Iliad

That's an excellent answer. In addition, two other things to consider:1. the use of the number three continues to this day, due to the Christian ideals that have later sprung from Greek (and then...

I think that Agamemnon's motivations are more in line with his opportunity to take Troy more than in showing loyalty to his brother. Homer depicts Agamemnon as the type of leader who can seize a...

You are, I imagine, referring particularly to Book 22, which narrates the titanic final battle between Hector and Achilles and then Hector's death. As to who is the more "heroic", there are...

One reason why Homer's work is considered significant is because it is believed to be "the first work of true literature in the Western tradition." The Iliad establishes the capacity and the...

Menelaos (or Menelaus) is the powerful king of Sparta whose wife is the beautiful Helen, whose abduction by Paris set off the Trojan War. Menelaus is also the brother of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae...

You will get many answers to this. There are many extraordinary passages in the work. For my bet, I think that the prayer Hector offers the gods in favor of his son is really powerful. It is at...

In the Iliad, the characters are to follow a heroic code. This code is a system of honor. The heroic code includes a goal. The goal of Homeric heroes is to achieve honor. Honor is essential if one...

While Achilles is busy sulking in his tent, his comrades are getting a good, hard thrashing on the field of battle. Without their finest warrior, the Achaeans are in big trouble against the...

Part of what makes the Iliad such an immensely powerful work is that it renders a very challenging portrait of war. On one hand, war is shown to represent the vitality of human beings. Men, in...

Hecuba (Hecabe in Greek) is the wife of Priam, king of Troy, and the mother of 19 of Priam's 50 sons. Among Hecabe's children are Hector, Paris/Alexander, and Cassandra. In Homer's Iliad, Hecuba...

The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles is absolutely crucial to the action of book 1 of the Iliad and provides a catalyst for much of the action to follow. Proud Achilles, the finest of the...

The Iliad, like all great works of art, is of continued relevance because it deals with universal themes. The characters in the poem may have, what seem to us, strange names; their codes of honor...

The Greek's did place a lot of importance on the body after death. This is why Priam begged for Hector's body back. A proper burial was very important to the Greek's. Hector was brave and his...

The Iliad gives us a third person omniscient, or god's eye view, which is appropriate as the action that transpires outside the walls of Troy is all part of a divine plan. Everything that happens...

One of the essential themes in the Iliad is fate and how much of it is in our control. For the women of the Iliad, much of their fate is beyond their control. Hecuba and Andromache represent...

Andromache is utterly crestfallen at news of her husband Hector's death. Even though she foretold his demise, it's still incredibly hard for her to handle. So she weeps and wails bitterly over her...

The concept of pride in the Homeric epics differs somewhat from our modern understanding of pride. The most famous Greek word for pride, hubris, indicates outrageous behavior that goes beyond the...

I think that Homer is seeking to bring out how human beings, unlike the Gods, can change in a worthwhile and meaningful manner. Achilles' evolution is a reminder that the horrors of war can be...

One shared archetype in both works is the archetype of "the task." In this particular archetype, there is a task confronting the protagonist or individuals in a work. The task is massive, and not...

The Iliad is an ancient text that includes a firsthand account of the Trojan War, a time when swords and spears were still used for battle. Ares appears in divine form as a god of war who backs the...

Homer's Iliad and Dante's Inferno are both epic poems that examine the negative consequences of unbridled human emotion—of giving in to unethical personal desires that harm others. A big difference...

In Homer's Iliad, Hector is the oldest son of the Trojan king, Priam, and his queen, Hecuba; husband to Andromache; brother to Deiphobus, Helenus, and Paris (who seduces Helen away from the...

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...

This is hard question to answer, because this question can be answered by two perspectives. If we only consider human women, then we can say that they are not portrayed as strong at all. For...

I think that it is perceived that the Homeric text encompasses the entire Trojan War. That is not the case. The length of the war was about a decade. Homer's work focuses on a small period in...

The various legends concerning Achilles' invulnerability are wildly contradictory. The most famous relates to his mother, Thetis, dipping him into the River Styx but failing to fully submerge the...

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...

Women show the price of a warrior society on individual humans. They can't earn glory fighting, but they can reveal the ill effects of fighting. Chryseis and Briseis, for example, becomes spoils of...

It has been established by scholars that the Iliad contains textual layers that pertain to various epochs beginning from Pre-Mycenaean era and ending at least with the ninth century BCE. Thus,...

Achilles's death is a well-known story from Greek mythology. When he was a child, Achilles's mother, Thetis, dipped him into a substance that made him immortal, but a vulnerable spot remained on...

The first line of Homer's Iliad references Achilles's anger which "brought countless ills" to all the parties involved in the Trojan War. Achilles fights his battles literally and figuratively...

Throughout Homer’s epic, the gods manipulate the humans to influence the war’s outcome. Instances when the gods trick the mortals by assuming disguises or using their divine powers can be found in...

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...

Apollo is able to help Hector kill Patroklos because Patroklos ends up not listening to the advice that Achilles gave him prior to his departure into battle. Still fuming over his perceived slight...

A crucial and widely encompassing aspect of the heroic code in The Iliad is the sacred oath—the reason why Helen's former suitors have all come together at great personal cost to fight the Trojans...

While it is true that Dante is sympathetic to the Trojans, it is not fair to say that Homer favors the Greeks. In fact, Homer's impartiality in the Iliad is remarkable. Hector is perhaps the most...

Looking at the Trojan War, it is very obvious that passion played a massive role in this war. After all, had Paris not abducted Helena, this would not have prompted Menelaus to go to war against...

On the whole, Troy makes a number of changes to the Iliad, mainly as a result of the filmmakers wanting to appeal to a modern audience. Characters are made nobler than they were in the original...

What is so interesting about the presentation of the gods in this epic classic is that, instead of being divine and more wise than humans, the gods are shown in many ways to be more petty and more...

Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid are both epic poems set around the Trojan War. The former recounts battles during a multiyear assault on Troy as strange and often strained bedfellows Achilles and...

Achilles is a central character in the Iliad and the Greek's greatest warrior. Significantly, he is the given the choice between living a long and peaceful life at home or achieving heroic fame as...

The Iliad is an Ancient Greek epic poem written by the Ancient Greek poet Homer. The epic tells the story of the so-called Trojan War, which was supposedly fought between the Mycenaean Greeks and...

Homer’s Iliad features the great warrior Achilles. As a demi-god, his mother was a sea god and his father was a mortal. This gives Achilles great strength of body and character, though he is not...

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...

Among the monumental struggles that Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides depict in these classical Greek works, the efforts of the women emerge in complementary and contradictory ways. Issues of loyalty...

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,...

The differences between Hector and Achilles derive from their respective origins. Achilles is half god, half king, son of Thetis the sea nymph and King Peleus. This helps to explain why there's a...

Two adjectives that could describe Achilles are sulky and temperamental. Achilles sulks in his tent because his sense of honor is offended when Agammenon takes Briseis, a young woman, to be his war...

I had to reduce the original question because each sacred text mentioned could represent another answer. I think that reposting them into separate questions could be quite insightful. I think...

The most important aspect of the heroic code is honor. For the Achaeans and Trojans alike, honor is won primarily on the field of battle, displayed in countless acts of physical courage. Achilles,...