Imagine being apart from your family for over ten years, fighting for your life in a war, and in the many battles and problems you will face on your way home from war. Would you be able to fight a cyclops, pass a dangerous whirlpool and have to face the fact that your crew betrayed you? In the novel The Odyssey written by Homer, Odysseus must do all of these things and more. He has been away from his wife, son and many other family members for over ten years now, fighting for his life on his journey home after fighting in the Trojan war.
Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, chronicles the homeward bound voyage of the main character, King Odysseus of Ithaca. After Trojan War which lasted ten years, Odysseus sets foot on another adventure, which also spans ten years, to return to Ithaca. Odysseus is gone from his home for a total twenty years, but upon his arrival back to Ithaca, he finds that his title has been defended by his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus, who have been awaiting his return this entire time. Odysseus and Penelope are meant to be a model couple, so people often argue about which of the two is more admirable. To be admirable is to have faced a struggle with honor and dignity.
Throughout The Odyssey we are told a lot about Ancient Greece’s cultural phenomenons and moral principles. These are the very human behaviors and laws that our societies today are based off of .But we’ve adapted the Greeks welcoming gestures and standards of behavior to fit the world we live in now. The way humankind sees the world has changed over thousands of years. Our ideas of what is moral and what is not have changed, as has our trust in other people.
In the Iliad, hospitality is a reoccurring theme that can change situations, inspire character development, and link itself with other themes to make concrete points. Throughout the Iliad, situations are dramatically shifted when hospitality is used. In many cases, when things are going awry, hospitality allows the characters to, instead of acting like animals, find the humanity inside themselves. For example, in book nine, Nestor proposes a feast for Achilles to try and get him to rejoin the Greek force. Hospitality is especially important in this example, because Achilles was angry but also hospitable.
Hubris is one of the many themes that were brought up in the Iliad. Its definition is extreme pride and arrogance shown by a person that will bring downfall to that person or to others. The first time this theme is brought up is when Helen leaves with Paris. Agamemnon uses Helen as an excuse to rile up all the Greek kings. Agamemnon knew that if they beat Troy, then he would control a major passage of trade which would make him the undisputed ruler of all of Greece.
The actions inspired by vengeance and justice in Homer’s Iliad shows how detrimental the effects can be on others. The Justice seeked by warlike Menelaus causes pain and suffering to many on all sides of the war. Paris by abducting Helen hurt Menelaus’s pride, “Menelaus had in mind taking revenge on the man who’d injured him” (Homer, Iliad 3. 26-27). Seeking this revenge Menelaus
Women are still subjected to falling short of equal status with men on a daily basis. Throughout The Iliad women are treated like property. Women are not people but rather a prize to be won or lost, bereft of individual identity. In the opening of The Iliad, Agamemnon captures Chryses’ daughter, Chrysies.
Nicole Tschida ENG 210 Paper 1 2-26-18 The Iliad and The Consequences of War The plot of the Iliad takes place in the middle of the war between the Greeks and the Trojans that lasted for ten years. This conflict according to Homer and ancient Greek mythology occurred because the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaus, brother to king Agamemnon. In this paper, I will be examining the consequences of war, as outlined by Homer.
Justice is an underlying idea that humans revolve around. It is our sole concept that constructs how we think and behave. Justice creates morals and therefore how we judge those around us. If we didn’t have justice, our society would be in chaos and completely unruly. When identifying what is just, there are quite a few traits that can be clearly spotted.
Revenge lies within us all, Revenge is an instinctive human characteristic. These emotions and actions associated are neither preventable nor controllable. Everybody has felt and taken action on the emotion of revenge, whether it 's your sibling, friend, or enemy. Revenge can bring justice but as well bring pain to someone else. Vengeance is an extremely popular emotion in today 's life whether it is terrorism or a dispute between family and friends.
A major theme in the Odyssey is reciprocity: people getting what they deserve. Reciprocity is an important theme in the Odyssey because it explains why Odysseus’ journey was very long and treacherous. Eurylochus, Antinous, and Odysseus all suffered consequences due to poorly made actions. Each of them made the wrong decisions which lead to death and a long/adventurous journey. Eurylochus was the first to be killed by Odysseus and his men due to his actions.
Honor is one of the major themes in The Iliad. However the concept of honor in The Iliad is not the same as our current understanding of honor. Honor plays a key role in how the characters in the Iliad act, why they make certain decisions, and why the events in the Iliad occur the way they do. Nowadays, we refer to honor as an idea or concept which is closely related to fame, respect, reputation etc.
The Ancient Greeks value specific qualities in a person, however they did not value other. Ancient Greeks valued these qualities based on certain achievements or on a performances in war or even inside the city walls making substantial decisions. The Iliad is an epic novel by the Greek poet Homer. The Iliad is based off of the Trojan war between the Achaeans led by King Agamemnon and the Trojans led by King Priam of Troy. This novel focuses on the actions of several characters and how the disparate gods interfered with the war to help one or the other side have a chance to win.
The Iliad by Homer, the Odyssey poem written by Homer and the Prometheus mythology are classical texts that reflect the historical and cultural background of the Greek and Roman literary skills. The Odyssey and the Iliad are Homer’s epic poems that portray Greek and Western culture. The three texts give an insight of the ancient Roman myths, culture and the literature during both the 17th and 18th century. The two texts by Homer and the Prometheus mythology represent a classical period that consisted of the cultural history and the civilization of the Romans and Greece hence known as the Greece-Roman World. Homer’s narratives, the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey”, and Aeschylus mythical story “Prometheus” have cultural and mythological similarities
The Iliad, written by Homer, is an ancient Greek epic about the Trojan War, which the divine certainly influences. Unlike how most gods might act or behave in books nowadays, the gods in the Iliad share some uncommon traits. For example helping their favorite morals, the idea of justice and harmony is surely excluded in the portrayal of Greek gods. The divine in the Iliad are characterized as very emotional and somewhat manipulative. Regardless of what occurs, it 's all the doing of the gods.
