7 Deadly Sins In The Iliad

Final Research Paper

Each character within Homer’s “Iliad” displays at least one of the seven deadly sins such as greed, lust, pride, envy, gluttony, wrath, and laziness within the story. Each were motivated by one or more of these, driven by it and for some, it lead to their inevitable destruction. These deadly sins are the driving factor of the entire plot and motivate the characters to make decisions that have deadly consequences for them and the people around them. We will look at a few of the key characters and see how these deadly sins drive them. This will give the reader a better understanding of the characters and the plot. It is important for any reader to try and understand the underlying motives of a character and the story. It

connects you with the character, makes you see things as they see them, or at the very least helps you understand their perspective. The goal is for the reader to have a better understanding of the motives of the characters and the reasoning for their fall.
Early on in the story we see evidence to support that the characters of the Iliad all display one or more of the seven deadly sins. We see that the plot of the story is driven by these actions, which indirectly means the plot is driven by the seven deadly sins. Paris, one of the princes of Troy, falls in love with Helen and wishes to take her back to Troy with him. There’s just one problem, Helen is married to Menelaus who is the king of Sparta. Despite Hector’s warnings, Paris’s love, or lust for Helen motivates him to return with her to Troy. This action would set into motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to the fall of Troy, Hectors death, and the Trojan War itself.
When looking at Paris’s actions, we see that h is decision is based off of lust, not love. Despite warnings from his brother, despite knowing there would be some kind of consequence to his actions, Paris still chose to go ahead with his plan to take Helen back to Troy. But, the question is, why - why would Paris go against his brother’s wishes, ignore all the warning signs, and give in to his lust for Helen?
Martin Geisler, and Carl Martin Allwood in their 2015 article, “Competence and Quality in Real-Life Decision Making”, examine human decision making and what goes through a humans brain when we make decisions, “…real-life decision quality may depend on the extent that individuals are able to justify decisions to themselves…” so the question still remains, why did Paris make this decision? We can see that his decision making was affected by his lust for Helen and that in his eyes the pros may have outweighed the cons.
In Kathleen McGawon’s 2009 article, “The Seven Deadly Sins”, researchers look at the brain with an MRI, and study how the different sections of the brain react when dealing with bad behavior; In this case of the Seven Deadly Sins, how each section reacts to different bad behavior, “When it comes to lust, neuroimaging confirms that the prurient urge is all-encompassing.” The article later states, “…brain regions associated with reward, sensory interpretation, and visual processing. It enlists the amygdala and the hypothalamus, which deal with emotional information; it also stimulates the reward-processing ventral striatum, probably due to the satisfying nature of watching erotic stimuli. All said, the most notable thing about lust is that it sets nearly the whole brain buzzing…” this supports the theory that Paris’s desire for Helen overpowered or skewed his vision and either he did not see, or did not care, about the consequences. Instead, he only saw the reward and pleasure he could achieve by taking her back to Troy with him.
A key character in the Iliad is Paris’s brother, Hector. Hector is an interesting character because from the beginning of the story we see Hector as a good and noble prince. He is loyal and good to his people, loving to his family, a devoted husband and father, and he is a great leader. But, Hector has one vital flaw, pride, one that ultimately leads to his death when he decides to face off against Achilles himself and loses. Pride is Hectors deadly sin.
In Mark Pestana’s 2015 article, “How Pride causes Slavery to Sin”, pride is described as being the precursor to all sin “…Christian scriptural tradition and moral theology is that pride is the root of all sins.”(54) Pride is looked on as an ingredient of all other sin. The article goes on to say, “This rooting has been interpreted to mean that pride is the first act which precipitates other wrongful deeds or to mean that all sins involve an implicit act of prideful revolt” (54) pride can cause someone to go away from what they know is right, or to be blind to what is wrong.
After Hector kills Achilles’ closest friend Patroclus, Achilles seeks revenge on Hector. Even though Hector knows facing Achilles means almost certain death, he chooses to face him for his honor. This is where honor has turned into pride, Hector is the leader of the Trojan army. He is looked upon for guidance by his men and if he dies, then who would lead his men and protect his kingdom? But, Hector’s pride blinds him, even after others try to persuade him not to fight, he still chooses to face Achilles. Hector is eventually killed in battle by Achilles, and his body is drug behind Achilles’ chariot across the battlefield. This was a major turning point in the war, now the Trojan’s had lost their leader and Achilles had joined the war.
Arguably the biggest and most famous character in the Iliad is Achilles.

Achilles is a god and is considered to be the greatest fighter in the world. He fights on the Greek side, but does not fight in the war at first. His relationship with Agamemnon is strained and the two do not like one another. We see early on that Achilles actually prays to the gods that the Trojans will begin to win the war so that Agamemnon will see how valuable Achilles is and will ask him for help. This is one of the first times Achilles displays one of the seven deadly sins which is pride. Achilles actually displays more of the seven deadly sins than any other character in the

Iliad.
When Achilles prays that the Trojans will begin to win the war, he either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care, that hundreds of Greek troops will die in the war. The gods answer Achilles prayers and the Trojans begin to win the war, however this would not be Achilles’ greatest offense. During the Trojan War, Achilles closest friend Patroclus asked him if he could wear Achilles’s armor. Achilles allows him to wear his armor into battle, but warns him not to pursue the Trojans to their massive city walls. During the battle however, Patroclus ignores Achilles warnings and pursues the retreating Trojan army to their walls. He and the Trojan Prince Hector engage in a battle, Hector kills Patroclus during the battle. After hearing of Patroclus death, Achilles goes into a rage and seeks to unleash his wrath on Hector. He hunts Hector down and eventually kills him, then drags his body behind his chariot as the ultimate sign of disrespect.
We see more of the Seven Deadly Sins in Achilles than any other character in the Iliad. We see pride, greed, wrath, and lust all in Achilles throughout the story. Did Homer intend for this, was it meant that the greatest warrior and god would display the most evil and negative emotions and actions? We can see from the beginning that Achilles is prideful, and pride is the root of all sins. But, Achilles was focused on his honor and as we saw with Hector, honor can easily turn into pride. In H.R. McMaster’s 2008 article, “Lesson for Today’s Soldiers”, a warriors honor and its impact on war is discussed “honour and war are inseparable because, since the time of Achilles, ideas of honour have influenced the causes, conduct and termination of wars” (179) Our pride or “honor” can lead us to other sins and Achilles is the most prideful of all the characters within the Iliad. So, it is only fitting that Achilles would display other sins such as lust for revenge on Hector, greed for glory which is why he prayed to the gods in favor of the Trojans, and the wrath he displays after killing Hector by dragging his body as the ultimate sign of disrespect.
We can see throughout the story that the Seven Deadly Sins are prevalent in each character.

Paris, Hector, and Achilles all displayed one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins and we can look at these three characters and see that they represent different groups of people in the world. Paris being the young and foolish, controlled by his desires for the flesh. Hector the good prince, who falls victim to his own pride and honor which leads him to his death and Achilles, the brash and prideful warrior whose lust for glory leads him down a path of inevitable destruction. In Douglas M. Stenstrom and Matthew Curtis’ 2012 article, “Rating the Seven Deadly Sin” states, “The concept of sin likewise touches on the central emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of human experience that shape our perceptions of ourselves and others. In that context, understanding how people perceive sin has benefit not only for the religiously faithful, but also, in a broader cultural context, for learning more about how people perceive others and themselves in the social world” (3) by understanding and looking deeper into these character’s motives and mindset we can better understand the Iliad and come away with a different perspective than

before.