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Greek mythology and honor
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Achilles' Honor in Homer's Iliad The Greeks placed great importance on personal honor. Why is this? Is it because to them man I nothing without honor. Or is it that the honor is more important than the man? "Honor to the Greeks is something that is won by a man's prowess, his ability to fight and be victorious on the battle field"(Schein 62). This is just one example of how honor is obtained. A second method of gaining honor is to be a great orator, one must posses the ability to speak in the assembly and express his ideas eloquently, and persuasively to the gathered body. A third way of achieving personal honor is to demonstrate athletic ability. Achilles would be considered one of the latter; he is a proud and headstrong person who had to fight for everything he received. In The Iliad of Homer, one sees that Achilles initially achieved his first honor on the battle field. His prowess and ferocity in personal combat gives him the appearance of invincibility or i.e. super human, or god like abilities. He is also very short tempered, and takes offense very easily. He would respond with blistering indignation, especially when he thinks that his honor is being insulted. He feels that his honor was besmirched when Agamemnon demands that Achilles relinquish his war prize, Brises "Are you ordering to give this girl back? Either the great hearted Achaians shall give me a new prize chosen according to my desires to atone for the girl loss, or else if they will not hive me I myself shall take her, your own prize?(Homer 1.134). To Achilles this prize Brises represents something more than just a prize; she is a symbol of status, of acceptance. His way of obtaining honor which he (Achilles) has to figh... ... middle of paper ... ... his country; since the spirit within does not drive me to go on living and be among men, except on condition Hektor first be beaten down under my spear, lose his life and pay the price for striping Patroklos, the son of Menoitios? (Homer 18.88). "Here in lies the crux of Achilles' dilemma, honor is more important than the man"(Burgess 39). Works Cited and Consulted: Burgess, Jonathan. "Achilles' heel: the death of Achilles in ancient myth." Classical Antiquity. v. 14 (Oct. '95) p. 217- 43. Homer: Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. Parry, Adam M. The Language of Achilles and Other Papers. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. Schein, Seth L. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Shive, David M. Naming Achilles. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
short summary of what the play is about. The chorus is in the form of
With these wrathful words of Achilles to his commander Agamemnon, so begins the sequence of events in The Iliad that ultimately pits Achilles the runner against Hector, breaker of horses. Although these men were already enemies, Achilles being an Achaean and Hector being a Trojan, it is truly Achilles’ rage that makes the rivalry personal. These two men, from opposite sides of the battle lines, are both strong, brave, and heroic, but also possess a myriad of conflicting character traits. It is these differences that aid both men in their independent pursuits for honor and the implementation of their separate destinies.
Their argument comes to a head when Agamemnon questions, “Are you to keep your own prize [geras], while I sit tamely under my loss and give up the girl at your bidding?”(The Quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, 130) He then moves to take Achilles‘ war prize, Briseis from him. This, however, is much more than robbing Achilles of his hard won prize, it is a blow to his honor, something that Achilles will not stand for. He is also quick to remind the king that many victories come from the edge of his sword, saying “You forget this, and threaten to rob me of the prize [geras] for which I have toiled, and which the sons of the Achaeans have given me. Never when the Achaeans destroy any rich city of the Trojans do I receive so good a prize as you do, though it is my hands that do the better part of the fighting.” (The Quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, 160-165) Achilles, with some guidance from Athena, quells his anger, but refuses to swallow his pride. He accepts that Briseis is no longer his, but explains to the king that he and his myrmidons will withdraw from the war and set a course for home as soon as possible. In a situation where his honor has been damaged and no retaliation can be executed, Achilles‘ only option is to remove himself from the situation with as much pride and dignity as possible. Similarly, Achilles urging Agamemnon to return Chryseis is taken as challenge of authority to
it is numerical. The data will be useful because I will be able to use
At the start of the play, in Act 1 Scene 1, there is a theme of
Achilles’ true nature is that of a warrior. The son of Peleus must fight. When he denounces Agamemnon and the Achaeans, he does not go home. His ship is last in line, near Troy. Subconsciously, he has already made the choice of accepting a short life filled with glory. Subconsciously, he wants to go back to war. He needs to. However, he also needs to insure his possession of glory and honor. But what kind of glory, what kind of honor? He already possesses the honor of the gods. He says, “my honor lies in the great decree of Zeus…” (IX.741.p.272). By book IX, material wealth is no longer what Achilles wants. He spurns Agamemnon’s offers. The typical mortal concepts of heroism no longer concern him; his ideals differ from those of his peers. Phoenix’s Meleager is no example to him. However, at this point Achilles still does not know what he wants. Pride and stubbornness still supplement his rage, but now his anger appears to be a manifestation of his fear and confusion—“Stop confusing my fixed resolve with this…” (IX.745-746.p.272). Achilles knows that he wants honor and glory, but in what form?
