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Nietzsche's Influence On Homerian Characters

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Argument: Nietzschean Zarathustra is an advanced copy of Homerian Achilles. Achilles served as a model for creation of Zarathustra and as a result their patterns of behaviour have much in common. Therefore, this paper will employ Nietzchian philosophy to give psychological inside into Homerian characters. Acampora, Christa Davis. "Nietzsche Contra Homer, Socrates, and Paul." The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 24 (2002): 25-53. Jstor. Web. 20 Nov. 2015. . The author here reveals the contestant nature of Nietzsche's perception of Homer. Nietzsche was influenced by Homer in a way that he percieved the latter as the first who questionned the Greek culture and understanding of human life and the one who first revaluated it. Through doing this …show more content…

The vengeance may either direct itself to the outer world or manifest itself in forcing others to suffer or turn to the inside and lead to self-abasement. The author applies the notion of ressentiment on Homer's Illiad and especially discusses Achilles' rage as its manifestation. "The entire Illiad is a story of poisonous, impotent vengefulness"(43). "In fact we recognize in Homer's story of Achilles both levels of the economics of ressentiment described by Nietzsche, the empirical level, at which Achilles suffers an actual injury for which he demands compensation and, behind this, the transcedental level at which the injury of time - Achilles'death sentence, sealed at his birth - is the true, ultimate cause of his resentfulness and not for which he demands compensation"(45). The text helps provides the Nietzschean interpretation of Achiles' actions and demonstrate him as a vengeful person, whose desire to avenge destroys …show more content…

The chapter focuses on his desillusionment that leads to allienation and the state of denial. The author claims that what makes Achilles a hero and what his "heroic" behaviour is based on is the devaluation of material values, which makes him different and alien to the society he lives in. As the author claims most of 20th century make Achilles' refusal of material values the center of their analysis of his behaviour and "assume a common problem - "Achilleus rejects material compensation" - and adopt subjective approaches to resolve it. As a result, an "essential" conception of Achilleus' heroic identity has been all but naturalized for modern readers"(4). TThe book presents the common for 20th century interpretation of Achilles bahaviour and nature of his heroic identity, which creates a starting point for my analysis of Achilles' psychology through

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In the Odyssey, Homer creates comparative relationships using metaphors and similes in order to expand upon themes. One interesting relationship in the epic is that between the poet and the hero. In this epic, the most prominent of the heroes are Odysseus and Telemakhos, and the most prominent poets are Demodokos and Homer. There are many different examples of relationships between the poet and the hero, but one of the more striking relationships is the similarity between the two. Through this comparison, Homer shows that both the poet and the hero cannot achieve greatness without pain or help, but instead need to suffer and need the help of an external guiding hand in order to achieve greatness.

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The ‘Odyssey’ is a well known book based around Greek myths and Odysseus’ journey back home as he attains help from the Gods. In ‘The Odyssey’, Homer is able to use figurative language to express a recurring theme of vengeance. In Homer's ‘Odyssey’, he manages to express a theme of vengeance by how Odysseus is struggling with the consequences of revenge and how he deals with that. In book twenty-two Odysseus confronts the suitors about trying to seduce his wife while he was gone, when he reveals himself as Odysseus some of the suitors immediately try to compensate for the wrongs they’ve done.

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It is so deeply rooted that it encompasses Achilles, becoming a characteristic of this great warrior, influencing his actions and chooses throughout the story, such as leaving the fighting and considering the idea to return to Pythia. The depth of Achilles rage and hatred is demonstrated through in his response to Agamemnon, concerning the gifts he offered as compensation for his wrongs, saying that “not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sand and dust in the earth, no not even then could Agamemnon bring my fighting spirit round” (9.470-472). The true rage of Achilles is extremely important to the entire story of The Iliad, as from Book One through Book Nine Achilles allows this rage to control his actions, causing him to Achilles remains absent from the fighting as well as causing him to pray to Zeus that Trojans may receive the upper hand in the fighting so that the Greeks may suffer for Agamemnon’s actions. Therefore, this profound rage is an extremely important aspect of The Iliad, as it ultimately effects not only Achilles actions but also course of the

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