Greek Guest Heroism

It is I, Achilles the great. My good friend, Patroclus came up to me. He begged on his knees for me to come back into the field. But I did not budge. I will not come back into the battle to fight until I am received the proper apology, and I will not listen to anyone, nor the gods. Patroclus gave me another option, which was he offered to take my position. I knew it wouldn’t last long but it would go far into the battle. I decided to give him my armor to be remined about me. The armor of mine, is a way to show my warrior skills that have been known and acknowledged to me people. I would be messaged about the actions of Patroclus. I was informed at that Trojans started to retreat and some were trapped in the ships. Whoever from the Trojans

The knight shows his true chivric colors by saying “My lady and my love, my dearest wife, I leave the matter to your wise decision.” (406-407) By allowing his wife to chose for him he displays true chivalry. He is also allowing to choose what she wants for her husband; this is a recall to the answer she gave him to save his life.

Knight’s armor is crucial as it protects and shows their social class. In the beginning he would use Sir Ector’s armor a very basic armor. As it was simply formed around Sir Ector’s body made of iron and had no detail what so ever. It was basic armor simply to get by in jousting, protecting the jouster from a blow. William (Sir Ulrich) would wear this and would not properly fit him. He would wear this armor up until it split in a jousting battle. Made of iron a weak metal and after numerous blows will fracture. He finds a woman named kate who would fix him up new armor except extraordinary well compared to others. As this armor was something new to the medieval times. Armor made of steel something more durable than iron and could take more of an impact without damage dealt. William astonished by this has the armor tested where he is then

“ Then Glaucus, son of Hippolochus met Diomedes in no man’s land. Both were eager to fight, but first Tydeus’s son made his voice heard above the battle noise” (Book 6, Lines 120-123). After Tydeus’s son made his point, Glaucus responds, “ Great son of Tydeus, why ask about my lineage?” (Book 6, Line 148). Here we see both characters being identified by their fathers. It was important to know the lineage of not only friends, but foes. This identification helped in distinguishing if the person you are battling goes back to family friendship because you would not want to kill someone your ancestors were friends with, also to know if they were demi-gods or immortals. Some at battle would rather a mortal to see the bloodshed in their victory instead of someone who has the gods on their side. Therefore, once it was identified that there were old ancestral family ties the two at battle wouldn’t want to kill each other, instead they would trade armor to show their family ties. “ If ever you come to Argos, as you are my friend and I your guest whenever I travel to Lycia. So we can’t cross spears with each other even in the thick of battle…and let’s exchange armor so everyone will know that we are friends from our fathers’ days” (Book 6, Lines 232-240).

            During this time period men were brought up on the teachings of battle.  As they grew they were taught how to

Each different aspect of the code of chivalry held a separate role in society. Whether it be religious or barbaric, chivalry tended to hold a moral guideline among those who followed it. This moral guideline held them true to their duties to man, God, and women (Sex, Society, and Medieval Women). All of which are reflected in the three themes of Chivalry: Warrior chivalry, religious chivalry, and courtly love chivalry (Sex, Society, and Medieval Women). These three hold their individual roles, all stimulating a different part of the mind and creating a code held by all areas of life in those who hold it. The underlying question posed in this intense pledge is whether those who took the oath lived it out accordingly. To live out Chivalry is

Dueling may sound familiar among aristocratic men in 19th Century Germany, but is it a must to be done when one men feel offended by another? Whether with bloodshed or not, dueling was seen by society as the only way to ensure harmonious reconciliation between the men involved in a dispute with each other (Frevet, 167). However, it is questionable as to whether dueling would result in the ‘superficial reconciliation’ if the cause was a serious provocation like adultery (Frevet, 176). In addition, dueling was seen as a way to prevent war, promote self-discipline as well as masculinity. As the outcome, only those “intellectually educated,” or commonly distinguished as upper middle class and aristocratic people, were allowed to duel because advocates

Even the armor without the pentangle had a religious importance in medieval literature because to be adorned in armor was to “be strengthened in the lord, in the might of his power … [and with] the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil” (Green 126), which comes into play when Bertilak’s wife tries to seduce Gawain. In this instance Bertilak is representative of the devil and he is using his wife to test Gawain to see if he would commit sodomy and break his religious and knightly code. This scene is extremely important since he has been “divested of his armor, relived of his helmet, horse and his coat” (Ashton 60), basically everything physical that reminds him of his faith. However, even without his armor being a constant reminder of his faith and honor he proves he is truly faithful and chivalrous by turning down Bertilak’s wife.

