Anger, the emotional response related to one’s psychological interpretation of having been threatened. Bloodlust is the uncontrollable desire to kill or maim others. The loss of self-control is the failure to keep one’s emotions, behavior, and desire in order. Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. All these are characteristic themes that can be found all throughout the Iliad. They are all wrapped up into one aspect that every character in the epic poem The Iliad prizes, Honor. Honor is the driving force behind the Trojan War, because Menelaus’ wife, Helen, was stolen by the Trojan Prince, Paris. Since Menelaus’ honor was violated by this act of treason, it must be restored …show more content…
As revenge Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles “The king, being obliged to send back his captive, enters into a furious contest with Achilles, which Nestor pacifies; however, as he had the absolute command of the army, he seizes on Briseis in revenge. Achilles in discontent withdraws himself and his forces from the rest of the Greeks” (Homer 4). As revenge for Agamemnon’s actions he withdraws himself from the war and asks that the Trojans win against the Greeks “On the twelfth day Thetis visits Zeus and asks him to honor her son Achilles, who has been dishonored by Agamemnon. She asks Zeus to help the Trojans until the Greeks show honor to Achilles and give him gifts to compensate for the dishonor he has suffered” (Thompson 3). And he also kills Hector, takes his body and mutilates it, in revenge for killing Patroclus “The death of Patroclus is the price Achilles pays for his wrath; the death of Hector is the price the Trojans pay for the death of Patroclus…” (Thompson 4). Avenging Patroclus’ death by killing Hector, Homer as brought on bloodlust in Achilles. He is so consumed and blinded by anger and bloodlust, for the death of his friends, that he will not listen to Hector’s speech about honoring the corpse of the fallen “Indeed, Achilles’s responses to Hector become increasingly animalistic, and as such, not dissolve of mortality, but paradoxically mute: now that everything is reduced to bestiality, language is …show more content…
The purpose of the Trojan War is to defend Menelaus’ honor, which is very important to the Greeks and Trojans alike. Many a times they choose honor and glory over a simple life. Anger is the first response to the intense situations that occurs between many of the characters. Vengeful actions and the loss of self-control are brought on by the angry reactions of the characters in these particularly intense
In the Iliad, many characters lack self-control which causes war, strife, and death. Paris’s Paris’ lack of self-control regarding Helen started the Trojan War which kept the soldiers away from their homes for years. Achilles’ lack of self-control in his rage added to the loss and pain for both the Greeks and the Trojans. The Iliad begins:
The events portrayed in the Iliad were set in motion by love. Paris' love for Helen and her love for Paris, resulting in Helen deserting Menelaus and leaving with Paris for Troy. Helen, consumed by her love, leaves for Troy with "no thought for her child or husband." Menelaus' love for Helen drives him to raise an army of thousands and lay siege to Troy to recover her. Thousands of young men from both sides of the struggle, Troy and Argos, died. The result was a ten year siege of Troy finally resulting in the plunder of the city, the women of troy being enslaved, and all of the men being slaughtered. Patroclus, Achilles, and Hector, all dead for the sake of Helen. Achilles withdraws from battle because he loves Briseis, the favorite of all the women captured in battle, and refuses to return until she is recovered. Achilles returns to battle in order to revenge Patroclus, but not until after Briseis is returned to him in the same condition in which she was taken. It is apparent, I grant, that after the death of Patroclus, the motivations in the Iliad quickly turned to revenge as is demonstrated by Achilles proclamation to Hector - "Would to god my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw...!" These are the words of a man driven by revenge, but isn't revenge, in this case, motivated by love - Achilles love of Patroclus?
The first line of the Iliad describes a human emotion that leads to doom and destruction in Homer's poetic tale of the Trojan War. Achilles' rage is a major catalyst in the action in the Iliad. It is his rage that makes him both withdraw from and, later, rejoin the war with a fury. Why is Achilles enraged? Is his rage ignited solely by his human adversaries or do the gods destine him to the experience? Achilles' rage has many facets. His rage is a personal choice and, at times, is created by the gods.
