The first existential theme in The Iliad is Akhilleus’ conflict between options. In book nine of The Iliad, Akhilleus confronts options that will ultimately decide his future. He states: My mother, Thetis of the silver feet, tells me of two possible destinies carrying me towards death: two ways: if on the one hand I remain to fight around Troy town. I lose all hope of home but gain unfading glory; on the other, if I sail back to my own land my glory fails-but a long life lies ahead for me. (Homer 210) Akhilleus is facing these two options and needs to decide (A) if he will fight to gain remembrance throughout history as a war hero or (B) does he vacate Troy and live an uneventful but long life. Option (A) would give him everlasting glory that he ultimately craves. He craves glory …show more content…
Akhilleus’ mother is a sea nymph, which makes her a goddess of water. His ancestry bundled with an innate craving to be comparable to the gods, influences Akhilleus to strive for immortality. Demigods are mortal unlike gods, thus, Akhilleus strives for immortality through the want of remembrance as a great hero throughout history. In contrast, option (B) does not offer him the glory of a historical hero. In the eyes of Akhilleus, vacating Troy is equivalent to the fainthearted. He ultimately chooses option (A) and fights a successful battle against the Trojans. His choice to fight reflects the Greek concept termed Arête, which stands for excellence and moral virtue. In a similar fashion, a twentieth century existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre composed an essay named “Existentialism is a Humanism.” Sartre demonstrates in his essay that individuals have options between choices in regards to their essence or purpose. He argues that individuals come into existence first and then decide what their essence is. Sartre states, “What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself,
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
The decision of Achilleus is a crucial moment in understanding how fate works in epic (Homerian) literature. Thetis tells Achilleus of his opportunity to win renown as the greatest warrior of all time, earning glory through his fearless acts in battle against a foe who is sure to overcome the Achaians. The fate of ten years of attack on Troy hinge upon the decision of Achilleus, who is given the choice to win glory for the Achaians and, more importantly, himself.
Schein, Seth L. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
Two of the most influential books of ancient Roman and Grecian culture are the Odyssey and the Aeneid. The Odyssey is centered on the Greek hero Odysseus. It portrays Odysseus’ journey back home and the endeavors he has to go through. The Aeneid depicts the Roman hero Aeneas as he is sent on a journey to start the great Roman Empire. The books both have many similarities between them especially due to the fact that Virgil, the author of the Aeneid, was heavily influenced by Homer’s Odyssey. But like with any good story they are both unique in their own way. One of the major differences is in the setting. Some of the differences are in the choices that they make while some of the differences are even in the characters themselves. But the parts of the stories that have influenced much of modern day literature are the instances where the protagonists have to make a visit to the underworld. Virgil and Homer wanted to emphasize the underworld so much that they each dedicated an entire chapter in their epics to the underworld. But each underworld is blatantly different thus giving each hero a distinctly different journey to the underworld. Three of the main differences in their underworld journeys are their purpose for being there, visuals in the underworld, and the underworld itself.
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).
This helps one see how death has changed Akhilleus in a variety of ways. Akhilleus says he does not want to hear any “smooth talk of death” (201, 11.577-578) from Odysseus. This implies that Akhilleus understands more about what death really means than Odysseus does. The way in which he speaks to Odysseus, makes Akhilleus seem to almost put Odysseus in his place, it subtly tells Odysseus that he does not know of what he is speaking of. This makes Akhilleus seem wise, which is almost the opposite of how he is portrayed as foolish in the first stanza. Akhilleus also tells Odysseus that it is “better..to break sod as a farm hand for some poor country man...than to lord over...the...dead” (201, 11.579-581). After death Akhilleus now understands the value of life, any situation of life. He is wise because he has learned and understands life in a way that a person who is still alive, like Odysseus, could never. During the second stanza Akhilleus also looks back on what he did in his life and recounts during his fighting during the battles of Troy how he “put an army’s best men in the dust” (201, 11.592). He is shown to be not only wise but also regretful, which you can only be if you are able to look back and understand the fault of your
The Ancient Greeks sought to define how humans should view their lives and how to create an existence dedicated to the basis of the “ideal” nature. This existence would be lived so as to create an “honorable” death upon their life’s end. Within their plays, both dramas and comedies, they sought to show the most extreme characteristics of human nature, those of the wise and worthy of Greek kleos along with the weak and greedy of mind, and how they were each entitled to a death but of varying significance. The Odyssey, their greatest surviving drama, stands as the epitome of defining both the flawed and ideal human and how each individual should approach death and its rewards and cautions through their journeys. Death is shown to be the consequence
Death is a great wave whose shadow falls upon the lives of all beings below Olympus. Amidst this shadow and its immediacy in war, humans must struggle to combat and metaphysically transcend their transitory natures. If they fail to forge a sense of meaning for themselves and their people in what often seems an inexorably barren world, they are lef...
