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Recommended: Achilles as hero
I think a theme song that suits Achilles best is “Holding Out For A Hero” by Bonnie Tyler. I feel the song brings up all the different aspects that reminds me of Achilles. The song talks about how the narrator needs a hero to help her. It reminds me a lot of the Achaeans needing Achilles to win the war. They also touch in the song on the different aspects of the hero the narrator needs. She sings that she needs a very fast, strong and noble warrior. The characteristics of the hero that she needed fit Achilles very well, because of this I chose the song as my theme.
The song touches on the fact that Bonnie Tyler needs a hero to help her, like I stated in the introductory paragraph.This reminds me of the Achaeans during the war needing a hero to help them win the war. The lyrics in the song “I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night”-(“"Holding Out For A Hero" Lyrics." Bonnie Tyler Lyrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2015)“. These lyrics show a correlation between the Achaeans needing a savior, and Bonnie Tyler needing
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one too. The lyrics also mention about “holding out for a hero”. The Achaeans were holding out for a hero in Book 12 & 13 being pushed against their ships. I think the song and the Book’s have a perfect connection. The song mentions a lot of attributes of the hero that Bonnie needs to save her.
Some of them are “He's gotta be strong, And he's gotta be fast, And he's gotta be fresh from the fight, I need a hero” and “He's gotta be sure, And it's gotta be soon, And he's gotta be larger than life”(""Holding Out For A Hero" Lyrics." Bonnie Tyler Lyrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.) Achilles shares a lot of the attributes of the “Hero” in Bonnie’s song. The major characteristics are how Achilles is very fast, since he chased hector around troy so many times. He is also strong, we know this by how he can single handedly win a war. He also has to be determined, which Achilles is, you can see it when Patroclus dies he becomes extremely determined to kill all of the Trojans. The biggest attribute is how he has to be larger than life. It seems to the Trojan army that Achilles is unkillable, which gives him the “larger than life”
appearance. Overall the song by Bonnie Tyler - “Holding Out For A Hero” shows Achilles almost perfectly in all aspects. The song only fails to show Achilles emotional side. The song spends a lot of the time talking about the fighting capabilities of the hero, But nothing when it comes up the emotional side of the hero. The song also pertains a lot to greek mythology. Mentioning the words “gods” and “hercules” in the song. Since it had a small hint Greek mythology and lots of characteristics that Achilles inhabited. I think personally that this is the best option for Achilles theme song
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...
The Greek army’s greatest warrior during the Trojan War, Achilles was born of the goddess Thetis and the mortal Peleus. (Murnaghan, 1997, p.xxv)“Strong, swift and godlike” as Lombardo translating Homer puts it (1997, p.5), his presence on the battlefield reverberated fear through his enemies. Being a general in the Achaean army, his original rationale as to engage...
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.
In the Iliad, Achilles is the main protagonist. He is a demi-god and is the son of the nymph Thetis and Peleus who was the King of the Myrmidons. He was a Greek hero of the Trojan War. He falls in love with a battle prize called Briseis. He is to portray, “as a brave, loyal, cocky, intelligent and even superhuman soldier. In Achilles ' case, the word "superhuman" is literal; he is the result of a union between a god and a mortal.”(Harvard 1)
The Ancient Greeks admired their heroes and tried to learn from both their achievements and their mistakes. They believed that most great leaders and warriors followed a predictable behavior cycle, which often ended tragically. In Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Achilles is a great warrior who traces the stages of the behavior cycle twice, from arete to hubris to ate and then to nemesis. Achilles is a highly skilled warrior and a great leader who becomes a narcissist and an arrogant person, which leads to selfish and childish behavior resulting in the death of his best friend. Following Patroclus’ death, Achilles repeats the behavior cycle by regaining his courage and motivation, and goes back to battle against Hector. The pride he feels in killing Hector and his overpowering hatred for him, leads Achilles to another bad decision: disrespecting the body of his enemy. This foolish choice leads directly to Achilles death. Although The Iliad is mainly known as a story about the Trojan War, it is understood as a story about Achilles and his struggle to be a hero.
