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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
The Iliad is about an episode of destructive violent rage that occurred in the Greek
camp in the ninth year of the ten year Trojan War
...
Agamemnon is
outraged and his behavior outrages Achilles
...


Homer is the reason we still know about the war at Troy
...
C
...
One reason that the
Trojan War became so important to later Greeks such as Homer was that they considered the
Greek victors their ancestors
...


Thus, its fall represented, at least in story, the last great victory of the Mycenaean
Greeks before the collapse of their civilization
...
Although
Greeks had colonized Asia Minor after the Trojan War, they were no longer as prosperous (or
as piratical) as during the Bronze Age
...


Homer was said to be blind, but his vivid images and stories of Troy have survived
and thrived for nearly three millennia
...
The Iliad and Odyssey have been so

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frequently praised, analyzed, translated, borrowed from, adapted and imitated that a study of
Homer and his literary descendants can easily become a study of the history of Western
literary culture, from Troy to the twenty-first century
...


The Iliad is the poem about Troy; it takes place in the Greek camp, below the walls of
Troy, and within the city itself
...
Achilles, the greatest
Greek warrior, quarrels with Agamemnon, the greedy, arrogant high king of the Greek army
...
Achilles pushes Agamemnon to
return his war-prize woman Chryseis to her father, a priest of Apollo, in order to stop plague
in the Greek camp
...
Achilles, even more furious, vows to stop fighting until the Trojan warriors
push through the Greek camp up to their ships at the shore
...
Zeus
agrees and the terrible “plan of Zeus” is set
...
Even the gods
get into the battle, fighting one another until Zeus declares a stop to the chaos
...
Soon Achilles will die; next year Troy will fall
...
Even worse, stories of the gods quarreling with one another and even engaging

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in wild battles became unacceptable to later generations with different, more restrained ideas
of deity
...
To Zeus, human
beings are like the poppies of the field, they bloom briefly and die
...
But Homer’s language, the power of the narrative, and Achilles’ heroic character are
unforgettable and have not only survived, but flourished, carrying memories of Troy into the
twenty-first century
...
In the Iliad, the Trojans often seem more civilized than the Greeks
...
Nonetheless, Homer's Troy is not Greek
...


There is something exotic and decadent about Troy
...
Paris is a no-brain fop, but the Trojans allow him to
act in ways that are disastrous for their city
...
Hector is the finest Trojan warrior, yet in his final test
of will against Achilles, Hector breaks and tries to run away
...


Even the gods have decided that Troy is ripe to fall
...
Elsewhere in the Troy Cycle, there are stories of Priam's father, King Laomedon,

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who was mean spirited and politically foolish
...
Troy, for all its power and elegance, has
smudges on its reputation
...


However, the Trojans must display sufficient excellence to provide glory to their
conquerors
...
Indeed, they are good enough to inspire later civilizations to
make them into their ancestral heroes
...


The Iliad can be difficult for modern readers, because it tells of an archaic, heroic,
violent world whose values are strange to us and whose heroes behave badly by our
standards
...
Their
excellence is in their pursuit of fame and honor, in their intelligence, leadership and
friendships, and in their killing skills
...
Homer describes battles in carefully anatomical, formulaic detail; the
spear goes in the liver and out the nostrils, the body drops to the dust, the corpses pile up,
men die over one priceless, worthless, woman, Helen, who ran off with the worthless Trojan
Prince Paris
...
It starts with the
pointless, impious anger of Agamemnon at the priest Chryseis, who tries to ransom his
daughter with appropriate treasure
...
Chryseis invokes Apollo, who starts the
plague, which kills the Greeks
...
The anger eventually spreads to the elements (fire and water) and the gods, who
enter the battle as eagerly violent as the human beings
...


Although the Iliad is about uncontrolled anger and its terrible consequences, the poem
itself is remarkably controlled and patterned, both by its elaborate formulaic language and by
the organization of its parts in relation to the whole
...


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CHAPTER TWO: GREEK CIVILIZATION
Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting
from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of
Greece after the Battle of Corinth
...
The Athenian Golden Age ends with the
defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC
...


By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs:
Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes
...


