My face drips with sweat while riding the chariot across the velvet-colored muddy dirt. My heart was pounding quickly and constantly, almost jumping out of my chest. With the swing of my blade, my opponent drops to his knees, eyes rolling back. One Trojan slaughtered, many more Trojans to kill. This isn’t the end; this is far from the end. It’s time I prove myself to Akhilleus, breaker of men; it’s time I show him that I am worthy of wearing his armor. The only blood to touch this armor is the blood of Trojan soldiers and the brave men that fight beside me. With the swing of my sword, I slice the throat of another tired soldier. His eyes thanked me for dismissing him from the prolonging war. Next, my blade meets Pronoos’ chest, skimming past his shield; he crashes against the cold ground. Now sleep will comfort him, for sleep is the cousin of death. My time will come to meet with death, but not until I’ve finished what I came for! A smile unravels across my face while my chest continues to pound; the taste of blood is still fresh in the air. Meeting with Enop’s son, Thestor, a shaken boy, I quickly end his horror and agony. With a clean jab of my spearhead, his world was no more. One by one, more men met their fates by my hands; never hesitating until I’ve lost count. But why must Sarpedon, the grandson of Bellerophon seek me? He has underestimated me in his action to seek me, and therefore, will also meet his fate. I jump off my moving chariot screaming until my head has nearly burst. Oh Thrasydemos, I once believed that you were tough, yet you fall so quickly with my blade’s piercing to your underbelly. Sarpedon, king of Lycia, why must you be a drunken fool of the court!? Why the son of Zeus and Laodamia is merely flinging his... ... middle of paper ... ...the ground beneath my feet were no longer in balance. But I have come too far to retreat! I falter and suddenly the armor starts weighing my entire body down as I unsuccessfully gasped for air. I am now the game and the hunters are cornering me. My throbbing ears exploded with a continuous drumming sound. I pray for Athena’s assistance as I retreat with a panic. Hektor lunged at me with great force, knocking my entire body limp. My body is no longer responding back to my mind. My mind is yelling, almost begging to fight back and defend myself as Hektor stood above my body, glorifying over his weak moves. The words from his mouth jeered at me, why must he continue to curse me as I die? With all the air left within my lungs, I proudly reply, pronouncing that my death will eventually lead to his future death. The world turns black as I spoke and the light was gone.
In this paper, I will argue that although the surface meaning of this passage is the slaughter of the suitors by Odysseus and his men, the deeper meaning of the passage is the
Throughout Greek history and mythology, the greatest heroes have been driven by the desire to gain heroic glory. For them, kleos served as a fundamental indicator of their personal value. A warrior’s worth was defined by how they were viewed and discussed by their peers. Personal glory was more important than life itself. Warriors would rather die young with renown than live a long life of little consequence. However, once they reached the underworld, many found their struggle for kleos by way of personal gain never earned them what they desired. True glory goes beyond an individual’s accomplishments and lives on after their death through their posterity as demonstrated by Agamemnon and Achilles who, upon being visited by Odysseus in the underworld, inquire after the
"All these things are in my mind also, lady; yet I would feel deep shame before the Trojans, and the Trojan women with trailing garments, if like a coward I were to shrink aside from fighting; and the spirit will not let me, since I have learned to be valiant and to fight always among the foremost ranks of the Trojans, winning for my own self great glory, and for my father" (The Iliad of Homer 6.440-449 trans. Lattimore).
First came the pride, an overwhelming sense of achievement, an accomplishment due to great ambition, but slowly and enduringly surged a world of guilt and confusion, the conscience which I once thought diminished, began to grow, soon defeating the title and its rewards. Slowly the unforgotten memories from that merciless night overcame me and I succumbed to the incessant and horrific images, the bloody dagger, a lifeless corpse. I wash, I scrub, I tear at the flesh on my hands, trying desperately to cleanse myself of the blood. But the filthy witness remains, stained, never to be removed.
