Human Condition In The Iliad

While Athena gets what she wants—Agamemnon alive and the fall of the Trojans at the hand of Achilles—the humans pay the price. However, even though the gods may be able to make use of fate to meet their desires, they cannot overrule it. This is clear when Zeus watches Sarpedon die, because it is fated to happen. Although he would prefer to save his son, in order to “avoid disturbing fate and unleashing a clash of meddling parent-gods, [Zeus] must settle for spiriting away the corpse and weeping down divine tears of blood” (Kitts 227). These limitations are similar to those that keep humans from changing fate.

First, there direct contact between the mortal, Paris, and the goddesses, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. This would be an example of the human condition where humans are competitive and selfish. Although the human condition is amplified to an extreme when Paris’ pick sparked the Trojan War, which resulted in the fall of Troy (Lecture, Feb. 17). Secondly, Greeks specifically have influence when it comes to which Greek God they sacrifice to. Poseidon complains to Zeus and speaks of his embarrassment at the fact that mortals are no longer under his wrath or consequences since Odysseus was able to make it home safe.

Queen Hera advised Zeus that it would be unwise to intervene because the other gods would see it as favoritism. Petroclus killed Sarpedon. The god Apollo avenges the death of Sarpedon by stripping away Petroclus’ armor rendering him Tucker 2 defenseless, and thus he is killed by Hector. It is apparent that the Greeks felt that the gods ordered their destiny. According to Alexander Murray, “…man himself, and everything around him, was upheld by Devine power; that his career was marked out for him by a rigid fate whi... ... middle of paper ... ...ary, the Greeks and Hebrews shared the common belief that gods or God had the final say so as to the fate of man.

Dionysus refuted rational thinking by letting his emotions for revenge stand in the way of his contemplating how a god should behave. In doing all the things Dionysus has destroyed the ideal way one would expect a god to conduct their self. Euripides portrays a Dionysus that single handily destroys all the cultural values of Hellenic Greece; however, Euripides is able to capture the changing values of his audience and pave the way for the culture of Hellenistic Greece to begin to dominate societal thought. Works Cited Marien, Mary W., and Flemming, William. Arts and Ideas.

From the evidence I have seen in The Iliad, I believe that this distinction is based on something I call a god-like trait. If a human reacts towards this trait in the wrong way, and believes he embodies this trait at the level equal or surpassing to that of the gods, tragedy occurs to the human. This mistake in self-recognition will lead to severe consequences unless the mortal repents and accepts his humanity. In The Iliad, Helen makes the mistake of false divinity, and it is her error in associating herself as the paragon of a god-like trait and in refusing to repent that leads to her ruin. The definition of a god-like trait must first be established before the analysis of Helen’s behavior can be entirely understood.

Earlier in the story, he is warned to not just devote all his time to worshipping the goddess Artemis, but to... ... middle of paper ... ...ly lessened in relation to the power of the god, Dionysus. Dionysus continues his show off his power when the initial victim, himself, eventually becomes the aggressor or in simple terms the hunted becomes the hunter. In conclusion, I believe the stories themselves tell of Pentheus as the deserver of his fate while Hippolytus is shown to be the innocent victim, but I believe the true meaning behind these stories are meant to be interpreted in polar opposites of the initial read through. Hippolytus actually ends up deserving his fate because he sinned against the gods and was too prideful of his own celibacy, while Pentheus was a victim of the social order practiced by humans, in that royalty was thought be above the peasants and strangers. So it seems as though Pentheus was tricked into his fate, while Hippolytus deserved his short comings due to his own faults.

Oedipus choses to seek the truth about the murderer of Laius, honourably indeed to save the people of Thebes, but through this choice he in a sense administers his own lethal injection. Oedipus is warned about the consequences of his actions by Teresias when he prophesises the outcome of the search for truth. Due to Oedipus' ego which is built up by the pedestal that the people of Thebes have put him on, he does not accept the help of Teresias and continues to search. His opinion of himself being above the Gods leads him to then again shun the help of Jocasta who once again warns him of the consequences of the search for truth. Oedipus' persistence lands him our criticism, at this point we cannot criticise Jocasta as she tries to help him, and warn him about what will happen is he persists.

Throughout his comedy, The Clouds, Aristophanes ridicules aspects of Greek society when he destroys tradition by denouncing the importance of the gods' influence on the actions of mortals, and he unknowingly parallels Greek society with today's. Disguised by laughter, he digs deep into the truth by which citizens of Greek and future cultures will abide. Aristophanes challenges humans' strength in belief systems, fortitude of character, and ability to deal with the complexity of parenting. He also defiantly misrepresents an icon like Socrates as comical, atheistic, and consumed by ideas of self interest, which is contradictory to the Socrates seen in Plato's Apology or Phaedo. However different from each other, each writing contained a role for Socrates, which symbolized the messages trying to be conveyed in each.

Achilles Odysseus Homer's two central heroes, Odysseus and Achilles, are in many ways differing manifestations of the same themes. While Achilles' character is almost utterly consistent in his rage, pride, and near divinity, Odysseus' character is difficult to pin down to a single moral; though perhaps more human than Achilles, he remains more difficult to understand. Nevertheless, both heroes are defined not by their appearances, nor by the impressions they leave upon the minds of those around them, nor even so much by the words they speak, but almost entirely by their actions. Action is what drives the plot of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and action is what holds the characters together. In this respect, the theme of humanity is revealed in both Odysseus and Achilles: man is a combination of his will, his actions, and his relationship to the divine.

Once having decided to leave the fighting, he goes to speak to his mother, Thetis. He asks her to ask Zeus to allow the Trojan army to take over the fighting so that the Greeks realize how much they need him, and for them to come to an appreciation for him. Through his concern for his own ego, it is appearant to the reader that, knowing his fate, Achilles will do all that is in his power to stop the fate, or his doom, from being played out. It is also known that the gods do not favour those who try to defy them. Achilles do... ... middle of paper ... ... is much more important than selfishly hiding from battle, not using his gifts.