Rapidly increasing population in the 8th and 7th centuries had resulted in emigration
of many Greeks to form colonies in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily), Asia Minor
and further afield
...
Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although
they often retained religious and commercial links with them
...
There was a large
improvement in the living standards of the population
...


In the second half of the 6th century, Athens fell under the tyranny of Peisistratus and
then his sons Hippias and Hipparchos
...
Afterwards, Sparta and Athens promptly turned on each other, at which point
Cleomenes I installed Isagoras as a pro-Spartan archon
...
So enthusiastically did the Athenians take to this idea
that, having overthrown Isagoras and implemented Cleisthenes's reforms, they were easily
able to repel a Spartan-led three-pronged invasion aimed at restoring Isagoras
...


Ancient Greece consisted of several hundred more-or-less independent city states
(poleis)
...
Undoubtedly the geography
of Greece—divided and sub-divided by hills, mountains and rivers—contributed to the
fragmentary nature of ancient Greece
...

Furthermore, the Greeks were very aware of their tribal origins; Herodotus was able to

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extensively categorize the city-states by tribe
...
The independence of the
poleis was fiercely defended; unification was something rarely contemplated by the ancient
Greeks
...


Thus, the major peculiarities of the ancient Greek political system were; firstly, its
fragmentary nature, and that this does not particularly seem to have tribal origin; and
secondly the particular focus on urban centre’s within otherwise tiny states
...


Inevitably smaller poleis might be dominated by larger neighbors, but conquest or
direct rule by another city state appears to have been quite rare
...
Later in the
Classical period, the leagues would become fewer and larger, be dominated by one city
(particularly Athens, Sparta and Thebes); and often poleis would be compelled to join under
threat of war (or as part of a peace treaty)
...


Only free, land owning, native-born men could be citizens entitled to the full
protection of the law in a city-state (later Pericles introduced exceptions to the native-born
restriction)
...


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Sometimes families controlled public religious functions, but this ordinarily did not give any
extra power in the government
...
People could change classes if they made more money
...
However, Spartan kings,
who served as the city-state's dual military and religious leaders, came from two families
...
They had the right to have a family and own property,
subject to their master's goodwill and permission, but they had no political rights
...
By the 5th century BC slaves made up one-third of the
total population in some city-states
...
Slaves outside of Sparta almost never revolted
because they were made up of too many nationalities and were too scattered to organize
...
Owners were not allowed to beat or kill their slaves
...
Unlike
in Rome, freedmen did not become citizens
...


City-states legally owned slaves
...
In Athens, public slaves were trained to look out for counterfeit coinage, while temple
slaves acted as servants of the temple's deity and Scythian slaves were employed in Athens as
a police force corralling citizens to political functions
...
Helots were Messenians enslaved
during the Messenian Wars by the state and assigned to families where they were forced to
stay
...
Their masters
treated them harshly (every Spartiate male had to kill a helot as a right of passage), and
helots often resorted to slave rebellions
...
Unable to maintain professional armies, the city-states relied on their own citizens to
fight
...
Campaigns
would therefore often be restricted to summer
...
Casualties were slight compared to later battles, rarely
amounting to more than 5% of the losing side, but the slain often included the most
prominent citizens and generals who led from the front
...
To fight the enormous armies of the Achaemenid Empire was
effectively beyond the capabilities of a single city-state
...
Although alliances between city states
occurred before this time, nothing on this scale had been seen before
...
Fought between
leagues of cities dominated by Athens and Sparta, the increased manpower and financial

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resources increased the scale, and allowed the diversification of warfare
...
These changes greatly increased
the number of casualties and the disruption of Greek society
...
In many ways, it
had an important influence on modern philosophy, as well as modern science
...


Neither reason nor inquiry began with the Greeks
...


Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis upon literature
...
Notable among later Greek poets was
Sappho, who defined, in many ways, lyric poetry as a genre
...
In doing so, he
essentially invented "drama": his Oresteia trilogy of plays is seen as his crowning
achievement
...
Sophocles is
credited with skillfully developing irony as a literary technique; most famously in his play
Oedipus the King
...
Aristophanes, a comic playwright,
defines and shapes the idea of comedy almost as Aeschylus had shaped tragedy as an art form
—Aristophanes' most famous plays include the Lysistrata and The Frogs
...
Aristotle, Plato's student, wrote dozens of
works on many scientific disciplines, but his greatest contribution to literature was likely his
Poetics, which lays out his understanding of drama, and thereby establishes the first criteria
for literary criticism
...
The main economic unit was the “oikas”, the equivalent to the manor of the later
feudal system
...
The “oikas” owner did owe
allegiance to the king of his land
...
All other people, whatever their positions were, the part of the masses
...
That
society was similar to the society of the Middle ages in Europe, that is, it was feudal
...
Being a hero was a social responsibility which
entitled a man to social status only on the battlefield
...
They had the same zest for food, drink, sports, war, wine and women
...
They were born at a time, when they did not know the art of
concealing their feelings
...
The notion of personal honor is prevalent throughout the
Iliad
...
He
could not endure insults
...


The Iliad opens with an unsuccessful effort at ransom, Chryseis, the priest of Apollo
offers “innumerable gifts to Agamemnon for the return of his daughter, Chryseis
...
In Book 24 priam has
offered ransom to Achilles for Hector’s corpse
...
In book 1, Agamemnon returns Chryseis back to her father and he also sends a
hecatomb as a sacrifice
...
When one such relationship was broken,
the Trojan War originated
...
In order to avenge this insult, Menelaus along with
other Greek kings attacked Troy
...
We see this in the exchange of gifts by Glaucus and
Diomedes, just as their grandfathers had done earlier (Book-6)
...
The funeral rite also
served to assure the living that the dead would live a happy life in Hades
...
Until the funeral rites occur, the spirit survives and
will return to ask for burial
...
Death of
any member of a community always distributed the community, and the games helped bring
the community together again as they all honored the lost member
...
Achilles held the games to commemorate his friendship with
Patroclus, and in the process we find a closer relationship between Achilles and Agamemnon
developing
...
It helps us
gather much information about the ancient Greece, and the customs, conventions and culture
...
A Greek soldier can earn kleos through his courage
...
Kleos as a word is Greek in origin
...
It is also sometimes used to
represent lineage, honor, or other positive characteristics
...
It is related to the
word "to hear" and carries the implied meaning of "what others hear about you"
...
The Greek
term kleos is derived from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) term kḱ lewos, which expressed a
similar concept in PIE society
...
kleos is invariably transferred from father to son; the son is responsible for
carrying on and building upon the "glory" of the father
...


When we consider the Hero in ancient Greek culture, from the start we must 'defamiliarize' our notion of what a hero is
...
First and foremost, the ancient Greek hero was a religious figure, a
dead person who received cult honors and was expected in return to bring prosperity,
especially in the form of fertility of plants (crops) and animals, to the community
...
A key part to
the narrative of the hero's life is that s/he undergoes some sort of ordeal
...
Only after death can the hero receive immortalization in cult and in song
...
Such a perfect moment must be recorded in song, kleos
...
To say
it another way: this word kleos was used to refer to both the medium and the message of the
glory of heroes
...

In Iliad 9, Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoinix come to Achilles to try to convince him to return to
fighting
...
189)
...
After they relate to him all the riches and
prizes that Agamemnon is offering if he will return to battle, Achilles replies by saying what
is at stake for him and what his choice means
...
410-416):

My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end
[telos]
...


Achilles already knows the consequences of his decision to reject the option of a safe
homecoming
...
This choice will result in his death, and he knows it,

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but he is ready to give up his life in exchange for getting a kleos that will never "wilt
...


The songs sung for heroes and the cult honors given to them in worship and festivals,
including athletic festivals, celebrated in their honor, are an attempt to provide compensation
for the death of the hero
...
they are performed on a seasonally
recurring basis and those who participate in the worship believe that it will continue forever,
thus providing a way for the hero to be immortalized, to live on forever
...
Telemachus fears that he has been deprived of
kleos
...
Kleos is sometimes related to aidos — the sense of duty
...
They try to win glory in battle, yet are often
characterized as having a distinctly human side
...

