Homer's Iliad is an Anthropocentric Epic

1545 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: homer and the epic poem

"So the immortals spun our lives that we, wretched men / live on to bear such torments...." (The Iliad bk.24, ln.613-614) This pessimistic explanation of the human condition was a tradition observed and preserved by the ancient Greeks through the composition of Homer's Iliad. This one statement, made by the godlike Achilles to King Priam in the last chapter of the work, provides the reader a contextual summary of what the Greeks believed was their role in the cosmos. Homer's Iliad, among many other themes contained in the poem, “is an anthropocentric epic exposing the ancient Greek's views about man and his relationships”(Clarke 129). Homer demonstrates both the pious and customary behaviors, as well as the impious and rebellious, to illustrate the amicable and adversarial relationships of man. Few relationships composed by Homer are exclusively one or the other. Through the composition, Homer muses the relationships between man and fate, man and the gods, and between man and his kind (dominate, subordinate and equal). All of these intricately woven relationships share one common thread; they bring to bear torment on man's life.

Man's bind with fate is not straight-forward according to Homer. Though destiny is never overridden in the poem, it is tempted many times, either by the gods wishing to intervene on behalf of their favorite mortals, or by man himself. Zeus contemplates tempting fate when the predestined death of his son Sarpedon arrives at the hands of Patroclus. Zeus mourns the "cruel fate" and laments, "My heart is torn in two....Shall I pluck him up, now, while he is still alive...? Or beat him down at Patroclus' hands at last?" (bk.16, ln.514-21). Because of the protestations of Hera, Zeus bows to the...

... middle of paper ...

...ods and their fellow man. And it was through these challenges that the torments bore on their lives. This was the fate of the human condition. "And fate? No man alive has ever escaped it" (bk.6, ln.582).

Works Cited and Consulted:

Bespaloff, Rachel. On the Iliad. Trans. Mary McCarthy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1947.

Clarke, Howard. Homer's Readers: A Historical Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press, 1981.

Goodrich, Norma. Myths of the hero. New York: Orion Press, 1962.

Homer: Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1990.

Richardson, Nicholas. The Iliad : A Commentary. Vol. VI: books 21-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993.

Willcock, Malcolm M. A Companion to the Iliad: Based on the Translation by Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976

Show More
Related

  • Buy Essay Online: Dishonest Odysseus of Homer's Odyssey

    2175 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.

    Read More

  • How does Ignorance and Pride Play a Part in Man’s Destruction?

    1688 Words  | 4 Pages

    The choices we make define the destiny of our lives. Since the beginning of time, man has always been an imperfect being full of flaws. Man is faced with different situations that can end up bringing disgrace to himself and his family if the situations are not well handled. In the texts Book II of the Aeneid by Virgil, Antigone by Sophocles, Oedipus the king by Sophocles, and Book XXII from the Iliad by Homer; Creon, the Trojan people, Hector, Achilles, and Oedipus embody what can lead to a man’s downfall through their own choices. Through these texts we are able to learn from the mistakes people made in the past and lead good moral lives. The texts illustrate how pride, lack of empathy, and ignorance lead to the destruction of man.

    Read More

  • Use of Disguises in Homer's Odyssey

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Heubeck, Alfred, J.B. Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 Vols. Oxford 1988

    Read More

  • Jane Eyre: Beautiful and Rich of Heart

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The fairest one in all the land”, how many endearing characters of classical literature can this well know phrase be said about? The list is endless but surely does not include Jane Eyre. She is described as a plain poor quaker like woman; she had no prominent features, was not draped in extravagant gowns, suiters were not lined up at her door step swept away by her angelic beauty. She was a simple woman with simple possession and simple needs. Perhaps though, in a parallel plot, Jane was indeed the fairest of them all. What would the well know tale have looked like then?

    Read More

  • Irish History and Economy

    2397 Words  | 5 Pages

    Kiberd, Declan, Inventing Ireland: the Literature of the Modern Nation, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1996.

    Read More

  • Narration Style in As I Lay Dying

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    All throughout his novel, Faulkner presents multiple narrators who all give somewhat differing versions of emotions and events that cause the reader to question their reliability. Because he strays from the traditional practice of having a single narrator, every account is completely subjective to whoever is telling it, and therefore a wide range of events are subsequently left up to the reader to decide who and what is most truthful. Readers must sort through the various interpretations of events and each character’s emotions, as they can no longer accept the story that is usually being told by one reliable narrator. Because of this narration style, there is no final truth or final universal meaning in the novel, as everything that happens is open to an individ...

    Read More

  • British Colonial Policy And The Nigerian Civil War

    2828 Words  | 6 Pages

    While the outside world considered Nigeria to be a united and monolithic entity, even the British colonial administration was wary of the reality of Nigerian politics; the nation was not so much a “country” as it was more than three hundred different groups coalesced into one.4 5 These tribes were divided between three main spheres of influence: the Yoruba, the Igbo, and the Hausa. Historically, their interests were often opposed, and their cultures did not come into regular contact with one another until the British occupation. In spite of the differences British administration a...

