the Trojan War after ten years of Greek siege. In the final campaign, the Trojans were tricked when they accepted into their city walls a wooden horse that, unbeknownst to them, harbored several Greek soldiers in its hollow belly. He tells how he escaped the burning city with his father, Anchises, his son, Ascanius, and the hearth gods that represent their fallen city. Assured by the gods that a glorious future awaited him in Italy, he set sail with a fleet containing the surviving citizens of Troy. Aeneas relates the ordeals they faced on their journey. Twice they attempted to build a new city, only to be driven away by bad omens and plagues. Harpies, creatures that are part woman and part bird, cursed them, but they also encountered friendly countrymen unexpectedly. Finally, after the loss of Anchises and a bout of terrible weather, they made their way to Carthage.
We have read two myths of great heroes this semester, Virgil’s The Aeneid and Homer’s The Odyssey. In both of these tales we get to go along with two great heroes on their journey home and all of the troubles that they face. Although these stories tell us about two great heroes and their journey there are a lot of differences. In this paper I will compare and contrast scenes from both myths and suggest a reason that this borrowing was appropriate for what Vergil was trying to do with his version of the myth.
In Virgil’s The Aeneid, there are many parallels found in Homer’s The Odyssey. In each epic, the heroes, Aeneas and Odysseus, are on a journey “home.” Aeneas is on the search of a new home for he and his companions to settle since Troy has been destroyed, Odysseus on the other hand is attempting to return to his home he left years earlier to fight the Trojan War. They both have Gods against them and helping them, both Aeneas and Odysseus are both held back by women, both voluntary and involuntarily, and they both have experiences visiting the Underworld. Despite these similarities, there are differences between the two characters and it reflects their values and the society they live in. Aeneas relies on his strength as a warrior, where as Odysseus uses his deception to survive which reflects how Aeneas is truly Roman is versus Greek.
In the book the Iliad, The Odyssey, and Works and days, there are many things that can be similar when talking about Greek heroes and the world of Greek poetry. The stories and topics are describing similar events during this time of the eighth and seventh century B.C. In the end, however, they do have some differences in some parts when describing or explaining certain situations and ideas. The world of Greek heroes is written like a story; or Epic Poetry. That is what The Iliad and The Odyssey are; Epic Poetries. They are telling a story of a great hero and their adventures. On the other hand, the more realistic Greek World that is being described in Works and days is a Didactic poem, which tells more of a moral or message to the reader.
For centuries, philosophers debating human nature passionately have been all trying to reach a concise conclusion when faced with certain questions; Are we nothing more but civilized savages bearing ill will that lurks beneath the surface? Or do we enter this world as gentle spirits who become lost and corrupt along the way? They are questions that have yet to be answered, yet their themes are still heavily explored throughout human history and appear in many of man kind’s artifacts, such as art and literature. One of these examples lies within the context of Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a story in which a band of young boys survives a plane crash and is marooned on a deserted island without adult supervision. They eventually form together under a chosen chief, named Ralph, and attempt to govern themselves, with ultimately disastrous results. The novel evokes the themes of two philosophers- Thomas Hobbes, who believed that mankind is essentially in a constant state of war and requires laws and government to dictate his behavior, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that men are “noble savages” corrupted by civilization and the laws and government inherent in it. Based on the characters and plot in the Lord of the Flies, Hobbes’ belief is the correct one, as Golding depicts the boys slipping further and further away from civilized behavior and turning into savages.
Throughout Lord of the Flies is a display of humankind’s thirst for power. Most of the boys, for example, transition to savagery and animalistic behaviors to free themselves from powerless lives. Jack, the leader of the hunters, becomes the first of the boys to paint a mask on his face. “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw…Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness,” (63-64). Under his mask, Jack feels no shame, and therefore is free to indulge in power as he desires. In fact, later in the book, Jack and a few other boys commit one of the ultimate crimes of violence and power—rape (although only metaphorically.) Jack...