Force In The Iliad

In almost all instances of war the cause has been related to greed, or the gaining of land and possessions. Greed is presented in the very first book of Homer’s “The Iliad.” It isn’t displayed by the cowards, but the “heroes” of the war such as Agamemnon, Achilles, and Pandarus. The entire cause of the Trojan War is the result of the greedy and cowardly behavior of Paris. There are many factors that had sparked the war, including the interference of the gods; however, the main factor to be blamed for the war is greed.

In Homer's epic, The Iliad, there are many great characters, both mortal and immortal. However, no characters seem to match the greatness and importance of Achilles, the mightiest of the Greeks and Hector, Trojan prince and mightiest of the Trojans. Although they are the mightiest of their forces, their attitudes and motives for the Greek-Trojan war are completely different.

Children taunting each other on the playground. A fast paced action adventure movie. A family crossing the street when a person of color walks by. They can be found everywhere within society, and yet rarely are recognized for what they truly are; scenes of violence. The children are using linguistic violence. The movie shows physical violence. The person of color endures societal violence. From the time a person is born to the time they die, they are subjected everyday to violence, even if it comes in forms that we do not immediately recognize as being violent in nature. It is possible that this complacency with violence exists because it can also be found in Western Cultures’ most treasured works, specifically those that are accredited for shaping the view of society as the world knows it. In Homer’s masterful work of The Iliad, the reader is confronted with all sorts of violence on many different occasion;, however, a few specific ones contribute more than the rest to the overall themes of the text.

It goes without question to state that various times in Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, violence occurs. Violence is typically thought of as it relates to physical violence, war, a way to resolve a conflict, yet is open to various other interpretations. In addition, it is arguable that multiple types of violence occur within that classical piece of literature. The most obvious type being physical violence, but including, yet is not limited to, psychological, emotional, sexual, and linguistic violence. Emotional violence is one that pairs easily within the other types, yet is equally as important. These types of brutality all contribute to the major theme of fate versus free will. This epic poem allows for readers to question whether people are truly free or if everything that happens is due to fate. If there is such a thing as determinism, then it would be safe to say nothing that happens in someone’s life is a free choice. In Homer’s, The Iliad, multiple scenes of violence support the central theme of fate versus free will.

Throughout The Iliad, an epic poem written by Homer, there were numerous warriors and other characters that could be looked upon as heroes; some of these heroes included Achilles, Ajax, Diomedes, Hector, and Glaucus. All of these individuals were heroes because of their remarkable mental and physical strength: they were courageous and were better fighters in war than other ordinary men. The trade of battle was a way of life to the Greeks back in Homer’s time. Children were raised to become great servicemen to their country, and warriors lived to fight for and defend their nation with pride and valor. The heroic code was a strict morality that dealt with matters relating to honor and integrity in battle.

Portions of modern society believe fate to be concrete and unchanging. However, in ancient times, it was believed to be influenced and guided by the actions of the gods. Similarly, in The Iliad by Homer, the actions of the gods influence the life, death, and fate of each and every individual. Gods such as Zeus, Athena and Apollo take great influence in human affairs in The Iliad. These actions cause life, death, sorrow, and triumph to befall various individuals of the story. Achilles’ fate results, solely, from these actions the gods undertake. In particular, the gods influence on Achilles’ fate shows when the gods keep Achilles from killing Agamemnon, staying out of the war, and holding onto his rage.

Ghostly representations of “the other” imagine a social evil that has not been put to rest. These images reoccur in the Western canon, marking the persistence of slavery long after its abolition. Haunting, ghosts and skeletons in Benito Cereno act as a vehicle through which the suppressed return to the stage with a message. The ghosts carry with them all that the imperialists wanted to control, including emotions, and more precisely, the emotions of the oppressed. I argue that ghosts and skeletons comprise an area of tension in which the appearance of the “other” reveals that the dominant party’s control is incomplete. Yet, the presence is merely ghostly due to the constant policing and lack of respect for the Other. These ghosts also break through the boundaries of the dominant culture’s paradigms and identities (Harpham 17), signaling potential political crisis. This text signals the fear of the retaliation of the Other through ghostly representations by projecting on to the other, their own identities of brutality and irrationality. “Benito Cereno” by Herman Melville overturns the racist images of the colonized by relocating evil in the order of slavery. Hauntings carry the perspectives and powers of the slaves by preserving the dead amidst the living and the past amidst the present, they muddle up the concept of time and therefore defy the Western dream of complete control.

