Odyssey Journal

Throughout the Iliad, both Achilles and Agamemnon are portrayed as womanizers who have tempers when they don't get what they want. Agamemnon takes a war bride, puts his army in danger because of her, and when he is forced to give her up, takes Achilles' concubine. Achilles, unhappy of this, mimics a toddler who sits down and refuses to move because a toy is taken away, as he refuses to fight for a time. Throughout the epic poem, both men treat women like objects that are only there to satisfy men's needs and can be traded back and forth like playing cards. For this reason, Agamemnon's death is certainly fitting. His wife, who he has cheated on many times, finally gets the chance to be with a lover who makes her happy, and gets to murder her cheating husband as well. Achilles, although honored for his heroism, seems to be unhappy in the underworld. His death also seems to lack valor, as he was killed not by one of his great rivals, but by Paris. Achilles' unhappiness is warranted by his actions in life. While Greek society certainly honored heroism, they didn't seem to mind if their heroes were womanizers and murderers. I believe both "great" mean got what they deserved in the afterlife.

Journal Part Two

In the Greek world, heroism, valor, and bravery were the greatest of all characteristics, so it is fitting that the Greeks' idea of hell is people walking around without unmotivated, unable to be brave. Americans' version of hell would be a different one, filled with all of the little frustrations of life. Some people would be caught in endless lines in department stores. Others, would be forever in a traffic jam. Still others would he stuck on the line with an infuriating member of customer service forever. Maybe some would get the mail each day, constantly finding letters about matters that they had resolved, and they would have to spend every day talking to the same companies and telling the same stories over and over again. These seem to be the little things that bother Americans most, so it would make sense that their hell would be made up of the things that most infuriate them.