Over the thousands of years that the epic story the Iliad has survived, there has no doubt been some form of alteration to Homer’s original. Last May, Wolfgang Petersen directed a movie based on the Iliad. This movie, Troy, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer’s original, as are almost all stories that are made into movies, unfortunately. With its timeless storyline, amazing scenery, gorgeous actors/actresses and most of all, its reported two hundred million dollar budget, it is easy to see why Troy was hyped up to be a box office hit. However, the film critics were harsh on this movie, as they had every right to be, and it ended up being a total flop. Compared to Homer’s Iliad, Troy is rather disappointing. But, to be fair, one must keep in mind the limitations of a movie compared to those of a book, and the fact that the title is Troy, not the Iliad. It really is not as bad as expected. Troy is Homer’s Iliad gone to Hollywood. There probably are just as many similarities as differences from the original. The three major upsetting differences in Troy compared to the Iliad are the absence of the Gods, the weak character and plot development, and the addition, exclusion, and reversal of key points.
When analyzing the Greek work the Iliad, Homer procures an idealistic hero with an internal conflict, which questions the values of his society and the Greek Heroic Code. The Greek Heroic Code includes respect, honor, and requirements to procure an exorbitant image. To be considered a Greek hero you must meet the perquisites and fulfill all of the aspects of the code. Achilleus was deemed a hero, he was the strongest and swiftest of the Achieans. Achilleus lived up to all of these aspects until his internal conflict began in the Iliad. Homers purpose in the ending of book XXIV is to restore Achilleus after his reconciliation with the Greek Heroic Code.
The Iliad is a classic epic poem written by Homer about the Trojan War and the rage of an Achaean warrior, Achilles. The book introduces the reader to the war and the personal battle between Achilles and King Agamemnon; because of this argument between these two major characters, Homer introduces the role of the gods when Achilles asks his mother, Thetis, to go to Zeus and beg for his interference on Achilles’ behalf. The major role the gods play in the Iliad is their interference in the Trojan War as immortal versus immortal and mortal versus immortal.
The 'Iliad'; by Homer is a book that deals with many emotional issues. I am going to talk about a few emotional parts of the Iliad and compare them to the emotional life of today. I have chosen a section of the book and will talk about the emotions that come up there. The section that I have chosen to talk about is in book 18 when Achilles is very angry and very sad about Patroclus death. After that he wants revenge by killing hector.
The fact that Homer never clears the hazy and supple relationships between these three unique beings can be seen as a way of pointing out the basic mysteriousness of life and its happenings. Homer surely did not have all the answers about how the universe works, and his masterpiece does not attempt to suggest that he does. It is clear that all men are fated to die, but the willingness of these men, such as Achilles, to do so for something bigger than themselves is what makes The Iliad appeal to the basic humanity and sense of heroics in all readers.
Homer’s The Iliad: Book XX features a battle between the Trojans and Achaians, shortly after Patroklus’ death (Lattimore Book XVI), where the gods must intervene in order to restrain Achilleus’ destructive nature that becomes amplified due to the grief and wrath as a result of the loss of his cousin/lover. The divine foresaw an early fall of Troy caused by the intensified destructive nature of Achilleus, therefore they interfered in the battle to protect a bigger ideal of fate, a fate of a nation, by manipulating smaller ideals of fate, the fates of people’s lives(Lattimore 405). At the beginning of the battle, after the gods descended from Olympus, they decide to sit and just watch how their mortal teams will fend for themselves until Apollo takes form as Lykoan and coerce Aeneias to challenge Achilleus, thus establishing the first act of divine intervention (Lattimore 406-407). When Achilleus is inches away from killing Aeneias, Poseidon takes sympathy upon him and whisks him off to safety (Lattimore 407-411). The last interference occurs during the confrontation between Hektor and Achilleus, where Achilleus is about to murder him and Apollo saves Hektor (Lattimore 416). Hektor’s rescue in this battle is an important event in the Iliad because Achilleus’ and Hektor’s fates are interrelated, further meaning that if Hektor die...
Akhilleus was raised to be the best warrior and therefore what started out as the willingness to achieve greatness, evolved into a barbaric way of life, which then turned into survival. Survival of the fittest was to live by the code to be the best and to kill or be killed and to be known as the greatest warrior of all. Akhilleus has willingness to destroy anything or anyone that stood in his way of achieving his goal in life.