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Homer's portrayal of the gods in the iliad
Gods and fate in the iliad of homer
The God Of Homer'S Iliad
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The brutal killing of Priam, king of Troy, is both at the beginning of the story of the Aeneid and an end to the story of the Trojan war contained in the Iliad. In war, some of the most damaging things that can be accomplished are the demoralizing of the other soldiers and the desecration of their gods. The Trojans held their gods in great esteem and are portrayed as a very reverent people. This can be seen by Aeneas refusal to touch the statues of his household gods until he can clean himself of the battle from which he has just come. Father, carry our hearth gods, our Penatës. It would be wrong for me to handle them- Just come from such hard fighting, bloody work- Until I wash myself in running water.# There seems, also, to be a great trust in their gods because of this reverence that the people have, as though the people believe that they will be rewarded for their reverent service of the gods. The royal family seeks sanctuary at the altar of their household …show more content…
With this in mind, the killing of King Priam on the steps of the altar of his gods becomes more than just a death. Pyrrhus is not just slaughtering the king of a rival city, he is going out of his way to defile a holy place of their gods as and act of disgracing his foes. Because of this disregard for the gods, Pyrrus is shown to have little or bad character at this moment. The text describes Pyrrhus as "Burning for the death-stroke"# It would seem that there is no shred of human concern in this man. Pyrrhus has become like a wild animal and he allows himself to be driven by rage. The first reaction of Aeneas to seeing his king slaughtered barbarically at the altar of his own gods is utter horror. For the first time that night, inhuman shuddering took me from head to foot. I stood unmanned, and my dear fathers image came to mind...
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex introduced the one of the most important tragic heroes of Greek literature. First performed in the fifth century B.C.E., the play is centered around Oedipus, the king of the Greek city-state Thebes, and his struggle to conquer his emotions as he seeks out the true story of his life. This work, inspired by a well-known Greek myth, scrutinizes both the tragic flaws of Oedipus and his heroism. Examples of Oedipus’ tragic flaws abound in the play. In his condemnation of Tiresias and Creon, Oedipus is controlled by his emotions. However, the heroism of Oedipus is also an essential theme of the drama, though it is often downplayed. Despite this, careful analysis can uncover many instances in which Oedipus exhibits his heroism by attempting to control his emotions and discover the truth of his origins. In his finest moments, Oedipus is in complete command of his emotions as he searches for the truth, while at his nadir, Oedipus is completely controlled by his emotions and is absolutely unpredictable. This contrast is, in large part, what makes Oedipus a tragic hero. Oedipus, King of Thebes, is among the greatest Hellenistic tragic heroes because of his fight to overcome his greatest flaw, his uncontrollable anger, as he heroically searches for the truth.
Aeneas’s voyage up to his journey to the Underworld has not been easy to say the least. He had to wat...
Patrocles was responsible for his own death. First of all, Patrocles was responsible for his own death because he requested his insertion into the battle, fully knowing that the Achaeans were. being unmercifully defeated by the snare. In Book XVI, Patroclus said Send me forth now at the head of the Myrmidon host. That I may be a light of hope to the Danaans.
... domain of his property that they are willing to die to uphold it, even for a prince they despise.
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
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...
Born into a royal family, Oedipus was one of the bearers of a disastrous generational curse. He had no idea what he was born into, or what he would become. Poor Oedipus was put into to the world to serve as an example from the gods. Although Oedipus was said to be a victim of fate, he contributed to his own fate more than the gods. He was placed into the world to with a prophecy that he will kill his father and married his mother and conceive children with her, but that was just a prophecy not his destiny. Oedipus could have determined a new destiny for himself, but instead he did more things to make the prophecy true rather than false. The life of Oedipus was a great tragedy, not only for him but for his entire family. Although the gods may have set a prophecy for Oedipus future, Oedipus contribute mostly to his destiny.
Homer clearly and precisely depicts the religion and the ethics of the Achian and Trojan societies in The Iliad. During the time of the Trojan war, religion played an important role in the societies. Sacrifice, prayer, and rituals were all equally significant, and the superiority of the gods and the fates above humans was a standard of society. The gods were sacred deities to whom one had to bestow honor and respect. Within the society, honor, glory, and fame were desperately sought by warriors striving to achieve enduring notoriety. One's word represented a considerable commitment to be acted upon. Religion and ethics are prominently displayed in the characters throughout The Iliad due to their importance in Greek and Trojan society.
