While, were it up to Zeus he would gladly see men work out their problems in a peaceful way, and, if he can help it, only sends strife and war when men need to be punished. The relationship between war and peace is complicated by the fact that he is not the only god (even if he is king of the gods). The gods seem to have just as many quarrels and disagreements among themselves as men do on Earth -- a point Zeus knows quite well. That is the reason he presides over the council of Olympians at the beginning of Book 4: he wants to see if there is someway they can put aside their differences and stop provoking the two sides (Trojans and Greeks) to do battle against one another. On the side of the Greeks, for example, are Hera, Athena Poseidon, Thetis and others. On the side of the Trojans are Aprhodite, Ares, Apollo, Artemis and more. As long as they are involved, peace is not likely to come. This is why Zeus forbids the gods and goddesses to have anymore part in the war: he wants the men to work it out and is tired of seeing the Olympians fighting and disobeying him. But, just as Zeus says to Athena at the end of the Odyssey, "Conclude it as you will," (24.531), so too does he say to his wife Hera in Book 4 of the Iliad, "Do as you please" (4.37). He does not understand her bloodlust or her insatiable appetite for seeing Troy obliterated. He tells her without exaggeration, "If you could walk through the gates and through the towering ramparts and eat Priam and the children of Priam raw, and the other Trojans, then, then...
But he would rather see her do this than see themselves fight. As much as he dislikes discord among men, he dislikes it even more between himself and his wife. Therefore, in order to appease her, he allows Hera to assert her will (which is to see the Greeks make war on Troy and destroy it), for Troy's destruction is preferable to bitterness between Zeus and Hera, as he himself states: "Never let this quarrel hereafter be between you and me a bitterness for both of us" (4.37-8). All the same, he reminds his wife that she better not say a word the next time one of her favored cities does something to provoke his wrath.
War The Experience of War War has changed greatly in character from the days of knights in shining armor. The concept of a "state" rather than just a regional ruler has changed the dynamic of war. Rather than meeting on a battlefield and duking it out, two armies now willfully attack civilian targets to demoralize a population, cut off trade routes to starve a population, and, if it comes to it, invade
Achilles, in effort to match his personal loss on a national level, strives to kill Hector, again fueling the economy of revenge, but this time in a far more 'high stakes' manner. Now, the loss of a man will result in the loss of Troy's greatest warrior. But even though Achilles emerges victorious from this struggle, his is an empty victory. He knows that his own death will follow
Homer -- Was the Blind Bard a Poetic Activist for War or Peace? Homer is a poet of war, namely the war between the Greeks and Trojans, and later in his "Odyssey," of the war between Odysseus and the gods whom would bar him from his trajectory homeward. He is a poet of war in the sense that war provides the narrative structure of how he outlines how a moral human
The Guilt and Shame In Heroes Sometimes, there is a misconception that heroes do not feel shame and guilt. For instance, in a movie, when heroes eliminate their adversaries, the viewers are happy because they just think of the good result that such action can bring to everyone. The viewers do not care of how the hero may have felt about his action of getting rid of the enemies and the
Homer/Dante Return of the Rings: Nordic Mythology co-created the epics of Tolkien and Wagner Tolkien and Wagner are among the most influential artists in their respective fields. Tolkien has been (deservedly or no) been credited with being the founding father of the modern fantasy genre, and Wagner's mythic explorations not only created a new expression for opera but have also been credited (almost certainly undeservedly) for having inspired the Jewish holocaust. Both
The result was horrifying, when opposing forces destroyed the region with war weaponry, and slaughtered entire villages where mostly women, young children, and the aged remained in their homes while the young divided themselves into the service of the opposing forces (Friedman, 2004). The violations of human rights were on a wide scale, and widespread, with both sides committing atrocities. However, by the time the United Nations intervened with peacekeeping
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