Honor And Shame In The Iliad

In Greek culture honor and shame is everything to them. With honor brings great joy, but with shame disgrace us brought upon the person and their family. The Iliad opens up with this line, “Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians” (75). This summarizes the whole story of the Iliad, that Achilleus will becomes greatly angered which will bring horrible atrocities upon the Achaians. Achilleus, who considers himself a greater fighter than Agamemnon, does not believe that he should be taking orders from Agamemnon, and becomes angered when Agamemnon takes his prize, Brisies when he has to give up his prize, Criseis. Achilleus asks Agamemnon how “Anyone of the Achaians readily obey you” (79) and looses his temper. Achilleus becomes so enraged that he turns on his

Another aspect that hinders the Achaians is that Achilleus, their best fighter, refuses to fight. With this, the Achaians go into a sort go loosing slump, as the Trojans gain speed and more success. In book two, Zeus’, in order to fulfill Achilleus’ request, sends a treacherous dream to Agamemnon that says, “He might take the wide-eyed city of the Trojans” (92). In the dream Nestor tells Agamemnon that if he attacks Troy immediately at full strength, then it will fall. But, this omen that Zeus sends is a false one, as he sends a message to Troy about the Achaians’ plan, so that the Trojans can defeat them. Instead of fighting the two sides duel, but the duel ends inconclusive. In book eight, Zeus forbids the gods from participating in the war. This ban on intervention allows Zeus to direct the war against the Greeks as he promised the Achilleus. To accomplish this, he sends lighting and thunder to scare the Achaians, who then flee from the Trojans. With the help of Zeus, the Trojans have a lot of success in battle in book