x that turns anybody who is subjected to it/ into a thing,” (153). Weil perceives force as an active entity that is capable of profound, negative, influences on the lives it touches (153). For a hero, force replaces his rational sensibilities by an uncontrollable urge to slaughter his opponent in an animalistic fashion, an unavoidable outcome generated by war. Weil defines this uncontrollable type of force as “the force that kills,” marking the moment when a hero becomes a warrior (155). Simone Weil records The Iliad as a evil and vanity of war, but she fails to do justice to the complexity of Homer 's challenging vision. She turns a blind eye to poem 's commitment to heroism, a concept she assigns force as the poem 's "true hero." Weil overlooks the Homeric hero’s investment in the ethos of glory and the participation in the “noblest deeds of men,” which is present in The Iliad’s “true hero,” Hector.

The author’s metaphysical format brings together philosophical and religious issues, which are brought out by the use of paradoxes and conceits. For instance, death is compared to as a “slave” that brings the “soul’s

It's Dark. I can't see anything. All I know is that are many other soldiers are crammed in here with me. We are all crammed into a wooden horse, awaiting the Trojans to take us in as a gift. They will soon be deceived even though this mission has a small probability of success.

In this context, Byzantine sacred arts bearing the mystic ideal of human deification as ontological therapy, can become de-alienating pharmakon by opening a horizon in which man’s (even cyberman’s) essence as homo theologicus can be properly restored and saved. Most modern and contemporary aesthetic doctrines loyal to their post-Kantian heritage have disposed of almost any trace of mystic origin and transcendental telos as a useless waste. For this reason, they prove useless against the onto-emptying power of cyberculture. Byzantine Orthodox aesthetics as an ontological therapeutic way with mystic origin and transcendental telos, can contribute to the de-oblivion of man’s essence in four basic ways: 1. by re-appropriating space through sacred architecture as an epiphanical “locale” where man can dwell anew in the neighborhood of Being, 2. by re-interpreting man’s “being in the world” as an ex-static interplay with Sacred that restores his sensorial perceptions through sacred icons and music, 3. by re-centering his life upon the ontological principle of self-identity against the interactive rationality of cyberlogic, and 4. by re-substantiating human self-experience as homo theologicus.

Authority has two different meanings in literature. First of all, power to enforce obedience, and power of influence action, opinion, belief. The cannon refers to religious and sacred texts. Literary cannon refers to a classification of literature. It is a term used widely to refer to a group of literary works that are considered the most important of a certain time period or place.

Homer’s epic The Iliad, is a great tale of war and glory. It takes place during the last year of the ten year Greek-Trojan war. The Greeks have been fighting with the Trojans for quite some time, and just when peace seemed like a possibility, the youngest prince of Troy, Paris, acts out selfishly and steals the beautiful wife of Menelaus, Helen. This instigates the fighting again. Throughout The Iliad, Homer tells of two heroes, both similar, but also very different in their character; the great and powerful Greek, Achilles, and the strong, loving father, Prince Hector of Troy. In Homer’s The Iliad, Hector and Achilles differ as heroes in regards to pride, duty, and family love, the latter being self-centered and prideful, while the

The Iliad, Book I, Lines 1-14 Homer Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing! That wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s gloomy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain; Whose limbs unburied on the naked shore, Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore.

Literal works has a great influence on many people, this influence inspired many readers and writers through their work of art. We have John Donne for example which became a literal canon by T.S. Elliot, giving him a great influence on countless generations before and others yet to come, as well Michael Longley and we can tell the great influence from the Iliad by Homer upon his writings, which had a great effect on so many of us, even the new Greek generations uses his poems such as “Cease Fire” as a way of understanding the history of their ancient Gods, kings and most importantly war. It’s taken for granted that this type of canonical literature played an important role in shaping the literature we know today.