Prime examples of such characters are Achilles and Hector
...
However, despite their differences and the fact that they are fighting for opposing
armies and meet each other with hatred in battle, they also have numerous similar traits which
logically lend themselves to a comparison between the two men
...
The first way in which Achilles, who fights for the
Greeks, and Hector, who fights for the Trojans, act differently is how they approach war and
the inevitable violence and death which accompany it
...
He joins the fighting with a deadly and vengeful mindset that will
likely play a major factor in the outcome of the war
...
However, this
passion for retribution undoubtedly conforms to the heroic code of Greek society
...
He too
believes that fate has dictated that he will be killed in battle
...
He does not want to die and thus widow Andromache, leaving her at the loom of
another man
...
Thus, while Hector is indeed heroic is
his departure for the war, his human side is overshadowed by this
...
Hector, now courageous as ever and boldly confronting his fate, decides to remain
outside the ramparts of the fortified city, within which the rest of his supporters that might
defend him are safely secure
...
Pride and honor play
a role in preventing Hector from backing down
...
However, then Hector flees from Achilles, behavior quite unlike
that of a hero
...

This illustrates a seemingly-common conflict among characters that might be considered
heroes: the internal contest between the heroic code within the character and the human
emotions and instincts that sometimes present contradictory impulses to the heroic code
...
Hector, in this case, decides to react
upon his human impulses and flees from Achilles, who instantly gives chase
...
Achilles, vengeful and bloodthirsty, kills Hector in a manner which, by today
standards, would be unnecessarily cruel and barbaric
...
These actions are undeniably consistent

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with the heroic warrior code of the Greeks, which puts tremendous value on valiance in battle
and merciless retribution
...
On the
other hand, when Achilles and his soldiers get some type of obscene pleasure and glee from
repeatedly and grotesquely stabbing Hector lifeless and bloody corpse, another kind of
human emotion is being displayed
...
So, it might be concluded that the
heroic code and the human emotions might not conflict with each other after all
...

When Achilles decides to return Hector body to his father Priam that it might be honorably
buried, he is violating the unfeeling and uncompassionate heroic code to which he earlier
tried so hard to conform
...
Truly, in this
scenario, Priam had to simply draw on the common bond through which all humans feel
linked, for no amount of rational thought would have swayed Achilles to make this
compromise of principle
...
In
conclusion, a careful comparison of the actions and thoughts of the two characters provides
the reader with a perhaps unexpected insight
...
He uses both his
human emotions and the warrior code that he learned since childhood appropriately and in
proportion, so that there is the least friction between the two and so that the resulting actions
are indeed admirable and praiseworthy
...
Achilles seems
to have successfully navigated his way through the heroic progression in this manner
...
While they both try to win
glory in war for their families, their country, and themselves, they both have certain strengths
and weaknesses in their character which dictate their very different courses of action and their
thoughts
...

Therefore, the heroic warrior code and the human conscience present certain contradictions to
which the characters must respond in order to survive and in order to achieve their goals
...
From their roles in creating a system of government that is
still used today, to their advances in sculpture and artwork, and the magnificent architecture
they produced, they were truly visionaries of their time
...
Different from past civilizations the
Greeks began to put emphasis on the human structure and nature
...
Greeks have showed
through writing, theatre, and sculpture that the essence of humanism impacted them
profoundly
...
With Homer, we get inside access to the Greek
traditions which include the role of humanism and the influence it had on him as seen in The
Iliad
...
The Greeks have
bestowed upon Western culture the concepts of citizen’s rights, democracy, mathematics,
physics, astronomy, etc
...
Through this highly developed spiritual
life, the Greeks imparted many human traits to their gods and goddesses that would greatly
affect their own society’s way of thinking and other civilizations
...
The Iliad is significant to this concept because it truly is the
foundation for how Western cultures think of storytelling and really how storytelling in return
shapes the notion of what it means to be a human being
...