Lysander calls Demetrius a?spotted and inconsistent man?, indicating Demetrius? fickleness towards women, that he is flirtatious and flawed. Demetrius is willing to go to any extent to have Hermia marry him, even allowing Hermia to be subject to a life of a nun or death, if she does not marry him. Demetrius. infatuation with Hermia brings out the tyrannical and possessive part of his character, as can be seen when he says?and, Lysander, yield thy crazed title to my certain right?
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.
Throughout the Iliad the warriors' dream of peace is projected over and over again in elaborate similes developed against a background of violence and death. Homer is able to balance the celebration of war's tragic, heroic values with scenes of battle and those creative values of civilized life that war destroys. The shield of Achilles symbolically represents the two poles of human condition, war and peace, with their corresponding aspects of human nature, the destructive and creative, which are implicit in every situation and statement of the poem and are put before us in something approaching abstract form; its emblem is an image of human life as a whole.
The Iliad, in that it is more about the Greek hero Achilles than any other particular person, portrays the Achaean in surprisingly shocking light at times throughout the story. In his encounter with Lycaon, who had previously been taken prisoner by Achilles long ago, Achilles demonstrates the extents to which his warlike demeanor can go. Yet it is equally surprising that he is capable of impressive compassion, as is depicted elsewhere in the Iliad. What seems to be an almost unbelievable fluctuation in attitude and mood is far from unexplained or contradictory, however. In fact, there is a well-defined regularity in Achilles' actions and demeanors, to the point of being capable of systematic classification. Achilles is not a loose cannon or an unpredictable firebrand. The method to his madness can be applied to his encounter with Lycaon as it can with any of his episodes in the Iliad.
The first part of a trilogy, in Agamemnon a cyclical path of retributive justice is set in motion. * As his characters move through the play, the plot to murder Agamemnon is discussed, both as an evil and as a justified act. To Clytemnestra, her actions are decided on the day her daughter is sacrificed by her husband. “…the death he dealt/our house and the offspring of out loins,/Iphigeneia, girl of tears./Act for act, wound for wound!”Just as Agamemnon’s choice to sacrifice his daughter is forced on him by a perception of the gods’ desires, Clytemnestra feels she is driven to her actions by a “savage ancient spirit of revenge.” Her co-conspirator, Aegisthus, is claiming retribution for wrongs that were per...
It was of extreme importance to a man during this time period to die in war and leave a memorable name in society. In the Spartan society even a mother was accustomed to the idea that her son had to die to be a “hero” or perhaps be remembered as one. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Achilles mother...
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).
It was cold outside, where a man lay. This man lay here because he had no home. His name was Chryosis. Dishonored by his family, dishonored by his friends. Dishonored, he claimed, by the Gods of Olympus themselves. He slept outside of a rich man’s house, for the man didn't care for his well being. He didn't know the man's name, nor did he care. He just needed money. So young, Chryosis was, when he his family left him, when his friends ignored him and now, for many years, He has been working for the rich man, whom he hated and, once again, didn't bother to remember the name of. So he stayed against the dying tree, where he would soon die also, or so he thought…
The insistence of personal gain seems to shield the Homeric hero to the consequences that can befall not only him, but also those that are under his leadership. Agamemnon ignores the evidence that the girls father is a priest of the god Apollo, by dis...
The term, the Trojan Horse, comes from Greek mythology, in which the Greeks battled the Trojans during the Trojan War. After a 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse and hid a select force of men inside. They used it to enter the city of Troy and win the war. A giant wooden horse was given to their foes, the Trojans, as a peace offering. But after the Trojans drag the horse inside their city walls, Greek soldiers snuck out of the horse's hollow belly and opened the city gates, allowing their compatriots to pour in and capture Troy.
• In the first choral ode the chorus establishes it’s identity within the play, provides a time lapse to allow the watchman to inform Clytaemnestra of the news of the fall of Troy and directs the audience by informing them that it has been ten years since Agamemnon set out for Troy. The reason for this war is Paris’s betrayal of the laws of hospitality by stealing Helen from Menelaus.