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Iliad
The Iliad is told in the third person, from an omniscient point of view. (It's important to note the narrator is the Muse, different from Homer, the poet.) The narrator's point of view is above the...
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Iliad
Both characters are divine entities and thus part of their respective societies' religious belief systems. The character of Satan appears in the Biblical story of Genesis as an evil divine being,...
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The Odyssey
The first set of values one finds in these epics are heroic ones. In heroic culture, aristocrats are expected to demonstrate physical prowess in individual combat. Displaying certain types of...
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Iliad
Achilles refused to help the Greeks assault Troy because he was mad at Agamemnon. The gods sympathized with him, so they enabled Hector and the Trojans to push the Greeks back all the way to their...
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Iliad
The rage of Achilles is a central theme in the Iliad. Homer begins the story by asking the muse to tell him the story--not of the Trojan War--but of Achilles' rage. Rage - Goddess, sing the rage...
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Literature
First, the Iliad is a poem about the Trojan War. In this poem, Menelaus and the Greeks have declared war on Troy with the avowed purpose of obtaining back Helen, wife of Menelaus, who had been...
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Iliad
Your technique for working on this assignment should begin with a review of your class notes on the nature of epic. Next, you should make a list of those things which your instructor says are...
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Iliad
The Iliad reveals the loyalty and devotion which are integral parts of Hector's and Andromache's characterization. Hector and Andromache are two of the most loyal characters in the Iliad. They...
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Iliad
In the first book of Homer's Iliad, we encounter a dispute over a war prize between Agamemnon and Achilles, culminating in Achilles withdrawing from the fight between the Greeks and Trojans, mainly...
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Iliad
Greek religion, as portrayed in the Homeric epics, is characterized as "anthropomorphic." That means that the gods have "human forms." They are similar to humans in more than just outward form....
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Iliad
This is a more complex problem than it might appear on the surface as the Iliad was originally an oral composition rather than a written text. The war between Greece and Troy described in the epic...
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Iliad
One way Homer differentiates characters is by the use of fixed epithets that recur in reference to those characters every time they are mentioned. Rather than being relevant to the situation of the...
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Iliad
In Book 22 of the Iliad, Achilles has returned to the battle after the death of Patroclus. He is the greatest warrior of the Greeks and enraged by the death of his lover. He first challenges Aeneas...
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Iliad
Many different gods play a role in Homer's Iliad. Although some of the older Greek gods or "Titans" and minor deities make appearances, the major roles in the epic are played by the Olympian...
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Iliad
I would argue that the wrath of Achilles doesn't encompass the depth of The Iliad. To a modern reader, the Iliad is about how individual small actions lead to huge events and how no one person or...
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Iliad
In one sense, one could say that the particular heroic culture in which the Iliad was embedded no longer actually exists. Warfare, for example, is not a matter of single combat between two males...
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Iliad
Three important characters in Homer's Iliad are: Odysseus: He is a human hero, who is the King of Ithaca. He fights on the Greek side in the Trojan war and is known for his cleverness, and devising...
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Iliad
Zeus is the King of the Gods, and the most powerful god in the Olympian pantheon. He is married to Hera, his sister, and the Queen of the Gods. They both were children of Cronus and Rhea. Zeus was...
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The Odyssey
A Proömium is, in essence, a preface. From the Greek, it literally means "before the song". From ancient times, it has been used as an introductory chapter, or prologue. The ancient writer Homer...
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Iliad
Lombardo's 1990s translation of the Iliad interprets the work into colloquial English. For a modern reader, the fresh, direct imagery can help make the epic more understandable and relatable. For...
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Iliad
Hera in Homer's Iliad is the Queen of the gods, and the wife of her brother Zeus who is the King of the Gods. She is the goddess of marriage and childbirth, and thus opposes the Trojans because,...
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Iliad
The narration of the Iliad takes place in the third-person omniscient, which means the narrator is not within the story but is looking at it as an objective outsider. Some have speculated that the...
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Iliad
The first consequence of Achilles' anger is that withdraws from the fighting and remains lounging in his tent. Shakespeare has comic scenes involving Achilles amusing himself in his tent along with...
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Iliad
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Iliad
I would like to add a comment to the fine answer above. Achilles displays arrogance whenever he has the opportunity--although only a degree away from other warriors' arrogance--and he certainly...