...kill in battle, respect for authority, humility, and coolness under fire. Not many men met all requirements, including Achilles, but they were still viewed as heroes. Between Achilles and Diomedes, Diomedes was the better choice for the title of hero. He was one of the finest Greek soldiers. Diomedes was respectful of authority, humble about his successes, and was very levelheaded. Achilles had great fighting skill as well; however, he had trouble respecting authority and keeping his cool, both results of his excessive pride. If Achilles had not been so prideful, he could have been a much greater warrior and hero, perhaps achieving status equal to the gods. He simply had too much pride. Diomedes was humble; therefore, it was easier for him to respect authority and keep a level head.
To the world today, a hero is someone distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, or strength; but really, anyone can be a hero. A hero can vary from someone as well-known as George Washington to someone as unheard of as anyone’s very own mother. Someone who has done a good deed for someone else is hero. The biggest heroes are the ones in well-known books and plays, such as Odysseus from The Odyssey, or have made a huge difference in the history of this world, like Mahatma Gandhi. Siddhartha Gautama is a hero, but not in the same way Odysseus or Gandhi are. Although these three influential people went through different journeys in order to accomplish different things, they are all heroes in their own way and have been through the same cycle of the road of trials and crisis/salvation.
First off, Achilles has a few heroic characteristics. I don’t want to compare him to any other heroes I’ve studied because I don’t like him, but I’d say Odysseus, because they fought for the same goal in the Trojan War. But personally, I think he is a sissy for not fighting throughout the entire Trojan War until things got personal because Hector killed his friend. But hey, killing Hector in his blind rage helped the cause, and thusly his people. So he isn’t all that bad. Then, as N.S. Gill will write, Achilles does this. “An enraged Achilles kills Hector and then dishonors the body by dragging it around tied to the back of a chariot for 9 days.” So, yeah, Achilles is kind of a prick. But then again, Achilles reflects the moral codes of the culture that bore him, so in a strange way, he is the embodiment of a hero. To them at least. To me, he seems to have good ...
The first requirement of Aristotle's tragic hero is that they are more admirable than the average character. Achilles meets this requirement because of his ability on the battlefield. In The Iliad, the background to the story is the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. This background is not only the basis for the story overall, but is also the basis for Achilles' own story. This begins when Achilles refuses to join the battle because he is insulted by Agamemnon. This decision results in the action that drives the remainder of the story. Later in the story when Achilles becomes angered and goes to the other extreme, launching into battle and killing ferociously. The significance of this is that it places battle as central to both Achilles' story and to what is important in the setting of the story. Importantly, the aspect that makes Achilles greater than most is his ability o...
Achilles is introduced into The Iliad getting into a debacle with the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, during the last year of the Trojan War. Achilles starts a quarrel with Agamemnon because he has demanded possession of Achilles’ woman, Briseis, in consolation for having to give up his woman, Chryseis, so that the gods will end their plague upon the Greek soldiers. Achilles does all he can to get his loved one back, but he knows that nothing will waver Agamemnon’s decision. This is when Achil...
Because he embodied Greek ideals, was ‘immortalized’ through his actions and glorious death, and was courageous, Achilles was an epic hero. Honor was of the utmost importance to both him and the entire Greek society, he chose to die a hero in battle, and he avenged the death of Patroclus even through mourning; Achilles is the true hero of the Iliad.
Homer makes it clear that Achilles is a man mainly driven by his hunger for glory. Achilles has all the traits of a superhuman from his strength to his incredible ability to fight on the battlefield. Even with these great abilities, it is hard for many readers to perceive him as a hero because of the way he acts. Homer takes this brief time period out of this whole ten-year war just to demonstrate how Achilles cannot control himself when he goes into a rage. In todays world Achilles would not last long as a soldier in any army because he would be court marshaled for insubordination. Achilles ye...
...perior warrior. I think the reader would like Hector more than Achilles because of his good nature and the pity ending of Hector's funeral ( Hector been killed by Achilles because Hector killed Achilles best friend who is patroclus). In the ending, Hector died in horrible way, but the Trojan did his funeral as a great hero.
In the poem, Iliad, Achilles and Hector both show relative heroism in their own different ways. Achilles may have been the more popular hero, but Hector had great heroism as well. Each of these characters possess their own different strengths and weaknesses. These two characters both have pride as being one of their main weaknesses. Hector seems as if he would suit best in the modern world, but there are a few different reasons as to why the ancients may have chose Achilles. Hector and Achilles both lost a lot by letting their pride get in the way of their heroism. Both of these characters were their country’s best warrior. Achilles and Hector have very different personalities, and very different ways of approaching situations.