Pyrrhus who plays a deeper and personal meaning into the story has his fathered killed by Paris and seeks to avenge him by slaying someone just as dear to Paris, his own father Priam. However with the great walls of Troy blocking his advance there is little he could do, but madness drives him and they build a great “Trojan” horse as a transport to fool the superstitious Trojans. To make it believable they even stage like they abandoned the siege by having all of their ships sail away from the island off on the far end to avoid attention, and leaving the horse there as if it were a gift from the gods. The Trojans seeing this as a great victory happily took the horse into Troy and threw a great feast, and drunk themselves to sleep. Then in th...
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).
At last I arrived, unmolested except for the rain, at the hefty decaying doors of the church. I pushed the door and it obediently opened, then I slid inside closing it surreptitiously behind me. No point in alerting others to my presence. As I turned my shoulder, my gaze was held by the magnificence of the architecture. It never fails to move me. My eyes begin by looking at the ceiling, and then they roam from side to side and finally along the walls drinking in the beauty of the stained glass windows which glowed in the candle light, finally coming to rest on the altar. I slipped into the nearest pew with the intention of saying a few prayers when I noticed him. His eyes were fixated upon me. I stared at the floor, but it was too late, because I was already aware that he wasn’t one of the priests, his clothes were all wrong and his face! It seemed lifeless. I felt so heavy. My eyes didn’t want to obey me. Neither did my legs. Too late I realised the danger! Mesmerised, I fell asleep.
Book Four of The Iliad demonstrates the importance of the gods in the events of the Trojan War, during the quarrel between Hera and Zeus and the aftermath of this argument. The importance of this scene, approximately lines 60 through 90 of Book Four, is that it clearly establishes the fact that the gods influence and meddle with the events and the course of the war. This particular passage illustrates the consequences which the plotting of the gods causes both the Greeks and the Trojans, as Hera’s plotting and hatred of the Trojans results in the violation of an oath, in order to ensure the destruction of the Trojans.
Revenge in The Iliad it the main theme and drives men to do things that they would not normally do. The main example of this is Achilles wanting revenge on Agamemnon. The first book of the Iliad explains that Achilles wants revenge because Agamemnon is forced to return Chryseis, his war bride, to her father, and he decides to take Achilles war bride from him. According to “Some Thoughts about the Origins of ‘Greek Ethics’”, by Nicholas D. Smith, “Agamemnon’s unjust affront to Achilles leads to and extraordinarily deadly retaliation, the ultimate outcome of which is that multitudes of these men’s innocent allies are killed unnecessarily”(smith 10). This is out of character for Achilles, who would normally be the first man into battle, not sitting one out. By “rejecting even the most earnest and impressive entreaties Agamemnon offers, and increasingly making decisions which are rationally indefensible”, he shows how much his wanting of revenge has turned him into a madman (smith 10). His only desire is to get revenge for his loss. It takes the death of Patroclus, his dear friend, to bring him back to the war, which he has left.
Knox, Bernard M.W. The Heroic Temper: Studied in Sophocean Tragedy. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1964.
It is the underlying theme in works of Greek literature. Mortals became tools of the gods when convenient. The affairs of men were not always at the will of the gods however, in certain instances, the agenda of the gods permitted involvement in the human domain. By mating with mortals, the Olympian gods could produce children who be loyal to themselves and would be stronger and better than ordinary mortals. Hemitheoi, or demi-gods, were the fourth generation of humankind; the heroes of myth, the ones who fought at Troy or killed immortal beasts in order to save another (Zaidman 25). Homer’s epic the Iliad describes the last two weeks of the ten-year battle between the Trojans and the Greeks that has become known historically as the Trojan War. While the poem primarily focuses on the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon, the use of several Greek gods displaced the purity of the war involvements change the pace of the battle. The story of the Trojan War begins with the story of the apple of discord, the Golden Apple. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each believed that they deserved this apple, by virtue of being the most beautiful. Since the goddess could not decide among themselves and Zeus was not willing to suffer the wrath of the females in his family, the goddess appealed to Paris, Prince of Troy. When asked to judge