War is a fact of life, a terrible fact of life, but when it is willed by the gods it cannot be ignored.
Achilles does have some positive moral characteristics: although he spends much of the Iliad retreating from the fighting, he is clearly not a coward, in contrast to the Trojan Paris. He wants to fight, but his honor is too bruised. Furthermore, Achilles harbors a deep and abiding affection for his friend Patroclus, and the Greeks idealized this type of male friendship often more than husband-wife relationships. When Hector kills Patroclus in battle, because he believes him to be Achilles, Achilles is thrown into a frenzy of grief. He puts aside the slight done to him by Agamemnon, and vows to kill Hector.
Still, unlike Hector, who is repeatedly shown rallying the Trojans to fight in more glorious ways through his wise leadership, Achilles' bravery is often emotional, rather than measured, balanced, and temperate. His inaction combined with his known potential for military greatness inspires Patroclus to fight wearing his armor when the other, less skilled fighter should not. Achilles only fights when his friend is dead and must be avenged, not in the name of other Greeks or Greece itself. Although it pains Hector to do so, he tells Andromache and Astyanax that their needs cannot come first -- Achilles places his feelings first for Briseis, then for Patroclus, above the material needs of the rest of the...
He is described as being of gigantic size and of tremendous emotion. 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
speech of Achilles to Agamemnon to the Speech of Hector to Andromache The two speeches, of Achilles to Agamemnon and the one of Hector to Andromache, represent two different types of ethics in regards to rhetoric; this can be seen within the context of the speeches as well as the events. The speech of Achilles to Agamemnon is seen as a type base rhetoric, and the speech of Hector to
Hector is valiant, and can show great anger in the thick of battle when it is necessary. But behind the walls of Troy, during times of counsel, he is able to show coolness and forthrightness. He urges Paris to fight Helen's legitimate husband Menelaus alone, which would have prevented more people from dying if Paris had not acted like a coward and fought unethically in the one-on-one battle. Hector regrets
As the army is moving closer towards his position, he has fear about what the upcoming battle will bring. Yet, he sets these concerns aside in order to fulfill his duty as a warrior. (Homer, 1876) (Harris, 2011) While Achilles, is the complete opposite. An example of his selfish behavior occurred after he killed Hector. Instead, of leaving his body behind, he drags it around to show everyone in Troy
heroes of Homer's great work, The Illiad, is Achilles. Achilles, known for his handsome appearance and physical invulnerability, is driven by his compelling need and desire to have his memory preserved in history. Although such need and desire is expressed as Achilles' personal compulsion, the author Homer certainly intended that it was reflective of human kind in general. This desire and need for everlasting immortality remains an important part
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
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