War Is Naturally Violent, And The Iliad Essay - 1606 Words

War is naturally violent, and the Iliad does not hesitate to describe the atrocities committed by men with spears and swords. They kill each other, descriptively, and although individual heroes may get glory or special recognition for prowess in battle, the detailed depictions of death do not glorify the actual acts of warfare. Even the gods and heroes are critical of taking too much pleasure in waging war, though the epic celebrates the men who are good at it. Several of the heroes, like Diomedes and Achilles, single-handedly hold off the enemy and in doing so, seem to rise above the limits of normal men. They even escape the ignobleness of death and are called â€Å"beautiful† after dying. In all, the Iliad acknowledges the realities of war and does not glorify its violent nature, but it does appoint extraordinary honors to the heroes who fight in the war. The Iliad shows the violence of war without obscuring the brutality of the bloodshed, demonstrating a willingness to show the inglorious side of war. The poem dedicates pages to chronicling the various ways men are killed, which includes being slaughtered in sleep and being â€Å"sliced through the neck, leaving only / A ribbon of skin from which the head dangled† (16.358-359). It is likely unsettling for an audience to contemplate a beheading violent enough to leave the head dangling by nothing but a strip of skin, but that is what happened and it appears to be reported without much apparent censorship. Although Homer does notShow MoreRelatedEssay On Simile In The Iliad790 Words   |  4 Pagestrademark of the epic poem. It describes an extended simile, which continues for lines on end, and the extended simile’s vehicle often describes multiple characteristics of its tenor (Cite Sharon Hamilton!). Homer uses the Homeric simile throughout The Iliad to describe the Troj an or Achaean people and/or army as a group. Yet, the Homeric simile also applies to an individual many times throughout the text, specifically, The Iliad’s protagonist: Achilles. Achilles is a complex and dynamic character. DespiteRead MoreThe Beginning Of Humanities Core862 Words   |  4 PagesHumanities Core in fall quarter, my understanding of war was primarily centered around soldiers and how killing others permanently scarred them, often leading to post-traumatic stress disorder. Being a Cognitive Sciences major, I am naturally interested in how extreme situations, such as war, affect people’s psychology. However, my focus drifted in an entirely new direction, towards civilians in wartime (See: Tags), as the year progressed and my view of war became more complex. 539w Meryl Streep in a productionRead MoreMy Final Words On War871 Words   |  4 PagesWords on War At the beginning of Humanities Core in fall quarter, my understanding of war was primarily centered around soldiers and how killing others permanently scarred them, often leading to post-traumatic stress disorder. Being a Cognitive Sciences major, I am naturally interested in how extreme situations such as war affect people’s psychology. However, my focus drifted in an entirely new direction, towards civilians in wartime (See: Tags), as the year progressed and my view of war became moreRead More Honor as the Theme in Homer’s The Iliad Essay2033 Words   |  9 Pagesironically, they were never written and were first composed in Ancient Greek—The Iliad and Odyssey. 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GreenRead More Achilles Vs Odysseus Essay example3811 Words   |  16 PagesNevertheless, both heroes are defined not by their appearances, nor by the impressions they leave upon the minds of those around them, nor even so much by the words they speak, but almost entirely by their actions. Action is what drives the plot of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and action is what holds the characters together. In this respect, the theme of humanity is revealed in both Odysseus and Achilles: man is a combination of his will, his actions, and his relationship to the divine. This blend allowsRead Moretheme of alienation n no where man by kamala markandeya23279 Words   |  94 Pagesancient Greece, after Athens and Sparta. Sophocles described it as â€Å"the only city where mortal women are the mothers of gods.† According to Greek legends, the city was founded by Cadmus and was destroyed by the Epigonoi in the time before the Trojan War. In the sixth century B.C., Thebes recovered its glory to some extent, and in Sophocles’ time it was still a powerful state. LIST OF CHARACTERS Major Antigone The daughter of Oedipus, the former King of Thebes. Her mother, Jocasta, was Creon’s