When speaking of Greek humanism, scholars are not referring to any philosophy or
religion that the Greeks practiced, but merely a type of cultural practice on the emphasis of
the human experience that can be evaluated through art or literature
...
In the West, even in modern society, humans are obsessed
with the ideal beautifully sculpted body
...
Therefore, it is simple to
see the connection within the Iliad of how the Greeks were affected
...
In fact, Achilles, whose own mother was a
sea-nymph that was greatly, connected with greatest god of them all, Zeus
...
These scenes are so important to the Greeks is
because it begs the question if the ancient heroes of Greece had help from the gods without
the enemies ever seeing them, it makes the warriors such as Achilles and Hector look godlike
...
As listed on
the University of Idaho’s Ancient Greek English class webpage, these are the effects:

Nath 24
1) Heroism: our sense of heroism in our stories (especially superheroes, video gaming
etc
...


3) Humanism: An inherent respect for the dignity of all individuals regardless of their
human shortcomings
...


4) Seeds of Democracy and Philosophy: We see in this story a willingness to engage
in criticism and examination of those things that other cultures will not
...
The leaders consult one another in counsel and must weigh
each others’ opinions democratically
...
Achilles is shown as faulty
and yet stills a hero
...
However, the Greeks had an even
greater impact on Western culture and with the concepts they bestowed upon us Westerners,
we have shaped ourselves into divine humans
...
He is neither a demigod nor a
superman
...
His mother is not a goddess who can fetch
divine help for him
...
It was the decree of Providence

Nath 25
that he should try to defend his country against the onslaughts of the mighty adversaries
...


Hector was a lovable character and so everybody lamented his death including Helen
...
I never heard
from you one unkind or one slighting word
...
You would reprieve them; you
would check them, with your gentle spirit and gentle words
...


Hector acceptance of social responsibilities marks him as the ideal Homeric man
...
Specially, in Book six of the Iliad we come across Hector as respectful son and
loving husband and father
...
At the end of
the first day’s battle, Hector returned to Troy
...
Then he met his mother Hecabe
...


Hector, then went to Paris ‘house
...

But he resisted the temptation of her charming company saying that he must get back to the
battlefield after having visited his wife and his son
...
Andromache, his wife pleaded with
him not to endanger himself any longer
...
Hector knows that fighting was useless and whatever he did or did not do, Troy
would fall and they would be destroyed, his position is a bitter instance of the common lot of
mankind
...
In spite of this, Hector was not
ready to give up fighting
...
My own feelings too forbid it”
...

It shows what a soft and affectionate mind was concealed behind a strong exterior
...
Hector’s first
error was his promise to his comrades of a Trojan victory after the Achaeans had been driven
back to their ships
...
His success in battle then led to a presumptuous wish for immortality and consequently,
to the beginning of his deterioration
...
He could not
understand that Zeus promised them victory only until he reached the Achaeans ships
...
That enabled Achilles,
on his return to battle to inflict upon the Trojans disastrous defeat and heavy losses
...


Hector’s deterioration became evident after he had killed Patroclus
...
His treatment of Patroclus’ body, in
turn, promoted Achilles to mutilate Hector’s body
...
He failed to maintain a heroic balance when he overestimated his powers and
refused to retreat when it was necessary
...
So will they speak; then it would be far better
for me to face Achilles and either slay him before we part, or die myself gloriously before the
city”(Book 22,line210)
...
His responsibility to Troy, to his troops, to his
family and to the moral and heroic code and his role as the instrument of Zeus set up tensions
which no other character seems to experience
...


CHAPER SEVEN: IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION AND ETHICS
Homer clearly and precisely depicts the religion and the ethics of the Greek and
Trojan societies in The Iliad
...
Sacrifice, prayer, and rituals were all equally significant, and the

Nath 28
superiority of the gods and the fates above humans was a standard of society
...
Within the society, honor, glory,
and fame were desperately sought by warriors striving to achieve enduring notoriety
...
Religion and ethics are
prominently displayed in the characters throughout The Iliad due to their importance in Greek
and Trojan society
...
Meanwhile, the Greek soldiers prayed to be spared death in the
maul of war
...
Sacrifices are performed to honor the gods or obtain
their favor
...
Funeral rites were paramount for those who
had been killed in battle
...
After Aias and Hector reach a stalemate in their battle, they agree to "make no
battle" the next day so they can respectively "bring in our dead
...


