Shot Through The Heart : Passage

The first book of the Iliad begins with the beginning of Achilles’ rage, the rage that will eventually cause his own people so much grief and is also the force for Homer’s version of the story of the Trojan War. Whereas the taking of Helen is the focus of the larger, traditional story, the feud between Agamemnon and the hero Achilles over a kidnapped girl defines the Iliad. Both feature a conflict over a woman, Helen and Chryses’ daughter, and a need for resolution as well as a breach of social contract: Paris steals the wife of Agamemnon, ruining the bonds of the guest relationship, while Agamemnon denies Chryse his right to ransom and invokes the wrath of the gods in the form of a plague. In both cases, however, it becomes clear that the conflict will not be resolved quickly, but will continue through the very heart of the story. By “singing of Achilles’ rage” from the first line, the narrator is clearly showing the audience that this Trojan war is not the war of Hector or Paris or Helen, but of the proud Achilles and his hero-sized enemy.

(A Discussion on Scenes of Violence in the Iliad and Their Effect on the Text as a Whole)

The Tell Tale Heart' is a story about a man who killed an old man just

The poem starts out with the goddess Juno approaching the god Aeolus asking him to disrupt the sailing of Aeneas and the other Trojans,

My face drips with sweat while riding the chariot across the velvet-colored muddy dirt. My heart was pounding quickly and constantly, almost jumping out of my chest. With the swing of my blade, my opponent drops to his knees, eyes rolling back. One Trojan slaughtered, many more Trojans to kill. This isn’t the end; this is far from the end. It’s time I prove myself to Akhilleus, breaker of men; it’s time I show him that I am worthy of wearing his armor. The only blood to touch this armor is the blood of Trojan soldiers and the brave men that fight beside me. With the swing of my sword, I slice the throat of another tired soldier. His eyes thanked me for dismissing him from the prolonging war. Next, my blade meets Pronoos’ chest, skimming

When Artemis and Apollo were born they each got a bow and arrows, Artemis soft as moonbeams and non-painful if shot. On the other hand Apollo’s were hard piercing as the rays of the sun. Artemis shot the twelve girls and they laid on their beds and died softly and unpainfully. Apollo shot his painful arrows at the boys, they were torn from life.

“A hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap ( Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan 336).” The suspense created as he raises the blade and hands it to the traitor son of Hermes, host of Kronos. As I watch from the sidelines of an epic battle, unsure of the outcome, I am rattled out of my thoughts as my father continuously calls my name during our 5-hour car ride to Reno. The vivid image of the scene plays in my head as I haughtily respond to my father about an unneeded bathroom break, in hopes of returning to the pages in front of me, to resume my personal movie theater free of annoying chatter and glowing phone screens, to focus my undivided attention on dead trees leaves in front of me bound and crafted into a thrilling suspenseful

This horrifying image carries all the power of the destruction of Troy. These lines foretell not only the presence of the Greek formation (the fact that they arrived from Tenedos), but the assault (the murders), the Trojan defense, the murder of Polites and Priam (the son first and the father last), and the fires which rise above blazing Troy (their flaring necks and the screams that fill the skies). They display the destruction of Troy as the life of the snake.

Summary: The poet has the Muse tell, through him, the story of Achilles’ wrath towards King Agamemnon despite Achilles being responsible for many Greek warriors dying. Apollo has been killing Greeks through plagues for several days because Agamemnon has the daughter or Apollo’s priest kidnapped. Unaware of why Apollo is displeased with the Greek forces, they find the seer Calchas and discover Agamemnon’s wrongdoing who eventually agrees to appease Apollo but demands Achilles surrender Agamemnon Briseis. Achilles, with the consul of Athena, complies and also leaves the Greek armies. Achilles mother Thetis complains to Zeus who in turn decides to honor Achilles, displeasing his wife Hera.

The plot of the poem is centered on the “rage of Achilles” and the fulfillment of his glory on the battlefield. Achilles’s rage stems from feeling dishonored

“…Apollo knocked the helmet off his head and under his horse’s hooves it tumbled… / Disaster seized him—his fine legs buckling—he stood there, senseless… / Hector… came rushing into him right across the lines and rammed his spearshaft home, stabbing deep in the bowels…” (Homer, 438-439) Patroclus’ death is devastating to the Achaean armies’ morale and, more central to the story, it further disrupts Achilles’ already unbalanced sophrosyne. The torment that Achilles endures here epitomizes the human condition.

In reading texts that describe the mythical story of the Trojan War, it would be difficult to ignore the tragedy that the story emanates in its character’s actions and their consequences. Homer’s Iliad explores the tragedy of Achilles, whose preoccupation with glory has its tragic consequences of death and grief. It also shows the War’s resounding effect on those outside of the battlefield and the families of the warriors, as does Euripides’ Women of Troy, reflecting on family as the unforeseen victims of war. Furthermore, the play Rhesus is shown to give a more elaborated perspective of tragedy for individual characters. An examination of the Trojan War from the Trojan and Roman perspective further reveals tragedy on both sides. The gods’

Within the fourth book of The Metamorphoses of Ovid, the story of Athamas and Ino presents a wary warning about the wrath of the gods through a tale of madness. Juno, angered by the joy and prosperity of Ino and her husband Athamas, along with the prospect of being “denied the force to right a wrong”, uses the assistance of the Furies in the “wasteland” of Hell to drive the two prideful beings to the brink of insanity and cause them to kill Ino herself and their two sons, Learchus and Melicerta (126). Besides the main plot, it is through the smaller and nuanced details of the story that readers gain more insight regarding the interesting disposition between the netherworlds, Earth, and heaven, and the different transformations presented when venturing from one world to another. While there are numerous occurrences of various fundamental physical and mental changes within the narrative poem, the transformation between life and death is the most ambiguous yet frequently repeated one. Therefore, the keyword of “blood” plays a very important role in introducing an added sense of physicality and concrete evidence of such a transformation, thus reinforcing the various tiers, specifically that of humans, within the ancient Greek hierarchy of all mortal, otherworldly, and godly beings.

The overwhelming grief which is experienced by all involved in the war especially the central characters of Priam and Achilles as a subsequent result of the loss of someone that they love, and for Priam the impending doom of his beloved city, is displayed in greatly varying ways between both the original text, novel and film.

Line 17 - 21: Listing - “A lioness hath whelpèd in the streets,And graves have yawned and yielded up their dead. Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds In ranks and squadrons and right form of war, Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol.”