The aristeia is supposed to be depiction of a hero's finest moment. Typically before these moments we see that our hero has an arming scene to get ready for the battle that is to ansue. The reason for these scenes are to depict the importance of the battle; the longer the scene the more important the battle. A hero's gear is also a major part of himself and his honor as it was common to try to take the armor off a slayed warrior who was viewed as a worthy man. We see this throughout the epic as people fight to protect of overtake the bodies of fallen champions. Before Achilles aristeia we Hephaestus fashion him near armor, since his was lost during patroclus death. It is here we get an very descriptive imagery of just the shield.

Greek Mythology often tells the tales of heros preforming heroic quests, gods demanding their rule on humans, the passing of traditions, and explaining the unknown. Through these stories we can gather many metaphors, patterns, and symbols that have shaped ancient Greek society for hundreds of years. While reading the Mythology text by Edith Hamilton, I’ve gathered many common symbols such as good versus evil, light versus dark, order and chaos, and being high and low. However, two key symbols that have occurred in many of the Greek stories are hospitality and sacrifice. One story that depicts the symbol of hospitality is the story of Demeter and Persephone.

The Ancient Greek civilization was located on the same land Greece is now, Ionian Islands, Asia Minor, South Italy, and Sicily. It is surrounded mountains and in the north by water. The Ionian and the Aegean seas, together with natural islands and bays, gave the Greeks the opportunity to develop their high level of commerce and their rich culture. The mountains, which surrounded Greece, gave them the advantage of being well protected.

He was too excited to even wonder who this Balthazar was. The new armor was just what he needed and he examined it carefully. It was wonderfully stylish with silver wolf emblems on the chest plate, gauntlets, gloves and boots. The helmet looked like the open mouth of a wolf with a visor to cover his face. His gauntlets also had wolf claws engraved on them. He didn’t even need a sword because now he could do hand-to-hand combat without one, if he so chose. Its most impressive feature, it had no weak points, unlike his current armor. He reached down and pulled out the aforementioned black cloak, made to slip over the armor and his father’s sword. The sword was light with the same wolf emblem engraved on the hilt. It looked like any

Standard de rigor for the adventuring prince, so to speak, along with long shirts, hauberks really, of fine elven-made mithril mail. That the armor’s spell forged links were of a durability guaranteed not to burst from the blow of any mundane blade would alone have made them worth a king’s ransom. Even more noteworthy, the armor was of a magical nature such that it would also meld effortlessly into any other form the wearer might take were the wearer an arcane shape-shifter as opposed to say, simply a boy who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet neither of these facts were such to give these three graceful youths a moment’s pause. Indeed, it would almost seem as if they took their armor and finery both for granted, as an actor would the stage props that allowed him to best assume his

“Soo shall be it, brothers.” It was obvious that he felt uncomfortable because he had been interrupted. “We have built a hall for the Gemstones, the Air Gem is already there.

The Medieval knight followed a strict and detailed Code of Chivalry, which dictated his lifestyles and actions throughout the medieval ages. A man went through a lot to become a knight. The training took years and it was very tedious at times. “The obligations of knighthood were so heavy that sometimes squires refused knighthood and remained squires all their lives”(Buehr 33). After all the years of training, one day made it all worthwhile. The knighting ceremony was very involved, solemn and religious. The night before, the soon-to-be knight knelt on an altar praying to God and reflecting on his future knighthood. The next day, he was clothed all in white. He attended a mass where he made his vows. He