Another instance of the conferral of funeral rites can be found with the death of the
brave Greek combatant Patroclus
...
" When
Euphorbus Panthoides, a Trojan soldier, attempts to desecrate the body of Patroclus,

Nath 29
Menelaus "with a prayer to Father Zeus lunge[s]" and kills Panthoides
...
The Achaean army commences to
retrieve the body of Patroclus when Hippothoos, a Trojan soldier, starts to drag the corpse
away, but the powerful Aias kills him
...
" Patroclus' body is eventually salvaged by Menelaus, Meriones,
and Aias and is properly cremated in a great pyre created by his army
...


The characters in The Iliad are respectful of the gods until a god acts against them
...
When Aphrodite the goddess of
wisdom and Ares, the god of war fight against the Greek soldier Diomedes in Book V,
Diomedes retaliates and injures the two gods
...
Yet both Achilles and Diomedes remain respectful and dutiful to
the other gods
...

Over the powers of the gods are the three Moirae (fates), who have supreme control over life
and death of all mortals
...
However, if they achieve glory unethically,
they are a disgrace and are not respected
...
Achilles is bound to
beget revenge of Patroclus' death by moral obligation and does so with vengeance, stating,
not one shall escape death for killing Patroclus
...
unmoored, unburied!" and he proceeds to honor
him
...

Achilles must revenge Patroclus and die in battle to be remembered as a hero

In The Iliad the Greeks and Trojans struggle to adhere to the codes of religion and
ethics, of their society
...
The characters make
sacrifices and pray to the gods to obtain their assistance
...
Although the gods do not
control the mortal's fate, they are recognized as an influential spiritual power
...


CHAPTER EIGHT: MESSAGE OF HOMER
In Homer's Iliad, Homer shows his views on heroes, villains, and war
...
He also
shows that even heroes have villainous qualities
...


Nath 31
Homer's view of a hero displays bravery, martial skills, and even friendship
...
He displays amazing martial skills by being one of
the Trojans' top warriors
...
He's very devoted to his wife and loves his
children
...

Hector, seeing this, soon removed his helmet and let his son comes to him
...
Odysseus is
another hero who is unwavering in his devotion to his people
...

Priam was also portrayed as a hero
...
He even
cared about his son Paris who was basically the reason why the war had begun
...
They gave away 10 years of their life to fight for their
leaders
...
Achilles is shown as an
extreme villain in The Iliad
...
He may display incredible martial skills on the
battlefield, but he still will not fight in the war
...
It also shows that he is disloyal because
he is not serving his leader by not fighting in the war
...
He is displayed as selfish because he engages two countries in an enormous war, just
because he claims he is in love with a married woman, it because of Helen that he decides to
have this Great War
...
He claims to be a great warrior and claim that he
is unmatched martial ability; he even challenges Menelaus to battle
...


Homer shows that everyone has a choice between a life of war and a life of peace
...
Achilles, although displaying unmatched martial ability in the battle field, is
shown as a selfish and petty objector
...
This shows that even the greatest of heroes and the worst
of villains have their own ups and downs, yet everyone has their choice of living one life
from the other
...
Diomedes was
in a rage, after killing hundreds of people, even attacking gods, was ready to enter battle once
more
...
This shows that even though
warriors can battle, they can also live a life a peace and friendship
...
The shield had two cities, one was peaceful
and one was in a time of war
...


A complicated theme, the interaction between fate and free will is present in every
book of the Iliad
...
The gods intercede
repeatedly, altering events as they please
...
At key points, Homer makes it clear that mortals make
important choices, and a few times mortals nearly overturn the dictates of fate itself
...


Pride is a theme of pivotal importance, not only for the Iliad, but for all of Greek
literature
...
The central
hero of Christianity, Jesus Christ, is the embodiment of humility
...
In contrast, it is hard to imagine a male heroic
Greek hero who is humble; for the Greeks, pride is inextricable from heroic action
...
A Homeric hero wins glory by performing great deeds, the memory of which
will outlive him
...
Shades go down to the gloomy
world of Hades
...


