Always Achilles is described with the most exaggerated terms, shining like the sun or falling in the most absolute wretchedness. In a moment of sublimity oddly precognizant of gothic writers like E.A. Poe, Achilles refuses to bury his beloved Patrocles' body because "since I'm journeying under the earth after you, I'll postpone your burial...Till that time, you'll lie like this with me..." (book 18, 330-338) Achilles is perfect and heroic in the extremity of his nature. A more archetypal approach would say that he was heroic because, more than any other character, he represented the purity of war. Archtypically, he represents a purity of action and emotion than can drive men to battle, the pure warrior who is at once filled with the strength of emotion and will and yet resigned to perfect destiny,...
Today, if the thoughtful reader were able to extrapolate from the antique to the modern, one might find that Achilles' presents virtues that are still recognizable in our modern venue. His sense of honor to the modern eye may become a sort of rugged individualism, secure in its own moral power. His piety may seem odd and pagan to a world that has lost the sense of fate which ruled the ancient world (and in fact still exists in many modern cultures, as encapsulated in the term in'shallah), but the core issue of faith sustaining the warrior is as relevant today as it ever has been. Achilles' supreme emotional experience is to be even more comprehended as heroic today after the writings and explorations of the romantic era. Thus it is that Achilles, for all his flaws, may be seen as a hero through-out the…
Thetis' procurement of new armor, in a more simplistic tale, might be read as a mother letting go of a son from her apron-springs. But in the wisdom of the "Iliad," an epic that does not glorify death and war, Thetis' emotional sacrifice is full of sadness for both son and mother because both of them know that Achilles' death will follow the death of Hector. As a mortal, and
Thematic Comparison: Divine Intervention in Homer & Virgil Both works decently portray the horrors of warfare, and (albeit it in a reverent fashion) place the blame for this horror soundly at the feet of the gods. However while in Homer this intervention is largely capricious and relatively unmotivated, in Virgil's work it takes on a more motivated and historical turn in which the gods may actually be seen as working to
Homeric Epics and Mark Dennis McDonald's The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark (2000) is a book that was always guaranteed to upset orthodox Christian theologians and biblical literalists and fundamentalists everywhere, since its main thesis held that the author of the first gospel used the Iliad and the Odyssey as literary models. He compares Mark to the apocryphal Acts of Andrew, a Gnostic book, and describes it as a
He is a full grown hero who only needs a goal to set him on his journey. Gilgamesh is young and inexperienced, and he needs help to grow and mature throughout his journey, which he obtains from his dear friend Enkidu. Gilgamesh has many lessons to learn, and Odysseus learns too, but he is farther on the road to maturity, and so his journey leads him somewhere he already
In his last moments, Hektor realizes he can never persuade Achilles because "in his breast is a heart of iron" (XXII.357). Achilles reveals his cold nature when he says, "Die: and I will take my own death at whatever time" (XXII.364) moments after Hektor dies. Again, we see the stark contrast between these two heroes. Achilles is another face Homer attaches to the notion of war and kleos. Achilles is
Introduction The roles, ideals, views of men in the ancient civilization have been explored extensively in literature from the famous Kings of Israel to the mathematicians and philosophers of Greece. In contrast, the history entails limited literature of women in the ancient civilization. However, several masterpieces such as the Homeric poem, the Odyssey and the Iliad provides a glimpse of ideals, position, and role of women in the ancient civilization. Women
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