    Read More

  • Odysseus’ Search for Purpose in Homer's Odyssey

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    Heubeck, Alfred, J.B. Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 Vols. Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Free Trade

    2081 Words  | 5 Pages

    Even in a world focused on the benefits free trade and aimed at achieving the goal of free trade, states are protectionist by nature. Unfortunately, the design of the international system allows for stronger nations to be more protectionist, leaving the weaker states even more vulnerable. A study that is more intensive than a critical commentary should be devoted to analyzing the impact of free trade on developing nations. I was limited to the readings and prior knowledge, and thus couldn’t provide a sufficient analysis on the fair treatment of developing nations. I was skeptical of the one reading that focused on fairness of international institutions because of the statistics that indicate these nations have not done well in recent decades. I would like to look into this more given more time and resources.

    Read More

  • Culture of Ireland

    3089 Words  | 7 Pages

    This paper will investigate the culture of Ireland by taking a look at the five characteristics. Each characteristic will be allotted its own subsections. The first section will encompass the history to illuminate the connection of a country’s struggle and their learned culture. I will communicate the key aspects that connect an individual culture to the region of the world it inhabits in the second section. In the third section, the language and art of the land are discussed to draw lines to the symbols a culture is founded upon. The fourth section of the essay is dedicated to the characteristic of culture being made up of many components. This is illustrated by the ethnicity/racial, weather, terrain, and military breakdown of the island. The final section is commentary on the dynamic characteristic that interacting cultures learn, develop, and transform due to their shared contact and friction.

    Read More

  • Tangible or Intangible Value?

    576 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the customer value triad theory by Earl Naumann, “value is a combination of quality, service and price” (Naumann, 1995). In this case quality could be defined as performance quality, the objective quality of a product (Kotler & Keller, 2012). A product with high performance quality, increases the value of a product. The value of a product is furthermore positively influenced by the service that is delivered (Kotler & Keller, 2012). The price however, can both positively and negatively influence the value of a product. A high price will in most cases decrease the value, but for some exclusive and luxury goods, a high price increases the value. The exclusivity, which is of intangible nature, is than one of the most important determinants of the value of the product. For most normal goods however, the objective quality is the prime determinant of the value. Although intangible benefits can be important in determining the value of a product, in most cases it is still the tangible benefits and costs, the objective quality and the price.

    Read More

  • Frantz Fanon and Cultural Nationalism in Ireland

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    Only recently has Ireland been included in the extensive study of postcolonial societies. Our geographical closeness to Britain, the fact that we are racially identical, the fact that we speak the same language and have the same value systems make our status as postcolonial problematic. Indeed, some would argue it is impossible to tell the difference between Irish and British. However, to mistake Irish for English to some is a grave insult. In this essay, I would like to look at Ireland’s emerging postcolonial status in relation to Frantz Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth’. By examining Fanon’s theories on the rise of cultural nationalism in colonised societies, one can see that events taking place in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century bear all the hallmarks of a colonised people’s anti-colonial struggle through the revival of a culture that attempts to assert difference to the coloniser and the insistence on self-government.

    Read More

  • The Travellers: Ireland’s Ethnic Minority

    2596 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Travellers, a minority community indigenous to Ireland, have existed on the margins of Irish society for centuries. They share common descent, and have distinct cultural practices - early marriage, desire to be mobile, a tradition of self-employment, and so on. They have distinct rituals of death and cleansing, and a language they only speak among their own. Travellers are not overtly conscious of a sense of group history. Concern with ancestry is an obsession of those who value permanence of place. Rather, the individual is defined by his/her place within the relationship network. They live in extended patriarchal families, prefer trailers, tend to nomadism interspersed with occasional house dwelling, and maintain a nomadic mindset even when settled; a house is considered only a stopping place between journeys, whether the stop lasts 20 days or 20 years! There are an estimated 21,000 Travellers currently living in the Republic of Ireland, over half of whom have no access to toilet facilities, electricity, refuse collection or piped water.

    Read More

  • Plagiarism Essay

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plagiarism is a very serious topic to be dealt with, due to the fact that it can damage one’s future very severely. It is done often by students in high school and other institutes such as universities and colleges. People plagiarize intentionally and sometimes even unintentionally. The people who plagiarize intentionally are people who don’t really care about their future and career. The people who plagiarize unintentionally are people who do not cite their work properly and completely. Most people that plagiarize do not get a good mark and most likely have to face consequences such as failure, suspension or the chance of being expelled. In conclusion it is believed that one should not put his/her future at risk and try to expand their mind through the process of critical thinking independently, so they do not have to make the mistake of plagiarizing.

    Read More

  • Value And Value In Marketing

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mathwick, C., Malhotra, N. and Rigdon, E. (2001), “Experiential value: conceptualization, measurement and application in the catalog and internet shopping", of Retailing, Vol. 77, pp. 39-56.

    Read More

More about Homer's Iliad is an Anthropocentric Epic

Open Document