Homer has never been surpassed in his ability to portray both the beauty and horror of
war
...
But war also can bring out the worst in men
...
Although Homer glorifies warriors, the Iliad is
full of an unmistakable love for peace
...
It brings
out the best of martial ability, loyalty, and love to family
...
Homer never leads to one side more than the other; he just tries to
convey the book in an objective light
...
War! Armed conflicts have
existed since the beginning of human civilization
...
It may be to protect territory, or to gain territory
...
It may be because Paris abducts
Helen
...
As a result of

Nath 35
war, people gain glory and wealth
...
However, it is not worth for them to risk their lives
...


Even the most glorious warrior in The Iliad, Achilles, rebels against a more powerful
leader when lives are at stake
...
In retaliation, Agamemnon threatens Achilles' honor by telling him to "desert, by all
means" (83)
...
Achilles' honor is at stake, and he also loses the opportunity to gain glory
and wealth if he does not participate in this war
...


Hector has parallels to Achilles as he prioritizes people's lives over the rewards of
warfare
...
He insults Paris for cowering from
battle
...
(206) Hector despises this "hateful war" due to the costs in many peoples' lives for
Paris' possession of Helen, whom he refuses to give up
...
Achilles values personal worth
...

Hector, on the other hand, continues to fight for honor
...
Hector knows he is fated
to die protecting Troy, yet he continues to fight
...
He continues
to fight for honor
...
Homer not
only reveals that the value of life is greater than material possessions, but that the significance
of living is universal to humans through the comparison of Achilles and Hector
...

Although Paris and Agamemnon are quite different people, Homer brings them together
structurally
...
The Epic
makes the reader oppose the Paris and Agamemnon, and their values in material possessions
by antagonizing the two of them
...
In hopes of bringing Achilles back into the war effort, Agamemnon offers
him an incredible amount of goods, including gold, cattle, and women
...
But a man's life breath cannot come
back again – no raiders in force, no trading brings it back
...
265)
...
It is futile for warriors to fight for material possessions when it
risks their lives
...


Nath 37
The warrior's pursuit of kleos is much for the individual himself
...
They attempt to gain recognition by accomplishing incredible feats in war, in
which they risk their lives
...
Patroclus death was caused by his strive for glory
...

Although glory is beneficial to the warrior himself, their death impacts many others
...

Patroclus' life may be worth sacrificing for him, but it has much more significance to those
dear to him
...


The way this Epic is told amplifies the significance of life
...
Alcathous is one of the many soldiers who
were only mentioned once – at the time of his death:

And here was a royal kill, the son of Aesyetes, the hero Alcathous, son-in-law to
Anchises, wed to his eldest daughter, Hippodamia
...
So the bravest man in the broad realm of Troy took her hand in marriage, true,
the very man Poseidon crushed at the hands of Idomeneus here
...
(355)

Although Alcathous was not important to the plot of The Iliad, he as a person is
notably described
...
The depth
given to soldiers such as Alcathous elicits the significance of human lives – not only the
protagonists – that participated in this war
...
The leader of the Greek army,
Agamemnon, takes from his greatest warrior, Achilles, a captive woman which he fancies
...
Zeus accepts his prayers and supports the Trojans to the point that
they are about to invade the Greek camp itself
...
After a while
Achilles agrees and gives Patroclus his armor
...
They proceed to have a battle and
Hector defeats Patroclus and takes Achilles’ armor from his slain body
...
As soon as new
armor is made for him, Achilles rushes into battle even though he is warned twice that soon
after Hector’s death he will meet his downfall
...
He even fights the god
Xanthus, the river god, who is upset by how many corpses Achilles has caused to fall into
streams
...
The
gods see this and believe that enough is enough and persuade Achilles to give the body to the
Trojans where Hector receives a proper burial
...


The Iliad is a story that glorifies and justifies war
...
The reason the argument of life is
present is because of the time period this was told
...
Homer's society sought for knowledge of life, and
questioned the previous ways of living such as the warrior culture
...
We see pro-life ads, yet abortion still exists; we see protests for war, yet it is
prevalent at numerous areas of the world
...


Nath 40

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The Pity of Achilles: Oral Style and the Unity of the Iliad
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of
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Introduction to The Iliad
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The Iliad
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...


Lattimore, Richmond
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of Chicago Press, 1961
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Lattimore, Richard
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Death, War, And Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice
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Dichtung und Dichtersprache in indogermanischer Zeit
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...
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