In historical times, war was viewed as glorious, especially during the medieval era, as depicted in countless novels and narratives with which fighters were portrayed as heroic and brave. Contrary to this viewpoint, modern civilization sees war as an orgy of destruction that despite sometimes being necessary demolishes entire cultures and puts families into disarray and ruin. Within the Iliad, Homer incorporates these two conflicting viewpoints into a complex and deep attitude towards war. In the historical epic, Homer reveals the devastation that fighting inflicts on soldiers both physically and emotionally, and he depicts the grief and sorrows of the families of soldiers killed during the Trojan War. Though he acknowledges the horrors …show more content…
As shown through Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, modern war is depicted as gruesome and ruinous to society. This is illustrated within the novel through the protagonist Yossarian walking through wartime Rome and witnessing a woman being raped, a child and dog being beaten, and several teeth strewn on the sidewalk (Ch. 39). This depiction is similar to that shown in the Iliad in that both display the devastating effects of war to the civilians. However, while Homer encourages the audience to feel pity towards the helpless noncombatants, Heller argues that war has a dehumanizing effect on the civilians and causes them to turn monstrously violent. Another difference is that while warriors fight for honor and glory within the Iliad, honor and glory is irrelevant in today’s war ethics and soldiers on each side fight mainly to survive both the enemy and their own military bureaucracy. This is depicted in Catch-22 through the numerous attempts of Yossarian to get out of flying bombing missions. Heller does not show Yossarian’s cowardice in a negative light; rather, Heller displays him as reasonable. He even shows Yossarian’s decision to abandon his army as noble as shown when the murder attempt by Nately’s whore fails as he begins to run off (Ch. 42). This directly contrasts the Iliad where those who don’t fight are considered dishonorable, as shown by Hector and Helen’s condemnation of Paris for his unwillingness to fight (Book 6; 325-358). Thus, these two examples show the disparity in the perception of war for the Homeric world and the modern world: while the Homeric world views war as glorious despite its devastating effects, the modern world views war as a destructive blight on
The cyclical nature of Homer’s The Iliad not only implies repetition in plot developments, but thematic resonance as well. Throughout the play, it appears as though the various battles are very similar in causation and motivation. Although the Achaeans and the Trojans are rivals in the war, their reasons for fighting are almost identical. Despite the incredible losses on both sides, the armies still stay in battle for the same incentives; it seems they believe that fighting for honour, love, and beauty is worth the lives they have lost and will continue to lose. The war is constantly on the verge of becoming meaningless but they stay for these reasons. The poem establishes meaning through reoccurring scenarios. The Iliad serves to suggest that there are some causes that justify dying, and that we may be
Homers first book was called the Iliad. This dynamic story tells of the struggles that happened in the Trojan War. Although it is fictional, this literary work gives us an insight of how the Greeks thought the world worked. Reading the first five books, there come an understanding of war and how the gobs played a leading role in all of it. This book glorified the Trojan War and follows a Greek warrior named Achilles.
The subject of Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad, is very clearly stated--it is “the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles.” The reader remains continually aware of the extent of Achilles’ rage, yet is never told the reason why Achilles remains angry and unreconciled. There is no definitive answer to this question. Achilles is not a static character. He is constantly changing; thus the question of why he remains angry solicits different answers at various stages throughout the poem. To find an answer, the reader must carefully examine Achilles’ ever-changing dilemma involving the concepts of mortality and honor. At its simplest, Achilles’ dilemma is that if he goes to war, he will die. But he will die with glory.
This war involves a human side, including the admission of fear and scenes of domestic life, not in a sentimentalized version. This more complete and responsible depiction shows that there's not one single center to the war, just as there's not one single god for the Greeks.
This epic poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer, recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the Trojan War and the Greek siege of the city of Troy. All of the places where Homer’s stories took place were in areas that had been significant in the Bronze Age of Ancient Greece. Excavations at Troy and Mycenae have revealed that affluent kingdoms did indeed exist there. The Iliad provides examples of the culture and traditions that took place in Ancient Greece. The warrior culture that is presented in The Iliad is based on honor and bravery, a good example of this is when Diomedes is trying to rally his fellow warriors in says, “I know only cowards depart from battle. A real warrior stands his ground. Whether he is hit or hits another.” This society was strongly against cowardice; bravery was the only option in these times. The Iliad preserves the Ancient Greek’s views on masculinity and what it meant to be a “real warrior” in their times. The evolution of what people consider honorable and brave is evident, for The Iliad has conserved past views that can be juxtaposed with more modern
Homer progressively subjects his characters to a choice between loved ones, and war quest with heroic personalities is invariably choosing the latter. The gravity of decisions made in the text emphasizes more on knowing about fate ahead of time. Characters prize ancient Greek martial values such as honor, nobility, bravery, and glory with the will to sacrifice chances of long life for the loved ones. In portraying an ideal epic world, the text recognizes about the creation of mortals and the glory of man that does not live in constructions.
Throughout the Iliad, Homer portraits the extent to which honor plays a role in the lives of Greeks and the manner in which they are willing to sacrifice in order to reach their goals. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, a particularly long and bloody war, fought not over boundary disagreements, and not over political conflicts, and not to protect the nation. Rather, it was a war fought to defend the personal honor. The possession of women was important to a man’s standing and honor. Paris’ theft of Helen struck a huge blow to the honor of Menelaus and becomes the initial cause of the Trojan War. Consequently, Menelaus, the Spartan ruler, called upon his brother Agamemnon to gather the Greek forces to launch the war against Paris demanding the return of Helen and reinstating the honor for the king. The war lasted for ten years and cost innumerable Greeks’ lives and brought incurable pain upon their families. To Greek heroes, honor is more important than their life as much as that life would be meaningless without it, and they even willingly sacrifice their lives in order...