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Iliad
According to Joseph Campbell, myths serve four functions: evoking awe, presenting a mythos, reinforcing a sociological order, and teaching how to find fulfillment and happiness. One can find...
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Iliad
It will be difficult to describe Achilles with only two adjectives, as he is a complex character. However, if I had to choose two adjectives, I would say that Achilles is proud and wrathful....
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The Odyssey
Although Gilgamesh was created as a written text and the Homeric epics belong to an oral tradition, they do have several characteristics in common. First, they are all heroic epics. This means that...
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Iliad
There are several ways in which divine elements are used to characterize the portraits of mortals in Iliad by Homer. First, in the Iliad, as in most epic literature, one of the standard elements of...
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Iliad
We should define pathos. Broadly speaking, pathos is a quality that evokes pity or sadness. Based on this definition, there are four qualities that Homer uses to provoke sadness. First, as Hector...
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Iliad
In Book VI, Hector rebukes Paris because of his younger brother's selfishness. Hector enters Paris's home, described by the poet Homer as "fine" and "built by the best workmen in the fertile land...
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Iliad
Apollo helps Hector and the Trojans because the god is angry at the Greeks for dishonoring his priest. According to Homer: And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the son...
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Iliad
The two cities portrayed in this famous section of The Iliad are the city of peace and the city of war. The city of peace is holding festivals and weddings, signs of a strong community. The...
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Iliad
There are many conclusions that we can draw about Odysseus as a leader of the Greeks, but one characteristic stands out above the rest. We read about him in Homer's great poems, the Iliad and...
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Iliad
Apollo's question to Achilles is essentially a taunt designed to remind Achilles that he is not only fighting the Trojans but also the gods, some of whom are supporting the Greeks, and some,...
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Iliad
The rivalry between Achilles and Agamemnon in Homer's Iliad has two causes, one indirect and one direct. The indirect cause has to do with the agonistic nature of oral traditional society, in...
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Iliad
Both versions appear in antiquity. Neither is "correct" or "incorrect". They are just two different versions of a story.
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Iliad
Both Homer's Iliad and Christa Wolf's novel Cassandra show that there is a direct relationship between fate and choice. Fate does not act based only on itself; fate is guided by the choices we...
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Iliad
If we examine the Iliad, there are a few key figures. Achilles is the main figure. If we sketch his character, we can say that military prowess, pride, and wrath characterize him. When Agamemnon...
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Iliad
There are two distinct military strategies that the Achaeans employ to reduce their losses at the hands of the Trojans. The first would be the fortification of their camp by building a wall around...
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Iliad
In many of the old dramas there is the "femme fatale" a stock character who exerts a life-changing influence upon the men "fatally" attracted to her. The Iliad by Homer has such a woman in Helen of...
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Homer
Achilles' behavior in the Iliad, at least on first consideration, does not seem to warrant much empathy. Throughout Books 1 through 23, Achilles is, for the most part, a boastful, self-centered,...
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Iliad
In both Homer and Auden, there is a clear statement regarding societal views towards war and the human predicament. In each work, there is a clear statement about the contemporary culture that...
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Iliad
I think that there is a complex view of immortality offered in the Iliad. There are aspects of characterizations where the pursuit of immortality is evident. Achilles recognizes that there is a...
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Iliad
Hector was able to kill Patroclos, his best friend, with help from Apollo. Essentially, Apollo pummels Hector over the head, knocks off his helmet, and thus paves the way for his untimely death....
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The Odyssey
One of the most important episodes in the Odyssey occurs in Book IX when Odysseus describes his encounter with the Cyclopes to King Alcinous of the Phaeacians. The Cyclopes are a race of beings,...
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Iliad
The relationship that Helen and Paris share in the third book reflects a condition of alienation. While conventional wisdom would suggest that Helen would be zealous in support of Paris who is out...
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Iliad
Achilles became angered by Hector when in Book 17 Hector killed Achilles' dear friend and half brother Patroclus. In Book 17, Achilles sends Patroclus to help defend the Achaian ships from the...
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Hesiod
Hesiod's Theogony concerns creation. More specifically, the title Theogony means birth of the divine, and Hesiod relays the creation myths concerning the birth of the gods. He describes the...
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Iliad
Homer certainly has dual feelings about war. On the one hand, Homer's opinion about war conforms with the traditional opinion of war held by the Ancient Greeks, an opinion that really was not...