Honor In The Iliad

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How do you value honor? By academic achievement, physical ability, or character? This is a question that mankind has been trying to answer since its existence.The ancient Greeks determined the honor of a person by their war contributions. The Iliad revolves around the conflict between Achilles and a war obsessed society. Homer questioned the purpose of war and redefined the meaning of honor through Achilles’ rejection of the Heroic Code
In the Iliad, the worthiness of a person was judged by their possessions, but Achilles challenged the expression of honor through material goods. He cared more for his pride than physical objects. In Book IX, King Agamemnon sent his best soldiers to ask for Achilles’ help in the war. Agamemnon once tarnished …show more content…

It was an engraved rule in the ancient Greek culture for men to fulfill their duty as soldiers and willingly confront death. The soldiers are “ intoxicated by a false sense of invincibility” and trust that death is worth honor (Bruce 5). Hector represented the ideal soldier. When he chose to fight Achilles and defend Troy he declared “My better part is to face him for life and death. Either I shall kill him and return with triumph, or I shall die with honor before the gate” (Homer 315). Hector knew he would die, but was convinced he had to die fighting. David Gill explained “On a deeper level, they face death in battle precisely because they must die. In the end, there is no escaping death, but glory gained by killing others in combat can bestow a kind of immortality” (3). With the Heroic Code, ancient Greek men were fated to die young. Achilles was the first to review their predisposition. Later, when Achilles’ closest comrades tried to persuade him to rejoin the war effort he explained “If I stay here and fight before the city of Troy, there will be no homecoming for me but my fame shall never die; if I go home to my native land, there will be no great fame for me, but I shall live long and not die an early death” (Homer 128). Achilles debated his two fates, and chose life over honor. While other warriors would have gone and died in battle without a second thought, Achilles’ decision to not fight illustrated the flaws of the Heroic Code and the war-obsessed Greek society. Through Achilles’ struggle Homer tried to remind young men that they are allowed to ask themselves if death is worth the price of

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