In The Iliad some central values of early Greek society are anger, honor, and love. The way The Iliad begins, with the "wrath of Achilles” sets the direction which the epic takes. Achilles anger is based of pride and honor.
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...
Achilles anger was a predominant theme in the Iliad. It led to Patrokolos, death, Hektor’s death and a great many other Trojan deaths. Achilles was a very powerful Greek warrior, he had many faults but one of his most prominent was his uncontrollable anger. Multiple times throughout the Iliad his anger had for reaching effects on the war and people around him. These effects were not usually favorable to anyone. There are three main occurrences that led Achilles’ anger down devastating paths. The first was when Agamemnon took Achilles’ girlfriend. When this happened, Achilles felt robbed because Brisies, his girlfriend, represented his might and the glory of his conquests. In the Greek culture, glory and honor were highly esteemed. This is why
In the process, he is going to selfishly put his honor above the well-being of his fellow troops and friends. Achilles is a "man born and shaped for battle, who values life, his own included, as nothing (35). " When he is insulted, he draws his sword and contemplates killing Agamemnon at that very instant, but is stopped by Athena who assures him that his honor will be restored. At this point, it can be seen that Achilles is willing to chance a long peaceful life for honor's sake. He asks his mother for the Trojans to gain power so that he will be called upon for his great worrier skills.
In the Iliad, revenge is the cause of many problems. There are main concepts that lead to having revenge in which it is pride, rage and emotional charged. Pride can lead to revenge by disbelieving in someone’s own dignity. Rage can also result into having revenge by making a person become full of anger to the point that they can not hold it back any more. Emotional charged can result to revenge by someone who is very emotional and starts to have a negative aspect to what has happened. In the Iliad, revenge causes problems where justice is the solution to those problems, as seen through Achilles and Hector.
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.
The Trojan War was incited by Paris’ theft of Menelaus’ wife. This is the first, and only, breach of xenia in all of the Iliad, with good cause. Paris was Menelaus’ guest but chose to steal Menelaus’ wife and much of his riches instead of honoring xenia as he should have. Paris’ transgression against xenia is what initially agitated Menelaus’. Although this act is not explicitly pictured in the Iliad, the Trojan War is essentially the fallout of Paris’ breach of xenia and without his infraction, many lives
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.
Simone Weil argues that the way Homer presents war and the use of force in the Iliad, in all of its brutality, violence, and bitterness bathes the work in the light of love and justice (pg 25). The point Weil is making is that by depicting the suffering of all of these men regardless of their side, or strength Homer equalizes them in a “condition common to all men”(pg 25). Because Homer equalizes them the reader can feel empathy, or at least compassion for all of the men. However while Weil is correct about how Homer’s descriptions of war and force reveal justice and love, she is wrong in thinking that justice and love are mere “accents” to the Iliad, and progress through the story “without ever becoming noticeable”(pg 25). Homer not only reveals this underlying idea to the reader through his tone and even handedness, but also through Achilles’ journey. By the end of the Iliad Achilles understands justice and love in much the same way that the reader does.
The Iliad may be seen as an account of the circumstances that irrevocably alter the life of one man: Achilles, one of the greatest warriors. Throughout the course of the poem Achilles goes through many ordeals that change his character immensely. Starting with his quarrel with Agamemnon and withdrawal from battle, to the death of Patroklos, and with the slaying of Hektor. Achilles emotions and actions decide the fate of many warriors on both sides. Achilles struggles with anger, honor, pride, loyalty and love make the poem more that just a gruesome war story.
After that part, Achilles shows vengeance when he talks about how he wants to kill Hector. 'I will not live nor go about mankind unless Hector fall by my spear, and thus pay me for having slain Patroclus, son of Mencetius.';
...h Agamemnon and wishes that ‘strife could die from the lives of gods and men’… Not to avenge Patroclus by killing Hector would be a renunciation of all that he stands for and has lived by”. Even though “sorrow fell on Achilles like a cloud” (216), he went back out to the battlefield and killed Hector. It took a great deal of bravery for Achilles to face the man who killed his best friend but Achilles, being the hero that he was, got back into battle and killed him because he couldn’t let Patroclus’ death go unavenged.