The ethical values reflected in the Iliad should be taken seriously because they are not only plausible, but also congruent with the time and place. Homer is narrating tales of a society where men expect to fight and likely die in battle, where courage is demanded of all men, and where honor and glory are seen as steps toward achieving excellence. What makes the Iliad a masterpiece of Western civilization is not just the stirring story, but most of all Homer’s even-handed portrayal of the Homeric world, for the Trojans are never depicted as being less than the Greeks. The Greeks, even their greatest military heroes, are seen as flawed human beings. In conclusion, what Homer presents in the Iliad is a worldview rather than the local perspective of a distant war. In the end, Homer seems to be saying that all men may aspire to virtue.
"The Iliad is a poem that celebrates the heroic values war imposes on its votaries (27)." Homer himself describes war as "bringing glory to man." War is a huge part of both the Achaeans and the Trojans' lives. Characters gain glory through their performances and bravery in battle. Furthermore, Homer persuades the reader that war is the glorious way to settle a dispute. For example, Hector and other Trojans scorn Paris for backing down from Menelaus. On the other hand, Achilles acquires glory by deferring the option of a long, peaceful life in order to fight and become an epic hero. The characters in The Iliad value honor and glory to such a degree that they are willing to give up life itself in order to possess it.
The Trojan War veterans of The Odyssey succeeded in defeating their enemies on the battlefield. The end of combat did not mean relief from burdens for them. War is cruel, but in it these men see a glory they cannot find outside. Achilleus’ death in war is treated with ceremony and respect. Agamemnon, having survived that same war, dies a pitiful death and Klytaimestra “was so hard that her hands would not/ press shut [his] eyes and mouth though [he] was going to Hades” (XI, 425-426). Dying at home meant being denied even simple acts of dignity. Reflecting back on it Hades, Agamemnon characterizes the veteran’s struggles when he asks, “What pleasure was there for me when I had wound up the fighting?” (XXIV, 95).
Simone Weil’s essay “The Iliad: or Poem of Force” places importance on human interaction, the grounding, empathic, human relations which are rare, fleeting, and necessary. She claims Force to be a governing factor in all human interaction, and the ‘thingness’, which force prescribes to humans, as a dangerous, uncontrollable factor of human existence. In order to overcome force, one must direct all their attention towards recognizing others suffering. In her other essay, “Attention and Will,” Weil discusses religious attention as the most important. She claims that one must practice a passive attention to God in order to reach a divinity beyond reality itself which holds truth.
War is bloodshed and pain and rust. War is the thunder of feet and the lightning swords hitting swords and shields. Often, humans become tricked into believing that they are more than animals, more than their basic nature. Athens dares to rise above and continue to rise after that, dares to journey out into the unknowable when they are still fighting a war they have yet to win. They’re eyes were set on geras when they should have remained on the battlefield, on the lives lost. Homer also portrays this in The Iliad with Achilles and his menis, the rage that overcomes him so much that he wishes the death of his own soldiers to prove a point, and the price he must pay for his own glory is first the death of a dear friend, and then his own.
“Then the screaming and shouts of triumph rose up together, of men killing and men killed, and the ground ran blood.” From first examination the Iliad seems to be an epic founded on an idealized form of glory, the kind that young boys think about when they want to join the army. A place full of heroism and manliness where glory can be achieved with a few strokes of a sword and then you go home and everything is just lovely. Many people view the Iliad this way, based on it’s many vivid battle descriptions and apparent lack of remorse for the deaths that occur. This, however, is not how war is presented in the Iliad. Homer presents a very practical outlook on war countering the attainment of the glory with the reality of its price and the destruction it causes. He successfully does this by showing the value of the lives of each person that dies and, in a sense, mourning their passing, describing the terror and ugliness of war, and, through the characters of Achilleus and Hector, displaying the high price of glory.
Homer, Iliad is the narration of the Trojan war. The Trojan war was one of the most important and significant wars of Greek mythology, Homer described how the war was triggered by the abduction of the most beautiful women known as Helen. This paper will argue how the traditional view of this poem is accurate because it indeed was Helens beauty and her selfishness that sparked the Trojan war. Although Helen was not happy about the outcomes of her mistakes. This paper will present how Helen faced many forms of self judgment, how she created many relationships with significant characters, such as Paris, Priam and Aphrodite. Homers portrayal of this significant women was remarkable as we were able to feel her pain and anguish, the readers were
Homer drives home the bleakness and hopelessness of war with his final book. When thinking of a war, the first thought to pop into one's head is most likely death and suffering, not great triumph and glory. For a great majority of the Iliad, however, Homer writes about the winning of glory, and the pride taken in killing a foe. This gives war an entertainment value, and makes it seem that it is a good opportunity to be fighting in a war. This is not the case whatsoever. With the mourning over the prestigious Hektor, it makes the reader realize that no matter how much glory is attained through battle, the fact remains that you are fighting a war and your life expectancy sub sequentially drops dramatically. The sadness that war creates is neglected for much of the Iliad, but in book twenty-four, the point is emphasized thoroughly. Beginning with the speech of Kassandra to the Trojan people,...