Cultural Attitudes Reflected In War. Vanissa Tsang. . Conflict

In book three of Iliad, “illustrious king” (9.126) and his Achaean armies fight the Trojans to stop wife stealing but despites that he still dishonors and takes Achilles prize, Breseis. Agamemnon in the Iliad can be seen as the mortal Aphrodite. In book three of Iliad, Helen disobeyed Aphrodite and she responds with rage and so does “lord of men” (9.112) in book one. Agamemnon feels that Achilles disobeyed him, so he answers with wrath just to show “how much greater [he] [is] than [him]…. for hoping to rival [him] strength for strength” (1.219-221). His statement makes Achilles furious with rage. “Why, why in the world if not for Helen with her loose and lustrous hair? Are they the only men alive who love their wives, those sons of Atreus? Never!” (9.411-414). Achilles expresses his feeling on how contradicting the whole Trojan war is and that is he going to involve himself, it will be for Bresies only. Bresies is who he loves not

At the beginning of the story, the gods are debating what to do with the Greeks after they pillaged Troy, but more specifically, violated Athena’s shrine. Athena asks for help and says to Poseidon, “I want to help the Trojans who were my enemies, and make the Greek army’s homecoming a bitter one.” (Euripides 63). To which Poseidon replies, “You’re so fickle. Your mind leaps here and there: now you hate, and now you love, and both in excess.” (Euripides 65). Even Poseidon admits to the “fickleness” of the goddess since her allies during the war were the Greeks. This lends itself to show that Helen could be telling the truth about the goddesses having an argument about the beauty of each other and Aphrodite forcing Helen to run away with Paris. Helen also helps her argument by pointing out that the fight was preordained by the gods based on the prophecy about Paris, and then blames Paris’s mother and father for letting Paris live, rather than slaying Paris and trying to stop the prophecy from coming true. Through the many effective arguments, Helen shows that she did not ask to be carried away by Paris and that she liked Menelaus. Menelaus seems very weak compared to Helen, especially since he seems to not be able to make up his mind whether to kill her or not. In the end, Menelaus seems to decide on letting her live, though he still tells

As the plot of the Trojan War continues, Strauss includes the fact that the Greeks did in fact want peace with Troy and they wanted to end the long lasting feud. However, Troy did not have the same thing in mind. When asked, King Priam refused to address the fact that his son Paris humiliated King Menelaus by stealing his wife from him. Moreover, they did not agree to deliver Helen back due to the fact that it would show that they agreed with the fact that taking Helen from Menelaus was not morally correct, which would also lead to a civil war in Troy.

In the Peloponnesian War the Spartans jealousy, Spartan unhappiness at no longer having all the military glory, and conflict between competing political ideas. The boys from Lord of the Flies fought, they would bully, ignored Ralph, would play hunt pigs, and the talk about the beast. In Lord of the Flies and Sparta and Athens, it shows our inner fear, immaturity, and lack of civilization due to differences.

Achilles is also angry at having to fight another man's battle. The Trojan War is being fought because Paris stole Helen, Agamemnon's sister-in-law. In his argument with Agamemnon, Achilles points out "It wasn't Trojan spearmen who brought me here to fight. The Trojans never did me damage, not in the least" (107). Achilles' rage heightens in the argument and he declares "No, you colossal, shameless--we all followed you, to please you, to fight for you, to win your honor back from the Trojans---Menelaus and you, you dog-face!" (108). Achilles is also angry because even though he and many other soldiers are there risking their lives for Agamemnon and Menelaus, Agamemnon is sly enough to avoid personal injury. Achilles says to Agamemnon, "Never once did you arm with the troops and go to battle or risk an ambush packed with Achaea's picked men--you lack the courage, you can see death

Atreus, Agamemnon's father, murdered two of his brother Thyestes children and fed them to Thyestes after finding out that Thyestes' was having an affair with his wife Aerope. When Thyestes found out what his brother did, Thyestes cursed Atreus and all of his bloodline. He also took Aegisthus, who was just a baby at the time so that he can avenge what was done unto his father. Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus gathered a huge fleet and army to set sail to Troy in the Trojan War, to free Helen, Menelaus' wife, who was stolen by Paris, a Prince of Troy. In order for

Paris then took her back to Troy. Menelaus heard and the ex-suitors of Helen made a deal with Agamemnon saying that If the princess of Grease won that Menelaus would get Helen back and Agamemnon would get Troy. Rumors have it that Odysseus the king of Ithaca, was sent on a journey to find you and persuade you to join the war between the princes of Greece and the Trojans. Odysseus was a great persuader , and with you thirst for adventure and glory, he talked you in the joining the fight and you sailed for Troy. You took 50 ships, each carrying 50 men of your best men from your private army, the Myrmidons. Is it true that Agamemnon and you had a falling out and you withdrew from the conflict? and that the quarrel started after you had taken two women in one of your raids? and that you gave one of the women to Agamemnon. But, the girl’s father offered a ransom for the girl’s safe return. and that Agamemnon refused because the girl was a priestess of Apollo, and that the god was unhappy with this decision and sent a plague to wreak amongst the Greek camp. and that Agamemnon eventually gave back the girl, and to mourn the loss, he took your woman from you? and without you, the Greeks were fearful of loss and the Trojans gained confidence of winning from your absence, even reaching close to the walls of the Greek camp in their attacks and managing to set a few Greek ships on fire. what was your thoughts when your great friend Patroclus begged you to re-enter the war or at least allow him to lead out the Myrmidons in battle? and when you agreed was it hard to give him your armour made of gold, silver, and enamel, and the graves were of shining tin and army? and why did you make him promise only to engage in defensive action and not pursue the Trojans back to Troy? To my understanding you killed Troilus and were very smitten with Priam's daughter Polyxena. Priam decided

