Personal Gains, Honor, And Glory In Homer's Iliad

The last event I would like to write on is not an event at all but more of a perception of different positions within the ancient Greek military, specifically, heroes, leaders, and regular linemen. In the book Iliad, written by Homer, depicts heroes and leaders as having a single purpose in life ;either having power or glory and that there is no adversity put in front of them that they cannot conquer . Because recognition and legacy are the ultimate goals of Heroes and leaders, those become the foundations or starting point for everything that happens in Homer's Iliad. Personal gains, honor, and glory are deemed as most important. For example, in Book 1 Agamemnon and Achilles both decide that their personal gains are more important than the overall welfare of the Achaean army. Agamemnon believes that he deserves the highest honor, Briseis, a beautiful woman that was awarded to Achilles as a prize during the Trojan War. For this reason he is willing to irritate and anger Achilles in order to gain what he feels is already rightfully his. Likewise, instead of trying to diffuse the situation, Achilles decides to defend his prize. As a result of both men placing their own

Unlike leaders and war heroes, they did not have the privilege to offer any type of suggestion or concerns. No matter what was told of them to do, they had to do it. In Homer's Iliad, both armies are pushing through and performing many courageous acts. It is seen that fighting is the center of the soldiers lives. One could understand or relate to this as wanting to feel like they are apart of something, Even though leaders have the tendency to put their interest before the soldiers or set them up for failure, the armies still undoubtedly carry out every order. Overall, Homer's Iliad shows that the glory of war and recognition that one may gain are more important than the lives of others as well as family as a