The Theme Of Loss In Homer's 'The Iliad'

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Not every time that you win you fully win you may still lose some. When you lose there may still be something to be won or accomplishment to complete. When you win you typically feel accomplished and a sense of fulfillment, but when you win you may lose respect, honor, friendships, or even a sense of purpose. When one loses they in theory have won something even if it’s not what you may have intended to win. When you lose you may have obtained a life lesson, a better way of accomplishing such task, or possibly even a new goal or item to strive for. In “the Iliad” two nations quarrel, the Greeks and Trojans. The fight over the capture of two visually stunning women, Chryseis and Briseis. Achilles the main warrior for the Greeks decides to rejoin …show more content…

The epic show this theme by having the winner of the battle lose his closest friend Patroclus, which results in him eventually grieving and finding ways to cope with it such as eliminating Patroclus’ killer, Hector. So despite winning the battle Achilles still loses his best friend which balances out if not out weighing the win of his fight with Hector. Hector wins despite no longer having a beating heart because he gains the respect of the gods and goddesses which is typically no easy task to accomplish. Hector gets praised by the people of Troy and gets the honor and respect from many. So even though he lacks the ability to breath he gains much respect and gets the title of saving his city by giving up himself to a very anger induced behemoth. Achilles once again losses after his defeat of Hector because the gods and goddesses lose their respect and regards for him after seeing Achilles’ true nature. Achilles potentially loses his life also, for in Hectors final words he claims Achilles will be brought down by the god Apollo himself. Which will be a pretty big lose and all for slaying someone who slayed a friend. The Iliad is basically one long epic just trying to say that if you’re a winner don’t boast about it because you probably lost in some way or another and if you lose don’t be too upset because you won something it’s just a mere mater if you realize what you won or not. Is that probably the true intention of the epic? No probably not, but it’s my own personal take on it even though we aren’t supposed to include opinions or “I” or “you” in it, but I’m dreadfully sorry because I felt it was rather necessary to state my rather failed attempt at understanding this complex but intriguing

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