We see through the Greek myths that tension can be caused by individual differences. This is not only true for the Greek myths, but it applies to modern life, to our society that we live in. In the myths we saw that when the tension rose from the individual differences they would fight, and the people with individual differences would become enemies. These stories can be fun to read, but we need to take from them that we can't just fight people when the tension rises from differences. We need to settle our differences, and not become enemies with people.

In paragraph two of the article, “The Narrative of the Trojan War” it states, “Helen was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris and taken as his prize for choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess in competition with Athena and Hera” (Cartwright). Aphrodite’s choices affected the world in their era and led to the cause of the Trojan war. Paragraph two in the article, “The Narrative of the Trojan War” states, “Menelaos, who was the husband to Hera, was very cautious of Helen because he knew she was the most beautiful girl in the world. He wanted her back immediately” (Cartwright). Because Menelaos wanted her back so badly, and that he had the power to do something about it, he made his men go look for Helen and this caused a war.

In Virgil’s “The Aeneid” and Homer’s “The Iliad” two men start catastrophic wars over one woman. “The Iliad” depicts two armies, the Greeks and the Trojans, who go to war over Menelaus’s kidnapped wife, Helen. Also in “The Iliad”, Achilles is having an altercation with Agamemnon over a maid Achilles won, who was taken from him. Achilles refuses to stand by his countrymen and fight the Trojans until she is returned to him. Meanwhile, in “The Aeneid”, Turnus goes to war with Aeneas over the loss of his bride Lavinia. The wars of each epic result in a great amount of bloodshed; bloodshed that each hero tried to prevent by

The Bible reports numerous cases of violence and war from the beginning of times. In most cases, violence in the Bible is caused by personal differences or tribalism (Niditch). People kill and destroy property due to jealousy, selfishness, vengeance, and attempts to prove their superiority. The evil of humanity in the account of Noah was characterized by violence that led to the destruction of earth. Numerous cases of wars and violence were recorded in the Bible, which showed the cruelty of mankind. Therefore, it is essential to consider a few of these cases, discussing their causes and the outcome.

The suspected start of the war- over the abduction of Helen, Queen of Sparta- was caused entirely by a godly conflict over who was the most beautiful- Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, was selected to judge. He chose Aphrodite, who in turn gave him Helen, who was her equivalent in beauty amongst humans. In both versions, Paris is portrayed as a wife stealing, thief in the night. His brother Hector and he were on a peace mission in Sparta on behalf of Troy visiting the king, Menelaus, when Paris ran off with Menelaus' wife, Helen. This action divides the Gods who constantly meddle with the mortal's lives. Naturally, Aphrodite is on the Trojans' side, as was her lover and God of War, Ares, and Apollo. Although Zeus, King of Gods, tried to be neutral, he was pro-Trojan. Hera, Queen of Gods, and Athena help the Greeks because they were mad that Paris chose Aphrodite. Poseidon, God of the Sea and Zeus' brother, also sided with the Greeks whenever Zeus was not looking. An example of this constant intrusiveness of the Gods in the Iliad was when King "Menelaus hurls his spear, lightly wounding Paris. Paris' helmet strap becomes caught at his chin and Menelaus has nearly dragged him away before Aphrodite intervenes, breaking the strap. She then wraps Paris in a mist, sets him in his own perfumed bedchamber, and hurries to catch Helen" (Bloom 13). Of

Every man desired her, yet she was stuck with an ugly King Menelaus, the ruler of the Spartans. Helen, however, did know her sheer beauty and because of this she was very frivolous, and that led to her being unfaithful to Menelaus, and she ran off with Paris, son of Priam, the ruler of Troy. Troy was a rival city-state of the Spartans, and thus a war begun over Helen. Homer describes Helen’s beauty to that of a goddess. He writes, “Helen came out of her scented chamber, a moving grace like Artemis, straight as a shaft of gold” (The Odyssey, Book IV).

Helen, the sister-in-law of Agamemnon was kidnapped by the son of the king of Troy. The Troy are doing fine and holding up well, while the Achaeans are dying off due to a strange plague. Achilles holds an assembly where a soothsayer reveals that the cause of this plague is Agamemnon’s ego. This was determined because Agamemnon took a woman hostage as his war prize.

In ancient Greece the most beautiful woman Helen, wife of Menelaus, the king of the Grecian state of Sparta has run away with Paris, the prince of Troy. The escape of Helen and Paris is an insult to all the Greeks. Infuriated, King Menelaus and his brother, Agamemnon, king of the state of Mycenae, assemble mighty armies of Greeks who include the finest warriors in the land. The soldiers gather at the port of Aulis to go ashore for Troy in a gigantic fleet of ships.