Throughout the Iliad the warriors' dream of peace is projected over and over again in elaborate similes developed against a background of violence and death. Homer is able to balance the celebration of war's tragic, heroic values with scenes of battle and those creative values of civilized life that war destroys. The shield of Achilles symbolically represents the two poles of human condition, war and peace, with their corresponding aspects of human nature, the destructive and creative, which are implicit in every situation and statement of the poem and are put before us in something approaching abstract form; its emblem is an image of human life as a whole.
Hector is the prince of Troy and a mighty warrior. He is the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. He is described as a devoted husband and father, who did not fight for his own glory, but for the honor of his men and those he loved. Achilles is considered the greatest Greek fighter and is the son of a military man Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis. Achilles was a proud headstrong commander who rarely acted with nobility or integrity. As a child, his mother Thetis knew that he would only live a short life because he was mortal and tried to burn away his immortality but when that didn’t work she held him by the heel and dipped him into the River Styx which protected him from injury on every part of his body except one heel (Rosenberg, 1999, p. 126).
emotions of the lines of the play. Both the text and the film show the
- Achilles, was also brought to ruin by his pride. For example, he was too
...pics we can get at least a partial picture of how the ancient civilizations regarded the concept of honour and come to a few conclusions about what it is and how it functions. At times it seems like a commodity that is traded around, and it is certainly attached to material goods. One’s birth and fate, and more importantly how they act and what they do with their fate, adds to one’s honour, but it is most important to be courageous and show excellence through great deeds, especially military victory.
In the introduction of the Essential Illiad given by Sheila Murnaghan, Achilles is labeled as “the greatest of the Greek heroes”. In classic mythology a hero is a person of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits and is often the offspring of a mortal and a god. Achilles was the greatest fighter among the Greeks or Trojans and feared no man in battle. He was also the offspring of a mortal and a god so by classic mythology definition, Achilles was indeed a hero. A hero is defined by the present day Websters Dictionary as: “one who inspires through manners and actions; an individual who leads through personal example and accomplishments requiring bravery, skill, determination, and other admirable qualities.” Achilles, in no manner, fits this definition. By contemporary standards, he is instead a pathetic villain. Aside from being a kidnapper, rapist and murderer, Achilles proves to be emotionally weak, selfish, and malicious. Many times throughout the Illiad, Achilles is also referred to as “godlike”. The gods of Greek mythology were subject to the same emotions and character flaws as humans, and though privileged to some foresight, the gods had similar mental capacities as humans. What really set the gods apart were their powers (controlling the elements, changing their appearance, etc.), great strength, and immortality. Because of his great strength and apparent invincibility, it is easy to see why Achilles would...
Although, honor is most important to Achilles we are shown that pride is a fault in his life as well. Achilles holds out and does not enter to the battle with Agagmemnon, this decision leads to many lives lost and almost the loss of the Greeks. From this you can learn that how you are viewed toward someone else is not what is important. What’s important is how you see yourself, especially, in Achilles situation, when lives are at stake.
In Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles is often referred to as a very courageous Greek hero but a further look into the epic will reveal a man that is more arrogant than courageous. It was truly his arrogance that made his name famous and not his courage. Achilles was a narcissistic, self-serving man who was not concerned with his fellow country man. His actions of courage can easily be revealed as selfishness instead of what most people believe.
A person's status in Greek society highly impacted the way people treated them. People of nobility would be held in a higher regard than just a free man. This hierarchy also carried onto the battlefield. Those who had proven themselves courageous in battle would have more sway over a group. Achilles achieved this, since others respected him as a member of the army. Thus, when Achilles died, he insists on receiving a sacrifice over his tomb, because the heroic code depends on giving individuals honor that they have earned. This is exemplified when he says, "Where, then, Danaans, do you think you're going, / leaving my tomb without a prize" (Euripides 84). This task was due Achilles, because he had triumphed on the battlefield at Troy by fighting nobly. Afterwards, when the army was tasked with deciding who would be Achilles' sacrifice, Odysseus swayed the people with his words. The people not only regarded Odysseus as a noble in society, but he also prove...