Analysis Of The Iliad: The Tragedy Of Achilles

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Many people know that the “second name” of The Iliad is “The Rage of Achilles”. This is because Homer wrote The Iliad in a way that it focuses mostly on Achilles and all his decisions rather than any other character. His actions, and the consequences of all the said actions, are the overall topic for this great epic. The Iliad can be accurately described as a measurement of how much Achilles’s wrath affects the destines of the many warriors who fought and died in the Trojan War (Champagne 2). After reading this great epic twice, I have decided that a better “second name” for The Iliad could be “The Tragedy of Hector”, seeing as how the Trojan leader suffered the most, and was, in my opinion, definitely a better person than Achilles when it …show more content…

Had Achilles not acted like a spoiled child, the Greeks would have won the war sooner, with significantly lower death count. It puzzles me that no one takes this into account when they praise Achilles. It is because of him that several of his dear friends died the way they did, yet people praise him as a hero. However, I feel that Hector is a far better hero and is completely underrated. This is because I believe Hector is the polar opposite of Achilles in all the good ways. Where Achilles was quick to anger, Hector was not. Achilles did not accept criticism well, nor did he like having people question him. On the other hand, Hector welcomed criticism and took the concerns and ideas of his men into consideration. He did not always follow his comrade’s advice, but he still listened to them. Due to the circumstances of the war, and how the two men acted, one could say Hector had a more noble reason to fight, yet “Achilles [was the one who hijacked] the Iliad” (qtd. Lateiner 2). His decisions completely controlled what went own during the war, which we see when he retreats and stops …show more content…

The lives of all the humans did not matter much so long as fate was followed and the gods were entertained. With that in mind, I believe Hector was truly dealt a horrible hand by said fate. He suffered so much due to the decisions made not only by other humans, but his gods as well. All good decisions he made, every effort to keep the Trojans from falling, was not able to save him or his people. In a way, he reminds me a lot of Oedipus. I compare the two because both men were not able to escape what had been planned for them by the gods no matter how hard they tried. Both men lost the battle against faith and suffered greatly, which makes their lives and their stories a

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